Emissions of air pollutants from energy sources

Indicators Years

2012

2009

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Key message

In 2010 emissions of NO_x dropped below target values while SO₂, NMVOC and NH₃ emissions remained below 2010 target values. Greatest reductions have been achieved in emissions of SO2₂ followed by NMVOC and the smallest reductions have been achieved in emissions of NO_x and NH₃. Emissions of PM₁₀ have slightly increased. This caused a reduction in the emission of acidifying substances, ozone precursors and particulate matter. NO_x is the only substance that is present in all three groups with a substantial share. The largest source of NO_x emissions is transport followed by electricity and heat production.

Definition

This indicator shows past energy-related emissions of individual substances and total emissions of ozone precursors, acidifying substances and particulate matter.

Ozone precursors are substances that contribute to the formation of ground-level ozone. Ozone precursors are nitrogen oxides (NO_x), carbon monoxide (CO), methane (CH₄) and non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOC). Tropospheric or ground-level ozone has adverse effects on both human health and the ecosystem. High concentrations of ground-level ozone have been shown to adversely affect the human respiratory system, especially the lungs, while in the environment, high concentrations of ozone decrease yields, cause leaf damage and decrease disease resistance. Ozone is also capable of causing damage to plastics and rubbers.

Acidifying substances are sulphur dioxide (SO₂), nitrogen oxides (NO_x) and ammonia (NH₃). Acidification causes substantial damage to the ecosystem, buildings and materials (corrosion). NO_x and NH₃ lead to eutrophication (excess nitrogen in soil and water).

Particulate matter emissions are classified into primary PM₁₀ (particulate matter with a diameter of 10 μm or less, emitted directly into the atmosphere), and secondary PM₁₀ or PM₁₀ precursors (the fraction of NO_x, SO₂ and NH₃ emissions which, as a result of photo-chemical reactions in the atmosphere, transform into particulate matter with a diameter of 10 μm or less). The inhalation of such particles may increase the frequency and severity of a number of respiratory problems, which may increase the risk of premature death. The smaller particles, which can go deeper into the lungs, are especially dangerous.

Charts

Figure EN09-1: Changes in total SO₂, NO_x, NMVOC and NH₃ emissions as regards the year 1990 and PM₁₀ emissions as regards the year 2000 and 2010 targets for SO₂, NO_x, NMVOC and NH₃ emissions

Sources:

Slovenian Environment Agency, 2012.

Show data

		1990	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999
SO2	index (1990 = 100)	100	92.889	96.532	94.97	91.739	61.468	57.203	58.995	54.478	47.528
NOx	index (1990 = 100)	100	91.243	88.501	93.681	97.106	96.328	102.244	102.881	93.598	82.071
NMVOC	index (1990 = 100)	100	92.304	87.79	89.333	90.317	89.976	96.331	90.326	81.915	76.728
NH3	index (1990 = 100)	100	94.542	98.097	90.78	90.514	91.14	89.98	91.351	91.87	92.277
PM10	index (2000 = 100)
SO2	index (1990 = 100)
NOx	index (1990 = 100)
NMVOC	index (1990 = 100)
NH3	index (1990 = 100)
		2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009
SO2	index (1990 = 100)	46.619	31.716	31.789	30.979	25.613	20.471	8.267	7.343	6.43	5.259
NOx	index (1990 = 100)	82.982	84.652	85.581	82.557	80.452	77.82	79.27	80.438	88.52	75.988
NMVOC	index (1990 = 100)	74.071	72.434	71.566	69.442	66.179	62.813	62.567	59.74	56.876	55.823
NH3	index (1990 = 100)	97.252	96.172	100.126	95.158	88.346	88.635	87.769	90.771	84.908	84.496
PM10	index (2000 = 100)	100	98.966	97.73	97.623	98.811	101.334	102.154	102.66	93.527	97.055
SO2	index (1990 = 100)
NOx	index (1990 = 100)
NMVOC	index (1990 = 100)
NH3	index (1990 = 100)
		2010
SO2	index (1990 = 100)	4.931
NOx	index (1990 = 100)	74.575
NMVOC	index (1990 = 100)	55.284
NH3	index (1990 = 100)	82.59
PM10	index (2000 = 100)	101.172
SO2	index (1990 = 100)	13.586
NOx	index (1990 = 100)	75.037
NMVOC	index (1990 = 100)	63.933
NH3	index (1990 = 100)	94.832

Figure EN09-2: Emissions of air pollutants by sector for 2010

Sources:

Slovenian Environment Agency, 2012.

