Germany Approves Conditions For Industrial-Emissions Ordinance Amendments

Germany Industrial Emissions Ordinance Receives Conditional Consent

Germany's Bundesrat has consented to a federal ordinance implementing parts of Directive (EU) 2024/1785 and Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2022/2427, subject to the amendments in decision 422/26(B). The decision was adopted at the Bundesrat's 1068th sitting on 25 September 2026.

The package amends the 13th Federal Immission Control Ordinance for large combustion, gas-turbine and combustion-engine installations, the 17th Ordinance for waste incineration and co-incineration, and the 31st Ordinance for volatile organic compound emissions from solvent-using installations.

The decision records conditional consent under Article 80(2) of Germany’s Basic Law. The decision itself does not bring the amendments into force or establish a final commencement date.

Monitoring And Future-Technique Provisions Would Change

For the 13th Ordinance, the Bundesrat text clarifies average-value calculations for periodically measured parameters. It also makes clear that an exemption from continuous monitoring for certain gas-fired plants does not remove applicable periodic-measurement duties.

For installations outside section 12a BImSchG, proposed section 24(1a)(3) of the 17th Ordinance permits authority-approved testing derogations for future techniques for up to 30 months, subject to equivalent environmental protection and applicable IED minimum requirements. Annual reporting under section 24(1b) concerns section 24(1a), points 2 and 3, rather than every mass-ratio arrangement.

The 17th Ordinance changes periodic monitoring frequencies and minimum measurement numbers for specified pollutants. These include provisions addressing benzo(a)pyrene, nitrous oxide and brominated dioxins and furans. The text also covers monitoring during abnormal operation and the determination of start-up and shutdown emissions after commissioning and at five-year intervals, subject to limited documented waivers.

For solvent-using installations, proposed section 11(1) of the 31st Ordinance contains a case-specific impracticability or disproportionate-effort route. Section 11(2) provides separate alternative-emissions and testing routes for installations outside section 12a BImSchG. Annual reports under section 11(3) concern section 11(2), points 2 and 3. These are separate derogation routes.