EU action plan to boost
Environmental Technologies for innovation, growth and sustainable development,
The European Commission
today adopted an ambitious Action Plan to improve the development and wider use
of environmental technologies. Many new environmental technologies have great
potential to improve the environment and, at the same time, boost the
competitiveness of companies. Examples of environmental technologies range from
recycling systems for waste water in industrial processes, to energy-saving car
engines, which allow cars to use less fuel, to soil remediation techniques.
However, there are still many barriers, including the complexity of switching
from traditional to new technologies, and insufficient access to capital. The
Action Plan aims to overcome these barriers through a concerted European effort
to help maximise the potential of environmental technologies. It will also help
the EU achieve its sustainable development goals in a
cost effective way. The Plan should enable the EU to
become a recognised leader in environmental technologies. Key actions include
the launch of technology platforms with stakeholders in areas such as hydrogen
and fuel cells, photovoltaics, and water supply and
sanitation; establishing environmental performance targets for products and
services; and making the most of funding schemes and public and private
procurement policies.
Welcoming the
adoption of the Communication(1), Environment Commissioner Margot Wallström declared "This action plan is a
pragmatic way to address the joint 'sustainable development' challenges of
protecting the environment and at the same time enhancing innovation and
competitiveness in
Research
Commissioner Philippe Busquin added: "
They bear a
strong potential for growth and employment. Of course, this requires a boost to
our R&D efforts, by maximising the impactof
European research through enhanced co-ordination and synergies and by
increasing the R&D expenditure up to 3% of EU GDP
by 2010. The creation of European technology platforms in some well-selected
environmental technology sectors will be instrumental in achieving this
ambitious objective."
The Action Plan
The Plan contains
eleven priority actions for the Commission, national and regional governments,
industry and other stakeholders to improve the development and uptake of
environmental technologies. These include:
the launch of 3
technology platforms bringing together researchers, industry, financial
institutions, decision-makers and other relevant stakeholders, to build a
long-term vision on the research needs in this area and future market
developments; the technology platforms on hydrogen and fuel cells and on photovoltaics are already planned to start in early 2004. A
similar platform on water supply and sanitation technologies will be launched
in early 2005 ;
developing and agreeing on
ambitious environmental performance targets for key products, processes and
services. This will encourage their uptake by business and consumers, as has
been shown for example by energy-consumption labels on fridges; and
mobilising financial
instruments, both within and outside the EU, to share
the risks of investing in environmental technologies, with a focus on climate
change, energy and small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs).
The European Investment Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and
Development, and the funding mechanisms resulting from the Kyoto Protocol (the
Clean Development Mechanism and Joint Implementation) should play a role in
this action.
A full list of
actions can be found at the website indicated at the end of this press release.
Why do we need to
promote environmental technologies?
Promoting
economic growth is vital for the EU, as is a high
level of environmental protection. It is therefore necessary to de-couple
economic growth from negative environmental impacts. Environmental technologies
can help: they contribute to technological innovation and in addition, they can
increase European competitiveness, unlock potential markets and ultimately
create new, highly-skilled jobs. For instance, saving energy in industrial
processes or developing new "clean" cars will contribute to addressing
the challenge of climate change while reducing overall costs for consumers and
society in general.
What are
"environmental technologies"?
They can be
defined as "all technologies whose use is less environmentally harmful
than relevant alternatives". They include technologies to manage pollution
(e.g. air pollution control, waste management), less
polluting and less resource-intensive products and services (e.g. fuel cells)
and ways to manage resources more efficiently (e.g. water supply, energy-saving
technologies).
Other more
environmentally-sound techniques are process-integrated technologies in all
sectors and soil remediation techniques.
Thus defined,
these technologies pervade all economic activities and sectors, where they cut
costs and improve competitiveness by reducing energy and resource consumption
and so creating less emissions and waste.
Barriers to
environmental technologies
The development
and wider use of environmental technologies is slowed down by various barriers,
such as:
economic barriers,
ranging from market prices which do not reflect the external costs of products
or services (such as health care costs due to urban air pollution) to the
higher cost of investments in environmental technologies because of their
perceived risk, the size of the initial investment or the complexity of
switching from traditional to environmental technologies;
regulations and standards
can also act as barriers to innovation when they are unclear or too detailed,
while good legislation can stimulate environmental technologies;
insufficient research
efforts, coupled with inappropriate functioning of the research system in
European countries and weaknesses in information and training;
inadequate availability of
risk capital to move from the drawing board to the production line;
lack of market demand from the
public sector, as well as from consumers.
While many of
these barriers can be partially reduced at national or regional level, a
concerted European effort and implementation of the Action Plan's measures will
lead to better results. The size of the Single Market presents much greater
opportunities for environmental technologies when compared to smaller, national
markets. There are also many existing European funding mechanisms: for
research, demonstration projects and also for aid to development - which can be
used to promote environmental technologies.
The road to
environmental technologies
Promotion of
environmental technologies is based on the EU's
objective of becoming "the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based
economy in the world" by 2010, set at the 2000 Lisbon Summit.
The 2001 Göteborg European Council pointed to the contribution
that the environmental technology sector can make to promoting growth and
employment. The Commission subsequently published a report confirming this
analysis and suggested that an Action Plan should be developed with thorough
involvement of stakeholders to tackle the obstacles to the development and use
of environmental technologies.
Next steps
The Commission
will begin implementing this Action Plan immediately, through, for instance,
the establishment of technology platforms and of networks of validation
centres. The Spring Council in March 2004 will also discuss this Communication.
The Commission will review the implementation of this Action Plan and report on
it for the first time in 2006. It will also establish a European Panel on
Environmental Technologies to bring together the different European
stakeholders in this Action Plan with the aim of improving the exchange of
information, enabling cross-fertilisation between initiatives and helping the
Commission in ETAP's implementation. The Member
States should be closely involved in exchanging information on best practice,
establishing indicators for measuring progress and peer review and establishing
guidelines and timetables for the Action Plan.
For further
information and the full list of actions proposed please visit:
http://europa.eu.int/comm/environment/etap/
(1) Stimulating Technologies for Sustainable Development:
An Environmental Technologies Action Plan for the European Union, COM(2004)38