EUROFER's Engage | Webinar - Future-proofing industrial emissions legislation is taking place on 8 September from 14:30 till 16:00.

Registration has now closed, but you can watch the event live here from 14:30 CET on 8 September 2021.

About the webinar

Future-proofing industrial emissions legislation

In the context of the EU Green Deal, the European Commission is currently assessing the options for the revision of the Industrial Emissions Directive (IED), a key regulatory component of European industrial installations – and in particular how to make it fully consistent with climate, energy and circular economy policies.

EUROFER members are firmly committed to transitioning the steel industry towards a clean, low-carbon future. This transition must take place gradually and in an orderly manner by recognising that our sector is undergoing a deep transformation, with major investments slated for the next decade.

How can innovations identified by an Innovation Observatory be properly assessed for the IED-regulated sectors in an integrated way? What will a ‘Best Available Technique’ (BAT) look like after the revision of the IED and how to encourage installations to test emerging techniques? If Greenhouse gas emissions are to be included in IED permitting, how does this affect the cost-effectiveness approach of the EU ETS? Where is the untapped potential for the circular economy, resource efficiency and waste minimisation in an industrial installation?

This webinar will discuss the general challenges and opportunities of the key envisioned options for the revision of the IED and use the steel sector as a ‘case study’ to future-proof the IED for a successful transformation of the EU industry.

When & where?

The webinar will take place on Wednesday, 8 September 2021 from 14:30-16:00 online, via Zoom.

Who is invited?

The seminar is open to anyone interested in finding out about the impact of EU climate policy on the EU steel industry.

Schedule

Times are indicative only

        14:30 | Presentation

                    Challenges and opportunities of the revision of the IED

• Eva Blixt, Chair of EUROFER Working Group on Industrial Emissions, Swedish Steel Industry Association; Jernkontoret (confirmed)

         14:45 | Panel discussion and Q&A

Moderation by Jacki Davis

                     The road towards a future-proof IED

• Erik Bergkvist MEP, S&D Group, European Parliament (confirmed)
• Aliki Kriekouki, Senior Policy Officer – Industrial production, European Environmental Bureau (confirmed)
• Tom Boonen, Policy Advisor, Industrial Emissions, Department of the Environment, Government of Flanders (confirmed)
• Eva Blixt, Chair of EUROFER Working Group on Industrial Emissions, Jernkontoret (confirmed)

         16:00 | End of discussion

About industrial emissions, resource efficiency and waste generation in the steel sector

The steel sector has been working on industrial emissions reduction for decades

The Industrial Emissions Directive (IED) supports a patchwork of around 52,000 European industrial installations in achieving a high level of protection of human health and the environment under technically and economically viable conditions. The cornerstone of the IED is the requirement to operate according to a permit issued by Member State's competent authorities. Permit conditions are based on the use of Best Available Techniques (BATs) and their related environmental performance, which are set out in sector-specific documents called BREFs (BAT reference documents).

In EU usage, the term 'industrial emissions' is not a reference to greenhouse gases like CO_2­ being covered by the EU ETS. As such, ’industrial emissions’ describes other key pollutants – such as nitrogen, sulphur oxides, carbon monoxide, particulates.

The size and share of emissions from industrial installations has been a long-term concern, and there is a long history of legislation controlling it, all with the objective of reducing pollution. The European Union has had environmental pollutant legislation on the statute since at least the late 1970s.

Today, this legislation has developed to an extent such that it is covering all critical environmental aspects of industrial installations, from the minimisation of pollutant releases to the sound management of resources (energy, water, materials, waste). Meanwhile, the Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC) Directive was the first of its kind to implement the so-called ‘integrated approach’ to pollution, which entails that all ‘industrial emissions’ (see above) need to be considered to avoid the side effect that the reduction of one parameter can have on others. Therefore, the ongoing work towards the revision of the IED must assess carefully the impact of making some performance requirements mandatory or adding new performance requirements.

In its evaluation report published in September 2020, the Commission stressed that the IED – the successor of the IPPC Directive – “has been effective in reducing the environmental impacts” and that the Seville process “has worked well” and “is recognised as a model of collaborative governance”. The IED is now under review and revised legislation is anticipated to be delivered in the first quarter of 2022.