BVT-Merkblatt zu Abwasser- und Abgasbehandlung

Annexes
General Environmental Performance on ‘Traditional’ Pollutants
In the declaration of intent of this voluntary agreement, the authorities have drawn up an Integral
Environmental Target Plan (IETP), based on the National Environmental Policy Plan
(NEPP), the Memorandum on Water Management, the North Sea Action Plan, the Rhine
Action Programme, the Memorandum on Energy Conservation and other official plans at
the time of signature.
The Integral Target Plan is concerned with environmental pollution of the traditional pollutants
(SO x, NO x, VOC, heavy metals, PAH, etc.) caused by the relevant industrial sector. The IETP
has been drawn up in 1994/1995, and will be adjusted in 2000 and 2010. Apart from the reduction
of emissions into the air, water and soil, the IETP also incorporates policy with regard to
energy conservation, water conservation, soil clean up, hazard risk, odour nuisance, noise and
internal management systems. However, especially for energy conservation and CO 2 reduction,
two other covenants have been agreed upon.
For the chemical industry a declaration of intent was signed on April 2, 1993. A significant factor
is the understanding that in view of the wide range of disparate companies in the chemical
industry, the contribution of each individual company to the implementation of the IETP in the
industry may vary. The responsibility of individual companies to contribute to the implementation
of the IETP in the industry requires that these companies take an active stance. The contribution
of a company will be defined in Company Environmental Plans (‘BMPs’), which are
drawn up by each company. These BMPs are renewed every four years and must be agreed
upon by the licensing authority.
Energy Efficiency: Long-Term Agreements on Energy Efficiency
In the Netherlands, ‘Long-Term Agreements on Energy Efficiency (MJAs)’ have been made
between the Ministry of Economic Affairs and representative organisations of many industrial
sectors. The most important aspect of the MJAs is the target value for improvement of energy
efficiency in the relevant industrial sector within a certain time frame. For the elaboration of the
MJAs, bilateral agreements are made between the individual companies and the facilitating
agency, which is NOVEM. For the chemical industry, an MJA was signed on 24 November
1993 and the agreed improvement of energy efficiency was 20% over the period 1989-2000.
The target has been achieved by the sector and a second round of MJAs is now in preparation,
although most of the chemical industry companies will probably join the ‘Benchmarking’ covenant.
Energy Efficiency: Benchmarking covenant
The Benchmarking covenant is an agreement between the Dutch authorities and the Dutch energy
intensive industry. In contrast to the above mentioned MJAs, no fixed quantified target for
energy efficiency improvement is set. Instead, the industry agrees to belong to the world top in
energy efficiency and the authorities will then refrain from impairing additional energy tax
measures. The reason for this different approach is that in the light of international competition,
industry has asked the government to look at the relative effort on energy efficiency of Dutch
industry in relation to their foreign competitors. The agreement is open to all companies with
an energy use of 0,5 PJ per year or more. The principle agreement was signed on July 6, 1999,
between the industrial organisations and the authorities. Now that the principle agreement has
been signed, the agreement is open to individual companies to sign up to the covenant.
Waste Water and Waste Gas Treatment 431