Show data

		SO2	NOx	NH3	NMVOC	PM10
Energy supply	kt	6.17	11	0	2.56	0.36
Industry	kt	1.97	3.74	0	0.93	0.91
Transport	kt	0.06	26.48	0.59	6.2	1.8
Wide use	kt	0.87	3.49	0	11.94	13.67
Nonenergy sectors	kt	0.73	0.01	16.83	12.95	2.95
TOTAL	kt	9.8	44.72	17.42	34.59	19.69

Figure EN09-3: Changes in emissions of ozone precursors, acidifying substances and particulate matter

Sources:

Slovenian Environment Agency, 2012; Jožef Stefan Institute, 2012.

Show data

		1990	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999
Ozone precursors	Index (2000 = 100)	132	122.5	116.4	121.1	122.9	122.2	129.5	124.6	112.2	101.2
Acidifying substances	Index (2000 = 100)	168.9	156.9	161.4	159.1	156	119.7	115.8	118.4	110.8	99.7
Particulate matter	Index (2000 = 100)
Ozone precursors	[kt]	174.2	161.7	153.6	159.9	162.2	161.3	171	164.5	148.1	133.5
Acidifying substances	[kt]	8.8	8.1	8.4	8.2	8.1	6.2	6	6.1	5.7	5.2
Particulate matter	[kt]
		2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009
Ozone precursors	Index (2000 = 100)	100	99.7	99.3	96.3	92.3	88.8	88.8	87.5	90.3	82.5
Acidifying substances	Index (2000 = 100)	100	82.3	83.6	80.7	72.1	65.3	50.8	50.8	50.3	45.6
Particulate matter	Index (2000 = 100)	100	87.8	88.5	86	80	74.9	65.2	65.3	65.9	60.2
Ozone precursors	[kt]	132	131.5	131	127.2	121.8	117.2	117.2	115.6	119.2	108.9
Acidifying substances	[kt]	5.2	4.3	4.3	4.2	3.7	3.4	2.6	2.6	2.6	2.4
Particulate matter	[kt]	126.4	110.9	111.8	108.7	101.1	94.7	82.4	82.6	83.3	76
		2010
Ozone precursors	Index (2000 = 100)	81.9
Acidifying substances	Index (2000 = 100)	44.4
Particulate matter	Index (2000 = 100)	59.7
Ozone precursors	[kt]	108.1
Acidifying substances	[kt]	2.3
Particulate matter	[kt]	75.5

Figure EN09-4: Structure of total emissions of acidifying substances, ozone precursors and primary and secondary particulate matter in 2010

Sources:

Slovenian Environment Agency, 2012; Jožef Stefan Institute, 2012.

Show data

		Acidifying	Ground-level ozone	Particulate matter
PM_10 - en	kt	0	0	16.73
PM_10 - non-en	kt	0	0	2.95
SO2 - en	kt	0.28	0	4.9
SO2 - non-en	kt	0.02	0	0.39
NOx - en	kt	0.97	54.54	39.34
NH3 - en	kt	0.03	0	0.37
NH3 - non-en	kt	0.99	0	10.77
NMVOC - en	kt	0	21.64	0
NMVOC - non-en	kt	0	12.95	0
CO - en	kt	0	17.31	0
CH4 - en	kt	0	0.28	0
CH4 - non-en	kt	0	1.08	0
TOTAL	kt	2.3	107.8	75.47
PM_10 - en	%			22.17
PM_10 - non-en	%			3.91
SO2 - en	%	12.31		6.49
SO2 - non-en	%	0.99		0.52
NOx - en	%	42.21	50.6	52.13
NH3 - en	%	1.5		0.5
NH3 - non-en	%	43		14.27
NMVOC - en	%		20.07
NMVOC - non-en	%		12.01
CO - en	%		16.06
CH4 - en	%		0.26
CH4 - non-en	%		1
TOTAL	%

Figure EN09-5: Emissions of acidifying substances, ozone precursors and particulate matter in 2010

Sources:

Slovenian Environment Agency, 2012; Jožef Stefan Institute, 2012.

Show data

		Acidifying	Ground-level ozone	Particulate matter
Energy supply	kt	0.43	16.42	13.37
Industry	kt	0.14	6.42	5.27
Transport	kt	0.61	43.24	25.51
Wide use	kt	0.1	27.69	17.21
Non-energy sector	kt	1.01	14.36	14.13
TOTAL	kt	2.3	108.13	75.48
TOTAL - ENERGY SECTOR	kt	1.29	93.77	61.35
Energy supply	%	18.75	15.19	17.71
Industry	%	6.21	5.94	6.98
Transport	%	26.57	39.99	33.79
Wide use	%	4.47	25.61	22.8
Non-energy sector	%	44	13.28	18.72
TOTAL	%	100	100	100
TOTAL - ENERGY SECTOR	%	56	86.72	81.28

Figure EN09-6: Changes in emissions of acidifying substances, ozone precursors and particulate matter in the 2000-2010 period

Sources:

Slovenian Environment Agency, 2012; Jožef Stefan Institute, 2012.

