Report on the Environment in the Czech Republic

1. Report on the Environment in the Czech Republic Jiří Hradec

2. Key announcement • The state of the environment of the CR is not improving • After a dramatic improvement between 1990 and 2000 it is showing new negative trends • Technological development and higher interest on environment has not been proportional to economic growth • The main problematic areas of the environment in CR • Quality of air • Greenhouse gas emissions • Environmental burdens from transport • The energy intensity of GDP • A low percentage of renewable energy sources • Municipal waste

3. Suspended particulate matters threaten 62 % inhabitants SO2, PM10, NO2, Pb, Cd, As, Ni, Hg, benzene: average year concentration Areas with Lower Atmospheric Quality from the Perspective of Health Protection including ozon in 2006 Areas with Lower Atmospheric Quality from the Perspective of Health Protection in 2006 Zdroj: ČHMÚ Zdroj: ČHMÚ

4. Air strongly polluted due to suspended particulate matters (PM) Suspended particulate matters emmission (kt.year-1) (2006) PM emissions progression for chosen categories of sources Zdroj: ČHMÚ, CENIA Zdroj: ČHMÚ

5. Suspended particulate matters pollution PM10 (kg/capita) progression

6. Local fire places are threat for neighbours Progress of fuel consumption in REZZO 3 (small sources) • The structure ofthe pollution sources have changed– the most serious problem represent the small stationary and mobile sources. • The consumption of primary solid energy sources is going down (Figs below PP) Zdroj: ČHMÚ The fuel composition for heating of flats in 1991 and 2006 Gas fuels Central heating Zdroj: ČHMÚ Solid fuels

7. 78% inhabitants are exposed to tropospheric ozone exposure Overrun of immission limits from the point of health protection of inhabitants (2006) Overrun of immission limits from the point of ecosystems/vegetation (2006) Zdroj: ČHMÚ Zdroj: ČHMÚ

8. Climate change Progress of GHG emission Share of the sectors in the total GHG emissions CO2emissions from transport at different part of CR (2006) Zdroj: ČHMÚ Zdroj: ČHMÚ, CENIA

9. Not good energy and raw material intensity. The stagnation in utilization of renewable energy. • Energy intensity has gone down but still is not good in contrast to other EU countries. • Share of renewable energy in total energy consumption has been encreased to 4.3 %. The target for 2010 is 6 %. Energy intensity of CR Energy intensity – international comparison Zdroj: Eurostat Zdroj: MPO Energy intensity is the ratio of energy consumption to another measure, such as GDP or population !

10. Transport volumes are growing, leading to increasing environmental impacts • The bad transport trends – domination of road transport • The continuing expansion of transport constitutes increasing environmental impacts related to air pollution, noise and land Zdroj: CDV, MD municipal public individual Passenger transport Freight transport Zdroj: CDV, MD Rail road municipal

11. Surface water quality has been improving Water quality evaluation 1991–1992 Pollution water discharge between 2000–2006 Water quality evaluation 2005–2006 Zdroj: ČSÚ Zdroj: VÚV T.G.M

12. Water should be cleaned till 2010 • The percentage of people supplied with water from public water lines is increasing (92.4 %) and a total amount of drinking water is decreasing in production • The specific consumption of drinking water per capita is decreasing • A WWTP (waste water treatment plants) using at least the basic – biological treatment were built in all the agglomerations over 10 000 EI (equivalent inhabitants) in CR Percentage share of the people connected to the sewage system with WWTP (2006) Percentage progress of people connected to the public sewage system 2000–2006 Zdroj: ČSÚ Zdroj: ČSÚ, interpolace CENIA

13. The health of the forests is not good • The forest health has not been improved. It is much worse than in the most EU countries • At more than one half of forets occures 25 % defoliation, which is caused mainly by adverse changes in the forest ecosystems due to long term and axcessive air pollution and abiotics factors (wind, snow, drought and acidity of soil) • The natural trees composition has not been reached yet. ¾ of main tree species in forests are created by spruces with a weak immunity to change of wheather and pests (beetle) Index of forest trees defoliation (defoliation is higher than 25%) – international comparison Zdroj: Eurostat Forest tree composition in 2006 Share of coniferous and deciduous trees in artficial forest renewal since 1990 spruce, pine, fir, larch, other coniferous, oak, beech, birch, alder, other deciduous Zdroj: ČSÚ

14. Waste is more recycled and used Total waste production Municipal waste production • has decreased since 2005 (all categories – other, hazardous and municipal) • 82 % of the total amounts was recycled or used as a secondary material • 81 % of the total amount was deposited in landfills (11.7 % increasing in one year time) • 60 % of the municipal waste was not recycled and was not used as secondary material Progress of waste production 2002–2006 Municipal waste disposal at CR according the disposal method Landfills Other disposal

15. Where to get other information From CR From EU Ministry of environment (MŽP) http://www.env.cz CENIA http://www.cenia.cz maps http://geoportal.cenia.cz statistics http://portal.cenia.cz (EEA) http://www.eea.europa.eu http://reports.eea.europa.eu (DG ENV) http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/environment/index_en.htm (OECD) http://www.oecd.org