1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:11,000 Since February 23, 2004, this Internet user has added a new bookmark to the favorites listed in his browser. 2 00:00:11,000 --> 00:00:13,000 The address is for the IPA site. 3 00:00:13,000 --> 00:00:19,000 IPA is the European Pollutant Emission Register, which has been placed online by the European Commission. 4 00:00:19,000 --> 00:00:23,000 The IPA register is meant to be transparent and accessible to all. 5 00:00:23,000 --> 00:00:28,000 A simple click brings the Internet user onto the information highways that lead to the heart of the register. 6 00:00:32,000 --> 00:00:40,000 IPA is a systematic listing of the pollutant emissions of nearly 10,000 industrial sites active in the 15 Union Member States and Norway. 7 00:00:54,000 --> 00:01:01,000 These might be pig and poultry farms, cement works, chemical works, power stations. 8 00:01:08,000 --> 00:01:15,000 That could include carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, dioxins, a whole range of information. 9 00:01:16,000 --> 00:01:25,000 So the data coming from a site will be categorized into the type of pollutant, the type of installation, and where it actually is situated. 10 00:01:27,000 --> 00:01:33,000 The pollutant emission data are provided by the companies themselves, which gives rise to a legitimate question. 11 00:01:33,000 --> 00:01:35,000 Are they reliable? 12 00:01:37,000 --> 00:01:41,000 The IPA system makes every effort to guarantee that its data are reliable. 13 00:01:41,000 --> 00:01:47,000 After monitoring by industry, the data are centralized and checked by a regional or national authority. 14 00:01:47,000 --> 00:01:54,000 Finally, they are forwarded to the European Environment Agency, which collects all the information and places it online on the Internet. 15 00:01:55,000 --> 00:02:00,000 But let's take an example to see just how much information ends up on the IPA website. 16 00:02:00,000 --> 00:02:05,000 To do so, we'll head for Belgium, more precisely, the Sombreville region. 17 00:02:05,000 --> 00:02:11,000 Since 1897, the chemical industry giant Solvay has had manufacturing operations in Sombreville, 18 00:02:11,000 --> 00:02:17,000 where it makes products like PVC, hydrogen peroxide, hydrochloric acid, and caustic soda. 19 00:02:18,000 --> 00:02:22,000 Solvay is listed in the IPA register and collects data on its own installations. 20 00:02:35,000 --> 00:02:41,000 This method is used here for one of the plant incinerators, which in more technical terms is called the off-gases treatment unit. 21 00:02:43,000 --> 00:02:49,000 The unit's job is to capture and burn all the gases produced by the vinyl chloride manufacturing process. 22 00:03:05,000 --> 00:03:11,000 The analysis is carried out continuously and will be used to establish the first evaluation of annual gas emissions. 23 00:03:11,000 --> 00:03:17,000 The analyses are carried out continuously and will be used to establish the first evaluation of annual averages for the pollutants placed on the IPA list. 24 00:03:38,000 --> 00:03:40,000 The list has two facets. 25 00:03:40,000 --> 00:03:45,000 As we've seen, IPA focuses on air emissions, but it also covers water emissions. 26 00:03:45,000 --> 00:03:51,000 The Solvay site is located near the Sombre, where the plant discharges part of its waste water. 27 00:03:51,000 --> 00:03:56,000 Here at Drain 3, automatic sample takers operate 24 hours a day. 28 00:03:59,000 --> 00:04:03,000 Every day, a sample is collected and taken to the laboratory for analysis. 29 00:04:03,000 --> 00:04:11,000 These analyses make it possible to establish the company's annual pollutant discharges and to draw up the declaration for the IPA. 30 00:04:15,000 --> 00:04:19,000 Second stage. The company's declarations are forwarded to the Walloon region. 31 00:04:19,000 --> 00:04:24,000 This regional government is charged with issuing operating licences for enterprises. 32 00:04:24,000 --> 00:04:30,000 Within the framework of the IPA register, the Walloon region has to check the accuracy of the data transmitted by companies. 33 00:04:33,000 --> 00:04:36,000 Here is the declaration that the company has sent us. 34 00:04:36,000 --> 00:04:41,000 We will cut this declaration with the additional information that we already have internally. 35 00:04:41,000 --> 00:04:46,000 After having validated what the company has declared to us, 36 00:04:46,000 --> 00:04:54,000 we will encode these values in a database that will be used to establish the regional report, 37 00:04:54,000 --> 00:04:58,000 and then the national report that will be transmitted to the European Commission. 