AtmosphericemissionsofheavymetalsintheBalticSearegionAuthor: Alexey Gusev, EMEP MSC-E

KeyMessageAnnual atmospheric cadmium and mercury emissions of HELCOM countries have decreased by 37% and 45% during the period from 1990 to 2016.

ResultsandAssessment

RelevanceoftheBSEFSfordescribingdevelopmentsintheenvironment

This indicator shows the levels and trends in cadmium and mercury emissions from anthropogenic sources of HELCOM countries to the atmosphere. The emissions of heavy metals represent the pressure of emission sources on the atmosphere of the Baltic Sea region and subsequently on the Baltic Sea aquatic environment.

Policyrelevanceandpolicyreferences

HELCOM adopted a Recommendation in May 2001 for the cessation of hazardous substance discharges/emissions by 2020, with the ultimate aim of achieving concentrations in the environment near to background values for naturally occurring substances and close to zero for man-made synthetic substances.

On the European level the relevant policy to the control of emissions of heavy metals to the atmosphere is being taken in the framework of UN ECE Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution (CLRTAP). The Executive Body of CLRTAP adopted the Protocol on Heavy Metals on 24 June 1998 in Aarhus (Denmark). It targets three particularly harmful metals: cadmium, lead and mercury. According to one of the basic obligations, Parties have to reduce their emissions for these three metals below their levels in 1990. The Protocol has been entered into force in 2003 and has been signed and/or ratified by 41 countries.

Assessment

Annual emissions of heavy metals from HELCOM countries have decreased during the period 1990-2016 by 37% for cadmium and 45% for mercury (Figure 1). The most significant drop of cadmium emissions can be noted for Finland (85%) and Estonia (82%). Mercury emission most significantly declined in Denmark (90%) and Sweden (73%). Higher emission of mercury in 2016 comparing to 1990 was estimated for Russia (by 12%).

The reduction in heavy metal emission to the atmosphere is a consequence of increased use of cleaner production technologies as well as of industrial restructuring in some of the HELCOM countries in early 1990s.

In 2016 total annual emissions of HELCOM countries amounted to 92 and 40 tonnes of cadmium and mercury, respectively. Among the HELCOM countries the largest contributions to HM emissions was made by Russia, Poland and Germany.

Maps with time-series of annual total cadmium and mercury emissions of HELCOM countries are shown in Figures 2 and 3. The diagrams also present the fractions of emissions deposited to the Baltic Sea. The largest

fractions belong to Denmark and Sweden (about 20% for cadmium and 10% for mercury), while the lowest one to Russia (about 0.5%).

Figure 1. Total annual emissions of cadmium and mercury to the atmosphere from HELCOM countries in period 1990-2016 (% of 1990).

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90 92 94 96 98 00 02 04 06 08 10 12 14 16

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Figure 2. Map of cadmium emissions of HELCOM Contracting Parties (CP) to air as totals in tonnes/year for the period 1990-2016. Red sections of the bars identify the fraction of emission deposited to the Baltic Sea. Green bars indicate expert estimates. (Emission data of the CP refer to the total area of the CP except for Russia, where emissions from the territory of Russia within the EMEP domain is used). Note: different scales have been used for different countries!

Figure 3. Map of mercury emissions of HELCOM Contracting Parties (CP) to air as totals in tonnes/year for the period 1990-2016. Red sections of the bars identify the fraction of emission deposited to the Baltic Sea. Green bars indicate expert estimates. (Emission data of the CP refer to the total area of the CP except for Russia, where emissions from the territory of Russia within the EMEP domain is used). Note: different scales have been used for different countries!

References

Tista M., Wankmueller R. and K.Mareckova [2018] Methodologies applied to the CEIP GNFR gap-filling 2018. Part II: Heavy Metals (Pb, Cd, Hg) of the year 2016. Technical report CEIP 02/2018. (http://www.ceip.at/fileadmin/inhalte/emep/pdf/2018/HM_gap-filling_documentation_2018_v3.pdf)

Data

Numerical data on HM anthropogenic emissions of HELCOM countries are given in the following tables.

Table 1. Cadmium emissions from anthropogenic sources of HELCOM countries from 1990 to 2016. Expert estimates of emissions are shaded. Units: tonnes/year.

