Emissions of cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), and mercury (Hg) by OSPAR countries declined over the considered period by 96%, 73%, and 83%, respectively. The most significant reduction occurred in the first third of the period. The reduction of emissions led to considerable decrease of deposition to the North-East Atlantic in the period from 1990 to 2019.

Emissions from OSPAR countries show statistically significant downward trends in the case of NOx (‘oxidized nitrogen’), while downward trends in ammonia (‘reduced nitrogen’) emissions are less significant or even non-existent. Emissions of oxidized nitrogen come mainly from transport and power generation, while reduced nitrogen emissions are completely dominated by agriculture.

The total effluent release volume from Exhaust Gas Cleaning Systems (EGCS) in the North-East Atlantic was about 622 million tonnes in 2020. Of this, 99.9% was from open loop EGCS systems. OSPAR Region II has the highest discharge volumes of all study area, about 47% of the EGCS discharge water is released in the North Sea and the English Channel.

In collaboration with the NORMAN research network, the pilot CONnECT (CONtaminants of Emerging Concern and Threat in the marine environment) project which aimed to integrate the wide-scale screening for the presence of several thousands of organic pollutants and their transformation products coupled with risk assessment profiling to evaluate the extent and range and potential risks associated with contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) in OSPAR marine matrices is now online.