Environmental Technologies Background Paper for the European Commission’s High Level Group on „Key Technologies“
K. Matthias Weber
3rd& Final Draft
4 July 2005
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Table of Contents
Executive Summary 1 Introduction: What are Environmental Technologies? 2 The socio-economic challenges for Europe
3 5 8
2.1 3
Environment-related societal challenges The policy responses in Europe - Recent developments
8 13
3.1
Recent developments in environmental policy
13
3.2 4
Recent developments in RTD policy Current and emerging developments in Environmental Technologies
16 21
4.1
Environmental Technologies - a first overview
21
4.2
From impact analysis towards understanding society-environment interactions
23
4.3
The environmental potential of generic technologies: new promises and uncertainties
24
4.4
Sectorally specific Environmental Technologies: towards sustainable production
29
4.5
Green products, product-services & ecodesign
31
4.6 5
Environmental, resource and systems management Conditions for the realisation of Environmental Technologies and innovations
33 37
5.1
Barriers to and drivers of Environmental Technologies and innovations
37
5.2
The role of policy: From environmental policy instruments to integrated strategies
41
5.3 6
Cross-cutting issues A SWOT-synthesis of research and innovation
43 44
6.1
Strengths in research and innovation
44
6.2
Weaknesses in research and innovation
44
6.3
Opportunities in the context
45
6.4 7
Threats in the context Conclusions: Looking ahead towards a new research agenda
46 48
7.1
Scenarios for Environmental Technologies in Europe
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7.2
Where Europe stands and where it needs to go
49
7.3 Guiding principles of a research agenda for Environmental Technologies References Annex 1: Relevance of sustainability drivers for materials technologies Annex 2: Overview of application areas of nanotechnology, biotechnology and ICTs and their relevance for key socio-economic challenges
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50 52 55 56
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Executive Summary Main findings Environmental Technologies are supposed to contribute to addressing several major socio-economic challenges: Global Change, Depletion of Resources, Living in a Healthy Environment, Competitiveness and Growth. Jointly, they impose with sometimes conflicting objectives and requirements for Environmental Technologies. The key long-term challenge for the future consists of realising system innovations, i.e. combinations of radical technological and organisational/social innovations in many areas of economic activity, that allow reconciling economic, social and environmental objectives. On the way to realising system innovation, however, the requirements of competitiveness need to be met. Environmental Technologies cover a broad spectrum of technological development. In the past, Environmental Technologies were mainly associated with individual sectors (see also the sectoral reports on energy, transport, agro-regional systems), but increasingly emerging generic technologies are being recognised as crucial (biotech, nanotechnology, materials, ICT, see respective reports). In addition, cross-cutting developments like new environmentally oriented product-services (see also services report) and environmental and resource management are likely to grow further in importance. A fundamental change must also be seen in the shift in perspective from environmental impact analysis to the analysis of ecology-society interactions, where system boundaries for assessing environmental impacts are drawn more widely and lead to different conclusions. Environmental Technologies are not only of outstanding importance in Europe, but represent a major and fast growing world market that offers significant export opportunities. Due to regional differences in regulations and practices, however, there are also strong local specialisation effects to be observed in some areas of Environmental Technologies, implying a need to provide locally or regionally adapted solutions. Remaining a lead player in environmental technology, both for the sake of reducing environmental impacts in Europe and for the benefit of our export-oriented industries, will require maintaining a leading position in research and technology as well as in terms of optimising system solutions in the context of the European regulatory and market context. Removing barriers to system innovation, while already being widely recognised as a major problem, has not yet been fully translated into appropriate action. In addition to research and technology development, defining the right frameworks and incentives are thus crucial.
SWOT Europe has clear strengths in a number of sectoral areas of environmental technology, which it needs to defend and maintain in the future. In some areas of generic technologies, it can build on a strong competence base (materials, segments of ICT, micro-/nanosystems), but in others (biotechnology, segments of ICT, nanotechnology)
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it can not be regarded as being in a very strong position from a global perspective, but with a good potential to catch up. Global market developments as well as the conducive market environment in Europe offer opportunities to maintain its role as a global lead market for Environmental Technologies. This could be further enhanced by transparent long-term policy strategies to achieve sustainability. There is still a great deal of uncertainty surrounding the debate on the environmental impact of technology in general. The complexity of higher-order impacts poses serious barriers to making welljustified choices about Environmental Technologies. The economic and environmental opportunities of Environmental Technologies will only be reaped, if these are well embedded in organisational change, both at the level of companies and at the level of policy (“coordination”). The emphasis to be put on organisational change is key to overcome major systemic barriers and path-dependencies.
Recommendations Two levels of research will be needed to ensure making full benefit of Environmental Technologies in the future. First, a long-term research agenda is needed to enable system innovations and underpin corresponding long-term transition strategies. Second, a shorter-term agenda is necessary to ensure that the continuous improvement of current and existing technologies, geared towards aims of competitiveness on the one hand, but also guided by the long-term transition agendas on the other. The long-term agenda should be characterised by an emphasis on system innovations and the advancement of new perspectives on the role of social for ecological systems. Major steps forward also need to be made with respect to path-breaking advances in generic technologies and major sectoral technology systems for the benefit of the environment, in establishing new design principles, and in development product-services. Research on institutional and policy matters related to long-term transitions should be tackled as well. Short- to medium-term research agendas emphasize continuous improvements in sectoral and generic technologies, but in line with the long-term goals and research agenda. As part of this short- to medium-term agenda, the embedding of Environmental Technologies and management practices in organisations and the access to appropriate skills should be emphasized as key to enhancing the uptake of Environmental Technologies. Removing technological, economic and user-related barriers to the uptake of Environmental Technologies should complement this research agenda. In order to achieve system innovations, however, more is needed than research and development. Well-designed combinations of framework conditions (incentives, regulations, market-based instruments) for Environmental Technologies are needed, as well as serious attempts to remove organisational and institutional barriers to the uptake of Environmental Technologies innovations. To achieve, a significant step forward in terms of policy coordination will be necessary. Complementary measures concern the upgrading of the knowledge and competence base for environmental design and product development in Europe. Teaching and education curriculae have a major role to play here. A new and more sophisticated understanding of environmental impacts is needed. Current models tend to be too simplistic and neglect higher-order effects and interdependencies between society and environment. Ground-laying research on these matters will be key to give better orientation to policy and corporate decision-making. 4
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Introduction: What are Environmental Technologies?
The present report is a contribution to the work of the European Commission’s High-Level Group on Key Technologies, focusing on the notion of “Environmental Technologies” or more broadly of “Envi1 ronmental Innovations”. It aims at drawing a picture of the main socio-economic challenges (and opportunities!) related to the environment as well as of the current developments in research and innovation on Environmental Technologies. This picture serves as a background for assessing the relative position of Europe in both respects. Such a SWOT analysis shall in conjunction with out knowledge of ongoing developments in policy help define a research agenda for the future. There is no unique definition of what falls under the headline of Environmental Technologies. First of all, the field of Environmental Technologies is characterised by a high degree of diversity and heterogeneity. In general, the term is used to subsume technologies and applications that are supposed to help reduce the negative impact of industrial activities and services, of private Box 1: Environmental Technologies according and public users on the environment. The to ETAP concept usually refers to end-of-pipe In the Environmental Technologies Action Plan of technologies, integrated clean technologies, the European Commission, Environmental Techand technologies for the remediation of nologies are defined as: “all technologies whose polluted areas. However, it can also cover in use is less environmentally harmful than relevant the wider sense issues like monitoring, alternatives. They include technologies to manage measuring, product change or environmental pollution (e.g. air pollution control, waste manmanagement systems (IPTS 2004). agement), less polluting and less resourceintensive products and services (e.g. fuel cells) Environmental technolgies are thus of a and ways to manage resources more efficiently cross-cutting nature that can be applied at (e.g. water supply, energy-saving technologies). “ any stage of the production-consumption chain. Source: EC (2004) In this report, the concept is used in this wider sense, i.e. it comprises new or modified processes, techniques, practices, systems and products the use of which helps reducing the environmental harm as compared to other relevant alternatives, taking into account the different stages of the production-consumption chain from resource extraction to final services. They may be developed with or without the explicit intention of reducing environmental harm. In line with this broad definition, Environmental Technologies and innovations not only comprise technical components and systems, but also the organisational innovations and the embedding institutional innovations needed to realise Environmental Technologies. In order to be able to assess how harmful a technology might be with respect to the environment, it is also regarded necessary to include in this report the recent developments in improving the understanding of interaction between social and ecological systems. Historically, we have witnessed a process of development and diffusion of Environmental Technologies from end-of-pipe “clean-up” technologies via process-integrated technologies to what is today called system innovations, i.e. novel configurations of technological, organisational and institutional changes from the level of the individual firm to the level of society at large. Several of the technological areas that might be relevant to this definition of Environmental Technologies will be addressed in other background reports of the High-Level Group. As a consequence, this report will go less into detail as regards the specific developments in energy, transport, Information and Communication Technologies, biotechnology and materials (nano-) technologies, as these will be addressed
1 In this paper, I will contriue to use these terms as an abbreviation altho ugh I agree with the authors of the BLUEPRINT Report that it is better to talk about “innovation for the environment”. See Kemp (2002).
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elsewhere. Neither will CO2-reducing technologies (e.g. CO2 storage and sequestration) be addressed specifically, nor the technologies that would be needed as part of an adaptation strategy to Climate Change. Emphasis will rather be put on giving an overview of main trends and developments, and on the technological, economic, organisational, institutional and policy barriers that hamper the realisation of their potential. This analysis shall provide a basis for the further development and coordination of policies in as different fields as environment, research, industry, enterprise and a range of sectoral policies. In fact, policy and in particular European policy has been one of the main drivers of innovation in Environmental Technologies in Europe over the past three decades. Around four fifth of environmental policies in the MS have been derived from EU regulations and directives (RIVM 2004, p. 13). Standing behind these policies were often concerns about the increasing degradation of the environment (e.g. in urban or industrial areas), but also the fear that the depletion of natural resources might erode the material basis of our economies over the coming decades (e.g. depletion of oil resources). Finally, the globalisation of certain environmental concerns (e.g. Climate Change) has further contributed to reinforcing the interest in Environmental Technologies. In other words, Environmental Technologies is an area of activity that is strongly driven by policy and public concerns, aiming to exploit the opportunities offered by new developments in science and research. Since the beginning of the Nineties, many environmental issues have been absorbed in the wider framework of debate on sustainability. While sustainable development may still be a very useful framing concept, it has to be differentiated once it comes to conducting more specific analysis. The classical “three pillars model”, comprising the social, the economic and the environmental dimensions of sustainability, can be complemented by further aspects like governance aspects, regional or cultural considerations. Also the inter-generational, long-term responsibility that was key to earlier definitions of sustainability has remained an issue in the debate. Still, the environmental dimension is a central element to sustainable development, as reflected in most EC policy documents of the last years, including the most recent statements by President Barroso, who – in spite of emphazing the importance of jobs and growth – has also stressed the environmental dimension of a sustainable Europe. In the early debates about environmental innovations, investments in environmentally less harmful technologies have tended to be regarded simply as an additional cost factor, thus damaging the competitiveness of firms and countries. The most prominent counter-argument was probably the socalled “Porter-Hypothesis”; Porter and van der Linde (1995) argued that a dynamic interpretation of investment in Environmental Technologies lends itself to the conclusion that on the contrary competitive advantages can be achieved, because environmental standards diffuse in parallel with the technologies, thus giving a competitive advantage to those firms that act as first movers. Also the European success stories in many areas of Environmental Technologies (e.g. wind energy, catalytic converters, industrial processes, etc.) have shown that they should not only be regarded as a necessary remedy to correct damages and solve problems. Rather, they represent a major economic opportunity that offers European firms the possibility to achieve a leading position on global markets, where environmental considerations have started to play an increasingly important role. In this report, a look will first be taken at the main challenges to which Environmental Technologies are supposed to deliver at least partial responses, and the policy responses that have so far been given. The scope of the socio-economic challenges for Europe will be assessed, as well as the appropriateness of the policy responses given in Europe to cope with these challenges. Then the report will take a look at current developments in Environmental Technologies and Research. Rather than a separate section to position the EU with respect to Environmental Technologies and Research in general terms, a specific sub-section will be added to each research and technology area dealing with the question of Europe’s performance in each of them. This approach seems more appropriate in view of the heterogeneity of Environmental Technologies.
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As the next step, the main enabling conditions that are crucial to the realisation and diffusion of Environmental Technologies will be discussed. This chapter looks on the one hand at the barriers and drivers of environmental innovation, and on the other at the role of policy. Finally, a synthetic assessment will be given of ongoing developments in terms of Europe’s strengths and weaknesses in Environmental Technologies and Research as well as at the opportunities and threats/uncertainties that may result from changes in the technological, socioeconomic and political context. This SWOT analysis thus allows looking both at the scientifictechnological dimension of the issue and at the socio-economic, political and institutional aspects guiding innovation and diffusion processes. At the end, an outlook on future perspectives and research agendas for Environmental Technologies and Innovations in Europe is given. By pointing out three basic scenarios, the breadth of possible developments will be spanned. A two-pronged research agenda shall allow tackling the perspectives of these different scenarios in an appropriate manner.
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2
The socio-economic challenges for Europe
Environmental Technologies are expected to provide at least a partial response to some of the major challenges Europe is facing and to which – European as well as national - policy is still in need to react. There is no doubt that significant progress has been made over the past three decades in reducing the environmental impact of human economic activity (see Figure 1), but many of the improvement have been counter-balanced by the growth in demand, like for instance in transport or by booming economic growth in other parts of the world, notably China. Figure 1: Economic growth expressed as GDP and pressure on the environment from emissions in the EU 25
Source: RIVM (2004), p. 12
2.1
Environment-related societal challenges
Europe is facing several severe environmental problems. However, without denying the importance of the strictly environmental challenges they represent, they all tend to entail also severe socioeconomic consequences which are not always sufficiently present in the public and policy debates. Subsequently, four main challenges are highlighted that need to be addressed over the coming two decades and that Environmental Technologies are supposed to alleviate:
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Global change;
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Depletion of resources;
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Living in a healthy environment;
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Enhancing competitiveness and growth.
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Environmental Technologies are expected to contribute to resolving these challenges and turning them into opportunities. In many cases this will require a balanced assessment of these technologies in order to avoid that some challenges are met while others are worsened.
