The action plan entitled Agenda 21 included a chapter on policies to improve the sound management of the chemicals and called on countries to establish emission inventories and to make the resulting information available to the public.
As a follow-up, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has been encouraging national governments since 1993 to establish so-called Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (PRTRs) as a national environmental database of harmful releases and transfers. The Parties to the Aarhus Convention agreed in 1998 on the establishment of national PRTRs with publicly accessible emission data.
In 2000, the European Commission adopted a Decision on the Implementation of a European Pollutant Emission Register (EPER) according to Article 15 (3) of Council Directive 96/61/EC concerning Integrated Pollution Prevention Control (IPPC). The general purpose of the IPPC Directive is to reduce pollution by industry and to control emissions from larger facilities. The register relates to emissions to air and water of 50 major pollutants. National governments of all EC Member States are required to maintain inventories of emission data from specified industrial sources and to report emissions from individual facilities to the European Commission for the first time in summer 2003. The reported data will be made accessible in a public register published on the Internet, which is intended to provide environmental information on major industrial activities.
There is an effort under way to establish an international protocol on PRTRs. The work is done under the auspices of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). At the second meeting of the Signatories of the Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters, (Aarhus Convention), a Working Group led by the Czech Republic was established to facilitate the implementation of Article 5 of the Aarhus Convention. The mandate of this Working Group is to prepare recommendations for the future work on PRTR and to elaborate a legally binding instrument with a view to having a draft ready for the Fifth "Environment for Europe" Ministerial Conference to be held in Kiev in 2003.
The modalities for making emissions information available to the public in a form that encourages monitoring, comparison and improvement of environmental performance differ from country to country. Governments may use emission inventory data to evaluate progress towards accomplishing their environmental policy targets, industry to improve environmental management in their efforts to promote pollution prevention and stimulate emissions reduction. The public gains awareness about emissions in their communities and views emission reporting programs as trusted and valuable sources of information.
The European chemical federations voluntarily report data on air, water and waste emissions, using comprehensive and clearly defined set of indicators. To enlarge the communication benefits it is important that emission registers focus on reporting of those substances whose hazard characteristics and probable release quantities propose a need for surveillance and control.
The challenge facing the ICPDR is to design an effective and manageable emission reporting system. Because environmental issues and priorities vary between countries in the Danube river basin, emission inventory reporting activities have to be tailored to meet local, national, regional and basin-wide conditions. The existing updated Emission Inventory 2000 of the ICPDR serves as a good basis. It is not limited to industrial emissions but goes beyond industrial releases and considers environmental emissions from other sources including agriculture and municipal sector.
Emission inventory reporting will enhance the public's awareness and understanding about emissions in their communities. The availability of information on emission inventory on ICPDR's web page will provide the public with a tool to communicate with industry and governments. The challenge to the public is to understand the benefits and limits of emission reporting information.
Information on emissions will enable the Danube countries' governments to design an efficient management regulatory framework. In particular, there are additional benefits for the national governments and local authorities in the Danube River Basin as they can use emission information to develop strategies for substances, industries or regions that require the most consideration.