EU industrial air pollution cost up to €433 billion per year

Based on data from the European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (E-PRTR), a recent study published by the European Topic Centre on air pollution, transport, noise and industrial pollution (ETC/ATNI) assessed the costs of damage to health and the environment from pollutants emitted by industrial facilities in the EU member states, Iceland, Norway, Serbia, Switzerland and the UK.

This study is a follow-up to two previous studies published by the European Environment Agency (EEA) in 2011 and 2014.

Many different air pollutants are covered, including the traditional main air pollutants (sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, particulate matter, ammonia and volatile organic compounds), heavy metals (arsenic, cadmium, chromium IV, lead, mercury and nickel), organic pollutants (2,3 butadiene, benzene, formaldehyde, benzo(a)pyrene, dioxins and furans) and greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide).

Marginal damage costs are calculated for impacts on health (from ozone, fine particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide), on crops and forests (from ozone), on building materials (from sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides) and on ecosystems (from eutrophication due to ammonia and nitrogen oxides). Furthermore, marginal damage costs for impacts on health have been calculated for heavy metals and organic pollutants. Impacts of greenhouse gases are accounted for using a marginal abatement cost approach.

Figure 1. Locations of the 211 E-PRTR facilities that caused half the total damage costs due to air pollutants and GHG gases in 2017.

The aggregated annual cost of damage caused by emissions reported from E-PRTR industrial facilities was estimated to amount to €415–749 billion in 2008, and to €277–433 billion in 2017, which means that the estimated damage costs due to the main air pollutants decreased by 54 per cent between 2008 and 2017.

Facilities covered by the analysis include large power plants, refineries, manufacturing, combustion and industrial processes, waste and certain agricultural activities. It was found that the energy sector (power plants) contributed the largest share, more than half of the costs. Other significant contributions came from heavy industry (production processes and combustion) and from fuel production and processing in refineries.

Figure 2. Cumulative distribution of the 2,000 E-PRTR facilities with the highest damage costs due to air pollutants and GHG gases in 2017.

As the study focused on emissions from large stationary sources, emissions from several other important sectors, such as transport, households and most agricultural activities, were not included. In 2017, the contributions of E-PRTR installations to total emissions were estimated to be 61 per cent for SO₂, 21 per cent for NOx, 6 per cent for VOCs and NH₃, and 4 per cent for PM10.

For traditional air pollutants, the study estimated the cost of health damage by using damage costs per tonne of each emitted pollutant as a national average for each country.

Specifically for mortality impacts, a lower and a higher value were used, the former being based on the value of a life year lost (VOLY) and the latter on the value of a statistical life (VSL). The monetary valuation of VOLY is set at €101,000, and that of VSL at €3,900,000.

Regarding greenhouse gases, previous EEA reports only calculated externalities for CO₂ emissions, but this study also included methane and nitrous oxide. Unit costs for evaluating CO₂ (or CO₂ equivalent) impacts have been updated and are now based on the values for short- and medium-term impacts given in the 2019 DG Move Transport Cost Handbook, i.e. €63–109 per tonne CO₂-eq.

Most of the quantified damage cost is caused by emissions of the main air pollutants and greenhouse gases. Damage costs for heavy metal emissions and organic pollutants are significantly lower, but nevertheless contribute several millions of euros harm to health and the environment.

For the main air pollutants, average damage costs are clearly dominated by health impacts, which account for 94–98 per cent of the total in the lower (VOLY) estimate, depending on the pollutant.

A small number of individual facilities cause the majority of damage costs. Half of the total cost was caused by the emissions from just 211 installations, less than two per cent of the plants (see figure 1). And three-quarters of the total costs were caused by 711 industrial facilities – six per cent of the total number (see figure 2).

Table: The top twenty E-PRTR plants estimated to have the greatest damage costs due to air pollutant and GHG emissions in 2017.

1) Because Serbia has not reported CO₂ emissions since 2014, the damage cost figures for Serbian plants only include costs for the main air pollutants.

The report also individually lists the top-thirty facilities identified as causing the highest damage due to air pollutants and greenhouse gases over the five-year periods 2008–2012 and 2013–2017, respectively, and for the latest year, 2017.

In 2017, 24 out of the top-thirty polluters were thermal power stations, mainly using coal or lignite, including Belchatow in Poland, Neurath, Niederaussem, Jänschwalde and Boxberg in Germany, Drax in the UK, Kostolac in Serbia, and Maritsa 2 in Bulgaria, (see table).

The top-thirty polluters also included three iron and steel plants, one facility for the processing of ferrous metals, one metal ore roasting or sintering installation and one chemical installation producing basic organic chemicals.

Nine of the 30 dirtiest facilities are located in Germany; three each in Poland, Serbia, Spain and the United Kingdom; two in France; while Bulgaria, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands and Portugal all have one each.

Christer Ågren

The report “Costs of air pollution from European industrial facilities 2008–2017” Eionet Report – ETC/ATNI 2020/4 (published 10 March 2021).

Link: https://www.eionet.europa.eu/etcs/etc-atni/products/etc-atni-reports/etc-atni-report-04-2020-costs-of-air-pollution-from-european-industrial-facilities-200820132017