2.1.1 Global change It is now widely recognised that CO2 and other man-made emissions have a serious impact on world climate, and that climate change will have far-reaching consequences on the socio-economic living conditions in many parts of the word. Therefore, the focus of attention has been broadened in the meantime to cover the notion of Global Change, thus covering the climatic and ecological as well as the socio-economic consequences. These could be as severe as rising sea levels and the loss of land, an increase in natural disasters, an expansion of deserts in certain world regions, but also a shift in agricultural land to areas that could not be exploited thus far. Migration and major socioeconomic costs could be the consequences of these changes. In order to cope with the consequences of Global Change, two basic strategies can be pursued. First of all, the reduction of emissions of CO2 and other substances can be attempted. These mitigation strategies are a central element of the Kyoto protocol and other other national and international strategies. On the one hand, by reducing emissions from industry, transport, energy supply and households, the increase of CO2 in the atmosphere can be reduced from the supply side. Measures to achieve this will often be of a technological nature, combined with changes in user behaviour. Such developments can be induced by regulatory means (e.g. emission standards), by research and technology policy (e.g. incentives for R&D) or by market-based instruments (e.g. emission trading). On the other hand, the net CO2 balance can also be kept stable by increasing the absorption of CO2 from the atmosphere, e.g. by means of forestation, or by CO2 sequestration and storage. As Climate Change is a long-term phenomenon, measures taken today will only have an effect some decades from now. Long-term approaches in Climate Change policy are thus needed. The second basic strategy would aim at the remediation of and adaptation to the consequences of Global Change. If indeed the long-term character of Global Change implies that any efforts to reduce CO2 emissions and increase CO2 absorption will have an effect some decades from now, then a further increase of global temperature levels will be unavoidable and thus require measures to cope with its consequences until we reach a phase of stabilisation at a presumably higher temperature level. For instance, threatened areas could be protected by building higher dams, or new crops could be used that are more resistant to higher average temperatures. Although with the Kyoto protocol and inparticular the measures taken by the EU, the growth in CO2 emissions could be reduced, though not to the level planned, it is unlikely that the targets for 2010 will be met, not even by the EU. Overall, the global situation does not look very promiseng. Further significant efforts will be needed on the supply and the demand side to cope with Global Change. Collective strategies that are co-ordinated at several levels of governance will be necessary to achieve system changes that are compatible with the challenge of Global Change.
2.1.2 Depletion of resources The depletion of natural resources has been a major policy issues at least since the first oil crisis, when the impacts of a sudden scarcity of a critical raw material for the functioning of our industrial societies became visible. However, fossil fuels are only the most visible example of a natural resource that will inevitably be depleted in the foreseeable future, especially if current levels of consumption are maintained. The growing scarcity has also a direct impact on the costs for fossil fuels, and thus on the attractiveness of searching for alternatives.
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However, there are also other cases of a depletion of natural resources that have attracted growing attention over the past years. Certain precious and semi-precious metals (e.g. Pt, Ir, Cu) have been highly demanded on global markets (e.g. in the semi-conductor industry) and lead to an increase in prices. The booming Chinese market has recently led to a growing demand for steel and coal, and the growth in demand is not likely to slow down over the coming two decades. The implications for Europe’s economies are obvious and have already induced to sharp increases in prices. 2 Moreover, the pressure on ecological habitats has already led to the extinction of many species of animals and plants, resources that – apart from their intrinsic value - could have obtained economic significance as well (e.g. for the pharmaceutical and body care industries). This loss of biodiversity corresponds to a qualitative depletion of natural resources. Finally, ensuring food supply to a growing world population is becoming increasingly difficult. While being first and foremost an issue of global responsibility, Europe is also directly affected by the growing pressure on the natural resource base for food production. Precarious economic conditions in many African countries are at the root of the over-exploitation and erosion of land, but also entail migration flows, malnutrition and local military conflicts over access to natural resources. Overexploitation has significantly reduced the fish-stocks in European and several non-European marine zones, calling into question the sustainable supply of fish to major parts of the world population, but also posing severe problems to Europe’s fishing industry with its over-capacities. These pressures on our natural resource base are further enhanced by a number of ongoing socio-economic developments, both in Europe and globally (DEFRA 2004): -
Increasing wealth and growing GDP per capita, leading to increasing use of consumer products and energy, such that benefits from technical eco-efficiency improvements are outweighed;
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Rising expectations, on the part of consumers, in relation to freedom of choice (including the freedom to have high levels of personal consumption);
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Growing disparities in levels of consumption between rich and poor countries and within developing countries;
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Increasing mobility and trade in goods;
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Technological advances (e.g. the development of new energy-consuming products, the impact of ICTs on resource use);
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Growing population pressures in some parts of the world;
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over-exploitation of some natural resources, climate change and the risks of breaching environmental limits;
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growth in municipal waste production as specific problem of large urban areas and megacities..
Overall, the intensity of resource consumption as currently practiced in most industrialised countries is not sustainable,and the situation will become worse with the convergence of resource levels also in less developed countries. What is needed is a decoupling of economic growth from resource 2 For instance, on 31 March, the German steel producer Krupp announced that the price it will have to pay for iron ore a s agreed in a new long-term contract will be about 70% higher than in the past. See http://www.welt.de/data/2005/04/02/620484.html 4 See for more details the HLG reports on the Agro-Food Industries and Rural Economies and on Biotechnology.
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consumption, an imperative that would require a significant change in the socio-ecological metabolism. However, as argued by Huber (2004), the objective should be metabolic consistency (i.e. an integration of industrial transformations in ecological transformation processes) rather than a simplistic call for a reduction in resource-intensity by a factor of four to ten. Conventional efficiency approaches (e.g. eco-efficiency), arguing for a reduction of resource intensity of production consumption chains, should thus be set within this wider framework of metabolic consistency, which would allow a high degree of resource intensity, as long as these resources are integrated in the ecological metabolism. Although this argument is pretty straightforward, the main challenge consists of devising ways to translate it into meaningful signals for current markets, into appropriate regulations and into widespread practices of resource consumption, but also into longer-term research strategies. In particular, it would require changes along the entire production-consumption systems, from resource extraction to final consumption of goods and services, and the possibilities to establish closed material loops (e.g. by way of recycling and waste management).
2.1.3 Living in a healthy environment As shown by a report of the EEA, 60000 deaths a year and 25-33% of diseases in industrialised Europe are caused by long-term exposure to air pollution. Although significant progress has been made in terms of reducing certain emissions in Europe (SOx, NOx, particles, etc.), the current situation is still far from satisfactory. Also the handling and management of solid waste, waste water and gaseous emissions plays a crucial role with respect to the quality of the natural environment we are living in. Here, there is also a major legacy of the past to be dealt with, with a larger number of old industrial sites and waste dumps to be dealt with in the EU 15 countries as well as in the New Member States. Moreover, environmental problems are particularly pressing in urban areas. Apart from air pollution, congested traffic and overburdened transport systems, also waste handling represent major problem areas. Also housing and construction are a major environmental issue in urban areas. Together, they put into question the sustainability of Europe’s major cities and their infrastructure systems. While partly associated to the issue of resource depletion, the food supply chain represents a major area of concern with respect to a healthy life as well. Here, several sub-issues are to be considered: the extensive use of fertilizers, the lack of a natural resource base to meet food demand in the quality and amount needed to feed a growing world population (see above), the potential use of genetically modified crops, etc.4 In a wider sense, “living in a healthy environment” thus also links up with issues of health care,5 nutrition, ageing and the control of the entire food supply chain. It is thus obvious that the notion of a healthy environment cuts across many established policy areas, ranging from agricultural and regional development to health, environment, consumer protection, transport and RTD.
2.1.4 Enhancing competitiveness and growth In addition to the aforementioned environmental and socio-economic challenges, the debate about Environmental Technologies must also be seen in the context of the current economic perspectives for Europe. As spelt out in the Lisbon and Gothenburg agendas, the need to cope with the environmental challenges must be addressed in a way that helps ensure and improve Europe’s economic performance vis-à-vis its main global competitors. Any potential solution, including Environmental Technologies, thus needs to be assessed in the light of its impacts on competitiveness and growth.
5 See for more details the HLG report on the Future of Health Care
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Developing and applying Environmental Technologies that help both reducing environmental damage and enhancing the competitiveness and growth of European firms thus represents a key issue for the future. It will require abandoning the often falsely stated “trade-off” between environment and economy and seek intelligent solutions to introduce Environmental Technologies while avoiding additional costs. Both on theoretical grounds and in view of successful experiences, overcoming this trade-off is possible, but it often implies wider changes in the organisational and institutional settings of firms, sectors, and systems of production and consumption. While individual firms must be able to reap the benefits of Environmental Technologies in their balance sheets at least in the medium term, the introduction of new systems of production and consumption (e.g. from fossil to renewable fuels) has far-reaching implications that require the cooperation of many actors along the supply chain in order to implement a long-term transition process that is both environmentally and economically sustainable. Moreover, major economic benefits can be realised by developing the most advanced Environmental Technologies for the domestic and global markets.
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The policy responses in Europe - Recent developments
The EU is usually regarded as a rather pro-active world region in terms of taking environmental issues into account in its policies. This situation can be traced back to the 70ies when the environmental movements started to play a significant role in the policy arenas of several Member States, th but there are also precursor developments that can be traced back to the 19 century and which may help explain the high perceived importance of the environment to European citizens. As in Japan, the comparatively high population density also contributes to raising the consciousness about negative environmental damages. The comparison with the US and Japan in terms of policies in support of Environmental Technologies is quite favourable, especially since the US has taken a critical stance towards the Climate Change debate. In terms of per capita resource consumption, the US is still far ahead of Europe and Japan. Japan has also implemented many policy measures that are conducive to alleviating environmental pressure, and they were often motivated by the need to produce goods and services in a resource-efficient way because of the lack of indigenous natural resources. Some EU Member States have been pursuing very pro-active environmental policy agendas over the past two decades, and the EU has been active in promoting environmental issues also in other, less pro-active Member States. The EU has subscribed also to the main sustainability agendas at global level, from Rio to Johannesburg. So, the commitment to the Kyoto protocol from 1997 has been confirmed by the European Council in December 2001, although it seems rather unlikely that the targets will be met. Even in view of the current main concerns of the EU with respect to growth and employment, the longer-term environmental challenges still remain high on the political agendas. 6 The general policy climate in Europe is thus receptive to the consideration of environmental and sustainability concerns. This has been translated in several policy initiatives at European and member state level, which will be briefly reviewed subsequently with a main focus on environmental and RTD policy.
3.1
Recent developments in environmental policy
3.1.1 At European level Environment and environmental assessment has become a cross-cutting issue that has to be taken into account in all European policy areas. This is reflected first of all in the Cardiff process which aims at integrating environmental issues into all sectoral policies. However, as the Commission admits, progress on the Cardiff process has been limited so far.7 Secondly, the Impact Assessment (IA) procedure launched in May 2002 aims to improve the quality and coherence of EU policies with respect to environmental, social and economic impacts. IA aims at systematically assessing the likely
6 See for instance the recent relaunch of the Lisbon agenda where sustainability and environment have remained key issues, even if temporarily growth and job creation are given highest priority. 7 see the 2005 Review of the Sustainable Development Strategy of the EC (EC 2005 p. 11)
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impacts of interventions by public authorities. Until now, more than 50 Impact Assessments have been produced by the EC.8 The Gothenburg summit in 2001 confirmed and strengthened the sustainability dimension of the Lisbon strategy and is often regarded as a complement to the Lisbon agenda in specifying its environmental dimension. In principle, the orientation presented in Gothenburg has been confirmed recently in President Barroso’s relaunch of the Lisbon debate. The 6th Environmental Action Programm “Environment 2010: our future, our choice” from 2002 is based on a very broad approach to address four major environmental concerns (EC 2002): -
Climate change;
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Nature and biodiversity;
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Environment, health and quality of life;
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Natural resources and waste.
In order to address the challenges in these four areas, seven specific strategies (soil protection, protection and conservation of the marine environment, sustainable use of pesticides, air polluation, urban environment, sustainable use and management of resources, waste recycling) are combined efforts to ensure the effective design and implementation of policy initiatives (effective implementation and enforcement, integration of environmental concerns in other policies, use of the most appropriate blend of instruments, involvement of actors and stakeholders). Also in other than areas than environmental policy initiatives have been taken that have a clear environmental orientation and thus reflect the attempts to integrate the environmental dimension in all policies. For instance, the European Environmental and Health Strategy and Action Plan from June 2004 links environmental and health research, thus calling for research to provide knowledge that helps better target and implement action and policy making at EU and national level (EC 2004b). Other key initiatives have been taken in the realms of industrial and enterprise policy. Voluntary schemes such as the Environmental Management Auditing Scheme EMAS (aims to promote environmental management systems in firms) or the still ongoing implementation of a new regulation for the chemical industry in Europe REACH (dealing with the notification of chemical substances) can be mentioned as examples. Equally to REACH also the proposal for an integrated product policy IPP is still under negotiation. The Green Paper on Integrated Product Policy (IPP) from 2001 and the corresponding communication from 2003 represent a significant change in environmental policy by shifting attention from major point sources (e.g. production plants, incineration plants) to the development of products and the principles that should guide their development process in order to minimize their environmental impact over the life cycle (EC 2001, 2003). The practical implementation of IPP into national and company policies, however, is still awaiting realisation. Probably the most significant initiative with respect to Environmental Technologies has been the launch of the Environmental Technologies Action Plan ETAP in 2004 (EC 2004). It addresses both
8 see the 2005 Review of the Sustainable Development Strategy of the EC (EC 2005, p. 11) 11 See the project NIS MONIT within the OECD TIP framework where issues of coordination between innovation policy and RTD policy as well as sectoral policies are analysed, see Remoe (2005)
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specific technology-related aspects under the headline of moving from research to markets, but also a number of environmental policy issues that ought to be tackled (see Box 2 below). Box 2: The main elements of the Environmental Technologies Action Plan From research to markets - Increase and focus research in Environmental Technologies and especially the demonstration of technologies and the dissemination of results - Establishing technology platforms to coordinate research more effectively among stakeholders and shape a common vision. - Setting up networks of test centres for Environmental Technologies to build confidence among customers and industry. Improving market conditions - Performance targets - Leveraging financial instruments to share risks of investment in Environmental Technologies - Creating incentives and removing economic barriers - Public procurement - Building support for Environmental Technologies in civil society – business and consumer awareness, training and education Acting globally - Promotion of Environmental Technologies in developing countries - Diffusion of Environmental Technologies through responsible investment and trade Source: EC (2004)
3.1.2 At Member States level Most EU Member States have established National Sustainable Development Strategies over the past years. A first analysis of national sustainable development strategies has been conducted by the European Commission in 2004 (EC 2004c). The effectiveness and embedding of these national strategies with respect to decision-making in other policy and private-sector realms depends on the organisational approach chosen, for instance regarding the balance between government-led and more open consultation-type approaches to developing these strategies. Moreover, whereas some countries have recurred mainly to defining a framework strategy, others have developed specific action programmes and targets. Finally, the relative weight of different dimensions of sustainability differs across countries. Most countries tend to support the classical three dimensions of sustainable development, but some (Italy, Hungary) restrict themselves to environmental considerations, whereas others extend the range of dimensions to cultural, regional, and governance issues (e.g. France). However, as confirmed by a recent OECD project on policy coordination in relation to innovation 11 policy, the integration of sustainable development and in particular environmental issues in other policies like for instance science, technology and innovation remains a difficult task. In order to overcome institutional and organisational barriers, but also fundamental differences in terms of the primary objectives pursued in different policy areas and at different policy levels, require major coordination efforts need to be made. However, especially excessive horizontal coordination and integration entails the risk of leading to a paralysis of the policy process. Member States have recurred to very different approaches to ensure that sustainable development is integrated in all areas of decision-making and planning. Environmental Technologies
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Box 3: Transition Management in the Netherlands Transition Management is a policy approach aiming to develop and implement long-term strategies towards sustainable development in key problem areas of Dutch society. Strategic research agendas are developed as part of a broad consultative process aiming to develop long-term (30-50 years) visions for these problem areas (e.g. water management, mobility, energy supply, etc.). In parallel, concrete experimental action are implemented and support networks created to ensure a continuous learning and adjustment process between the strategic and the operational level. Source: Kemp/Rotmans (2005)
3.2
The most advanced approaches at Member States level try to integrate policy strategies in support of Environmental Technologies within broader and long-term strategies towards sustainable development. Most notable among these are the Dutch initiatives under the headline of Transition Management (see Box 3), although other countries (Denmark, Austria) have also started to employ similar strategies. The open method of coordination OMC aims at enhancing mutual learning between Member States about good practices in environmental policy as well, thereby also contributing to a greater coherence between them.