Show data

		Acidifying	Ground-level ozone	Particulate matter
Energy supply	%	-84.8	-22.9	-76.5
Industry	%	-31.7	-22	-21.4
Transport	%	-13.9	-29.8	-5.1
Wide use	%	-53.4	19.1	5.6
Non-energy sector	%	-16.1	-18.4	-27.7
TOTAL	%	-55.6	-18.1	-40.3
TOTAL - ENERGY SECTOR	%	-67.6	-18	-42.6
Energy supply	kt	2.8	21.3	57
Industry	kt	0.2	8.2	6.7
Transport	kt	0.7	61.6	26.9
Wide use	kt	0.2	23.2	16.3
Non-energy sector	kt	1.2	17.6	19.5
TOTAL	kt	5.2	132	126.4
TOTAL - ENERGY SECTOR	kt	4	114.4	106.9
Energy supply	kt	0.4	16.4	13.4
Industry	kt	0.1	6.4	5.3
Transport	kt	0.6	43.2	25.5
Wide use	kt	0.1	27.7	17.2
Non-energy sector	kt	1	14.4	14.1
TOTAL	kt	2.3	108.1	75.5
TOTAL - ENERGY SECTOR	kt	1.3	93.8	61.3

Goals

A reduction in emissions of air pollutants:
- reduction of SO₂ emissions to target values of 27 thousand tonnes,
- reduction of NO_x emissions to target values of 45 thousand tonnes,
- reduction of NMVOC emissions to target values of 40 thousand tonnes,
- reduction of NH₃ emissions to target values of 20 thousand tonnes,
- reduction of CH₄ emissions within the framework of an 8 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in the 2008-2012 period or within the framework of a 20 % or 30 % reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 from the base year.

There is no quantified objective for CO and PM₁₀ emissions.

Until 2020 Slovenia is obliged to further reduce emissions of SO₂ for 63 %, NH₃ for 1 %, NO_x for 39 %, NMVOC for 23 % and PM_2.5 25 %. A revision of Directive 2001/81/EC on National Emission Ceilings for Certain Atmospheric Pollutants is being prepared. The amended Directive will set additional targets for SO₂, NO_x, NMVOC, NH₃ and PM_2.5 emissions for the year 2020.

Methodology

Data for Slovenia

Objectives summarised by: Resolucija o Nacionalnem programu varstva okolja 2005-2012 (Resolution on the National Environmental Action Plan 2005-2012, Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, No. 2/06), the proposal of the climate and energy package, Protocol to the 1979 Convention on long-range transboundary air pollution to abate acidification, eutrophication and ground-level ozone and Directive 2001/81/EC of 23 October 2001 on national emission ceilings for certain atmospheric pollutants (the NEC directive).

Source database or source: Official data on emissions of air pollutants were used as sent to the United Nations and as located in the Central Data Repository (CDR) under Slovenia/United Nations/UNECE – CLRTAP air emission inventories/, and GHG emissions as sent to UNFCCC and as located in the Central Data Repository (CDR) under Slovenia/United Nations/UNFCCC – UN Framework Convention on Climate Change data/.
Upon preparing new records, data for previous years are often corrected.

Data administrator: The Environmental Agency of the Republic of Slovenia, the Environment Office, Air Quality Sector, contact person: Bojan Rode, Tajda Mekinda-Majaron.

Data acquisition date for the indicator:

Methodology and frequency of data collection for the indicator: Data are prepared on an annual basis and on the basis of data on activities (the use of fuels, number of animals, quantity of waste, industrial manufacturing, etc.), calorific value of fuels and emission factors. For air pollutants, the recommended methodology has been prepared by the UNECE/EMEP task force on emissions inventories and projections and for GHG emissions by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Energy-related emissions or emissions from energy sources (CRF 1, NRF 1) include emissions arising from fuel combustion activities (CRF 1.A, NFR 1.A) that are further divided into emissions from energy and heat production – transformations (CRF 1.A.1, NFR 1.A.1), emissions from manufacturing industries and construction (CRF 1.A.2, NFR 1.A.2), transport emissions (CRF 1.A.3, NFR 1.A.3) and emissions from other sectors (CRF 1.A.4, NFR 1.A.4) that include emissions from households, the services sector and fuel combustion in agriculture and forestry. In addition to emissions arising from fuel combustion activities, energy-related emissions also include fugitive emissions from fuels (CRF 1.B, NFR 1.B) that are further classified into fugitive emissions from solid fuels (CRF 1.B.1, NFR 1.B.1) and fugitive emissions from oil and natural gas (CRF 1.B.2., NFR 1.B.2) that originate in the production of fuels (coal mines) or the transmission and distribution of oil and natural gas. Transmissions or the production of electricity and heat in the text includes emissions from energy industries and fugitive emissions.
Non-energy related GHG emissions include emissions from industry (CRF 2, NFR 2) (i.e. processes in manufacturing industries and construction without fossil fuel combustion including the production and consumption of fluorinated gases), agriculture (CRF 4, NFR 4) (i.e. domestic livestock (manure management and enteric fermentation) and emissions from the use of fertilisers), emissions from waste (CRF 6, NFR 6) (i.e. emissions from landfill sites and incineration plants and waste water treatment) and emissions from the use of solvents and other products (CRF 3, NFR 3).
Indicator EN09 – Emissions of Air Pollutants was introduced in 2009 and originates in the combination of three related indicators: EN02 – Energy-Related Emissions of Ozone Precursors, EN03 – Energy-Related Emissions of Acidifying Substances and EN04 – Energy-Related Particulate Matter Emissions.

