Box 14C Towards a European integrated emission inventory

The concept of integrated emission inventories has emerged primarily with the development of the notion of integrated pollution control. This approach is aimed at controlling all emissions from the production system into all media and by all pathways. Integrated emission inventories are inventories that provide data from this perspective.

A number of European countries have attempted to apply the concept of an integrated (multi-media) approach to collecting data on emissions. The Netherlands Emissions Inventory is a system covering emissions to air and water for over 20 years (VROM, 1992), while the Flemish region of Belgium has also developed an inventory system for emissions to air and water (Vlaamse Milieumaatschappij, 1992). Several countries are developing or considering schemes for industry (the major source of a number of pollutants) to provide details of the emissions to air, water and land from individual sites as part of the development of Integrated Pollution Control. At present, however, no existing inventories have yet reached this level of integration.

At the European level a study has been prepared (Briggs, 1993) assessing the feasibility of an integrated emission inventory for Europe through extending the methodology developed by the EU to harmonise information on air emissions throughout its Member States (CORINAIR: see Box 14B) to water and waste emissions. A number of requirements were identified: