Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union

E2: Environmental statistics and accounts; sustainable development

e-mail contact : ESTAT-SDG-MONITORING@ec.europa.eu

The indicator is part of the EU Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) indicator set. It is used to monitor progress towards SDG 2 on ending hunger and malnutrition; which is embedded in the European Commission’s Priorities under the 'European Green Deal'.

SDG 2 - among other things - seeks for sustainable and resilient food production systems. Ammonia (NH3) is a colourless, pungent-smelling and corrosive gas that is produced by the decay of organic vegetable matter and from the excrement of humans and animals. When released into the atmosphere, ammonia contributes to the level of air pollution. The agricultural sector continues to be the overwhelming contributor to ammonia emissions in the EU.

Measures implemented under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and the Water Framework Directive has lead to EU reductions of ammonia emissions from agriculture since the 1990s. Specifically, measures to change agricultural practices brought about reductions in the use of nitrogenous fertilisers and reduced livestock density per hectare across the EU-15.

The indicator measures ammonia (NH3) emissions as a result of agricultural production. These emissions result from manure management, applications of inorganic nitrogen fertilisers and animal manure applied to soil, as well as urine and dung deposited by grazing animals.

tonnes and kg per hectare utilised agricultural area (UAA)

Calendar year

See link to the related metadata of the data source.

EEA (CLRTAP)

Data source: Reporting under the Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution (CLRTAP)

Data provider: European Environment Agency

Every year

Data are disseminated annually. 

T+2 years

New data points are disseminated within two years after the reference year (EEA publishes data 18 months after the reference year).

All EU MS

Data are presented for all EU Member States plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland and Türkiye.

All EU MS

Data are comparable between all EU Member States respectively other presented countries.

> 10 years

Presented time series starts in 1990.

> 4 data points

Length of comparable time series without methodological break is longer than 4 data points.

Analysis of indicator is presented in Eurostat's annual monitoring report on Sustainable development in the EU (progress towards SDGs in an EU context).

See table  sdg_02_60

Eurostat dedicated section on SDGs: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/sdi/overview

Copyrights: Eurostat Copyright/Licence Policy is applicable.