Key takeaway
What This Development Means
Germany's Bundesrat has consented, subject to amendments, to changes to the 13th, 17th and 31st Federal Immission Control Ordinances. The package is not yet promulgated or in force, so existing permits and monitoring rules continue to apply.
Are the German ordinance amendments already in force?
No. The Bundesrat has consented subject to amendments, but the final federal ordinance still requires completion and publication. Existing German permit and monitoring requirements remain applicable until the final measure provides otherwise.
Which installations should review the decision?
Large combustion plants, waste incinerators and co-incinerators, chemical-sector installations and businesses using regulated quantities of solvents should check whether the amended 13th, 17th or 31st Ordinance affects their permits and monitoring plans.
Source basis: German Bundesrat decision 422/26(B), 25 September 2026
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.
This is not yet an operative consolidated rule. The Bundesrat decision records consent under Article 80(2) of Germany's Basic Law with specified changes. The federal government must complete the ordinance process and publish the final text before businesses can rely on a commencement date or settled wording.
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 waste incineration and co-incineration, the decision introduces a definition of future techniques and a framework allowing adapted or mass-based emission limits. Authorities could temporarily relax limits for testing future techniques for up to 30 months, provided equivalent environmental protection and minimum Industrial Emissions Directive requirements are maintained. Annual reporting would be required.
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 under the 31st Ordinance, the text would permit case-specific derogations or alternative emission-limit schemes for certain non-Industrial Emissions Directive installations. Operators would need to show technical impracticability or disproportionate requirements, avoid harmful environmental effects and provide annual comparison reports.
Existing permits and current monitoring rules continue until the final ordinance takes effect. Operators should identify affected emission points, measurement frequencies, derogations and environmental-management evidence. They should not change compliance statements solely on the Bundesrat decision.
Foresight analysis: the most useful preparation is a gap map rather than immediate procedure replacement. Flexible arrangements for future techniques may support innovation, but they come with equivalence, documentation and reporting conditions that could make evidence quality more important than the apparent relaxation.
Practical call to action: Compare current permits and monitoring plans with decision 422/26(B), then confirm all changes against the promulgated ordinance.
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