38 00:04:59,000 --> 00:05:03,000 The data are now reaching the last leg of their journey. 39 00:05:03,000 --> 00:05:07,000 Let's head off to Copenhagen and the European Environment Agency. 40 00:05:07,000 --> 00:05:12,000 This is where they'll be placed online. The IPA is now ready for use. 41 00:05:12,000 --> 00:05:20,000 The final goal of IPA is to actually present to citizens of Europe the state of environment, but at a very specific level, 42 00:05:20,000 --> 00:05:26,000 so they can use the database to search by area, by industry, by pollutant, 43 00:05:26,000 --> 00:05:30,000 and get information on these different aggregation levels. 44 00:05:30,000 --> 00:05:34,000 Indeed, there are several approaches to the IPA site. 45 00:05:34,000 --> 00:05:38,000 Let's take a lifelike example, geographical research. 46 00:05:38,000 --> 00:05:45,000 You have a map. You zoom into the area that you're interested in, in this case Denmark. 47 00:05:45,000 --> 00:05:51,000 On the map you can find all the large point sources covered by IPA in Denmark. 48 00:05:52,000 --> 00:05:58,000 You can pick one of the facilities to get the detailed information about this facility. 49 00:05:58,000 --> 00:06:03,000 Here you can, for example, see the total emissions of the different pollutants from this facility. 50 00:06:03,000 --> 00:06:08,000 You can also see some detailed information. 51 00:06:08,000 --> 00:06:16,000 And finally, you can see a detailed satellite image over the area that covers the facility. 52 00:06:17,000 --> 00:06:22,000 Access to this type of data is completely new, not only for the general public, 53 00:06:22,000 --> 00:06:25,000 but also for the companies themselves and decision makers. 54 00:06:25,000 --> 00:06:29,000 This said, however, the information on the site can still be improved. 55 00:06:29,000 --> 00:06:34,000 Well, when we first saw the plans for this pollution register, 56 00:06:34,000 --> 00:06:40,000 I have to say that environmentalists were a bit disappointed in the scope of the information that would be collected. 57 00:06:40,000 --> 00:06:45,000 So we have information on air pollution and on water pollution. 58 00:06:45,000 --> 00:06:50,000 It covers, of course, quite a wide range of industry, but some sectors are missing. 59 00:06:50,000 --> 00:06:54,000 I mean, we would like to see the nuclear industry incorporated, for example. 60 00:06:54,000 --> 00:06:59,000 Because we're at the very beginning of IPA, we have to establish what's called a baseline. 61 00:06:59,000 --> 00:07:04,000 There has to be a start. So what you will see in the first version is, of course, the start. 62 00:07:04,000 --> 00:07:08,000 Nevertheless, you know, for the first time in many instances, 63 00:07:08,000 --> 00:07:15,000 there will be comparable information available on tens of thousands of industrial facilities across the EU. 64 00:07:15,000 --> 00:07:22,000 This is an important milestone, I think, in giving the public the right to know about sources of pollution. 65 00:07:22,000 --> 00:07:28,000 Today, for its first online release, the IPA has collected data on pollutant emissions registered in 2001. 66 00:07:28,000 --> 00:07:31,000 These data will be updated in three years. 67 00:07:31,000 --> 00:07:37,000 The new version of the site, planned for late 2006, will also list emissions for the ten new member states, 68 00:07:37,000 --> 00:07:42,000 provide links to other European data banks and be translated into the Union's official languages. 69 00:07:42,000 --> 00:07:47,000 Over the longer term, other types of pollutant will be covered, particularly industrial waste. 70 00:07:47,000 --> 00:07:55,000 We want to use a register like this that shows the pollutants into air and water as an engine for change. 71 00:07:55,000 --> 00:08:01,000 Because what we want to achieve is, of course, to reduce emissions of pollutants. 72 00:08:02,000 --> 00:08:08,000 And this is a very good instrument, a very good tool for change. 73 00:08:10,000 --> 00:08:13,000 The information highways now lead to the IPA. 74 00:08:13,000 --> 00:08:18,000 European companies and states have worked together to develop openness in environmental matters. 75 00:08:18,000 --> 00:08:24,000 The European public, with a simple click of the mouse, can now keep track of, evaluate and compare 76 00:08:24,000 --> 00:08:29,000 the performances of industrial installations from one end of the Union to the other. 77 00:08:29,000 --> 00:08:32,000 Change lies at the end of the road.