Unified Metrics Library - Emissions of air pollutants

Helper question

How much air pollutants did the company generate during the production procurement processes, during the period?

Summary

The EU directives currently regulating the ambient air concentrations of the main pollutants are designed to avoid, prevent or reduce the harmful effects of air pollutants on human health and the environment by implementing limits or target values for ambient concentrations of air pollutants.

Unit

Tonnes

Description

According to the (EU) 2022/1288 of 6 April 2022, the metric is defined as "Tonnes of air pollutants equivalent per million EUR invested, expressed as a weighted average".

Regulatory Definition

"Air pollutants" means direct emissions of sulphur dioxides (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), non-methane volatile organic compounds(NMVOC), and fine particulate matter (PM2,5) as defined in Article 3, points (5) to (8), of Directive (EU) 2016/2284 of the European Parliament and of the Council, ammonia (NH3) as referred to in that Directive and heavy metals (HM) as referred to in Annex I to that directive.

According to Article 3 of Directive (EU) 2016/2284 of the European Parliament and The Council of 14 December 2016 on the reduction of national emissions of certain atmospheric pollutants, amending Directive 2003/35/EC and repealing Directive 2001/81/EC, the definitions of the pollutants as follows:

(5) "sulphur dioxide" or "SO2" means all sulphur compounds expressed as sulphur dioxide, including sulphur trioxide (SO3), sulphuric acid (H2SO4), and reduced sulphur compounds such as hydrogen sulphide (H2S), mercaptans and dimethyl sulphides; (6) "nitrogen oxides" or "NOx" means nitric oxide and nitrogen dioxide, expressed as nitrogen dioxide; (7) "non-methane volatile organic compounds" or NMVOC means all organic compounds other than methane, that are capable of producing photochemical oxidants by reaction with nitrogen oxides in the presence of sunlight; (8) "fine particulate matter" or PM2,5 means particles with an aerodynamic diameter equal to or less than 2,5 micrometres (μm);

Sources

Examples

Please see Article 3 of Directive (EU) 2016/2284 of the European Parliament for the detailed list of air pollutant emissions and their definitions.