Foreword

 3

The OECD has been working on the Best Available Techniques (BAT) project since 2016 to help governments prevent and control industrial pollution. The project aims to identify and exchange best practices amongst countries that already have a BAT-based policy in place, and to assist those that are considering adopting this approach for the first time. Furthermore, the BAT project is designed to contribute toward the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially Target 12.4 on the environmentally sound management of chemicals, which relates to SDG 12 on ensuring sustainable consumption and production patterns. The OECD’s BAT project is advised by an Expert Group (i.e. EG on BAT), which consists of members from governments in OECD member and non-member countries, along with environmental nongovernmental organisations (NGOs), industry, academia, and inter-governmental organisations. The Expert Group is a platform to carry out exchanges of expertise and experiences in implementing BAT approaches. The project has developed five publications, which are available on oe.cd/bat: i. Activity 1, Policies on BAT or Similar Concepts Across the World (OECD, 2017[1]), describing how BAT are defined and embedded in national legislation in different countries and regions; ii. Activity 2, Approaches to Establishing BAT Around the World (OECD, 2018[2]), presenting various jurisdictions’ procedures to determine BAT;

iii. Activity 3, Measuring the Effectiveness of BAT Policies (OECD, 2019[3]), analysing methodologies and data for the evaluation of the effectiveness of BAT-based policies in a range of countries and regions; iv. Activity 4, Guidance document on determining BAT, BAT-associated emission and environmental performance levels, and BAT-based permit conditions (OECD, 2020[4]); and v. Activity 5, Value chain approaches to determining BAT for industrial installations, studying potential challenges and opportunities to effectively consider an industry’s entire value chain when determining BAT (OECD, 2021[5]). This report, as the 6th Activity, is on cross-country comparisons of BAT and BAT-associated emission and environmental performance levels for selected industrial sectors. The difference between Activity 6 and the other activities of the OECD BAT project is the focus on industrial sector level BAT Reference Document (BREF) information. Therefore, this report does not include other more general matters covered by the other BAT project’s activities (BAT website), notably:  How BAT is generally defined, applied, or implemented – see Activities 1, 2 and 4  Policy effectiveness, including actual emissions achieved at the sector or installation level – see Activity 3  Enforcement and compliance of requirements in local regulations and issued permits  Individual installation permits or monitored performance data

BEST AVAILABLE TECHNIQUES (BAT) FOR PREVENTING AND CONTROLLING INDUSTRIAL POLLUTION © OECD 2022