Recent developments in RTD policy
3.2.1 At European level The main research initiative at European level, the framework programmes, has had since long a priority area dedicated to environmental and Environmental Technologies research. The current 6th Framework Programme has set aside 2329 Mio € for Priority 6 “Sustainable Development, Global Change and Ecosystems”, covering sustainable energy systems (890 mio €), sustainable surface transport (670 Mio €) and global change and ecosystems (769 Mio €). This priority addresses thus both technological as well as environmental research.12 However, research on Environmental Technologies and environmental issues is also supported in other priority areas. Especially in Priority 3 “Nanotechnologies and nanosciences, knowledge-based multifunctional materials and new production processes and devices”, in total spending 1460 Mio €, issues relating to the life cycle of industrial sytems, products and services, to eco-efficient processes, and low CO2 and low greenhouse gas production processes are being funded. Also in the other parts of the 6th Framework Programme Environmental Technologies and related sustainability issues are addressed. Moreover, in EUREKA projects several environmentally relevant technology issues have been addressed in past years. th
As regards the future, the recently presented proposal for the 7 Framework Programme assigns an important role to technology areas that are of relevance to the development of Environmental Technologies. Closely tied to the debate about the future orientation of the framework programme, the socalled Technology Platforms at European level also need to be mentioned. While not explicitly part of the 6th Framework Programme, these industry-driven platforms tend to be supported by the EC as forums for exchange between key players in application-oriented research, aiming to define joint research agendas and strategies for Europe. In some cases, these technology platforms also function as advisory groups to certain areas of research and technology relevant to the framework programme (e.g. aeronautics, rail research, etc.). Several technology platforms also have a strong relevance to environmental technologies and research, but as the majority of these platforms have only
12 Environmental research financed by the EU covers mainly the following themes: greenhouse gas emissions and climate changes, water cycle and soil related aspects, understanding marine and terrestrial biodiversity, mechanisms of desertification and natural disasters, strateg ies for sustainable land management, systematic operational forecasting and modelling of climate change, cross -cutting issues such as tools and concepts. For more information, see the Commission’s website on environmental research http://europa.eu.int/research/environment/policy/article_1435_en.htm
16
Environmental Technologies
been established in the course of 2004, their impact on giving direction to future research still remains to be seen (EC 2004d). As part of the Environmental Technologies Action Plan ETAP, decided in January 2004, eleven priority actions at EU level have been identified (see Box 2 above), three of which focus on future requirements for research in order to get from research to markets: -
Increase and focus research in Environmental Technologies and especially the demonstration of technologies and the dissemination of results.
-
Establishing technology platforms to coordinate research more effectively among stakeholders and shape a common vision. At the end of 2004, four ETAP-related technology platforms were in operation: hydrogen and fuel cells, photovoltaics, water, and steel.
-
Setting up networks of test centres for Environmental Technologies to build confidence among customers and industry.
In order to enhance the adoption and diffusion of best practices in Environmental Technologies, the European Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Bureau was established in Sevilla. It prepares in consultative processes so-called Best Available Technology Reference Documents BREFS for a wide range of industrial sectors that serve as a standard-setting mechanism, though not by prescribing specific technologies, but rather by definining environmental performance standards that sectoral technologies should meet.
3.2.2 At Member States level We have seen over the past two decades a large number of research programmes being implemented the EU Member States. In general, three different types of programmes need to be distinguished (Whitelegg/Weber 2002). First of all, Environmental Technology Programmes, aiming specifically at the development and introduction of Environmental Technologies in selected thematic or sectoral domains. These programmes tend to be based on conventional technology-oriented approaches in which specific attention is paid to environmental or sustainability concerns. This is particularly the case in fields like energy, transport, production, etc. Secondly, there are targeted sustainability-/environmental programmes aiming at a more comprehensive approach to innovation. These latter programmes often follow explicitly an inter- and trans-disciplinary approach. Finally, one can identify umbrella programmes which aim at enabling inter- and transdisciplinary research under the framework of some guiding programme principles that are compatible with sustainability or environmental concerns. The balance between these different types of research programmes reflects the country’s research strategy for sustainable development and/or the environment (see Table 1). After now more than ten years of consolidated experience with environmental and sustainability research programmes, a number of trends can be observed for the design of such programmes (“good practices”) – althouhg significant differences across countries remain: -
Orientation towards addressing key environmental/sustainability challenges, often underpinned by guiding visions and long-term transition strategies;13
13 See for instance the Factor 4 or Factor 10 visions in some of the Dutc h programmes that were used as a starting point for backcasting processes leading to the identification of research priorities.
Environmental Technologies
17
-
Shift from specific environmental technology programmes towards a more problem-oriented and thematic programmes (e.g. sustainable mobility programmes rather than transport technology);
-
Integration of environmental aspects into all sectoral programmes (i.e. criteria of technological innovativeness are complemented by environmental impact criteria);
-
Transformation of conventional environmental research programmes into broader sustainability-oriented research programmes like the German FONA (see Box 4);
-
Growing importance of inter- and transdisciplinarity as key criteria for project selection.
Table 1: Overview of strategies and budgets for targeted research programmes on sustainable development in selected EU countries Country
Programme strategy
Austria
Separate programmes on technologies for sustainability (Nachhaltig Wirtschaften), sustainability research (Provision), and sustainable landscape research (Pfeil 05), joined under a loose common framework (FORNE) Top-down defined umbrella programme aimed at supporting policy through scientific support Innovative and highly structured programmes with concrete goals to move the implementation of SD forward (e.g. Socio-ecological research programme), complemented in 2004 by a new framework programme on Research for Sustainability (FONA). Highly structured, top-down designed programmes focusing mainly on system renewal throught technological solutions (e.g. EET), more recently complemented by broad and more participatory transition programmes in different key areas for sustainable development Few targeted programme initiatives, but innovative and interesting research projects financed from different sources (both research funding and structural funds) Focused SD programmes developed by three separate funding bodies that are each responsible for different key areas Focused SD programmes developed by a range of different bodies, loosely coordinated by the Sustainable Development Research Initiative (SDRI) One major priority area dealing with Sustainable Development, Global Change and Ecosystems
Belgium Germany
The Netherlands
Portugal
Sweden
UK
EU
Approximate annual budgets ~ 30-40 Mio €
~ 60 – 80 Mio € ~ 200 - 250 Mio €
~ 50 - 60 Mio €
N/A
60 - 80 Mio €
150 - 180 Mio €
~ 500-600 Mio €
Source: Whitelegg/Weber (2002) and own estimates
18
Environmental Technologies
There is a great deal of diversity in terms of design among national research programmes for sustainability. This diversity is to a large extent due to the inevitable embedding of these programmes in the context of the national research and innovation systems. For instance, research for sustainability and the environment is often hidden in action lines of classical sectoral research programmes. This makes it difficult, if not impossible, to assess the share of funding that goes into sustainability research. Also the importance of programmm-based research funding as compared to institutional funding differs greatly among Member States. 15 This may be one of the reasons why a comparatively large number of ERA-Nets have been successfully presented to the EC. With the 6th Framework Programme, ERA-Nets have been established as a new coordination mechanism between national research programmes. In Table 2, a overview of ERA-Nets in the field of Environmental Technologies research is presented.
Box 4: Forschung für nachhaltige Entwicklung – Research for Sustainability FONA (Forschung für nachhaltige Entwicklung) is the most recent framework programme on research for sustainability in Germany. It adopts a comprehensive approach to research on solutions rather than problems of sustainability. Therefore four fields of action have been defined to fund research: Concepts for sustainability in industry and business, sustainable use concepts for regions, concepts for sustainable use of natural resources, and social action geared to sustainability. Environmental Technologies are addressed in all four fields of action, but taking concepts for addressing sustainability issues rather than specific technologies as their starting point. In total, it is planned to spend about 160 Mio € annually on this research programme over a period of five years. Source: BMBF (2004)
Data on public spendings on environmental research and technology are thus extremely difficult to disentangle. While the budgets spent on targeted research programmes on environmental research and technology at European and national levels are at least in principle accessible and comparable (see Table 1 above), data on the contribution of sectoral and institutional programmes can hardly be assessed, and their relative importance differs from country to country. However, the data show at least that European funding plays a significant role in programme-based, targeted funding for research on sustainability.
15 See for instance the situation in Germany, where the new national research programme of sustainability (FONA) has been allocated a total budget of about 800 Mio € over five years. AT the same time, the Helmholtz-Society runs a research field “Earth and Environment” of approximately 300 Nio €.
Environmental Technologies
19
Table 2: Overview of ERA-Nets on topics of direct relevance to Environmental Technologies and research Title Promotion of an integrated and national R&D initiative for fossil energy technologies towards zero-emission power plants Towards a European-wide exchange network for improving dissemination of Integrated Water Resources Management research outcomes Pan-European proactive identification of emerging risks in the field of food production Processing for food safety: Forming the sound basis for the expansion of a Nordic Research Area Net to a European Research Area Net Sustainable management of soil and groundwater under the pressure of soil pollution and soil contamination Networking, coordination, cooperation and integration of national RTD programmes in the field of the sustainable enterprise (SUSPRISE) Climate Impact Research Coordination within a Larger Europe Strategic cooperation betweennational programmes promoting sustainable construction and operation of buildings ERA-Net Bioenergy Networking and integration of national and regional programmes in the field of photovoltaic (PV) solar energy research and technological development (RTD)in the European Research Area Coordination Action to Establish a Hydrogen and Fuel Cell ERA-NET ERA-NET for applied catalysis in Europe Coordination of European Transnational Research in Organic food and farming Food Safety – Forming a European Platform for Protecting Consumers against Health Risks
Type Specific Support Action
Budget 190 k€
Specific Support Action
190 k€
Specific Support Action
150 k€
Specific Support Action
190 k€
Coordination Action
1000 k€
Coordinatino Action
2700 k€
Specific Support Action
200 k€
Cooperation Action
2530 k€
Cooperation Action Cooperation Action
2650 k€ 2570 k€
Coordination Action
2700 k€
Coordination Action Coordination Action
2710 k€ 1200 k€
Coordination Action
2740 k€
Source: EC (2004a & 2005a)
20
Environmental Technologies
4
Current and emerging developments in Environmental Technologies
This section aims at giving an overview of main areas of research and technology development that will be crucial for the future evolution of Environmental Technologies and thus for our ability to address the key socio-economic challenges described in Section 2.1. On the one hand, research will be needed to understand current (and if possible future) impacts and dynamics of the interactions between social and ecological systems. On the other hand, research and technology development is needed to understand and develop potential solutions and options for improving the quality of interactions between social and ecological systems. The importance of Environmental Technologies not only stems from the contributions they are expected to make to address the aforementioned socio-economic challenges. Environmental Technologies have over the past two decades evolved into a global multi-billion Euro business. Although the figures may be shaky and the delimitation of the sector difficult, the eco-industry is estimated to have a turnover of about 180 Bio € per year and has created about half a million new jobs between 1997 and 2001 in Europe (Ecotec 2002, as cited from Kemp/Andersen/Butter 2004). With global market estimates amounting to about 550 Bio €, the EU covers more than one third of it, with good growth perspectives in particular in the New Member States. This is in line with data from the OECD, estimating a global market growth in environmental goods and services from 300 Bio € in 2000 to more than 500 Bio € in 2010 (Anderson et al. 2001). Due to the multi-facetted and heterogeneous character of Environmental Technologies, it is very difficult, if not to say impossible to provide more than a rough assessment of Europe’s performance in Environmental Technologies. Available data do not allow for a serious comparative analysis with the US and Japan, or if then only at the level of very specific technologies or case-studies, i.e. at a level of detail that would go beyond the scope of this report.16
4.1
Environmental Technologies - a first overview
Research and technology development are just one among other means to deal with environmental challenges. This is reflected in strategies to improve the environmental efficiency of our societies. Other strategies, for instance, argue for sufficiency and a change in our consumption patterns in order to reduce environmental pressure. A somewhat different interpretation is suggested when adopting the concept of improving metabolic consistency, i.e.the integration of economic operations in the natural systems of metabolism of society and ecology at the centre of future-oriented strategies. Anyway, in all three strategies, technology plays a key role, even if the emphasis on certain technological solutions may differ. Environmental Technologies or more broadly speaking Environmental Innovations have changed in terms of basic approach over the past years. When looking at the historical evolution of the attempts to remedy the environmental impacts of human behaviour, and of technologies in particular, one can certainly distinguish three main phases: -
End-of-pipe technologies or system optimisation (70ies to 80ies);
-
Process-integrated technologies or system redesign (80ies to 90ies);
16 For some case-studies of individual Environmental Technologies and the impact that, for instance, regulations had on their innovation diffusion paths, see Sartorius/Zundel (2004)
Environmental Technologies
21
-
System or functional innovations (late 90ies to present).
