Contacts
P. J. F. van der Most
Ministry of Housing, Physical Planning and Environment
Department for Emission Inventory and Environmental Management
P.O. Box 30945
2500 GX Den Haag
telefon: +31-70-3394606
fax: +31-70-3391298

Name of the System: the Emission Inventory System, EIS

A. The Rise and Development of the System

An integrated emission database has existed in Holland since 1974. The aim of the EIS is to ensure efficacy of the governmental ecological policy and to gain information for home and foreign subjects.

Data of individual enterprises are secret. Most of the emission data subdues to state authorization. Voluntary made contracts between the government and industrial companies play very important role in emission volume reduction. The first period of pollution level following was in the time period of 1974-82.

B. The Structure of the System

The Department for Emission Inventory and Information Management guarantees running of the system on the national level ( this department works both for the Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment and for the Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management ).

The Steering Committee on Emission was established to assess data standard, measuring methods and definitions. Later on the Coordination Committee for the Monitoring of Target Groups was founded. And the Handbook of Emission Factors in The Netherlands secures methods of data collecting coordination.

Emissions have been followed in separate regions annually since 1990. And since 1992 information have been required of single companies every year.

700 companies ( 2600 enterprises ) - the biggest pollutants - rank among the Dutch reporters. Each company with more than 10 employees and with a significant emission volume has the duty of reporting data. The Industrial Emission Inventory, IEI. Data of dispersed sources and small-sized enterprises are estimated ( the Collective Emission Inventory, CEI ). These estimations are executed by governmental institutions.

We distinguish a few groups of pollution sources: refineries, energy producers, tips, industry, traffic, agriculture, consumers and others ( including natural emissions ).

900 substances emitted into air have been checked since 1992. Today the aim is to reduce the number of substances to 170 until 1996-97. Emission volumes of these substances should be decreased with preference then. The followed substances have been divided into several groups since 1992: climatic change causing substances ( CO2,CH4, N2O, CFC ), ozone damaging substances ( CFC ), substances causing acidification ( SO2, NOx, NH3 ), eutrofization ( nitrogen and phosphorus compounds ) and others ( pesticides, other toxic substances ).

Air-, water- and soil-pollution are checked within the framework of IEI and waste is going to be followed from 1996-97 on. The CEI follows geographical location of all pollution sources generally.

Total annual emission volumes data for single substances have been passively accessible since 1990. Only a few people are allowed to access to all the data ( e.g. state management representatives ). New system arrangement promises that about 400 enterprises will publish their emission data in annual reports from 1997 on.

Emission data of 60 substances from main industry branches are public accessible in electronic and printed form for the year 1992. These data are also compiled into the geographic system with the smallest square unit 1*1 km.