Raül Romeva i Rueda

REFLEXIONS PERISCÒPIQUES

Contaminació, emissions i responsabilitat europea

Avui votem a Estrasburg un dels textos més importants de la legislatura: es tracta de l’Informe Holger Krahmer (Liberal alemany) (A6-0046/2009) – Emisiones industriales (prevención y control integrados de la contaminación) en relació a la proposta de Directiva sobre les Emissions industrials: normes més estrictes i major flexibilitat per a la concessión de permisos. Encara no tenim decidit el vot final del Grup Verds/ALE ja que aquest anirà en funció de les esmenes que s’hi incorporin al llarg de la votació d’avui al migdia. Entre d’altres per a nosaltres és crucial que no s’aprovin les esmenes 130, 131 i 133 del PPE (que estableixen un seguit d’excepcions incomprensibles i inacceptables avui dia), i que s’aprovi, entre d’altres, la nostra esmena 99 (en relació al considerant 19bis), i que diu així: (segueix…)

(19 bis) Las grandes instalaciones de combustión contribuyen en gran medida a las emisiones de dióxido de carbono en la atmósfera que se traducen en un aumento de las concentraciones de dióxido de carbono en este medio, con lo que se acentúa el cambio climático global y se generan efectos y repercusiones perjudiciales para las estructuras humanas y ecológicas. Este aumento de las concentraciones se acerca rápidamente, si no los ha superado ya, a los umbrales críticos que conducirán a un cambio notablemente mayor del clima y a un incremento de las temperaturas medias de la superficie terrestre muy por encima del objetivo de la UE de menos de 2° C, lo que a su vez desembocará en una situación cuya gestión o paliación superará las capacidades humanas en un marco temporal imaginable. El régimen comunitario de comercio de derechos de emisión (RCCDE), si bien ofrece un marco potencialmente útil —aunque lento— para la reducción de las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero a escala del conjunto de la economía, no incluye una señal suficientemente fuerte en materia de precios capaz de evitar que otras nuevas e importantes fuentes de emisiones de dióxido de carbono se introduzcan y permanezcan en el sistema. Por ello, es necesario incluir valores límite de emisión de dióxido de carbono en la legislación comunitaria en materia de contaminación industrial para las nuevas instalaciones de generación de electricidad con una potencia térmica nominal superior a 300 megavatios, siendo también necesario aplicar, a su debido tiempo, dichos valores límite a las instalaciones existentes por encima del mismo umbral.

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  1. Krahmer: Industrial emissions – Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Directive (co-decision first reading, recast)

     

    As expected, plenty of very bad amendments were tabled to plenary by the PPE in particular. ALDE group voting list had a – on most of them, as promised by the Rapporteur when we withdrew some of our amendments tabled for plenary in order to make sure the report was not sent back to committee. Thanks to this deal, most of the bad plenary amendments were narrowly defeated (one amendment deleting soil and groundwater baseline report actually fell with even votes for and against (RCV 121: 332/332/8)!

     

    All in all, the result is a big relief, where it was (and has been throughout the process) close to turning out very bad. There are significant good elements in the adopted report, and on the whole apart from amendment 133 (see below) the main elements of the commission proposal have been upheld.

     

    On the negative side:

    – amendment 133 which excludes all process industry from LCP provisions completely, was carried (RCV 133: 327/3197x)! This means oil industry, steel, chemicals, potentially everything outside power sector! It is also so out of line with the provisions of the directive (and also against an ECJ ruling) that Council should not consider it seriously and Commission would never agree to it.

    – spreading of manure and slurry on areas which are covered by nitrates directive sensitive area provisions are excluded from applying BAT. This is a shame, as it excludes farms on most sensitive areas (although they are probably subject to some measures under nitrates directive) (RCV 114: 422/243/5).

