European ministers of the environment are determined to contribute, through concrete solutions, to helping the European Union use the full potential of eco-innovation as an engine of the circular economy and growth, and accelerate the transition towards more sustainable ways of life. They demonstrated this by showing inventiveness in Tallinn on Thursday 13 July.
Reflecting on the means of achieving this was the aim of the talks at their informal meeting (see EUROPE 11827). These informal talks took place in three separate working groups – on the circularity of materials, smart cities and sustainable financing.
According to Estonia's Environment Minister Siim Kiisler, who chaired the session, their mission was accomplished. He said that the ideas put forward in this brainstorming session at Tallinn's culture centre (Kultuurikatel) were "very inspiring". The location of their meeting was a building which "used to be a power station for Tallinn. Then it was abandoned for many years, then renovated instead of being destroyed and now serves as a site for high level events", he said.
The circular economy is one of the Estonian Presidency's priorities, and it shares this with the future Bulgarian and Austrian Presidencies (see EUROPE 11817). "In the EU, we are currently working on new regulations to encourage businesses to take the circular economy route – but we must also help businesses and reflect on how to motivate our industries so that they can innovate with the help of our regulations, and also with the help of potential financial measures", Kiisler said.
The stakes are high because, according to estimates, eco-innovation could create over half a million new jobs in Europe and enable savings of over €600 billion throughout Europe. "We will keep up our efforts", Kiisler said, adding that his goal was to reach conclusions at the Environment Council in December
The ideas were put the vote in each reflection group and those ideas that garnered most votes from the ministers will have priority value. Simon Upton, the 'Environment' director at the OECD and who moderated the debates, set out the following:
Product circularity and transparency: clear objectives for product design and the prevention of waste.
The ministers thought a "digital passport" of resources containing information on materials could provide new opportunities for circular production and more sustainable (because better informed) consumption.
Intelligent cities: the increased use of green public procurement for cities and regions, without forgetting small businesses.
With about 73% of Europeans currently living in cities, there is enormous pressure on the environment. The ministers' discussions therefore focused on "blue-green infrastructure projects that can enrich our everyday environment and deliver these future cities as a standard model". Examples were given of "green roofs and facades, open green spaces, constructed wetlands, and restoring streams and rivers" for a better quality of life and increasing biodiversity.
Sustainable financing: taking account of the environmental cost of activities and projects, and setting up public/private financing in order to direct financing towards the circular economy.
Sustainable financing for agriculture, cohesion and research is crucial for reducing negative impacts on the environment, European Commissioner for the Environment Karmenu Vella stated the day the Commission high-level working group presented its report on sustainable financing.
Vella said that as well as EU legislation on eco-design aiming to encourage products that are easy to use and easy to recycle, and as well as EU legislation on green public procurement, "the Commission will present an ambitious strategy for plastics by the end of the year".
European Green Week 2018 will be dedicated to sustainable cities in order to enable the exchange of good practice on the management of urban waste water, green infrastructure, and green public procurement. The Commission will also launch "benchmarking instruments", Vella announced. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)