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Published in Spring 2001
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Chemical industry sees benefits in reporting pollutant emissions
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International dialogue among governments and chemical companies is leading to action, reports Gordon Lloyd of the Canadian Chemicals Producers’ Association.
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By Gordon Lloyd
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It might seem that a trip to Brazil would be people's first choice for something other than a conference on chemical safety and emissions but last October, hundreds of enthusiastic participants representing governments and stakeholder groups from around the world made their way to Salvador da Bahía to attend the 2000 Intergovernmental Forum on Chemical Safety. One of the issues they discussed was the value of reporting the kinds and quantities of emissions industry releases to the environment or transfers off-site.
The Forum noted that pollutant release and transfer registers (PRTRs), or emission inventories, are important tools to raise public awareness about potential chemical risks. Reporting this information helps stimulate actions to reduce the risks associated with various chemicals as well as the quantities of harmful emissions.
The Forum also showed that although PRTRs are designed to be country-specific, national systems often share some characteristics that are seen as part of successful PRTR programs. These include a listing of pollutants; reporting of releases and transfers to air, water, and land; reporting of data by source; reporting of data periodically (normally annually); and making data and information publicly available.
The Forum went on to recommend that countries without PRTRs should consider initiating a national PRTR design process that should involve affected and interested parties and take into consideration national circumstances and needs. Establishing additional PRTRs was identified as a priority and an action plan was proposed to further this priority.
The Forum's declarations about the need for PRTRs builds on the recognition that support for PRTRs is growing internationally and among all stakeholders. Like national governments, the chemical industry is making progress in encouraging reporting by individual companies. For example, in September 2000, the International Council of Chemical Associations (ICCA) produced a paper on PRTRs (ICCA Comments on Pollutant Release and Transfer Register), which concluded that "ICCA supports emissions reporting and believes that these programs can provide valuable information that can help document and stimulate reduction in emissions and communicate information to key audiences."
Initiatives taken by the Canadian Chemicals Producers' Association (CCPA) illustrate how the industry in Canada is adopting PRTRs as part of company operations. In 1990, the CCPA began developing a mandatory public reporting program of member emissions. The initiative is a PRTR called NERM (National Emissions Reduction Masterplan). It operates under Responsible Care, which is a commitment by every CCPA member company to the responsible management of chemicals through their entire lifecycle. Mandatory reporting by all members is seen as essential for the credibility of NERM and of CCPA's annual reports on emissions.
Discussions CCPA member companies had with local community advisory panels helped determine the effective design of the PRTR.
For example, since communities around plants and the public were concerned about what companies put into the environment, and not so much about in-plant processes and what chemicals companies used, CCPA decided to track releases and transfers to air, water, and land.
Communities were also concerned about emissions into the environment now, and about company plans for those emissions in the future. Hence CCPA includes five-year projections for company emissions as an integral part of reporting.
While a scientifically-based list of chemicals of likely concern was seen as a core part of NERM, CCPA determined that reporting should also include an open process for adding chemicals when communities expressed concerns. Consequently, reporting requirements have grown from an initial list of 225 substances to 600 today.
CCPA also concluded that the best way to present results was to combine public reporting of emissions and projections in aggregate. It also reports on emissions and projections by breaking them down into issues of specific interest such as toxic substances, smog, climate change, stratospheric ozone depletion and water quality.
To show how member emissions reductions compare with chemical industry growth, CCPA began to 'normalize' information. So far, it has been able to normalize reports for overall emissions from member operations and for carbon dioxide emissions (comparing these to product output). CCPA is considering how to normalize information for additional substances and groups of substances.
CCPA has produced eight annual "Reducing Emissions" reports of member emissions and five-year projections. The last report, published in November 2000 for 1999 emissions, shows that, compared to 1992, there has been a 99 percent reduction in CCPA emissions to water and a 71 percent reduction in chemical emissions per unit of chemical product manufactured. This is estimated to decline further to 79 percent by 2004. While there are many other examples of successes, at the same time CCPA members find themselves increasingly challenged to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and other large volume substances primarily related to combustion.
Well designed emissions reporting provides useful information about current releases and the basis for designing new processes or modifying existing ones to result in emission reductions. Reductions are also often driven by factors other than regulatory requirements, such as the pursuit of material and energy savings and process efficiencies. Furthermore, the chemical industry's commitment to Responsible Careâ enabled members to set environmental goals that have led to progress in reductions while maintaining business and operational flexibility. Input from local communities and other
stakeholders also plays a prominent role in promoting a range of risk reduction and management practices, leading to reductions in chemical emissions to the environment. And dialogue at the international level helps to encourage cooperation for chemical safety and emissions reporting.
It can be expected that with broad support from developed and developing countries and from environmental and industry NGOs, the spread of PRTRs will be the subject of further discussions at additional international conferences leading up to the anticipated tenth anniversary of the Rio Earth Summit in 2002.
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