    – more specific (and lower) threshold for different poultry species was deleted (RCV93/115: 439/224/x)

    – ceramics threshold was weakened

    – a derogation for blast furnace gas Nox limits was adopted (RCV97: )

     

    Positive side:

    + strenghtered monitoring and inspection requirements were adopted already as part of the committee block

    + future EU level limit values based on BAT would need to be considered for specific industry sectors (addressing dioxins and furans from steel were maintained as a priority)

    + amendment postponing the application of large combustion plant limit values to 2020 was rejected (RCV 131: 322/350/x)

    + The amendment by ALDE which would have excluded manure and slurry spreading completely was clearly rejected (RCV 96D: 224/432/24)

    + amendments deleting soil and groundwater obligations were all narrowly defeated

    + BAT revision every 8 years maintained

    + the committee compromise deleting derogations for waste incineration was confirmed (RCV 78: 362/295/x)

    + amendments deleting all site closure & remediation requirements were narrowly defeated (RCV 120D:319/355/7, RCV 123D: 332/338/6, RCV116:305/363/x)

    + further derogation from limit values for old plants after 2016 for another 20 0000 hours was rejected (RCV128: 321/328/x)

    + derogation from all provisions of the directive for peak load installations and any installations “on an island” was rejected

    + derogation for IPPC limits based on national emission reduction plans was defeated

    + derogation for brown coal was defeated (RCV142: 287/370/x)

     

     

    Despite amendment 133 being adopted, the group in the end voted in favour (402/189/x), given that PPE voted against and that the amendment would not have sufficient support for being adopted at second reading.

     

    The CO2 limit amendments were considered inadmissible under recast rules.

  2. Industrial pollution

    Industrial emissions legislation survives EP vote but emerges damaged

     

    The European Parliament today voted to revise legislation on industrial emissions – Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC) Directive. After the vote, Green MEP Claude Turmes commented:

     

    “While the outcome of today’s vote on industrial pollution could have been even worse, MEPs have voted to let some of the most polluting industries off the hook. Lobbying from oil, steel and chemical industry laggards unfortunately succeeded in duping a narrow majority of MEPs to support a last minute amendment.

     

    “As a result, the EP has voted to exclude most of the manufacturing industry from the air quality limit values set out in the legislation for large combustion plants (1). This last minute amendment is blatantly against the aims and objectives of the directive, goes against a recent European Court of Justice ruling (2), and should therefore be safely ignored by the Council and the Commission.

     

    “While some of the provisions of the proposed directive have been weakened, the compromise agreed between groups contains a number of improvements, notably the establishment of a procedure to set EU-level limit values for specific sectors in addition to the ones already set in the Directive. Monitoring and inspection requirements have been improved. This sends a clear message that environmental dumping between Member States should not be tolerated and installations with clean track records should be rewarded.

     

    “Thankfully, EPP amendments seeking to delete soil and groundwater monitoring and reporting requirements – as well as obligations for site restoration after closure – were rejected. Removing minimum requirements on these areas would have been irresponsible and would have encouraged a race to the bottom in national/local implementation.

     

    “Regrettably, MEPs have agreed to constrain their own right of amendment on so-called recast proposals. Today this resulted in the President of the Parliament denying MEPs the possibility to vote for setting CO2 emission performance standards for large combustion plants, despite the fact that such measures are sorely needed to guard against investments into fossil combustion infrastructure which are incompatible with EU climate policy.”

     

     

    1) Roll call vote on EPP amendment 133rev: 327/319/x. The amendment de facto excludes a large number of large combustion plants (LCP) in sectors other than the production of electricity and heat generation. LCP in refineries, steel or chemicals production sites would for instance be excluded. These LCP are responsible for significant air emissions and cause similar environmental impacts as LCPs in the power sector.

     

    (2) Judgement of the European Court of Justice – Case C-473/07 of 22 January 2009 concerning the IPPC Directive considered the use of the BREFs in determining scope and stated that this was not possible. Point 30 of the judgement stated “that the BREF document itself states that the interpretation is specific to that document and, second, that such a document has no binding effect or interpretative value for Directive 96/61, as it is limited to providing an inventory of technical knowledge on the best available techniques.”

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