The new Industrial Emissions Directive

The scope of the IED is defined in Article 2: viz., industrial activities with a major pollution potential referred to in Chapters II to VI. Article 2 (2) the Directive, however, sets out that it does not apply to research activities, development activities or the testing of new products and processes.

The IED applies to:


• activities listed in Annex I to the IED and, where applicable, reaching the capacity thresholds set out in that Annex (Article 10);
• combustion plants designed for production of energy, the rated thermal input of which is equal to or greater than 50 MW irrespective of the type of fuel used (Article 28);
• waste incineration plants and waste co-incineration plants which incinerate or co-incinerate solid or liquid waste (Article 42); and
• dry-cleaning and other activities covered by the Volatile Organic Compounds Solvents Directive; these activities are those listed in Part 1 of Annex VII and, where applicable, reaching the consumption thresholds set out in Part 2 of that Annex (Article 56).
• installations producing titanium dioxide (Article 66).

The IED entered into force on 6 January 2011 and had to be transposed into national legislation by member states by 7 January 2013. The Directive contains a fairly complicated regime as regards its temporal scope:

• To new installations, combustion plants, etc. it applies from 7 January 2013.
• To existing installations it applies from 7 January 2014 onwards (Article 82). This deadline is relevant for installations which were already covered by the scope of the IPPC Directive as well.
• For existing activities and installations which were not covered by the scope of the IPPC Directive previously, the application of the directive is postponed by 18 months, namely until 7 July 2015,
• In the case of existing large combustion plants, the application of Chapter III and Annex V of the directive is postponed until 1 January 2016.

Chapter II of the IED contains the general rules for all activities listed in Annex I. This Annex I shows a great level of resemblance to Annex I to the IPPC Directive, however, a number of new activities have been included (e.g., installations for the production of wood-based panels, new waste management activities, installations for the gasification or liquefaction with a rated thermal input of 20 MW or more, etc.).