DEVELOPMENT OF STRATEGIES FOR REDUCING AIR POLLUTANT EMISSIONS IN THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITY

In view of increasing economic and environmental problems, energy supply strategies as well as air pollutant emission reduction strategies are required. These strategies should be designed in accordance with the specific development of a country or region. In the past they were mainly considered with respect to the finiteness of natural resources and the scarcity of economic resources. In recent years the ‘joint‐production’ of air pollutant emissions in the energy sector has been increasingly recognized as an additional argument. As a consequence, concepts on future energy pathways, which should be efficient with respect to both economic development and environmental protection, have to be devised. For this purpose energy‐environmental models such as EFOM‐ENV can be used as analytic tools. The paper discusses optimal future energy supply structures that result from different strategies for air‐pollution control in the countries of the European Community. The results have been obtained by applying the energy flow optimization model (EFOM), which has been extended by additional environmental modules to EFOM‐ENV. The issues of the paper are based on research activities that the authors are performing for the Commission of the European Communities (CEC), Brussels, and the European Research Center for Air Pollution Control Measures (PEF), Karlsruhe, in close co‐operation with research institutes in member countries of the European Community. Copyright © 1990 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd