EPA - Ireland's Environment, An Integrated Assessment - 2020

Chapter 10: Environment and Industry 9. Conclusions Industrial Emissions The environmental performance of Irish industry has improved in recent decades. However, industry still generates a significant amount of hazardous waste and emissions discharged to the environment, especially air emissions. There have been significant and sustained decreases in releases of certain air pollutants from a range of industries in the period 2007-2017. Releases of sulphur oxides, nitrogen dioxide, nitrogen oxides and PM 10 particulate matter have significantly decreased. These decreases are due to changes in the fuel type used at combustion plants and improvements in abatement technology at these and a range of other facilities, including the cement, food and drink, and chemical sectors. Decarbonisation of industry, stimulated by climate change mitigation policies, is expected to be the main driver of further reductions in industrial air pollutant and greenhouse gas emissions in the medium and long terms. Greening Industry While the Industrial Emissions Directive and earlier legislation have delivered concrete achievements in reducing pollution, a transition to a greener industrial sector will require integrated approaches, with stronger control of pollution at source and the use of innovative technologies. These policy-driven reductions are a clear success story to build upon. Challenges, however, remain for the energy sector in terms of transforming it to meet the environmental and decarbonisation targets now required. Food, Drink and Intensive Agriculture Sectors The food and drink (agri-food) sector continues to face challenges in maintaining environmental compliance as the industry adapts to increased agricultural production and intensification under the Harvest 2020 and Foodwise 2025 strategies. The trend of increased releases in ammonia and methane to air from the intensive agriculture sector is due to an increase in the number of these facilities and in expansions at existing installations, driven in part by the growth of agricultural export activity. Waste Positive trends include recent increases in industrial waste transfers undergoing recovery and reductions in waste undergoing disposal. The change can be viewed as movement towards the implementation of EU waste policies where increasing emphasis is placed on the higher tiers of the waste hierarchy of prevention and minimisation, reuse, recycling, recovery and disposal. However, the overall increase in quantities of hazardous and non-hazardous waste transfers suggests that there is scope for improvement in resource use and consumption in industrial facilities. Hazardous Waste The data on hazardous waste transfers indicate that the positive trend of increasingly sending hazardous waste for recovery treatment, rather than disposal, continued in 2017. However, they also highlight that Ireland has not moved significantly towards self-sufficiency. A lack of domestic infrastructure, in part due to a lack of economies of scale and the often more favourable cost option of treatment and disposal abroad, has meant that export continues to be a significant treatment route for Ireland’s hazardous waste. Best Available Techniques (BAT) Several of the sectoral BAT conclusions produced in the past few years will require a technical assessment of almost half the existing EPA licences from the intensive agriculture, chemical, energy, food and drink, and waste treatment sectors in the coming years. This process represents an opportunity to modernise installations and keep environmental protection in Ireland in line with developing technologies and standards. The impacts and costs of pollution from industry to the environment and human health remain high. Industry will need continued improvements in emission reductions and abatement technologies. Existing policy instruments are expected to lead to further reductions in industrial emissions but current policies do not address the full scope of the industrial pollution load to the environment. Future Regulation and Integration A review of the implementation of the Industrial Emissions Directive across Europe is under way at present. As part of this exercise, the European Commission is looking at the case for the regulation of additional activities (e.g. aquaculture) and at greater regulatory coherence across European legislation including the Water Framework Directive, the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) Regulation, the IED, and so forth. These changes will ensure a consistent approach across EU Member States in preventing, reducing and eliminating, as far as possible, emissions arising from industrial activities into air and water and onto land. 275