As shown in Figure 2, each of these three basic types of Environmental Innovations has a certain potential to reduce the environmental impact and increase environmental efficiency. Over the past years, we have seen major success stories in terms of environmental innovations, ranging from catalysts for cars and flue gas desulphurisation (as examples of end-of-pipe technologies) to cleaner production processes and monitoring and management practices (as examples of process-integrated technologies). More recently, attention has also shifted from process innovations to green products and services for which the environmental impact along the entire production needs to be taken into account. In spite of these successes, so far mainly the “low-hanging fruits” have been picked, which could be realised by developing and specific technological solutions. Some of these tended to have significant repercussions on the production-consumption chains of which they are part (e.g. decentralised, renewable energy technologies, or waste management), but in general the next stage of environmental innovations, i.e. those supposed to reduce by an order of magnitude the environmental impacts, have not been realised yet. These are typically what we call environmental system innovations, i.e. a set of innovations that provide a service in a novel way or offer new services, involving a new logic (guiding principle) and new types of practice, and giving rise to a step change in eco-efficiency (Rennings et al. 2003; Butter 2002). Figure 2: Levels of environmental product innovation
Source: Weterings et al. 1997 The key issue for the future is thus how to move beyond system optimization and system redesign (i.e. the “low-hanging fruits”) towards system or functional innovations (see Figure 2). For that purpose, specific Environmental Technologies will have to be embedded in broader transformation strategies. The knowledge and research needed for this will be of different kinds: Obviously, the potential of generic and sectorally/thematically specific technological innovations need to be exploited. Their application for the delivery of green products and services depends on an appropriate framework both at the level of indi22
Environmental Technologies
vidual firms and of production-consumption systems. In order to trace empirically the impacts on the environment, measuring and monitoring sytems will be necessary. In combination with an enhanced understanding of the complex interdependencies between social and ecological systems, the impacts of new technologies and systems on the environment can be better anticipated. As sketched in Figure 3, this simple framework delivers five main areas of environmental technology research for the future: environmental system management and policy, generic technologies, sectorally specific technologies, green products and services, and the modelling of society-ecology interactions. These different areas of research should not be regarded as isolated; often technologies require a combination of technical solutions, management approaches at different levels and along the supply chain to be successful. There are obviously interdependencies between these five research areas which stem from the systemic character of environmental (system) innovations. In a nutshell, the modelling of society-ecology interactions and impacts is crucial for understanding the likely environmental as well as economic impacts of environmental technologies (generic, sectoral, products and services), which in turn are a major input to environmental and system management actions, either at firm or at public policy level. Figure 3: Key areas of research on Environmental Technologies
Environmental, resource and systems management
Generic technologies
Sectorally specific technologies
Green products and services
Modelling society-ecology interactions and impacts
4.2
From impact analysis towards understanding societyenvironment interactions
4.2.1 Current trends and developments The development and use of Environmental Technologies is supposed to reduce the pressure on our natural environment. These impacts, however, are very difficult to capture and understand. Environmental research has concentrated in the past on improving our understanding of complex interdependencies in ecological systems, taking into account interventions from society and economy. The complexity of these interactions is for instance reflected in the difficulties with which researchers are confronted in the area of climate modelling. There is certainly still a lot of research work to be done in environmental modelling, but in order to establish a link with long-term strategies of change towards sustainability, these models needs to be set within a wider framework of society-ecology interactions. Therefore, the next stage of re-
Environmental Technologies
23
search is to take into account also the complex interactions between social and ecological systems, i.e. the impact chains and feedback mechanisms beween these two systems. New modelling approaches like adaptive management are currently being developed and tested in the US and Europe in order to take these interactions into account. They are inspired by complex systems research, i.e. by a research area that is expected to be of major cross-cutting relevance to a wide range of research fields. 17 Obviously, such a better understanding of the interactions between society and environment requires first of all the comprehensive monitoring and measurement of environmental impacts, as well as of longer-term feedbacks on society. This change in perspective towards society-environment interactions is also a crucial issue with respect to Environmental Technologies because it may lead to new and different insights regarding the type of production and consumption regime that is compatible with the sustainable evolution of our ecosystem. At present, strategies of eco-efficiency (eg. Factor 4 or Factor 10 debates) dominate the debates about future directions for Environmental Technologies. They aim at reducing material and energy intensity of industrial processes. Even further go sufficiency strategies that call for a reduction of consumption in order to reduce the stress on the environment. If, however, the interactions between society and environment are taken into account in a broader socio-ecological framework, it is not the material and energy intensity per se that represents a problem for the environment but rather the lack of metabolic or eco-consistency (Huber 2004). Metabolic consistency or eco-consistency implies the ability to integrate industrial resource streams into the ecological metabolism. Within this framework, material and energy intensity of industrial processes does not represent a major problem as long as they are integrated in the natural metabolism. From this perspective, regenerative technologies and the capturing of solar energy become crucial. Obviously, many conclusions from the perspective of metabolic consistency are similar to those from conventional eco-efficiency, like the reduction of the consumption of fossil fuels.
4.2.2 The situation in Europe The attention to environmental issues has lead to the establishment of a recognised research community on environmental modelling and monitoring in Europe that is well integrated in the international communities. However, the emergence and establishment of new, non-conventional approaches seems to be rather difficult among the existing communities. Therefore, an initiative is needed to link up the well-established European community in conventional environmental modelling with research networks that that are inspired by complex systems approaches, both set within a more comprehensive framework for dealing with society-ecology interactions.
4.3
The environmental potential of generic technologies: new promises and uncertainties
4.3.1 Current trends and developments There are a limited number of scientific-technological research areas that have a pervasive impact on our industrial activities. These general purpose or generic technologies are: -
New materials technologies;
-
Information and communication technologies;
17 See the HLG group report on Complexity and Systemics.
24
Environmental Technologies
-
Biotechnology and life sciences;
-
Nanotechnology.
Generic technologies tend to be adopted and adapted in a wide range of sectors and application areas; their development is strongly driven by scientific research and certainly to a very limited extent only influenced by, for instance, the needs from the side of Environmental Technologies. Moreover, as there will be separate reports on these four generic S&T areas, they will be analysed here only briefly in relation to their role as Environmental Technologies. An overview of key developments in nanotechnology, biotechnology and ICTs as identified in recent foresight exercises in eight countries is given in Annex 2. 1. Biotechnology Biotechnological processes have the potential to reduce the consumption of raw materials and energy, and enable the production of different and sometimes new products and processes. With respect to the environment, four main areas of biotechnology should be distinguished. First of all, biomass can be used as a substitute for fossil fuels in wide range of chemical production processes. This shift in raw materials requires different processes in biorefineries. Secondly, biotechnologyenabled production processes promise huge efficiency increases as compared to their chemical counterparts and can be used in a wide range of process industries: pharmaceuticals, chemicals, food processing, pulp and paper, etc. Especially the use of genetically modified organisms in production processes of, for instance, the pharmaceutical industry offers a major potential, but is not uncontested. Thirdly, in agriculture biotechnology already plays a major role in helping to reduce the need for pesticides by developing resistant crops. A major potential exists to enhance the characteristics of crops by means of genetic engineering, a technology that is heavily contested, though. Fourthly, biotechnology (e.g. micro-organisms) can be used to clean-up contaminated water, air and soil. According to the Danish Green Technology Foresight project (GTF 2005), six areas of biotechnology need to be highlighted due to their promising characteristics in terms of reducing environmental impacts: -
Enzyme production and application;
-
Fermentation efficiency;
-
Bio-polymers;
-
Bio-ethanol;
-
Biological base chemicals;
-
Bio-remediation.
With respect to the environment, these different types of biotechnology will all continue to be of crucial importance. To ensure their advancement, both R&D related barriers (access to finance, IPRs, science-industry collaboration, public opinion), and barriers to adoption and diffusion (awareness, skills and competencies) will have to be addressed. 2. New materials:
Environmental Technologies
25
New materials are the “classical” general purpose technology. In the recent FutMan project an analysis of main future pathways for new materials technologies has been conducted based on an experts’ survey.18 The main perspectives for materials technologies are captured in Figure 4 below. Three main pathways or scenarios are distinguished, which can also co-exist. The baseline technological path – Specialisation – expects growing specialisation of traditional materials technologies. The two alternative technology development paths are called Convergence and Integration. Convergence introduces lateral, pluri-disciplinary thinking both to developing new goods/products and to their process of manufacture. Convergence is already underway, and is supported by EU technological policy. Hybrid materials representative of this scenario can be Traditional Composite Materials like Polymer-based, Ceramics-based or Metals-based composites. Other hybridised materials are expected to emerge in the areas of bio-materials, sandwich materials and opto-electronic materials. The Integration technology path is the most futuristic one. It is based on the principle that function will determine the Form not only of materials but also of their process of manufacture. The new paradigm will be based on the generalisation of nanotechnology and requires substantial investment in R & D. Associated to this scenario are developments like customised production process which integrates innovative design, materials technologies and production processes; Just in Time (J.I.T.) and Just in Place production, or the miniaturisation of production, energy savings and energy storage. In general, this technology path seems to be the most desirable regarding sustainable factors and technological innovation opportunities, but it is also the most uncertain one, requiring the most significant changes in technology as well as in organisation (CMI 2003). Figure 4: Technological Development Paths for New Materials
Source: CMI (2003). 18 For a more general assessment of the environmental impact of materials technologies, see IPTS (2002). Two main scenarios are distinguished in this study, one assuming the implementation of current Best Available Technologies, the other one assuming a more rapid advancement of materials tec hnologies and their subsequent widespread implementation in practice.
26
Environmental Technologies
The FutMan project also provided a rough assessment of the comparative advantage of Europe in new materials technologies which is captured in Figure d. This overview, however, does not distinguish the relevance of new materials technologies to the environment. Figure 5: Materials Technology Paths: the Challenge for Europe
Source: FutMan Final Report (2003), for further details see also CMI (2003)
3. Information and Communciation Technologies ICTs ICTs are today pervasively applied in all industrial and service sectors, and they have revolutionized work, life and production in many respects. Monitoring, sensors, data handling and simulation techniques help optimize the operation of production processes and thus reduce their environmental impact. Other environmental promises of ICT have not come true, though. The paperless office turned out to be an illusion, and the beneficial impact of tele-activities on the demand for travel are minor, if measurable at all (Wagner et al. 2003). However, in spite of these uncertainties, there is little doubt that ICTs will be key to realising many environmentally more efficient technologies. Overall, the main environmental benefits are expected to result from the following expected future developments (GTF 2005; Saracco et al. 2004): -
Disappearance of the computer;
-
Ubiquitous and seamless connectivity;
-
Chancing traffic patterns;
-
Disposable products;
-
Autonomous systems;
-
From content to packaging;
-
Emergence of virtual infrastructures.
In the area of manufacturing, in particular the attempts to produce “green” products and services will depend on the ability to monitor and coordinate the production chain from raw materials extraction to final services. This is unthinkable without the pervasive use of ICTs. Environmental Technologies
27
4. Nanotechnology Nanotechnology is an emerging field of general purpose technologies that is expected by some to form the basis of the next industrial revolution. It is a very heterogeneous S&T area that covers surface technologies as well as nano-structured materials, sensors, nanostructured micro-processors and medical devices. The potential for the environment is said to reside predominantly in the potential resource efficiency gains that could be achieved by being small, efficient, lighter and more durable. The ability to develop intelligent products using nanotechnology and to tailor them to specific applications adds to this potential. The impact of these developments is far-reaching. For instance, new nano-based materials with new properties can be applied to increase the efficiency of energy systems, both for conventional fossil and renewable energy sources. As another example with significant potential impact, nanotechnology enables more targeted dosing, a technology that can be used for medical applications as well as for environmental remediation. However, it is uncertain whether the potential benefits will be outweighed by second order effects due to the pervasive and extensive application of nanotechnology devices. In some fields, however, the potential for the environment is quite straightforward. Nano-structured materials can help increase the efficiency of power generation (e.g. by means of enabling superconductivity), and nano-surfaces requires less cleaning. Although some nanotechnologies have already reached the application stage, this field is characterised by a high degree of openness and dynamism. Many technologies are still at an experimental stage, implying that their environmental significance is uncertain and in need of further observation. Not least for these reasons, the attention that is currently paid to nanotechnologies is not driven by their environmental potential, but by the promise of playing a key role for future competitiveness of those who dominate it..
4.3.2 The situation in Europe It is very difficult to give an overall assessment of Europe’s position in these four areas of general purpose technologies. In all four fields, European research organisations and firms have shown outstanding capabilities and performance, but the picture varies a lot: -
In the area of biotechnology we are confronted with a mixed picture. The specific situation in Europe regarding the use of GMOs or GM-crops can obviously be interpreted as a specific weakness, but there are strong arguments why a precautionary approach is appropriate in this case. The pharmaceutical industry has shifted significant research investment to the US and more recently to Asia. This development has been driven on the one hand by the access to top-level research capacities, but also by arguments relating to the importance of the respective markets as test markets for new products. Research areas like biomass and biotechnology-based production are still very strong in Europe.
-
In the area of ICTs, detailed analyses of strengths and weaknesses in research and technology are available, showing that Europe is not only defending its lead in key segments of communication technologies, but has also caught up in some other areas like storage, visualisation and processing. Significant amounts of research investment are directed to ICT, but we can also observe a strong trend towards internationalisation.19
-
The area of new materials research seems to be well established and rooted in Europe, although the impulses coming from nanotechnology seem to be taken up faster in the US and Japan.
19 See for instance the report on ICTs by Dachs/Weber/Zahradnik (2005) which was prepared in the context of the EU-funded foresight project FISTERA, or for materials technologies the report by CMI (2003) as part of the FutMan project.
28
Environmental Technologies
-
4.4
Nanotechnology research has seen a boost in Europe over the past few years, but it is highly concentrated in some countries (especially Germany and the UK). The realisation of their potential with respect to the environment still remains to be seen, as is their economic potential in general terms.
Sectorally specific Environmental Technologies: towards sustainable production 20
4.4.1 Current trends and developments The majority of Environmental Technologies have been developed over the past thirty years in individual sectors of production and consumption. Figure 6 gives a simplified overview of how the different streams of resources from raw materials to final products and services can be systematized. For the purpose of this paper, we will look at a set of sectors that builds largely on the typology used in IPTS (2004). There, the development of and barriers to Environmental Technologies have been ana21 lysed at sectoral level. Subsequently, only a selection of sectors will be briefly analysed, namely plastics, steel, paper & pulp, and construction. Further sectors are addressed in separate reports of the HLG (in particular energy, transport, agro-food). In view of the large number of individual sectors that could be studied potentially with respect to current trends in Environmental Technologies, this selection is meant only as a set of examples. Figure 6: Flow of raw materials for industrial usage
Source: DoE (1998),, as cited from IPTS (2004) 1. Pulp/Paper The pulp and paper industry has been regarded for decades as a heavily polluting industry, but the widespread use of both end-of-pipe and clean technologies has contributed to reducing emissions to the air and to water (which are still quite high). It is a large user of process water and energy, but by
20 This sections draws extensively on a report on “Promoting Environmental Technologies: Sectoral analyses, barriers and measures” (IPTS 2004). The analysis gives a quite detailed picture of ongoing developments, emerging technologies and barriers to innovation in twelve sectors. 21 Over all, twelve sectors and have been addressed in this extensive report: biotechnology, waste management, eco -design, product-services, pulp and paper, cement, iron and steel, non-ferrous metals, plastics, refinerties, construction, and mining. Not all of these correspond to conventional industrial sectors, but represent key areas of technological development of major importance to the environment.
Environmental Technologies
29
means of integrated energy supply concepts the problem can be kept within reasonable limits. Paper recycling has reached rates of about 50% which is expected to grow further over the coming years, up to a maximum of 60-70%. As demand for paper and board is expected to continue to grow, many of the gains from the use of Environmental Technologies will be compensated for. Future areas of technology development in the pulp and paper cover the entire production chain, aiming in particular to improve quality, yield and energy consumption of plants. Due to the high capital-intensity of the industry and the long lifetime of equipment, shifting towards Environmental Technologies is not easy. This implies a need for long-term oriented research if a shift towards new integrated technologies is envisaged. 2. Plastics Being already of a considerable size, with about 37 Mio tonnes of different types of polymers being produced in Europe, the plastics sector is expected to grow further in the coming years. A shift in technologies could thus have a major impact. The key issue is probably the shift from a petrochemical resource base to renewable raw materials. Several options are under development, with polylactic acid being currently the largest and most competitive alternative for a range of plastics. While in general, the basic concepts of refineries known from the chemical and plastics industry can be maintained, significant changes to production processes will be needed, in terms of ensuring a stable and reliable quality and characteristics of the final products. While biodegradability is also an issue, its pertinence depends on the lifetime that is expected from the products. A third main issue must be seen in recycling which represents a major cost factor. Apart from the costs of recycling, the limited possibility to make productive use of recycled plastics represents a problem. The “waste-to-energy” route is certainly only the second-best option, but one that will need to be improved in the future in parallel with recirculation of recycled plastics to the production process. In order to facilitate and improve recyclability, standards, specifications and test methods are critical to increase the trust of producers and consumers in the quality of materials produced from recycled plastics. 3. Iron and steel Iron and steel is the most energy-consuming manufacturing sector in the world, with for instance 19% of energy consumption and 28% of CO2 emissions in manufacturing in Europe. Reducing energy consumption has been and still is a major area of technology development. The two main basic process in steel production, blast furnace/basic oxygen (BOF) and electric arc furnace (EAF) represent quite different routes of production that rely on different resources (i.e. share of scrap) and deliver different products. EAF has clearly lower energy consumption. Currently, this separation seems to be blurring, with new and modified processes like direct reduction (DR) allowing to bridge between the two basic processes. Smelting reduction (SR) is mainly regarded as an alternative to blast furnaces, with reduced CO2 emissions. As for other of the industries mentioned, Iron and Steel is characterised by a long lifetime of equipment and thus rather resistant to the introduction of fundamentally new technologies. Rather continuous improvement of existing equipment is preferred. The debate about Climate Change is obviously very important in this sector and is likely to drive innovation in the future, as a consequence of emission trading. However, the quality of the final products is a crucial determinant of whether certain new processes can be used or not. International competition, especially at international level, tends to change the structure of the industry, as well as the location of plants. 4. Construction/building Construction activities not only require a large amount of material, buildings also account for almost 40% of greenhouse gas emissions. Current and future technological developments target in these two directions. By using more environmentally friendly construction materials and by re-using con-
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Environmental Technologies
struction materials after demolition, the volume and environmental impact of resource and waste streams could be significantly reduced. The second main area of research addresses energy losses from buildings. Further improving insulation of buildings seems to approach certain limits, but the intelligent energy management of houses, supported by appropriate design and location principles are expected to improve the energetic characteristics of houses. Here, impulses from general purpose technologies (ICT, materials and nanotechnology) are expected for the future. The sector is characterised by a large number of small companies, which tend to have rather limited incentives to adopt advanced recycling technologies. As for recycled plastics, also in construction there is an issue of trust in the quality of recycled materials. High-tech investment in energy efficiency tends to have more promising perspectives, even if there are uncertainties about pay-back times. It is also a matter of technical skills whether small construction companies will be able to deal with very advanced generic technologies. At least, this will require the cooperation with other specialised firms, thus increasing transaction costs.
