Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC) – Energy and Environmental Policies

The EU has a set of common rules on industries environmental permissions for industrial installations, which extend also to cover future energy use at facilities. These rules are set out in the so-called IPPC Directive of 1996, http://ec.europa.eu/environment/ippc/index.htm. The IPPC stands for Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control.

In essence, the IPPC Directive is about minimizing pollution from various sources throughout the European Union. All concerned companies are required to obtain an authorization (permit) from the authorities in the EU countries. Unless they have a permit, they are not allowed to operate. The permits must be based on the concept of Best Available Techniques (or BAT).

The same Directive has established the European Pollutant Emission Register – the first Europe-wide register of industrial emissions into the air and water. A comparable instrument in the USA is the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI). The number of facilities submitting reports to the USA TRI is about 20 000 and it is comparable with the total number of facilities involved in the European Union.