Data processing methodology: Total emissions have been calculated as a weighted sum of individual emissions. We used the same weights as used by the European Environment Agency in its calculations. Ground-level ozone weights were calculated on the basis of the potential of each of the air pollutants to contribute to ozone formation in the troposphere (TOFP – Tropospheric Ozone Forming Potential).
Total emissions of ozone precursors have been calculated as a weighted sum of individual emissions (NO_x, NMVOC, CO, CH₄). The TOFP factors used are as follows: NO_x – 1.22; NMVOC – 1.0; CO – 0.11; CH₄ – 0.014. Results are expressed in NMVOC equivalents (ktonnes) (NMVOC eq.). Total emissions of acidifying substances are calculated using weighting factors that are calculated on the basis of acid equivalents (SO₂, NO_x, NH₃). The weighting factors used are as follows: SO₂ – 2/64 acid eq/g; NO_x – 1/46 acid eq/g; NH₃ – 1/17 acid eq/g. Results are expressed in kt equivalents of acidifying substances. The indicator for particulate matter emissions shows past emissions of particulate matter separately for primary and secondary particulate matter (SO₂, NO_x, NH₃, PM₁₀) (a weighted sum of individual emissions). The factors used in the estimation of emissions are based on assumptions about the deposition and reactions of the precursor pollutants – aerosol formation factors - and are as follows: SO₂ – 0.54; NO_x – 0.88; NH₃ – 0.64; PM₁₀ – 1.00. Results are expressed in PM₁₀ equivalents (kt).
Average annual rate of growth is calculated as: [(last year / base year)(1 / number of years) –1] x 100.
Annual growth is occasionally shown in percentage points. A percentage point is a unit used in comparing different percentages. In percentage points, we are dealing with an absolute comparison calculated using the following formula: (n_{this year})–(n_{last year})=16 % – 15 % = 1 pp (e.g. if there was a 15 % growth last year and a 16 % growth this year, then this year growth is 1 percentage point higher). The difference in growth can also be expressed by relative comparison using the following formula: [(n_{this year} / n_{last year}) * 100] – 100 = [(16 % / 15 %) * 100] – 100 = 6.7 %. In this case, growth is expressed as a percentage.

Information concerning data quality:
- Advantages and disadvantages of the indicator: Officially reported data that are calculated using internationally confirmed methods have been used to calculate the indicator. Data on PM₁₀ emissions have a higher uncertainty level than data on the emissions of other substances.
- Relevance, accuracy, robustness, uncertainty:
Reliability of the indicator (archival data): Data reliability for greenhouse gas emissions (CH₄) was estimated for 1986, 2002 and 2003. For absolute data it stands at 16 %, 13.1 % and 12 % and for trends for 2002 and 2003 at 4 % and 3 % respectively. The reliability of emission factors and activity data is estimated on the basis of an expert assessment. It is possible for data reliability for emissions of air pollutants to differ for individual substances. SO₂ emissions records have the highest reliability, as they relate directly to the fuel’s sulphur content and, with flue gas treatment, also the efficiency of desulphurisation units. Data on NO_x emissions are much less reliable, as there are several emission origins. Emissions depend on the amount of nitrogen in the fuel, the ratio between oxygen and fuel and the combustion temperature, which is specific for each boiler making emission factors differ from one boiler to another. The reliability of data for NH₃ emissions is high, as values were almost identical upon using two different methodologies.
Uncertainty of the indicator (scenarios/projections): scenarios and projections are not available.
- Overall assessment (1 = no major comments, 3 = data to be considered with reservation):
Relevance: 1
Accuracy: 2
Completeness over time: 2
Completeness over space: 1