e-Digest Statistics about: Air Quality
Emissions of Sulphur dioxide: 1970-2006
United Kingdom
|
thousand tonnes | ||||||||
1970 |
1980 |
1990 |
2000 |
2003 |
2004 |
2005 |
2006 | |
| Large combustion plants | 3,732 |
3,457 |
2,934 |
873 |
733 |
569 |
449 |
368 |
| Total emissions | 6,370 |
4,775 |
3,717 |
1,198 |
967 |
812 |
688 |
676 |
Total sulphur dioxide emissions fell by 82 per cent between 1990 and 2006 to 676 thousand tonnes. This compares with targets for 2010 of 625 thousand tonnes under the UNECE Gothenburg Protocol and 585 thousand tonnes under the EU National Emissions Ceiling Directive.
Total emissions fell by 86 per cent between 1980 and 2006 compared with the UNECE Second Sulphur Protocol targets of reductions of 50 per cent by the year 2000, 70 per cent by 2005, and 80 per cent by 2010.
Emissions from Large Combustion Plants (LCPs) fell by 87 per cent between 1980 and 2006 compared with the EC LCP Directive target of a 40 per cent reduction on 1980 levels by 1998 and 60 per cent by 2003.
These target reductions were formally set out in the UK's National Plan for reducing emissions from large combustion plants. This is currently being updated by the Revised Large Combustion Plants Directive (LCPD, 2001/80/EC) which comes into force from January 2008. The Directive requires that emission reductions are met either through emission limit values or via a national emissions reduction plan.
Emissions from large combustion plants (LCPs) include emissions from all power stations and refineries and from some industrial sources. From 1991 actual emissions have been assessed for individual large plants. Up to 1990 estimates have been made based on the estimated proportions from the relevant sources: power stations, refineries, iron and steel and other industrial sources.
Note: Emissions estimates for the UK are updated annually to reflect revisions in methodology and the availability of new information. These adjustments are applied retrospectively to earlier years and hence there are differences from the data published in previous editions of the booklet.
Futher Information:
- Data Tables:
- Chart 20 Suphur dioxide emissions and targets: 1970-2010 Microsoft Excel
- 8 Estimated emissions of sulphur dioxide (SO2) by UNECE source category, type of fuel and end user, and for large combustion plants (LCPs): 1970-2006 XLS
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Page last modified: 13 March 2008
Page published: 13 March 2008