The European Commission’s Industrial Emissions Directive (IED) is a critical piece of legislation to achieve a high level of protection for the health of humans and the environment. The Directive was revised and published in 2024.
European Aluminium is a member of the Industrial Emissions Alliance group and is actively involved in the various consultations relating to the implementation of the revised IED (BREF guidance revision, development of transformation plans, etc). Thanks to our expertise in industrial emissions, European Aluminium is an active stakeholder in all matters pertaining to the IED, its implementation at the Member State level, and the drafting of Best Practices Reference Documents (BREFs) for the industry through the Sevilla process.

The aluminium value chain in Europe complies with the highest health and environmental protection standards. We are working with policy makers to ensure that the Best Practice Reference Documents (BREFs) provide a viable approach to determining the Best Available Techniques (BATs) for minimising industrial emissions. We want to ensure that the Best Available Techniques Emission Limit Values (BAT-AELs) in these documents are aligned with what our industry can realistically achieve while continuously striving for improvement.

REACH is the EU Regulation on Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemical substances, aiming to improve the protection of human health and the environment by thoroughly assessing the properties of chemical substances produced in Europe or imported and regulating their safe use accordingly. The REACH Regulation is currently under revision after over a dozen years of operation. After several delays, the draft legislative proposal is expected by the end of 2025.
The most relevant substances for our industry in this context are produced substances such as aluminium metal, aluminium oxide and aluminium hydroxide, but also several other substances used in the production process such as, among others, the coal tar pitch in the production of anodes for primary aluminium smelting.
In 2005, we formed the Aluminium REACH Consortium with the International Aluminium Institute to help the aluminium industry comply with REACH legislation by providing the necessary information on REACH classifications and risk assessment.
Alongside REACH, the revised CLP Regulation, which aligns the EU system of classification, labelling and packaging of chemical substances and mixtures to the Globally Harmonised System, will be critical to successfully implementing the EU’s Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability. The revised CLP Regulation was published in 2024.

Concerned by climate change, the gradual depletion of natural ressources and weather fluctuations, it’s important to prepare in terms of climate mitigation and improve our water efficiency. Although the aluminium industry is not the most water intensive, water is still essential for our uses (e.g. cooling water). Our individual companies are taking strides to reduce their water consumption and improve their water re-use. At European level, we are trying to map our water footprint. This is challenging given variations in plant configurations, locations, water availability, types of processes done at the site (multiple activities, multiple BREFs – challenges in monitoring/reporting allocation per BREF/process), layout (joint pipes for different processes, etc) and collection systems (rainwater), etc.

The European Commission has introduced a new harmonised environmental classification for lead metal. The last proposal by the ECHA Risk Assessment Committee (RAC) deviated substantially from ECHA’s metal’s current classification guidance (and was not in line with the harmonised classification of other metals). Alloys containing lead above the classification thresholds will have to classify and potentially comply with Seveso and ADR requirements.
TDp testing can be done to refine the classification assessment. Data from the test can then be compared to the Pb metal ion Ecotoxicity Reference Values (ERVs) to determine the potential for acute and chronic toxicity, and define the relevant classification.