Key provisions
ELD imposes liability on an operator for preventing and remediating an imminent threat of, or actual, environmental damage:
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Strict liability for activities under EU legislation listed in annex III, which applies to
- Land damage
- Water damage
- Biodiversity damage (species and habitats protected under the Birds and Habitats Directives and equivalent national biodiversity at the option of an MS)
- Fault-based liability for non-annex III activities, which applies only to biodiversity damage.
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Annex III lists activities under 14 categories of EU legislation:
- activities permitted under the Industrial Emissions Directive (2010/75/EU)
- waste management operations
- discharges of specified dangerous substances into inland surface water that require prior authorisation
- discharges of specified dangerous substances into groundwater that require prior authorisation
- discharges of pollutants into surface water and groundwater that require prior authorisation
- water abstraction and impoundment
- manufacture, use, storage, processing, filling, release into the environment and onsite transport of dangerous substances, dangerous preparations, pesticides and other plant protection products and biocidal products
- transport of dangerous or polluting goods by road, rail, inland waterways, sea or air
- operation of installations authorised under air pollution legislation
- contained use, including transport, of genetically modified organisms (GMOs)
- deliberate release into the environment, marketing and placing on the market of GMOs
- transboundary shipments of waste
- extractive waste management
- operation of storage sites for carbon dioxide