The industry sector covers most onshore activities, although only facilities that represent a significant level of risk of harming the environment are included. About 1500 facilities need to have a permit under the Pollution Control Act. Out of these about 600 have to report their emissions and their waste transfers every year as well as their energy consumption and production volumes.
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What information can you find here about the industry sector?
The numbers represent data from the annual reports from the facilities. There are currently 660 facilities that have a duty to report their data. Facilities that are shut down are also included, if they had a duty to report when they were active.
The front page of the industry sector website displays aggregated numbers of emissions to air and water as well as waste transfers from the sector. The aggregated numbers are the sum of the reported data from every single facility.
The reported data from the facilities themselves is available by direct search, or you can drill down to the specific facilities by using the list of facilities behind the aggregated numbers. At the display of the single facility you will find the reported data from that facility as well as their permit and the audit reports from site inspections.
The reporting system is not designed with a set of thresholds for either specific pollutants or production capacities. The facilities have to report all pollutants that represent a significant risk of being a threat to the environment when emitted from the facility. The Norwegian Environment Agency prepares guidance material for the facilities to enable them to assess the issue properly.
What is not included in the industry sector?
Some land-based polluting activities are not defined as industry. Instead they are listed as independent sectors on the web site. They are for instance landfills, waste-water treatment plants and aqua-culture facilities. None of these sectors are presented on the web site yet. They will be launched on the web page when the respective datasets are ready for presentation. Small and medium-sized enterprises without a duty to report their data are not presented on the web site.
Diffuse emissions from mobile sources used at the industrial sites are not included within the industry sector. Emissions from all mobile sources classified under the transport sector.
Data quality
Experts at the Norwegian Environment Agency monitor and check the data reported from the facilities. Once all errors have been corrected and the data have been found to be of sufficient quality, the data are transferred to an internal database. The validation is to make sure that the reported data is in compliance with the permit, and to ensure that all pollutants are included in the reports and that the numbers are correct. The electronic reporting scheme has some automatic validations to improve the data quality from the facilities.
Reporting cycle
The annual reporting takes place in February, and the reports have to be sent to the Norwegian Environment Agency or the County Governors by March 1st every year. Normally the data for the industry sector is published the following summer.