4.4.2 The situation in Europe The four examples discussed above serve to illustrate the situation with which research on Environmental Technologies in Europe is confronted at the level of sectors. In spite of the diversity of individual sectors, some general observationson the situation in Europe shall nevertheless be made. First of all, with the introduction of the European IPPC directive, the use of Environmental Technologies has been strongly promoted. The Best Available Technology Reference Manuals that have been produced serve as an orientation for the achievable performance of plants without prescribing individual technologies, and at the same time give indications of available technological alternatives. The main benefit must be seen in the guidance given to “environmental laggards”, i.e. the large number of non-innovative firms that need easy access to information about best practices to help them improve their environmental performance through the use of technologies developed elsewhere. Secondly, It is very difficult to compare the situation in Europe with that in the US and Japan, where other regulations and framework conditions tend to favour the development and use of different Environmental Technologies. For instance, the rules and regulation with respect to recycling are very specific in Europe, as is liability regulation in the US. Procurement can be another driver that is very specific to individual countries. Comparing research performance alone would thus be superficial; instead a comparative system analysis would be needed to assess the respective merits of research in order to improve the environmental and economic performance of different firms, countries and world regions. Thirdly, in spite of these difficulties, there is no doubt that Europe is quite strong in many sectoral environmental technologies. This is also reflected in the success of European firms on export markets.
4.5
Green products, product-services & ecodesign22
4.5.1 Current trends and developments In fact, over the past two decades, we have seen a growth in services that is also reflected in the current industrial as well as in R&D statistics. In most industrialised countries, the service sector accounts for about 60-70 % of GDP, and the share of employment tends to be even higher. Although 22 This section draws on GTF (2004) and on IPTS (2004)
Environmental Technologies
31
R&D statistics still tend to underestimate R&D and innovation in services, developments like outsourcing have boosted the amount of knowledge-intensive services, both within the EU and with nonEuropean countries (e.g. India). This general trend towards services and knowledge-intensive services should nevertheless not be confounded with a generalised shift towards more environmentally friendly or “green” products and services. The idea behind the design of green products and materials is to obtain more service and welfare using fewer non-renewable resources and additives. -
You build sustainability into products and achieve large savings in the consumption of materials, energy and other resources;
-
You make products easy to maintain, e.g. by building them as modules. This makes it easier to separate them and at the same time increases the possibilities of recycling;
-
You make greener products by using new resource-efficient materials and production technologies. This means that products and services are seen in relation to their entire life cycle spanning raw material extraction, production, distribution, use and disposal.
It is certainly true that the orientation towards selling and buying services rather than products contributes to internalising externalised environmental costs from the side of consumers to the side of producers. However, there is little hard statistical evidence that would confirm this shift; most of our knowledge stems from case-study research. Still, case-study based research suggests that green products, and in particular green products that are embedded in green services, could play a growing role in the future, even if the trend in this direction is not regarded as very strong yet (IPTS 2004). Key future research issues in the area of environmental products and product-services are: -
Development of design principles and tools to support the development of green products;
-
Development of tools that enable the assessment of the environmental characteristics of green products (e.g. manageable LCA tools);
-
Development of business concepts for green product-services, especially as these tend to imply major organisational innovations for the firms concerned;
-
Diffusion of these principles, concepts and tools also to the large number of SMEs in Europe.
4.5.2 The situation in Europe
Recent initiatives like the European IPP policy have resulted in a growing interest in green products and service concepts. In general, this area is regarded as having enormous development potential, because in a number of areas some EU-Member States like Denmark, the Netherlands, Italy, Sweden and Germany are right at the forefront of the development of green products based on environmentally-friendly materials and processes – i.e. green design. The initiatives for making products green must be driven by the enterprises and the consumers themselves. Without a strong involvement of users in “experimental” research, it is quite likely that the products and services developed will not meet acceptance. In parallel, the development and design of green products by enterprises has to be ruled by clear visions as to how one can obtain by green design optimal value of the materials, energy and other resources used for manufacturing the product and throughout its life.
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Environmental Technologies
The innovation potential for industry and the service sector is extremely favourable. In addition to the business-to-consumer market in the form of green product development there is also the businessto-business market in the form of development and production of environmentally-friendly materials and process technologies. Life cycle analyses in particular have major potential with regard to the development of methods and dissemination of the concept among industrial enterprises. The key challenge lies in coupling these competences with a dynamic design co-operation among enterprises, consumers and R&D institutions. If prices are high, only a minority will demand green products for their environmental friendliness alone. However, the potential market for green and cleaner products is expected to be large in the light of growing environmental awareness among private consumers and enterprises. Market development is closely interlinked with the existence of a number of political instruments such as environmental taxes, producer responsibility, legislation on emissions etc. A particular role could also be played by public administration, which could reinforce the demand for green products and services by adapting its procurement rules.
4.6
Environmental, resource and systems management
4.6.1 Current trends and developments Several of the aforementioned technological developments and design principles are options available to improve on the environmental impacts of human activity and of industry in particular. In many instances, they can only be realised when they are integrated in the operations and practices of firms and of entire production-consumption chains. This requires often combining them with organisational and management innovations at the levels of the firm and the production chain, in some respects also at the level of a sector. For instance, environmental management practices need to be introduced at firm level to monitor environmental impacts and feed them back into decision-making processes. Product-services and green products require a full control of the production chain from “cradle to grave” (i.e. from resource extraction to final service) in order to ensure that the environmental impacts over the life-cycle of a product are minimised. And finally, standards, like for instance for recycling, need to be realised beyond the level of the production chain in order to enable cross-cutting solutions. In addition to these management approaches for environmental production and products, the resource base itself needs to be managed in an environmentally respectful way, maintained and remedied if necessary. Engineering technologies are equally needed for this purpose as resource management techniques. 1. Environmental management in firms Environmental management at the level of firms can draw on a range of tools and quite well established practices (LCA, monitoring, management systems, audits, etc.). It appears that environmental management at firm level is not so much a matter of developing new approaches, but rather of diffusion and uptake of the existing ones. For instance, a large-scale survey found that the Environmental Management Auditing Scheme EMAS has a positive influence on environmental process and product innovations as well as on environmental organisational innovations (Rennings et al. 2003), but that adoption especially in SMEs does not tend to be sustainable. The research needs on environmental management systems in the narrow sense are thus limited to making them more user-friendly and combining them with appropriate monitoring techniques. In a broader sense, however, we need to better understand the behaviour of firms with respect to environmental management practices, and how the use of environmental management could become more widespread in response to either incentives or regulations. Environmental Technologies
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Box 5: Integrated environmental management in the food industry: the I3 project for sustainable food management The food industry is a prime example for resource intensive production. The main factors in this respect are raw material consumption from agricultural production and labour utilisation in food processing. In addition to these cost-driving aspects, the food industry is to consider requirements of hygiene food quality as well as environmental standards. It is from this particular point that the development of an integrated management model has been initiated that allows for corporate management according to the mentioned parameters of sustainability. In addition to the integration of the management areas, the influence of other economic actors on corporate sustainability shall be taken into account and evaluated. Upstream and downstream processes of food processing along the value chain (agriculture, retail trade) as well as an interregional production network are at the centre of interest from this particular point of view. One essential instrument within the project is the computer aided modelling of the material, substance and energy flows induced by food processing. This already standardised method (for instance LCA, input output balances) has to be extended by the modelling of “risk flows” for food quality and hygiene (a novel approach) in order to make the integration of the additional management aspect possible. The model shall cover the value chain as well as production networks. Indicators for the assessment of the different aspects of corporate sustainability in the food industry will be developed. In the field of finance and environment readily available methods can be used. Still, these have to be checked for suitability for the food industry and – if necessary - be adapted. Sustainability indicators for hygiene and quality have to be developed. The bringing together of data processing and assessment of the different fields in a computer model makes visible the interrelations between the diverse factors. Ex ante (simulation) as well as ex post assessment (controlling) makes sustainable management against the backdrop of the different constraints (food quality, hygiene, environmental carrying capacity and monetary solvency) possible and at the same time allows for the optimisation of single factors. Data sources for the management model are corporate IT systems as well as IT systems of other economic actors (suppliers and customers). Source: Federal Austrian Research Programme “Factory of Tomorrow” (www.fabrikderzukunft.at)
2. Environmental production chain management The environmental management of production chains is essential for the realisation of an integrated product policy and for green product services. For all stages of the product life-cycle (design, resource extraction, productionn, maintenance, use and after-use/recycling of the product) low-cost, low raw-resource intensive solutions need to be found. This will require moving towards equally sophisticated solutions of supply chain management as, for instance, in the automotive industry (e.g. just-in-time production), where the control of highly distributed production systems – though not for environmental purposes – is already common practice. Similarly, locally integrated production concepts, for instance under title of industrial ecology, have been implemented successfully in some locations. Large-scale chemical firms like BASF in Germany operate highly integrated production plants to optimise on all resource flows. Among the difficulties of environmental production chain management are the uncertainties about acceptance, both among firms along the production chain and among end users. Apart from the acceptance of green products and services, the recycling of material and products and thus the closing of the material cycle at the consumer end of the chain pose serious problems. Until now, recycling could probably be regarded as the most important segment of environmental supply chain management. The difficulties of recycling are well known from the “Grüner Punkt” system in Germany, where issues of responsibility (who pays for it?), of standards (how to ensure quality of recycled material?), of quality ensurance (how to select clean material fractions?) and matter of public acceptance of differentiated collection of waste (where to put which type of waste?) come together.
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Environmental Technologies
The management of the food supply chain represent a particular case that can be considered as relating to Environmental Technologies in the wider sense, where issues of food safety and the corresponding institutional and regulatory framework come into play. 3. Resource management and remediation This covers a broad spectrum of technologies and management solution for the efficient exploitation of the resource base, as well as for its remediation/mitigation. The main areas where further research will be needed in the future can be summarised as follows: -
Sustainable agriculture and forestry management, which is a major issue touching upon cultivation practices and the maintenance of the fertility of agricultural land and the sustainable management of forests.
-
Sustainable soil management (in particular of non-agricultural land) which for the foreseeable future will remain a hot topic with respect to old industrial sites. Especially in the New Member States, large stretches of contaminated soil are still in need of remediation.
-
Sustainable water use and management (including wastewater treatment), which is of particular relevance in urban areas, but equally for industry. Water savings are also a major issue for agriculture, especially in arid regions (e.g. Southern Spain).
-
Sustainable air pollution prevention and reduction, where complementary to end-of-pipe and integrated technologies in different industrial sectors also technologies are considered that aim at reducing the amount of pollutants (NOx, methane, CFCs) or of CO2 in the atmosphere (CO2 storage and sequestration).
-
Waste minimisation and disposal, i.e. technologies aiming to manage residual waste (e.g. landfills, etc.), to minimise waste streams, and to exploit waste economically and feed it back into the production cycle.
-
Sustainable energy supply and management, covering (in addition to generation technologies) the solutions for saving energy, including energy services. See on energy technologies also the separate report of the HLG.
4. Systems monitoring and policies There are a number of developments in environmental and systems management that cut across the the areas introduced above. First of all, monitoring techniques are an essential precondition for all management approaches. Sophisticated, but at the same time easy to use and cheap monitoring solutions are needed. Advances in nanotechnology (e.g. sensors) as well as in ICT (e.g. data processing) contribute to addressing this issue. In all cases, we are confronted with complex systems that need to be managed. The understanding of complex systems and the possibilities and limitations of their management is a research area that is of great relevance here. Also the aforementioned society-environment interactions, environmental monitoring and general approaches like adaptive management represent a foundation for environmental management. This points to the fact that system management is also a major issue beyond the level of the individual firm, the level of individual sectors and and even the level of entire production chains (e.g. relating to standards). In fact, system management involves many aspects of public policy. Regulations and incentives are known to be crucial for the development and uptake of environmental and resource management technologies. For the future, and especially in view of the need to manage system innovations and long-term transitions to sustainable production-consumption systems requires a Environmental Technologies
35
better understanding of the possibilities and limitations of policy interventions. Policy research will be needed in the future to be able to design policy principles to guide such long-term changes.
4.6.2 The situation in Europe Much research and development work has been done over the past two decades in the area of environmental management at firm level. The tools are essentially there, but they need to be come more user-friendly, there must be real incentives for firms to adopt them. The next step will be to move from the firm level to the level of entire production-consumption chains and their management. This is an area where currently a lot of highly relevant research work is under way in Europe. Beyond the level of production-consumption chains, the long-term management of environmental system innovations will have to be addressed in the coming years. Here, public policy and governance issues will be pertinent and will require both research on the role of policy instruments as well as on long-term policy strategies to guide transition processes. Very advanced policy experiments are about to be implemented in some Member States that could serve as models for this kind of system management. Resource management is a specific area of activity that is rooted in the territory and thus to a limited extent only subject to international competition. Within Europe, many of the aforementioned activities have been or are still in the hand of (local) public authorities and embedded in local and regional planning processes. The opening up of these areas to private sector firms could change the perspectives for resource management in the future.
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5
Conditions for the realisation of Environmental Technologies and innovations
The factors and driving forces to enable the emergence of Environmental Technologies innovations are best studied in a systems framework (Weber/Hemmelskamp 2005). However, as a first simplified approximation, it is useful to take a look at different categories of barriers and drivers to innovation and diffusion that hamper the exploitation of new environmental technology. Obviously, the sophistication of the underlying model for understanding barriers to and drivers of environmental innovation increases when moving from simple end-of-pipe technologies via process-integrated technologies to system innovations. In general terms, environmental innovations are perceived as beneficial by European companies. In a survey on the impact of clean production on employment in Europe, this could be shown for different types of environmentally beneficial innovations (see Figure 7). Figure 7: The adoption of different types of environmentally beneficial innovations
Source: IMPRESS survey of 1594 companies in five European countries (DE, CH, IT, UK, NL), cited from Kemp et al. (2004)
5.1
Barriers to and drivers of Environmental Technologies and innovations
In spite of this general willingness to adopt environmental technological, there are many barriers to their uptake. On the other hand, future developments in environmental technology and innovation will be strongly driven by technological as well as regulatory factors. These main factors of influence on the future development and uptake of Environmental Technologies and innovations can be differenti-
Environmental Technologies
37
ated according to the following categories:23 technological, financial, Labour force-related, managerial, organisational, regulatory and policy related, user-related, producer-related, systemic. Subsequently, an assessment of the importance of these barriers and drivers in Europe will be given: 1. Technological factors -
The availability of technologies to meet specific application requirements does not appear to be a major problem in Europe. However, in some areas there are still alternative substances lacking to substitute for hazardous components (e.g. lead, mercury, etc.).
