Analysis of Gas and Dust Emissions From the Mining and Quarrying Sector in the European Union Countries

Abstract

Despite the ongoing changes in the energy and economic structure of the European Union countries, mineral and energy resources such as hard coal, brown coal, natural gas, copper ores, zinc ores and many other minerals continue to be extracted. Each year, the mining and extraction sector emits thousands of tons of harmful substances into the atmosphere, in the form of greenhouse and other air-polluting gases, as well as harmful dusts. These substances include, amongst others, carbon dioxide, methane, carbon monoxide, as well as PM2.5 and PM10. The European Union climate policy clearly recommends that the exploitation of mineral resources be carried out in full respect of the principles of their rational, economical and environmentally neutral acquisition, which is confirmed by the promoted strategy of sustainable development economy. Therefore, this means the necessity to undertake actions aimed at limiting the emission of greenhouse gases and air pollutants into the atmosphere. To assess the actions taken by the European Union countries to date with respect to limiting those emissions, a comparative analysis was carried out for the particular countries. This analysis encompassed the emission of harmful substances from the mining and quarrying sector by the European Union countries in the years 2008 and 2017. The purpose of the analysis was to show the diversity of those countries in terms of the emission of harmful gases and dusts, as well as to divide them into similar groups. Such a division paves the way for developing a common climate policy and exchanging experiences between the countries from the particular groups. The European Union countries were divided into similar groups using the k-means grouping method. Comparison was also made for the emissions of the substances under analysis for the particular countries over the research years. The results obtained unequivocally demonstrate that this emission has been limited in the European Union, but there are countries where the emission of certain substances has increased.