A New Industrial Emissions Directive: Mastering water efficiency and reuse challenges New Water Europe Position Paper

On the 23rd of March, the European Commission closed its public consultation on the revision of the Industrial Emissions Directive. The Industrial Emission Directive has proven its added value with the industrial emissions being decreased over the past decade in Europe. However, it is now time to focus on pollution reduction to water and soil and improve water efficiency. Therefore, Water Europe welcomes the initiative of the European Commission to update this directive which will contribute to securing European competitiveness, improving our environmental legacy for future generations and strengthening European strategic autonomy. In this context and in order to achieve a Water-Smart Society, Water Europe suggests the following objectives: Leveraging water-related standards in each BREF- Setting-up horizontal BREF on water efficiency- Including mandatory systems assessment for water usage- Incentivizing industrial water efficiency, cascading and reuse water through subsidies- Deploying digital water solutions for water-energy efficiencies and the decarbonization of European industry.

The paper can be found here