-
New major opportunities are likely to be offered by developments mainly in general purpose technologies (materials, nanotechnology, biotechnology, ICT) but these opportunities are still subject to major uncertainties.
-
Meeting technological performance criteria under certain economic requirements and process design standards still represents a major technological barrier, sometimes due to a lack of standards and harmonised testing.
-
The growing sophistication and complexity inherent to highly integrated productionconsumption systems poses a barrier to the improvement of environmental characteristics.
-
There is widespread scepticism in Europe about the performance of certain Environmental Technologies and therefore a reluctance to invest. This is due on the one hand to a general reluctance to invest in new technology, but also a question of trying to avoid major teasing problems.
-
Process inflexibilities and ways to overcome them are an issue in some sectors (e.g. pulp and paper), but which is increasingly alleviated by new process control.
2. Financial factors -
Research and development costs of Environmental Technologies are significant and too high, especially for SMEs.
-
Switching costs to new environmentally more friendly processes can be very high, in particular due to the uncertainties about consumer acceptance and perception of product quality.
-
Cost calculations and cost-benefit analyses are often not comprehensive enough and neglect important cost and benefit elements (e.g. relating to masked operating costs of current technologies). This applies both to firm level and to the macro-economic level. CBA is only of partial help, as it aims at reducing multiple cost dimensions into one dimension.
-
The lack of understanding and difficulty in predicting future liability costs (e.g. regarding waste disposal) is more of a problem in the US than in Europe.
-
Short-term profitability requirements result in low tolerance for longer payback periods of equipment investment. This is becoming a major issue in Europe, where demands for profitability are getting tighter.
-
Alleged drawback in competitiveness as other companies are investing less in environmental technologies is an issue in some export-oriented industries, for instance also in the context of Kyoto-related emission trading.
23 Based on and extending the work by Ashford (1993), Kemp et al. (2004) and the extensions made by Rennings et al. (2003).
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Environmental Technologies
-
Companies are financially (and even technically) tied up due to recent investment in other technologies that are central to their core business are lack of financial means.
-
In many European countries the generalised lack of flexibility in capital investment with respect to Environmental Technologies due to low profit margin.
-
Risk capital tends to be scarce in several European countries, and even more so with respect to investment in Environmental Technologies.
-
Economies of scale prevent smaller companies from investing in Environmental Technologies options (e.g., in-plant recovery technologies).
-
Investment in process modifications can be inefficient for old companies; this is an inherent issue in many industries with major capital investment (e.g. energy supply, pulp and paper)
3. Laborforce-related factors -
Lack of personnel in charge of the management, control, and implementation of environmental management (and related) technology. This issue tends to be of less importance today as more and more firms, especially large firms, have established environmental management systems and defined corresponding responsibilities.
-
Lack of knowledge and competencies, e.g. for environmental design and management.
-
Lack of specialised training and education at secondary and tertiary level to prepare for environmental technology development and operation
-
Reluctance to employ trained engineers capable of developing and designing technologies along the lines of environmental design principles.
-
Increased management requirements as a result of implementing more sophisticated Environmental Technologies.
4. Managerial and organisational factors -
Lack of top-level management commitment is still a major problem in many firms, also large firms. In fact, environmental considerations continue to be a second-order issue for most firms. At the same time, the role of top-leel management is key for driving change towards Environmental Technologies at firm level.
-
Lack of knowledge and awareness of the potential of Environmental Technologies is still a major barrier to the uptake of Environmental Technologies.
-
Lack of engineering cooperation to break hierarchical separation of areas of responsibility (e.g., production engineers do not cooperate with environmental engineers in charge of the treatment and disposal of hazardous substances). This is major issue in Europe where disciplinary and corporate barriers tend to be high.
-
Risk averseness and eluctance on principle to initiate change in the company.
-
Lack of education, training, and motivation of employees to take environmental issues and management seriously (e.g. in good housekeeping methods or operation and maintenance of recovery technologies).
-
Lack of competent supervisors able to introduce and guide employees.
5. Regulatory and policy factors Environmental Technologies
39
-
Depreciation and tax laws do not represent a major barrier to Environmental Technologies, but could be used to enhance their uptake.
-
Uncertainty about future environmental regulation and targets contributes to delaying investment in Environmental Technologies. This is regarded as a major issue in Europe, in spite of some well-known good practices (e.g. WEEE regulation waste from electrical and electronic equipment)
-
Regulatory focus on compliance and timing of regulatory standards may result in investment in conventional end-of-pipe technologies rather than in process integrated technologies.24
-
Subsidies to non-Environmental Technologies (e.g. conventional energy technologies, coal) prevent transparency of real social costs and hinder innovation and diffusion of Environmental Technologies. This is a major issue in several industrial sectors in Europe.
-
Internalisation of external costs of polluting technologies is still insufficient, but could become a major boost with the widespread use of market-based instruments (e.g. road tolls, emission trading, etc.)
-
Insufficient attention to environmental considerations in public procurement policies.
-
Differences in environmental regulation across countries and regions prevent the establishment of common European market for Environmental Technologies
6. User-related factors -
Tight product rather than performance specifications prevent the use of environmentally friendly solutions. (e.g. for military purposes).
-
Risk of customer loss if output properties change slightly or if product cannot be delivered for a certain period.
-
Environmental services and products require a different attitude and different behavious from users.
-
Unwillingness to accept necessary changes in behaviour (e.g. recycling, mobility, etc.)
7. Supplier-related factors -
Lack of supplier support in terms of product advertising, good maintenance service, expertise of process adjustments, and so forth.
-
Moving towards service rather than product delivery requires new organisational and business concepts for suppliers.
-
Renewables resources with intermittent availability (seasonal, daily, etc.) need to be delivered continuously.
8. Systemic factors -
Lack of cooperation between users and suppliers due to conflictive organisational interests could be overcome by establishing interface organisations.
24 On the importance of time strategies in environmental and technology policy, see Sartorius/Zundel (2004).
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Environmental Technologies
-
Path-dependencies and lock-ins are becoming more and more important in complex production-consumption systems, giving rise to issues of timing for innovation and policy (“windows of opportunity”).
-
Coordination problems to ensure the realisation of long-term collective transition strategies impose new challenges to governance and policy-making, especially also for horizontal and vertical policy coordination.
These factors of influence can be observed to varying degrees for most of the Environmental Technologies and innovations described in earlier chapters of this report. Most of them can also be interpreted as barriers but also as drivers that could have a stimulating effect on Environmental Technologies when being appropriately shaped. Environmental regulations, for instance, have clearly been drivers of innovation and competitiveness in many sectors. There are also major differences across Member States with respect to the role and importance of these barriers. For example, a comparative study showed that financial barriers are perceived as more important in Germany than in the UK (Hitchens et al. 2003, cited from Kemp et al. (2004), p. 25). However, the general framework outlined in the Environmental Technologies Action Plan (EC 2004) addresses several of the factors mentioned above.
5.2
The role of policy: From environmental policy instruments to integrated strategies
European policy has been one of the main drivers of environmental innovation, with around 4/5 of environmental policies in the MS derived from EU regulations and directives (RIVM 2004, p. 13). While regulation was the preferred approach in the past, we have seen in recent years a shift towards market-based instruments, voluntary agreements and target-setting. It is now increasingly recognised that a wide spectrum of policies exerts an influence on environmental innovations and technologies. Therefore, attempts have been made in some Member States to better coordinate different policy areas in order to make the different impulses coherent. This concerns in particular the interaction between environmental and innovation policy (Rennings et al. 2003). Finally, we can observe that integrated and long-term strategies are being implemented in some pioneering countries. Table 3: Overview of environmental policy instruments
Source: Kemp (1997), cited from Kemp et al. (2004) Table 3 gives an overview of the set of classical environmental policy instruments that have been increasingly refined over the past two decades. Several studies have tried to assess their individual impact on environmental innovation in specific sectors, but there is rather limited conclusive and generalised information available on their impacts. Environmental Technologies
41
Whereas environmental policy instruments have tended to address primarily the demand side of innovation, technology and innovation policy instruments have been used to stimulate the supply side. The impulses from technology and innovation policy on the one hand and from environmental policy on the other have often been contradictory. Similarly, environmental technology programmes have been set up in many European countries (see the overview in Chapter 2) to promote research and development, and innovation policy has tended to improve the framework conditions for innovation; though hardly with a specific attention to environmental innovations. Newly developed Environmental Technologies did not make it to the market because of uncertainties about regulations to apply (e.g. for combined heat and power plants). It has been recognised that the synergetic effects between different policy instruments need to be exploited in order to promote Environmental Technologies effectively. However, the contradictions between policies are not restricted to the level of instruments equally apply at the level of strategies. This can again be exemplified by looking at the contradictions between technology and innovation policy on the one hand and environmental policy on the other (Remoe 2005). Coordinated policy strategies are particularly important for system innovations in order to create stable long-term perspectives for innovating firms. As a consequence, a better coordination between policies is now increasingly sought, departing from a focus on individual instruments towards well-tuned stratetegies to embed adaptive combinations of instruments (Rennings et al. 2003). However, coordination with respect to system innovation is not only a matter of better coordinating policies; it also requires aligning or at least cohere the individual strategies of the variety of industrial, research, policy and societal actors that contribute to shaping Environmental Technologies and innovations, especially when they are geared towards long-term objectives that cannot easily be achieved through market mechanisms. Other mechanisms like networking, vision-building and foresight are needed as “coordination devices” of collective strategy development for realising system innovations in society. Obviously, these soft coordination mechanisms do not contradict the use of regulatory, market-based environmental policy or other technology policy instruments; on the contrary, the objective is to embed these specific measures into a common strategic framework. It is evident that from this perspective the role of policy changes; it takes on moderating and supervising functions while delegating responsibilities to other actors and stakeholder in charge of implementation. This insight has been taken up in several European countries and led to pioneering attempts for developing long-term strategies, often guided by the principle of sustainability. Especially in the Netherlands, the Nordic countries and the German-speaking Member States such integrated policy approaches have been tested. Two of these advanced approaches have acquired some prominence under the headlines of Transition Management and of Lead Markets:. -
42
The approach of transition management has been developed in the Netherlands and is currently being implemented in a number of domains, mainly relating to infrastructure (water management, energy) but also for production systems (chemicals). Its initial policy application was in the context of the 4th Dutch Environmental Policy Plan. Transition management is a systems-oriented approaches that builds on past experiences with transition processes (e.g. from horses to cars, from coal to gas, from fossil to renewable fuels, etc.) aims at steering long-term (i.e. 30-50 years) changes. Transitions are understood as multi-level phenomena that encompass new emerging technological niches as well as broader socio-technical regimes and wider changes at socio-cultural level. As a consequence, Transition Management aims to induce changes at different levels simultaneously, e.g. by initiating technological experiments in niches, by changing the regulatory, institutional and policy frameworks or by creating new networks of collaboration, and by developing guiding visions that serve as an orientation and guidance for the actors involved in transitions. Transition management is thus a clear departure from a central steering approach and aims at multi-level, multi-actor learning processes in society.
Environmental Technologies
-
5.3
A different policy approach has been developed under the headline of lead markets (Beise/Rennings 2003). It is based on the observation that some industries in European countries have set a trend that was taken up later on in many other countries and thus enabled these first-mover countries industries to build up a competitive advantage in growing markets for Environmental Technologies. Examples are the wind turbine industry in Denmark, or small-scale combined heat and power systems in the Netherlands. The reasons behind the emergence of these competitive industries for Environmental Technologies was a conducive policy framework that, for instance by way of regulation or financial incentives, stimulated research and development from both the supply and the demand side. Similar regulations or incentives were introduced in other countries at a later stage when the industries and technologies had already been developed in the leading countries. This shows that first of all that a well-tuned pro-active policy can be favourable to the emergence of a competitive industry for Environmental Technologies, if there is a strong competence in the respective technological areas and if there is a strong home market.
Cross-cutting issues
In this chapter, it has been argued that there has been a shift from a single-instruments perspective in policy to more comprehensive and well-coordinated policy strategies involving several levels and actors. This is in line with the shift from end-of-pipe and process-integrated technologies to green products/services and system innovations. The use of policy instruments and strategies depend to a significant extent on the national policy styles and policy regimes. Usually, policy regimes are distinguished along two main dimensions: quality of dialogue and the independence of government. Denmark, Japan and the Netherlands are countries that rank high on both dimensions and that are quite successful in responding to environmental challenges by means of advanced policies. The issue of policy styles is important to assess the applicability of approaches like transition management, because it tends to require a rather cooperative policy climate to be successful. The transfer of experiences from individual countries and sectors and others should thus be made with great care. As perhaps most obvious in the case of green products and services, new competencies are needed to realise environmental innovations. This concerns, for instance, the application of new design principles for green products, but also new tools for conducting life-cycle analysis. These are matters that ought to be dealt with already in the context of training and education, both at university and in professional training. Finally, the dimension of time has so far not been addressed in detail, although appropriate time strategies are crucial in order to stimulate system innovations. It is well known from past experience that there are often only short “windows of opportunity” for establishing major new technological trajectory (Sartorius/Zundel 2004), for example after a major structural reform like the liberalisation of the power supply system. Policy initiatives that are geared towards these windows of opportunity have better chances to have an impact than otherwise.
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6
A SWOT-synthesis of research and innovation
The importance of Environmental Technologies is derived from the double function they are supposed to play in our society. First of all, they shall obviously contribute to limiting or restricting the potential damage to the environment resulting from human activity. Secondly, Environmental Technologies are expected to help foster the performance of our economies by contributing to enhance the competitiveness of industry and the ability to innovate. It is in both respects that the notion of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats needs to be interpreted. Moreover, they ability to exploit the potential of Environmental Technologies depends on the ability of our societies to innovate and adopt these technologies. This SWOT analysis refers to the situation of research and innovation in the field of Environmental Technologies, covering all five areas of Environmental Technologies discussed in this report. Strengths and weaknesses thus refer to the current situation in Europe in research and innovation, as far as applicable in comparison with other world regions. Opportunities and threats refer mainly to emerging developments in the context of research and innovation on Environmental Technologies, i.e. developments that may foster or hinder the development and uptake of Environmental Technologies. Key technological developments in areas outside the range of what is considered as Environmental Technologies today are also regarded as future opportunities.
6.1 -
Europe has a well recognised scientific competence in environmental research, as well as in research on the impact of socio-economic behaviour on the environment.
-
In some important segments of general purpose technologies (e.g. miniaturised sensors, new materials, some segments of nanotechnology) European research and development is leading edge worldwide.
-
In many fields of sectoral Environmental Technologies European firms are at the global forefront of technological developments, building on now almost thirty years of experience.
-
Although the picture may differ across Member States, European firms tend to be proactive in establishing environmental monitoring and management schemes.
