Industrial activities, like electricity and cement production, waste management and incineration, and the intensive rearing of livestock, are responsible for emissions of harmful substances to air, water and soil. These emissions include sulphur oxides, nitrogen oxides, ammonium, dust and mercury and other heavy metals. Pollution caused by them can lead to health problems such as asthma, bronchitis and cancer, and it generates costs measured in billions of euro and hundreds of thousands of premature deaths each year. Industrial emissions also damage ecosystems, crops, and the built environment.  

Due to the existing Industrial Emissions Directive (IED), in the last 15 years emissions to air for many pollutants have been reduced by between 40% and 75% from Europe's largest industrial plant and intensive livestock farms. Heavy metals emissions to water have also declined by up to 50% during this period.  Despite successes in curbing emissions, the over 50,000 industrial installations covered still account for around 40% of greenhouse gas emissions, over 50% of total emissions to air of sulphur oxides, heavy metals and other harmful substances and around 30% of nitrogen oxides and fine particulate matter air emissions, warranting further action. 

The proposal for a revision of the IED builds on the overall approach of the existing Industrial Emissions Directive which currently covers some 50,000 large industrial installations and intensive livestock farms in Europe but will cover more relevant sources of emissions, make permitting more effective, reduce administrative costs, increase transparency, and give more support to breakthrough technologies and other innovative approaches.  

The new rules of the Directive will cover:

• More large-scale intensive livestock farms. Under the new rules, the largest pig and poultry farms would be covered, while the inclusion of cattle farms would be assessed in a review at a later stage. As farms have simpler operations than industrial plants, all farms covered will benefit from a lighter permitting regime also reflecting the size of farms as well as the livestock density.
• Extraction of metals and large-scale production of batteries. These activities will significantly expand in the EU to enable the green and digital transitions. The governance mechanisms of the revised Industrial Emissions Directive will support the sustainable growth of these activities in the EU, thus contributing to the objectives of the Critical Raw Material and Net-Zero Industry Acts.

The updated rules will also provide more opportunities to innovation. Operators will be able to test more environmentally performing emerging techniques thanks to more flexible permits.

A new Innovation Centre for Industrial Transformation and Emissions (INCITE) will help industry identify pollution control solutions and transformative technologies.

Finally, operators of industrial installations will need to develop Transformation Plans to achieve the EU's 2050 zero pollution, circular economy and decarbonisation goals, and will benefit from flexible permits to implement deeply transformative techniques.

The updated law will also support circular economy investments by including resource use performance levels, as well as lower chemical pollution through requirements for a reduced use of toxic chemicals during industrial processes.

Together with the revision of the IED the Commission had proposed a Regulation of the EU Industrial Emissions Portal which will allow to access data on permits issued anywhere in Europe and gain insight into polluting activities in their immediate surroundings in a simple way. It will replace the Regulation on the European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (E-PRTR).

The Industrial Emissions Portal contains the data reported annually under the E-PRTR Regulation, together with the data reported in line with Directive on industrial emissions. Thus, the Portal, having replaced the E-PRTR website, brings together data on industrial activities reported under these two EU environmental laws.

More information:

• Proposal for a revision of the IED
• Proposal for a Regulation on the EU Industrial Emissions Portal
• Commission Press Release 29 November 2023
• Website Industrial Emissions Directive