DK EE FI DE LV LT PL RU SE HELCOM 1990 1.177 4.503 6.491 30.447 0.940 0.386 19.260 79.400 2.388 145 1991 1.209 4.295 3.639 26.929 0.845 0.412 17.087 68.200 1.793 124 1992 1.047 3.088 3.156 24.252 0.720 0.299 16.394 68.800 1.428 119 1993 0.963 2.310 3.216 22.953 0.800 0.363 19.765 59.000 1.135 111 1994 0.809 3.004 2.545 22.558 0.827 0.355 20.797 56.600 0.821 108 1995 0.678 2.179 1.970 20.369 0.828 0.361 23.244 57.400 0.798 108 1996 0.696 1.305 1.750 20.862 0.865 0.384 24.445 51.000 0.768 102 1997 0.654 1.343 1.375 20.590 0.968 0.384 23.177 50.400 0.763 100 1998 0.614 1.222 1.537 19.852 0.956 0.509 20.168 49.000 0.682 95 1999 0.604 1.157 1.377 19.856 0.955 0.410 17.887 50.900 0.599 94 2000 0.596 0.779 1.263 18.774 0.922 0.424 17.089 50.500 0.581 91 2001 0.647 0.755 1.598 17.793 0.978 0.452 15.572 51.000 0.661 89 2002 0.620 0.777 1.225 17.144 0.969 0.472 14.579 51.500 0.584 88 2003 0.643 0.847 1.178 15.721 1.024 0.478 14.849 57.300 0.581 93 2004 0.639 0.786 1.465 14.521 1.069 0.499 15.111 55.400 0.599 90 2005 0.651 0.760 1.313 12.957 1.069 0.436 13.555 59.400 0.599 91 2006 0.625 0.740 1.280 13.664 1.059 0.419 13.637 59.400 0.617 91 2007 0.713 0.909 1.116 13.165 1.048 0.413 14.496 56.890 0.635 89 2008 0.692 0.828 1.250 11.971 1.001 0.429 13.759 54.380 0.579 85 2009 0.660 0.709 1.196 11.100 1.008 0.422 11.958 51.870 0.599 80 2010 0.692 0.896 1.328 13.395 0.988 0.411 13.033 53.270 0.610 85 2011 0.646 0.859 1.263 13.368 0.612 0.396 13.418 54.670 0.589 86 2012 0.621 0.792 1.212 12.886 0.807 0.399 13.284 56.070 0.589 87 2013 0.642 0.965 1.117 12.977 0.646 0.378 12.739 57.470 0.565 87 2014 0.627 0.897 0.925 12.597 0.623 0.360 12.307 58.870 0.577 88 2015 0.699 0.747 0.927 12.910 0.570 0.353 12.295 60.270 0.543 89 2016 0.724 0.809 0.976 12.921 0.556 0.345 13.109 61.670 0.540 92

Table 2. Mercury emissions from anthropogenic sources of HELCOM countries from 1990 to 2016. Expert estimates of emissions are shaded. Units: tonnes/year.