6.2
44
Strengths in research and innovation
Weaknesses in research and innovation
-
In spite of the qualities of European research in some generic technologies, it is confronted with major difficulties in others. Especially in some segments of ICT and nanotechnology, other world regions are better positioned. In biotechnology, the debates about its possible negative impacts have undoubtedly contributed to a shift of the centre of gravity in this research area to the US and Asia.
-
In terms of green products, ecodesign and new environmentally friendly productservices, Europe may be at the forefront of global developments, but undoubtedly a lot still remains to be done in this area.
-
Research dealing with the interactions and the metabolism between natural and social systems still needs to make major steps forward before it can establish itself as the new paradigm guiding policy-making. Analytical as well as management approaches based on insights from complex systems research will have to be adapted to the requirements of management and policy.
Environmental Technologies
-
Many firms in Europe are still not sufficiently innovative with respect to Environmental Technologies and are lagging behind in environmental performance. These companies need to become more environmentally proactive, a development that tends to require a change in mindsets.
-
In the end, research and technology do not seem to the main bottlenecks for environmental innovation but rather the introduction and diffusion of these innovations.
-
This holds in particular for the kind of innovations that are most needed for the future, i.e. what has been called “system innovations”. Although many of technical solutions may be available or at least conceivable, strategies for their integrated uptake are still widely missing.
-
Aspects of environmental management have started to be introduced over the past years in education and training programmes, especially at universities. However, environmental design and issues related to long-term environmental strategies are not yet sufficiently established in educational curriculae.
6.3
Opportunities in the context
-
There is wide range of sectoral Environmental Technologies under continuous development and improvement that offer wide spectrum of new technological opportunities. Among these sectoral Environmental Technologies, there are obviously a number of “big issues” as well that are expected to exert a major impact over the coming years. Fuel cell technology can be mentioned as an example here that offers big promises for mobile as well as stationary applications, both large- and small-scale
-
Major new impulses for Environmental Technologies are expected from generic technologies (new materials, life sciences/biotechnology, nanotechnology or ICT). Environmental Technologies tend to be a major user of the more fundamental insights in these generic or multi-purpose areas of research and technology. As highlighted in the EU-funded project “Future of Manufacturing”, these areas offer major opportunities for enhancing the environmental characteristics of production processes as well as of products.
-
While the first generation of Environmental Technologies has focused on production processes, we are now in a phase where green products and services and their design stand in the foreground. This requires obviously the use of the best available production technologies, but also new design principles to, for instance, facilitate recycling or modular upgrading of products are needed. Being able to control the entire production chain from cradle to grave becomes imperative for ensuring the “green” characteristics of products and productservices.
-
While individual production chains may still be coupled to individual firms or networks thereof, there is still a third level of what we call system innovations that needs to be considered. If indeed a major shift in efficiency by a factor of 10 shall be realised over the coming decades, or a shift to a more consistent metabolism between nature and society, then very fundamental transitions towards sustainable production systems are needed that will require the use of new technological solutions, but will also entail significant changes in user behaviour, in the organisation of our industrial activities, and in the structure of our economic landscape. To seize this opportunities, the main challenge consists of devising approaches to manage these transitions as collective phenomena, involving a wide range of societal actors and stakeholders. This will require that alternative systems move at the centre-stage of policy debates, and beyond eco-products and new technology, as is for instance still the case in ETAP.
-
Europe has established very sophisticated systems of environmental regulation. This system may be regarded as complicated by some, but several “good practices” can also be
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identified. There is not doubt that it has already been very effective in improving environmental quality as well as in stimulating the emergence of a very competitive Environmental Technologies sector in Europe. Updating the regulatory framework in an appropriate manner can continue to stimulate environmental innovation. -
European consumers and users are very sensitive and competent with respect to environmental issues and thus a major driving force behind the establishment and consolidation of Environmental Technologies in Europe. Their critical qualities are important to ensure that “robust” technologies are developed that find widespread acceptance in society.
-
The insight that “there is relatively little empirical evidence to support the hypothesis that environmental regulations have had a large adverse effect on competitiveness, however that elusive term is defined.” (Jaffe et al. 1995) is widely supported nowadays. This shift in mental framework in decision-making increases the likelihood to overcome the often assumed trade-off between environment and economy by introducing innovative policy frameworks. Environmental Technologies are increasingly seen as a necessity that offers major benefits and opportunities in economic, social/user-related and environmental terms, if our full knowledge and scientific understanding is intelligently brought to bear in innovation.
6.4
46
Threats in the context
-
Europe could be falling behind in generic technologies, simply because other world regions are faster and less restrictive in developing and adopting new generic technologies (in particular nano- and biotechnologies). This could have adverse effects not only on Europe’s competitive position in general, but also with respect to its performance in the field of Environmental Technologies.
-
The conditions for investing in Environmental Technologies in Europe tend to be rather detrimental. A general unwillingness to invest in risky and uncertain new technologies can be observed. Tight investment criteria can make long-term investment in Environmental Technologies unviable, enhanced by uncertainties about regulatory frameworks and policy objectives.
-
In spite of their undoubted success in Europe, environmental regulations are often perceived as cumbersome, complicated and costly. To this adds the diversity of regulatory systems in different Member States.
-
There is a clear lack of transparency with respect to the assignment of the real social costs of technologies to the polluter. Apart from some exceptions, external costs are still not internalised using market-based instruments, neither have (hidden) subsidies for polluting technologies been removed. Changing the current framework could then obviously be a major opportunity for enhancing the introduction of Environmental Technologies.
-
Organisational and regulatory patterns in some sectors (e.g. energy supply) are often not very conducive to the introduction of Environmental Technologies.
-
For long, the debate about Environmental Technologies has been dominated by the tradeoff between competitiveness on the one hand and investments in environmental performance on the other. This argument, while at least partly unjustified, could continue to play a significant role in policy debates, and there is a risk that this over-simplified perspective will lead to inappropriate policies.
-
Both with respect to the wide range of sectoral Environmental Technologies and generic technologies, we are still far from being able to fully understand the impacts of these technologies on the environment, not to speak of the long-term second-order interdependencies at play between using these technologies on the one hand and the changes this may bring about in ecological systems. The complexity of the interactions can still not be captured Environmental Technologies
by current scientific methods, with climate modelling and the development of mitigation/adaptation strategies just being an example in case. The emergence of unexpected effects and uncertain impacts of newly emerging S&T fields are a recurrent phenomenon that – if not taken seriously – can lead to a great deal of - often justified - scepticism. -
Too much attention is still paid to the technological dimension of environmental innovation, i.e. to technical fixes for deeply rooted problems. Eco-products and other specific new technologies are certainly important, but if too little attention is paid to the development of alternative (socio-technical) systems, it is unlikely that the environmental challenge can be tackled in a way that is also economically viable. This lack of system orientation can also be observed in recent policy initiatives like ETAP.
-
The shift from clean processes to clean products has also shifted attention from isolated technological solutions to the recognition that the impacts and the benefits of Environmental Technologies depends to a large extent on their organisational embedding at different levels. While there may be several principles and approaches of environmental management at firm level that have proven to be beneficial in many cases, their widespread adoption is still confronted with many barriers. Even more difficult is the realisation of organisational structures at the levels of sectors, supply chains or regions (e.g. industrial ecology) that help reducing environmental impacts. However, if these organisational issues are not successfully tackled, many of the benefits of Environmental Technologies can not be reaped.
-
There are obviously several different barriers to the development and adoption of Environmental Technologies. Many of those are at a very specific level and have to do cost developments of individual technologies, with specific regulations in sectors or with the established practices of use of intermediate or final users. More problematic are what we may call systemic barriers and path-dependencies. Organisational structures tend to be rigid, as well as the mental frameworks of developers. These are the most difficult but decisive barriers to give a boost to the development of green producs and services, as well as to more farreaching system innovations.
-
Long-term strategies towards establishing system innovations that are in line with the principles of (environmental) sustainability require adequate collective strategies that need to be guided by coordinated policies and political processes. The coordinated behaviour of a wide range of actors in society is will be crucial for meeting long-term objectives associated with Environmental Technologies.-
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7
Conclusions: Looking ahead towards a new research agenda
7.1
Scenarios for Environmental Technologies in Europe
The analysis in this paper has stressed the need to go beyond system optimisation and integration, and to induce transitions towards environmental system innovations and technologies. Such a trajectory promises to reconcile economic with environmental imperatives for the future, but requires coordinated long-term strategies. The likelihood and shape of such transitions depend on contextual developments that can be captured by different future scenarios. Three such scenarios can be sketched that represent different context for the future pathway of research on Environmental Technologies in Europe:
48
-
Europe as the lead market for system innovations: Europe is taking the global lead in advancing Environmental Technologies and in particular in realising long-term strategies for system innovations. These developments are supported and enabled by the potential of new generic technologies and guided by the principle of metabolic consistency. Anticipating and preparing for the foreseeable challenges of rising oil prices and global change, Europe puts the emphasis on applying the most advanced Environmental Technologies. This will require strong competencies also in several of the general purpose technologies, which offer a major environmental potential. The unleashing of this environmental potential requires a careful and well-balanced design of framework conditions and incentives for research and innovation that help shaping technology in an environmentally benign direction, for instance by addressing the main barriers to environmental innovation addressed in this report. The lead role of Europe in Environmental Technologies may require a number of difficult adjustment processes to be made to established organisational and regulatory frameworks, but the efforts pays of by helping to shape future markets and avoiding remediation costs, for instance in response to climate change.
-
The dominance of the conventional growth paradigm: The old debates resurge where environmental innovation is seen as a cost, and regulation is rejected, simplified liberal market models dominate. An over-reaction with respect to environmental issues can be observed in response to the serious economic crisis in Europe. In spite of major efforts to achieve the Lisbon objectives, unemployment and economic stagnation continue to challenge Europe. The growing internationalisation of industries and services puts Europe under pressure to compete with Asian countries where the environmental pressure is not yet perceived as sufficiently pressing to induce a departure from the classical growth paradigm. As a consequence, environmental objectives are increasingly sacrificed and efforts concentrated on the economic and social objectives. Although the demographic shift may alleviate the unemployment pressure in Europe, the economic situation does not allow making strategic investments into environmental issues. Globally, we can observe a very confrontative climate over the access to vital resources, especially oil, steel and other non-ferrous metals. This gives selectively rise to the adoption of advanced recycling technologies
-
Global governance for environmental innovation: international agreements help overcome the conventional competitiveness debate, global change initiatives, global standards, etc. Europe does not stand out as compared to other major industrial regions in the world. In the follow-up to the second Kyoto-agreement in 2011, the US and China vigorously support a globally coordinated policy framework to prevent the almost inevitable process of global warming. Although fossil fuels are not exhausted yet, prices have passed well beyond the 100 €/barrel threshold, a development that enforces a strict efficiency regime and a move towards alternative energy resources. However, scarcity of fossil fuels does not lead to major conflicts, but rather to a cooperative search for solutions. It is not unlikely that large-scale technologies will witness a renaissance in this scenario, as several of these require intense
Environmental Technologies
international cooperation (e.g. solar fields in the sahara, or hydrogen from water power in Canada). Both the first and the third scenario open up the perspective to effectively move onto a transition path, though each reflecting different roles for Europe. Whereas in the first scenario Europe adopts the pro-active role of a pacemakter, the third scenario is characterised by globally concerted strategies. The second scenario indicates that the global pressure on the European economy prevents pursuing a pro-active or a concerted strategy in support of Environmental Technologies and innovation. The three scenarios differ significantly in terms of governance patterns for the collective management of transitions to environmental system innovations. The most advanced (and challenging) solutions are likely to be found in the lead market scenario, where the comparatively restricted range of European actors could at least in principle agree on joint long-term strategies. Experience so far has shown that globally agreed strategies do not tend to be particularly challenging in terms of the targets set, but require major efforts even to agree on common minimum standards.
7.2
Where Europe stands and where it needs to go
The analysis in the report has shown that Europe is quite advanced and well positioned in a wide range of Environmental Technologies. In order to maintain this position, further attempts will be needed to take benefit from emerging scientific and technological developments, in particular in relation with generic technologies and with respect to the design of environmentally sound products and services. However, individual technologies, products and services are not enough. A longterm change or transition to sustainable production-consumption systems is needed, relying on what has been called system innovations. System innovations and transitions need to rely on a new and more sophisticated understanding of environmental impacts. Current models tend to be too simplistic and neglect higher-order effects and interdependencies between society and environment. Ground-laying research on these matters will be key to give better orientation to corporate decision-making and management. This kind of orientation is also needed with respect to the different research activities in generic and sectoral technologies, as well as for product and service development. It is also crucial as guidance for government policy that is supposed to take a leading and moderating role with respect to these longterm transitions. Considering the developments in policy at national and European level as discussed in this report, four outstanding policy issues need to be highlighted that go beyond the realm of research and technology policy: -
The need for stimulating system innovations: The time when specific incremental innovations were sufficient to make significant steps forward in environmental performance are gone. Today, more sophisticated changes are needed. Multi-level and multi-actor transformations, covering local initiatives as well as macro-level policy frameworks need to be stimulated and mediated by policy, following models like Transition Management in the Netherlands. Well-designed combinations of framework conditions (incentives, regulations, marketbased instruments) for Environmental Technologies are needed, together with serious attempts to remove organisational and institutional barriers to the introduction of environmenttal system innovations.
-
The need for policy coordination: For system innovations to be induced successfully, a better coordination of policies is needed, i.e. a major improvement in the coherence of policy initiatives taken in different realms, ranging from RTD-policy and environmental regulation, to competition policy and infrastructure development. In particular, the Cardiff objective to inte-
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49
grate environmental considerations effectively into other policy areas needs to be put into practice. This applies both to the vertical division of labour between European, national and sub-national policies and to horizontal coordination between different policy areas. The Open Method of Coordination has been quite successful in a number of policy areas already, facilitating mutual learning between Member States’ policies. Other consultative and coordination mechanism are being put in place, like ERA-Nets or foresight processes. -
The need to get the incentives for environmental technologies right: The incentives for firms to take environmental considerations fully into account in their decision-making are not yet sufficient. This is partly due to the still insufficient internalisation of external costs to the environment, partly a result of a lack of information about the potentials of Environmental Technologies and management practices. In both respects, initiatives have been taken at national as well as European level. To realise such a significant shift in incentives, a changes in mindset in industry and policy will be necessary, aiming to raise consciousness and understanding of the potential benefits that could be achieved if Environmental Technologies are introduced and used in an intelligent way
-
The need for integration of environmental aspects into research, design and product development: As reflected in current initiatives (e.g. Integrated Product Policy, Ecodesign, etc.), regulation as the hitherto dominant way of inducing environmental innovations needs to be complemented by efforts and support to bring the environmental dimension to the supply side of technology. Of key importance is the upgrading of the knowledge and competence base for environmental design and product development in Europe. Teaching and education curriculae have a major role to play here as well. RTD policy and environmental product policy can play a complementary role in this respect.
