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Techno-economic issues

There has been a rapid development of technologies and techniques to reduce emissions of air pollutants in a wide range of sectors - energy, traffic, agriculture, industry and domestic - since the adoption of the Convention in 1979. But, while these new techniques and also non-technical measures, such as energy conservation and traffic management, have played an important role in decreasing pollution, industrial production, transport activity and energy demand have increased significantly. However, the emission ratio or unit emission per activity has been considerably lowered. Information gathered about the technical issues has played an important role and contributed substantively to the success of the Convention and its Protocols. Emission abatement requires technologies and techniques. This means applying process changes and installations of new abatement technologies.
The Task Force on Techno-economic Issues works to update and assess information on emission abatement technologies for the reduction of air pollutants (SO2, NOx, VOCs, dust (including coarse PM (PM10), fine PM (PM2.5) and black carbon), heavy metals and persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and their costs. It is also tasked with establishing and maintaining a regional clearing house of control technology information with the aim of being a reference place for dissemination of information to the experts of the Parties. The information may also be used both in the formulation of draft revisions of technical annexes to existing Protocols, as well as for input data to integrated assessment modelling.
Recent products of the Task Force include the Guidance document on control techniques for emissions of sulphur, NOx, VOC, and particulate matter from stationary sources and the Guidance document for emission control techniques for mobile sources under the Gothenburg Protocol
The Task Force was established by the Executive Body in 2001 as Expert Group and upgraded to a Task Force by Executive Body decision 2014/2. Work on POPs and heavy metals, which was previously covered by the respective task forces, is now being addressed under the Task Force on Techno-economic issues. The revised mandate of the Task Force can be found in EB decision 2018/7.
The Task Force is led by France and Italy, with technical support provided by the Interprofessional Technical Centre for Studies on Atmospheric Pollution (CITEPA) and the French-German Institute for Environmental Research (IFARE), in cooperation with the French Agency for Environment and Energy Management (ADEME) and the French Ministry of Ecology and Sustainable Development.
For more information, please consult the Task Force's dedicated website.
Reports of the Task Force