Developing national policy to control transboundary air pollution

Several issues should be addressed while developing a national policy to control transboundary air pollution. One issue would be which general principles to apply, such as the precautionary principle, legal compliance, democratic control, extended producer responsibility and the preventive principle. In establishing the policy, defined and measurable goals should be set, a time frame determined and a scheme for monitoring, evaluation and auditing agreed.

All relevant stakeholders should formulate, implement and periodically review an integrated national policy that should be holistic and cover all aspects of environmental performance. In the process of policy development, accountability, transparency and the use of self-control and self-regulation should be observed. A national policy should create economic and social incentives for enterprises to implement control measures. It should also encourage the development of economic appraisal of environmental performance in enterprises. It should reduce the opportunities for enterprises to externalize the costs of poor practice.

The UK Pollution Prevention and Control Bill (PPC) 1999 will: implement the requirements of the Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Directive (IPPC); provide for the prevention or reduction of pollution from a range of potentially polluting industrial activities to air, water and land, in order to achieve a high level of protection of the environment taken as a whole; extend integrated control to include around an extra 3,000 industrial installations such as intensive pig and poultry farms, landfill sites and some food and drink producers; take a far wider range of environmental impacts into account such as noise, energy efficiency, use of raw materials, accident prevention and site restoration; and provide a consistent framework to allow for the retention of aspects of the Local Air Pollution Control (LAPC) regime for the LAPC remainder not covered by the Directive.

Part I of the UK Environmental Protection Act 1990 contains the Integrated Pollution Control (IPC) regime and Local Air Pollution Control (LAPC) regime. Both regimes are concerned with regulating pollution from industrial processes. The first is concerned with preventing or minimising pollution of the environment due to the release of substances into the air, water or land. The second is concerned with preventing or minimising air pollution and applies to those industrial processes which are not considered to give rise to significant pollution of water or land.

Many international legal instruments concerned with the environment relate to health. Implementation of National Environmental Health Action Plans (NEHAPs) is seen as an effective tool for giving effect to such instruments and, through that, for fulfilling international obligations, strengthening regional collaboration in solving transboundary problems and improving access to information and public participation.