Annexes to COM(2005)16 - Report on the implementation of the Environmental Technologies Action Plan in 2004 - Main contents
Please note
This page contains a limited version of this dossier in the EU Monitor.
| dossier | COM(2005)16 - Report on the implementation of the Environmental Technologies Action Plan in 2004. |
|---|---|
| document | COM(2005)16  |
| date | January 27, 2005 |
The development of information tools and the mobilisation of relevant stakeholders should pave the way for further initiatives regarding awareness-raising and targeted training.
The annexes to this document give more information on the progress in implementing ETAP (Annex I) and on the experience and initiatives in Member States on which the implementation of ETAP can build (Annex II).
3. NEXT STEPS IN ETAP IMPLEMENTATION
EU action nevertheless needs to be intensified in order to achieve a decisive impact on the wider use of environmental technologies:
- Community financial instruments should better promote the mobilisation of risk finance for knowledge related activities and innovation such as eco-innovation. This would reinforce the availability of venture capital for SMEs with a high growth potential willing to develop such innovations in the Member States and in the whole EU. The EIB group should step up its efforts in designing new instruments leveraging investments in eco-innovation and the wider use of environmental technologies, especially by SMEs.
- Environmental performance targets for products, processes and services need to be developed by the Commission as a matter of priority. Such performance targets should address major environmental challenges such as climate change, air and water pollution, efficient energy consumption and the reduction of waste. They should establish benchmarks for environmental performance of key product groups, processes and services complementing the more traditional standards with ambitious targets for markets to respond. The system of establishing performance targets should be practical and operational with periodic review mechanism to offer operational tool for consumers, businesses, administrations, procurers and financiers to inform, to make choices and to promote eco-innovations, both at national and Community levels.
- Efforts to establish an EU wide system for testing and verifying environmental technologies should be intensified. Such a system should allow producers to get a certificate for the environmental performance of new innovations and other technologies in line with the established environmental performance targets. Verification system should also aim at increasing the confidence of consumers and businesses for new technologies introduced in the market.
- The state aid rules already allow for the provision of incentives for environmentally friendly investments and aim at securing a level playing field for eco-innovations and environmentally sound technologies in the marketplace. Work to revise the Guidelines for environmental state aids will start in 2005. In this context, it will be examined whether such rules should further facilitate the development of eco-innovations and their introduction to the markets.
- In the context of the Environmental Technologies Action Plan, appropriate indicators should be developed in order to better analyse the development of eco-innovation and evolution of environmental technologies’ markets. They should measure both market developments and the performance of EU industry in the market. They should also measure the progress made in implementing the Action Plan as well as the eco-efficiency of the EU economy. They should build on the work done by the Commission (Eurostat) in the field of environmental accounting and of eco-efficiency indicators.
Member States have also developed actions relevant for eco-innovation. In addition to national strategies or action plans, best practices in national programmes or instruments offer a good basis for the exchange of experience, joint actions or benchmarking in support to the EU action plan. Decisive steps should now be taken in order to take full advantage of existing best practices:
- By the end of 2005, Member States should set national roadmaps for the implementation of ETAP. Such roadmaps should build on existing strategies and action plans, and indicate concrete measures and deadlines. The identification of best practices in Member States could lead to benchmarks and appropriate indicators on the development and market uptake of environmental technologies. The roadmaps could then be consolidated at EU level, providing a basis to further develop co-operation between Member States on the implementation of ETAP.
- Member States should take steps to mobilise additional risk funding for eco-innovations and environmental technologies. This could be done by establishing investment funds dedicated to eco-innovation or environmental technologies. The Green Investment Fund in the Netherlands and the Investment Fund for Environment and Energy Management (FIDEME) in France are good examples of efficient instruments for mobilising risk financing for eco-innovations in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises.
- National action plans for green public procurement should be drawn up. Such plans should establish objectives and benchmarks for enhancing green public procurement as well as guidance and practical tools for public procurers. Good examples for developing such action plans can be found in the EU green public procurement handbook as well as in the green purchasing policies and actions plans developed in Austria, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Appropriate links should be considered between the national actions plans and the performance targets for key product, services and processes, and with the envisaged EU-wide system for testing and evaluating environmental technologies.
- In line with the prioritization efforts made under the 6th Framework-Programme for Research and Development (FP6), national and regional R&D programmes concerned by ETAP should begin to coordinate their activities to avoid fragmentation and efficiency losses, for example through an ERA-NET project. In 2005, the Commission will gather the managers of national and regional ETAP-relevant R&D programmes to initiate such coordination.
The European Commission will report on the implementation of ETAP to the 2007 Spring European Council, including on the first results of the co-operation with Member States.
[1] Commission’s Communication on ‘Stimulating technologies for Sustainable Development: an Environmental Technologies Action Plan for the European Union’ (COM(2004) 38 final, 28.1.2004)
[2] Clean, Clever, Competitive: the opportunities of eco-efficient innovations within the Lisbon process
[3] Adrian Wilkes of the European Committee of Environmental Technologies Suppliers Associations, presentation to 2004 Green Week, June 2004.
[4] Shimon Awerbuch, Exploiting the oil-GDP effect to support renewables deployment, forthcoming.
[5] COM(2004) 366 final
[6] European Commission, Buying green! A handbook on environmental public procurement, Luxembourg 2004.
[7] Commission Communication on the integration of environmental aspects into European standardisation (COM(2004) 130 final), of 25.02.2004.
[8] OECD, Environmentally-harmful subsidies – policy issues and challenge, Paris 2003.