BAT in environmental protection law
The EU Industrial Emission Directive (IED, 2010/75/EU), which brings together Directive 2008/1/EC (the ‘IPPC Directive’) and six other directives in a single directive on industrial emissions, has been implemented in Finland as part of the renewed national Environmental Protection Act (527/2014), which came into force on 1.9.2014.
BAT in environmental licenses
Many activities and industrial processes must be licensed according to the environmental legislation. One condition for granting environmental licenses (permits) is that operators use BAT and best practices to prevent or reduce environmental impacts. These requirements are based on the IE Directive.
All environmental impacts of activities must be examined in an integrated way. Discharges and emissions released into the air, water or soil must be assessed simultaneously, together with other factors such as resource consumption, waste minimisation, energy efficiency, noise and vibration, and accident prevention. When applying for environmental permits, operators have to assess how the best available technique is applied in the proposed activity.
With the entry into force of the Industrial Emission Directive (IED, 2010/75/EU), BAT reference documents (BREFs) became more binding. The new BREFs include a BAT conclusions chapter, which also forms an independent document containing the conclusions on best available techniques which, according to Article 14(3) of the IED, shall be the reference for setting the permit conditions for installations covered by the Directive. This means as a rule that the BAT Associated Emission Limits (BAT-AELs) included in the BAT conclusions must not be exceeded.
Information exchange on BAT in Finland
The Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE) is responsible for monitoring and reporting on the development of the best available techniques in Finland. SYKE acts as the National Focal Point for BAT information exchange between the environmental authorities and industry.
The European IPPC Bureau (EIPPCB) organises and coordinates the exchange of information at the European level, which leads to the drawing up and review of BREFs according to the dispositions of the Guidance document on the exchange of information (Commission Implementing Decision 2012/119/EU). The published BREFs (as well as the BAT conclusions in all EU languages) can be found on the EIPPCB homepage.
BAT information exchange in Finland is carried out by national technical working groups (BAT working groups). Finnish BAT working groups are composed of representatives from industry and environmental permit and supervision authorities, with the group chair acting as a Finnish member in the corresponding Technical Working Group (TWG) at EU-level information exchange. The national BAT working groups comment on the draft BREFs prepared by the EIPPCB and gather relevant background information for BREFs. The results of the Finnish BAT information exchange for different industrial sectors are published as Finnish BAT reports and many of them have been sent for background information for the preparation of BREFs.
For more information
Project Manager Kaj Forsius, Finnish Environment Institute SYKE, firstname.lastname@ymparisto.fi