Arbejdsrapport fra Miljøstyrelsen, 15/2004 – EU's Environmental Technologies Action Plan

EU's Environmental Technologies Action Plan

2 Introduction

2.1 Aim of the Project
2.2 Study approach
2.3 Structure of the report

2.1 Aim of the Project

Cleaner technology is a central instrument in decoupling economic growth from environmental degradation. However, the development of new technologies and policies that encourage their uptake needs to be carefully linked into existing policy processes to ensure implementation. The promotion of the development and use of cleaner technologies can only be secured via proactive policies ensuring the right incentives and disincentives for the relevant stakeholders to engage in the innovation and use of these technologies.

This report was written as part of a project for the Danish Environmental Protection Agency (DEPA) under the Programme for Cleaner Products. The programme for cleaner products is to contribute towards increased understanding of cleaner production and greater promotion of cleaner products.

The main aim of this project is to support DEPA in its work with implementing the European Environmental Technologies Action Plan (ETAP) and hence this report is part of the Danish contribution to ETAP.

The support to DEPA comes in the shape of this report, which is to provide useful background information for DEPA's future work with ETAP and the reports answers to a number of questions raised by DEPA.

Another aim of the report is to contribute to the ongoing so-called Green Technology Foresight (GTF), which is also financed by DEPA.

The GTF is about the environmental challenges from the three generic technologies nanotechnology, biotechnology and ICT (information and communication technologies). The Technical University of Denmark, Risø National Laboratory and Institute for Product Development carry out the project. A number of companies have also agreed to contribute to the project.

The aim of the GTF project is to:

analyse the environmental potentials and risks related to the three generic technologies within the coming 15 – 20 years, especially in relation to chemicals;
identify areas, where Denmark has competencies, which might contribute to enhanced competitiveness of Danish companies and position Denmark within environmentally sound design of products and materials;
analyse how environmentally promising innovation paths might be supported in Denmark and in the EU.

Finally, the project has also contributed towards the programme of research IEEP is carrying out on: Policy pathways to promote the development and adoption of cleaner technologies (acronym POPA-CTDA) a programme part funded by the 6th Research Framework Programme of the European Commission. It is also hoped that the POPA-CTDA will prove valuable to the Danish EPA.

2.2 Study approach

This project was carried out from January 2004 to June 2004 on the basis of desk based research and interviews with key stakeholders.

A number of policy experts have kindly helped us doing our research with answering questions and providing us with material. We would therefore in particular like to thank Pierre Henry (European Commission, DG Environment), Peter Carter (European Investment Bank), Pieter Hamelink (VROM of the Netherlands) and Nikolaos Christoforides (European Commission, DG Research).

However, no content of this report can necessarily be attributed to the above-mentioned experts, and all findings are the sole responsibility of IEEP.

The project also had a helpful steering group to guide the project in a policy and research relevant direction and to ensure that the report answered relevant and timely questions. The composition of the group was: Niels Henrik Mortensen (DEPA), Michael Søgaard Jørgensen (The Technical University of Denmark - GTF), Maj Munch Andersen (Risø National Laboratory - GTF) and Mads Borup (Risø National Laboratory - GTF).

2.3 Structure of the report

The next part of the report (Chapter 3) consists of a section describing relevant ongoing political processes including the Lisbon Strategy and the overall agenda of growth and employment in order to put ETAP in context of the existing processes and policies. The functioning of the Open Method of Co-ordination (OMC) is also briefly touched upon, as this method has been foreseen to be used for at least part of the implementation of ETAP.

Chapter 4 explores the ETAP relevant stakeholders and their respective roles in the genesis and implementation of ETAP. In particular, the roles of DG Research, DG Environment, and the EIB are discussed. Chapter 5 presents an analysis of opportunities and finally, the report includes a series of recommendations regarding the future of ETAP and the potential role for Danish stakeholders.