European Commission seeks comment on future policy for environment technologies

The European Commission has just published a Communication ‘Developing an action plan for environmental technology’, which sets out its preliminary views and begins a consultation process to identify and tackle the barriers to the development of environment technologies. The Commission defines environment technologies as ‘all technologies whose use is less environmentally harmful than relevant alternatives’. This includes both low and high-tech applications, as well as skills, know-how and risk management. The initiative is not only about protecting the environment, but is also designed to improve economic competitiveness, particularly as this sector represent a growing market, estimated currently to supply around €183 billion of goods and services per year throughout the EU.

In its Communication, the Commission has chosen to focus on four specific areas - climate change, soil protection, sustainable production and consumption, and water - although this scope is likely to be broader in the Action Plan, scheduled for publication by the end of 2003. A number of technical, economic, regulatory and social barriers are identified, many of which are common to different areas. Poor access to finance, long investment cycles, the need for more targeted research, poor dissemination of new technologies, organisational barriers slowing entry into the market and a lack of awareness and skills are all highlighted as vitally important issues.

Four groups of actions are proposed for dealing with these barriers and stimulating the development and uptake of environment technology. These include: technical measures such as targeting particular research technologies; regulatory measures to remove legislative hurdles; including the costs of environmental damage into markets; and support for bringing promising new pilot-scale technologies into practical application.

The Communication does not however, address the question of inadequate implementation and enforcement of EU legislation in Member States, which has the potential to impact significantly on the development of environment technologies. Another important issue that it fails to mention is improving the drafting of EU Directives so that the implications and opportunities for the environment technology industries are more apparent at an early stage in the development of legislation. This problem was well illustrated recently with the so-called ‘fridge mountain’, widely believed to have been caused by lengthy wrangling between official in the UK and Brussels over the meaning of a particular phrase appearing in one article of EU Regulation N° 2037/2000 on Ozone Depleting Substances. This delay led to uncertainty, which, in turn led to a lack of readily available technology for safely dismantling waste fridges.

Comments on the issues relating to the factors inhibiting the development of environment technologies, and potential measures to deal with these, must reach the Commission by 15 May 2003.

For further information contact Mark Rutter at [email protected] or on +44 (0)20 7367 3182 or Paul Sheridan at [email protected] or on +44(0)20 7367 2186