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Implementation of the Medium Combustion Plant Directive in Scotland
- #air emission
- #combustion plant
- #factory smokestack
- #harmful emission
- #plant
- #Pollution
The Scottish Government has published on 16th December 2016 a consultation on implementation of the medium combustion plant directive in Scotland. This consultation seeks views on proposals designed to limit harmful emissions to air from medium sized combustion plants, through transposition in Scotland of EU Directive 2015/2193 on Medium Combustion Plants (MCPD). The MCPD fills the regulatory gap at EU level between large combustion plants (> 50 MW) covered by the Industrial Emissions Directive and smaller appliances (< 1 MW) covered by the Ecodesign Directive.
Many of the Directive requirements are fixed. However there are some flexibilities for transposing into domestic legislation and it is these that the consultation focuses on.
The Directive must be transposed into legislation by 19 December 2017, with requirements for new plants coming into force in December 2018. Older plants must comply with requirements from 2024 or 2029 depending largely on size. Full implementation will be achieved in 2030. Whilst many of the requirements in the Directive are set, there are some options for how to transpose it in to domestic legislation and that is the focus of this consultation.
The consultation is also seeking views on how to control nitrogen dioxide emissions from high emitting diesel generators. This is not part of the Directive requirements, but there are plans to introduce these controls in England and Wales as part of the transposing legislation. The issue is not so significant in Scotland but we are using this opportunity to gather views, with the aim of introducing controls at some future date.
For further details consult the official document of the Consultation.
Sources :
Consultation on Implementation of the Medium Combustion Plant Directive in Scotland published on the webpage of the Scottish Government.