DK EE FI DE LV LT PL RU SE HELCOM 1990 3.165 1.161 1.096 35.532 0.284 0.388 13.843 15.600 1.534 73 1991 3.282 1.050 0.940 29.968 0.254 0.364 13.878 13.400 1.222 64 1992 3.000 0.861 0.902 25.422 0.214 0.211 13.430 11.400 1.151 57 1993 2.932 0.677 0.779 22.660 0.188 0.195 13.339 11.800 1.012 54 1994 2.546 0.682 0.820 21.385 0.149 0.180 13.050 10.400 1.030 50 1995 2.321 0.641 0.817 20.320 0.114 0.163 12.264 10.400 0.958 48 1996 2.462 0.638 0.881 19.757 0.118 0.161 12.684 10.100 1.016 48 1997 1.990 0.644 0.817 19.461 0.108 0.153 12.245 9.600 0.829 46 1998 1.680 0.577 0.705 19.094 0.098 0.155 11.618 9.400 0.835 44 1999 1.484 0.556 0.645 18.268 0.094 0.142 11.143 9.900 0.841 43 2000 1.005 0.556 0.610 18.286 0.079 0.132 10.407 10.000 0.721 42 2001 0.873 0.543 0.689 17.683 0.091 0.137 10.328 10.100 0.562 41 2002 0.846 0.547 0.676 16.730 0.080 0.145 9.769 10.200 0.596 40 2003 0.868 0.638 0.823 16.059 0.080 0.136 10.146 11.400 0.677 41 2004 0.724 0.582 0.756 15.369 0.083 0.137 10.050 11.900 0.692 40 2005 0.690 0.561 0.892 14.009 0.086 0.139 9.967 14.000 0.641 41 2006 0.613 0.563 1.034 13.446 0.097 0.135 10.176 14.000 0.497 41 2007 0.584 0.692 0.872 12.656 0.106 0.149 10.093 13.293 0.542 39 2008 0.589 0.605 0.821 11.125 0.088 0.157 9.964 12.587 0.489 36 2009 0.446 0.474 0.763 10.353 0.077 0.154 9.414 11.880 0.533 34 2010 0.427 0.659 0.886 11.168 0.088 0.154 9.500 12.680 0.507 36 2011 0.376 0.663 0.752 10.576 0.083 0.138 9.556 13.480 0.497 36 2012 0.289 0.585 0.741 10.243 0.168 0.120 9.854 14.280 0.453 37 2013 0.329 0.695 0.760 9.860 0.097 0.116 9.987 15.080 0.481 37 2014 0.319 0.686 0.706 9.888 0.078 0.111 9.565 15.880 0.431 38 2015 0.281 0.548 0.619 10.028 0.080 0.106 10.579 16.680 0.409 39 2016 0.324 0.615 0.591 9.775 0.099 0.105 10.352 17.480 0.412 40

Metadata

Technicalinformation

1. Source:

EMEP/MSC-E, EMEP/CEIP.

2. Description of data:

Annual total emissions of cadmium and mercury were officially reported to the UN ECE Secretariat by HELCOM countries. These data are available from the EMEP Centre on Emission Inventories and Projections (CEIP) (http://www.ceip.at/).

3. Geographical coverage:

EMEP region

4. Temporal coverage:

Data on cadmium and mercury annual emission totals are available for the period 1990 – 2016 for all HELCOM countries but Russia. The Russian Federation did not submit the information for 2001 and 2007-2016. Values of HM emissions from Russia for 2007-2016 were estimated by CEIP (Tista et al., 2018).

5. Methodology and frequency of data collection:

National data on HM emissions are annually submitted by countries Parties to LRTAP Convention to the UN ECE Secretariat. The methodology is based on combination of measurements of releases to the atmosphere and estimation of emission based on activity data and emission factors. Submitted emission data are processed using quality assurance and quality control procedure and stored in the UN ECE/EMEP emission database at EMEP/CEIP Centre.

Qualityinformation

6. Strength and weakness:

Strength: data on emissions are annually submitted, checked and stored in the database

Weakness: gaps in time series of national emissions, uncertainties in national emissions, lack of gridded emissions, and incompleteness

7. Uncertainty:

Among the HELCOM countries the level of uncertainty of official data on HM emission was reported by Finland, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Poland, and Sweden. From other EMEP countries the information on uncertainties of HM official emissions is available for Belarus, Belgium, France, Croatia, Cyprus, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. The uncertainty of reported data on HM emissions expressed as percentage relative to mean value of emission is as follows:

Finland: Cd ±28%

Hg ±19%

Denmark: Cd 431%

Hg 101%

Estonia: Cd 134%

Hg 182%

Latvia: Cd 29%

Hg 17%

Poland: Cd 53%

Hg 59%

Sweden: Cd 37%

Hg 68%

Belarus: Cd 266%

Hg 111%

Belgium: Cd 85%

Hg 33%

France: Cd 37%

Hg 32%

Croatia: Cd 295%

Hg 77%

Cyprus: Cd 25%

Hg 8%

Switzerland: Cd 20% to 50%

Hg 20% to 50%

UK: Cd -30% to >50%

Hg -30% to 50%

8. Further work required:

Further work of national experts on emissions of heavy metals is required to fill the gaps in the emission time-series and to reduce their uncertainties.