7.3
Guiding principles of a research agenda for Environmental Technologies
Independently of these scenarios, the five main lines of key developments in Environmental Technology outlined in Chapter 3 are all likely to be crucial for the future, but they may be shaped differently depending on the framework conditions in each of the scenarios. The four generic technology areas are without doubt essential for the future trajectories of Environmental Technologies, even if the attention they have received so far has only partly been driven by environmental interests. Similarly, research on society-environment interaction is of fundamental importance in order to understand the principles on the basis of which other research activities and policies are focused. Environmental, resource and system management, while being more innovation than research oriented, will remain a major topic as well. However, in some scenarios greater emphasis might be put on the policy dimension of system management. Research on product-service development and design is likely to grow further in importance, and this is likely in all three scenarios. The situation with respect to sectoral environmental technologies is very heterogeneous; the technological responses to be given are contingent of the specific framework conditions in these sectors. A major differentiation needs to be introduced with respect to the time horizons that are pursued in different areas of research. While some subject are mainly geared towards providing the necessary knowledge to achieve long-term system innovations to more environmentally friendly production-consumption systems (“transitions”), others are to be geared more strongly towards ensuring a competitive performance of European industry and economy while improving also their environmental performance in both the environmental technologies industries and in other areas of economic activity where Environmental Technologies could play a major role. This calls for a two-tiered research agenda for the future: -
50
Research to enhance the environmental performance of Europe’s economy while at the same time strengthening its competitiveness: This agenda is necessary to ensure that the continuous improvement of current and existing technologies is ensured. This shortEnvironmental Technologies
to medium-term research agenda is primarily geared towards reaping double benefits in terms of of competitiveness on the one hand, and environmental performance on the other. This agenda thus emphasizes first of all the continuous advancement of sectoral, generic and remediation technologies. Research in these areas shall nevertheless be guided and oriented by the long-term transition agendas. Secondly, removing technological, economic and user-related barriers to the uptake of Environmental Technologies should complement this research and innovation agenda. This will require a stronger emphasis on pilot and demonstration projects. Thirdly, environmental and resource management and the embedding of environmental technologies in organisations are still issues that require further development in order to make these systems useful and easy to implement, in particular in small and medium-sized enterprises. -
Research to underpin and enable a long-term transition towards more sustainable production-consumption systems: Such a long-term research agenda is needed to enable system innovations and underpin corresponding long-term transition strategies. The longterm agenda should be characterised by an emphasis on the advancement of new perspectives on the interdependencies of social and ecological systems and by a focus on system innovations. The potential for system innovations results from four main sources. First of all, major steps forward need to be made in terms of advancing and using the full potential of emerging generic technology areas for the environment. Here, the emphasis is put on research on fundamental advancements in generic technologies. Secondly, there are certain technological systems that have the potential to change several sectors and become a key element in a socio-technical transition (e.g. fuel cells or solar). Thirdly, the establishment of new design practices and the development of new types of product-services will be longerterm research issues as well. Fourthly, this longer-term research agenda should also focus on matters of institutional design and policy strategies needed to guide long-term processes of transition.
To be successful both research agendas, but especially the one geared towards system innovations require complementary strategies in other policy areas. The most obvious example is innovation and diffusion policy, i.e. measures aimed at enhancing the introduction and uptake of new Environmental Technologies. So far, innovation policy measures aiming at the uptake of environmental technologies have tended to be rather dissociated from research and technology policy. The same holds for environmental policy, where especially regulatory and market-based instruments serve as a strong signal for innovation, research and technology development. Also the access to appropriate skills should be emphasized as key complementary measures to enhance the uptake of Environmental Technologies.What is thus needed is a well-adjusted integrated approach to innovation that sets the right incentives for inducing a transition. In order to take these framework conditions into account in research and technology development, experimental settings for research and development need to be provided where the role of these framework conditions on new technologies can be simulated and tested. The objective is not only to learn about how to fit technologies to existing framework conditions, but also to learn about necessary changes to these framework conditions. The lessons learnt should subsequently be taken into account in the refinement of policies. Such learning spaces would help Europe to further improve its performance in terms of developing, introducing and selling Environmental Technologies that are beneficial to both the environment and our economy.
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EC (2002): Environment 2010: our future, our choice. The 6 Environmental Action Programme, Brussels: European Commission EC (2003): Integrated Product Policy. Building on Environmental Life-Cycle Thinking, Communication from the Commission, Brussels: European Commission EC (2004): Stimulating Technologies for Sustainable Development: An Environmental Technologies Action Plan for the European Union, Communication from the Commission, COM(2004) 38 final, 28 January 2004 EC (2004a) : ERA-Net Series 2, Brussels: European Commission
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EU (2004b) : European Environmental and Health Strategy and Action Plan, Brussels : European Commission EC (2004c): National Sustainable Development Strategies in the European Union. A first analysis by the European Commission, Commission Staff Working Document, Brussels: European Commisison, April 2004 EC (2004d): Technology Platforms. From Definition to Implementation of a Common Research Agenda, EUR 21265, 21 September 2004, Brussels: European Commission EC (2005): The 2005 Review of the EU Sustainable Development Strategy: Initial Stocktaking and Future Orientations, Communication from the Commission, COM(2005) 37 final, 9 February 2005 EC (2005a): ERA-Net Series 2, Brussels: European Commission ECOTEC (2002): Analysis of the EU Eco-industries, their employment and export potential, FutMan (2003): The Future of Manufacturing 2015-2020. The challenge for sustainable development, Final Report, Dublin: IPC GTF (2005): Green Technology Foresight about Environmentally Friendly Products and Materials. Challenges from Nanotechnology, Biotechnology and ICT, Danish Foresight Programme, DRAFT Report, April 2005 Hitchens, D./Trainor, M./Clausen, J./Thankappan, S./de Marchi, B. (2003): Small and Medium-Sized Companies in Europe. Environmental Performance, Competetiveness and Management: International Case Studies, Berlin: Springer Huber, J. (2004): New Technologies and Environmental Innovation, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar IHDP (1999): Research Strategy IPTS (2002): Assessing the environmental potential of materials technologies, IPTS Report Series, Sevilla Jaffe, A.B., Portney, P.R., Stavins, R.N. (1995): Environmental regulation and the competitiveness of US manufacturing: What does the evidence tell us?, Journal of Economic Literature, Vol. 33, pp. 132-163 Kemp, R. (1997): Environmental Policy and Technical Change. A Comparison of the Technological Impact of Policy Instruments, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Kemp, R. (2002): Synthesis Report of the 1st BLUEPRINT Workshop on Environmental Innovation Systems, January 2002, Brussels Kemp, R./Rotmans, J. (2005): The Management of the Co-evolution of Technical, Environmental and Social Systems, in: Weber, K.M./Hemmelskamp, J. (eds.)(2005): Towards environmental innovation systems, Springer/Physica: Heidelberg, pp. 33-54
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Kemp, R., Andersen, M.M., Butter, M. (2004): Background report about strategies, Report for VROM, May 2004 Porter, M., van der Linde, C. (1995): Toward a New Conception of the Environment-Competitivenss Relationship, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 9, No. 4, pp. 97-118 Remoe, S. (2005): Innovation governance in dynamic environments. Final report from the NISMONIT project, Paris: OECD Rennings, K., Kemp, R., Bartolomeo, M., Hemmelskamp, J., Hitchens, D. (2003) Blueprints for an Integration of Science, Technology and Environmental Policy (BLUEPRINT), Final Report of the EUfinanced project BLUEPRINT, November 2003 RIVM (2004): Outstanding Environmental Issues. A review of the EU’s environmental agenda, Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency at RIVM in cooperation with the EEA, Bilthovern, September 2004 Saracco, R./Bianchi, A./Mura, R.B./Spinelli, G. (2004) : Key European Technology Trajectories, FISTERA Research Report, Turin: Telecom Italia Lab, September 2004 Sartorius, C./Zundel, S. (eds.)(2004): Time Strategies in Environmental Innovation, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Wagner P., Banister, D./Dreborgk, K./Eriksson, A.E./Stead, D./Weber, K.M. (2003): The Impact of ICT on Transport, Final Report, Seibersdorf/Sevilla: IPTS-ESTO/ARC systems research Weber, M., Hemmelskamp, J. (eds.)(2005): Towards Environmental Innovation Systems, Berlin: Springer Weterings, R. et al. (1997): 81 mogelijkheden voor duurzame ontwikkeling (81 options for sustainable development), Ministry of the Environment, The Hague, the Netherlands. Whitelegg K., Weber K.M. (2002): National Research Activities and Sustainable Development, ESTO Research Report EUR 20389 EN, Sevilla/Seibersdorf
Several Foresight reports from the UK, Germany and Netherlands
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Annex 1: Relevance of sustainability drivers for materials technologies
Source: CMI (2003)
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Annex 2: Overview of application areas of nanotechnology, biotechnology and ICTs and their relevance for key socio-economic challenges The analysis of impacts in the subsequent table refers to five key socio-economic challenges: pervasive globalisation, transition to a knowledgebased economy and society, growing regional disparities and social marginalisation, transformation of health care, and management of environmental resources and energy supplies (Mahroum/Bauer/Weber 2004) Annex 2.1: Information and communication technologies and their relevance for key socio-economic challenges
Application area
Production and supply chain
Subdomain
Examples
Research, design and development
- Simulation as a standard development tool - Distributed development environments - High-performance computing
Customisation
Transport, logistics and distribution;
Management of commerce and other business services
Environmental Technologies
Financial services and banking
Socio-economic challenges addressed
Transition to the knowledgebased economy
- Flexible production systems in combination with e-commerce allow detailed specification of products - Just-in-time production - e-commerce (B2B, B2C) - tracking individual products, - fleet management - Just-in-time delivery
Transition to the knowledgebased economy
Transition to the knowledgebased economy Consolidation of the InfoSociety Transition to the knowledgebased economy
- new types of back-office services
56
Trade transactions
Personal mobility and communication
Transport
Teleactivities
Social and cultural life
Health
Security
Environmental Technologies
Entertainment Cultural Diversity Social Networks Lifestyle
Tele-applications
Transition to the knowledgebased economy Pervasive globalization;
- Acceleration of global transactions - Cooperation and networking between firms
Transition to the knowledgebased economy
- automotive telematics products and services, - traffic management and road pricing - security applications
Consolidation of the InfoSociety
- cellular networks, devices, and peripherals; - Wireless technology, - Peer-to-peer networking, - PDAs and other digital innovations for mobile environments. - Multilingual, Multimedia digital contents; - Wireless LANs and hot spots - Mobile Communication tools. - Speech & voice Internet technologies, audio (MP3), - visual images and video; - Broadband Internet, digital TV, home networks, - voice over Internet, and other digital innovations for fixed sites. - IST supports the work of healthcare professionals - IST to support the independent and healthy life of individuals at home. - Providing patients with information about their diseases - Enabling communication between health care Professionals at all levels.
Consolidation of the InfoSociety
Pervasive globalization; Consolidation of the InfoSociety
Transformation of health care Consolidation of the InfoSociety
Medical devices
- miniaturised diagnostic and chirurgical devices - new high-performance diagnostic instrument (high resolution images),
Transformation of health care
data-related securityfighting cyber-crime, ensuring safe financial transactions, protection against terrorism, violence, etc
- Privacy and the protecting of personal information - Secure transactions. - Fighting cyber-crime – Security of financial transactions
Consolidation of the InfoSociety
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Globalisation
Physical security
- Safety - protection against terrorism, violence, etc
Education and learning
eLearning
- Flexible learning in terms of space and time; - Virtual labs, digital knowledge networks; - Computer-aided learning, simulations, etc
Transition to the knowledgebased economy
Government and public services
e-government
- Moving forms, content, and applications to the internet. - Enhanced customer services.
Consolidation of the infosociety
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Environmental Technologies
Annex 2.2: Nanotechnology applications and their relevance for socio-economic challenges Application area
ICT
Healthcare
Subdomain
Examples
Socio-economic challenges addressed
Electronics
- prolonging Moore’s law by means of smaller structures, advances in lithography and in the longer term new options like quantum computing, 3D chips using carbon nanotubes - new storage devices using nanotechnology - embedded systems to be applied in a wide range of different fields: automotive, security, etc.
Information Society: embedded systems in a wide range of application areas (“ambient intelligence”) are enabled by nanoelectronics
Photonics
- nano-based optical telecommunications networks increase bandwidth and speed - new opto-electronic devices (lasers, etc.) - photonic circuits
Information society: faster networks to accommodate for expected growth in data transfers
Pharmaceuticals and cosmetics
Medical devices
Agro-food
Construction
Monitoring food quality
- new types of drugs, for targeted high-dose application using nanoparticles - skin protection and nutrition using nanoparticles - nanoscale magnetic particles for cancer treatment - cheap medical devices, including all kinds of “embedded” technologies: - analytical techniques and instruments for speeding up the testing of probes - Use of new nano-materials for medical implants implants - labon the chip and other nanodiagnostic devices for homeuse and telemedicine as well as for use in hospitals - nanotechnology-enabled robotics for surgery - sensors for monitoring food quality along the production and distribution chain, e.g. thermolabels
Health: improvements drugs and treatments
Health: new and improved medical devices that are cheaper and can be used by individual non-experts unknown side-effects of nano-devices Health: reducing health risks by improved and permanent monitoring of food products
New food properties
- functional foods
Health: Food components with specified characteristics geared towards the health needs of users
Surfaces
- clean surfaces - thermoelectric surfaces - nano-reinforced or protected construction materials
Energy and environment: less need for cleaning multifunctional surfaces for power generation
Environmental Technologies
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Transport / Automotive
Manufacturing
Energy-efficient buildings
- intelligent windows (sol/gel) - solarcells, - Nano-based components of stationary fuel cells (membranes, catalysts, etc.) - LEDs and other less energy-consuming devices
Energy and environment: reduction of heating/air-conditioning new and efficient power generation technologies less energy-intensive light sources
Materials
- Materials for cars and engines, electric motors
Energy and environment: more efficient engines
Engines
- Membranes for fuel cells - Catalysts
Energy and environment: new and more efficient prime movers
Surfaces
- Clean surfaces
Energy and environment less need for cleaning
Glueing and adhesion
- glueing - surface technology (sol/gel) - importance of production technology, measuring, instruments
Energy and environment: lighter and more energy-efficient products Knowledge-based society: cheaper products, easier production processes
Nano-structured materials
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- biomaterials/biominerals at nanoscale, also to be used for medical purposes - new textiles and tissues, for clothing and health applications - new polymers like aerogels - more efficient solar cells - superconductive materials at room temperature
Energy and environment: power storage for decentralised and renewable electricity generation (e.g.super-condensators) higher energy efficiency of transformation processeshigher conductivity and reduced losses Health: new types of biocompatible implants
- nano-catalysts with enhanced specificity Chemical and envi- - nano-reactors ronmental - less material intensity of many devices, as in the case of technologies LEDs - nano-scale membranes and separation technologies, e.g. for water treatment
Knowledge-bsaed economy: Improved and highly specific production processes Energy and environment: less polluting production processes less material intensive devices
Coatings and surfaces
Knowledge-based economy: superior production quality Energy and environment: higher-resolution earth observation
- super-hard nanocoatings for machine tools - high-precision optical surfaces
Environmental Technologies
Security
Sensors and acuators
- continuous control of production processes, integrated quality control - lab on the chip
Knowledge-based economy: higher quality standards
Protection
- light and strong protective personal equipment - reinforced protection of arms (tanks, aircrafts, etc.)
Globalisation Mobile military and security forces and material
- nano-scale observation technology
Globalisation Observation in remote locations Information society Unvisible observation technologies
Intelligence
Environmental Technologies
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Annex 2.3: Summarized biotechnology applications and their relevance for socio-economic challenges
Application area
Health
Subdomain
Examples / Notes
Socio-economic challenges addressed
Diagnostic products
More than 400 clinical diagnostic devices using biotechnology products are in use today. The most important are screening techniques to protect the blood supply against contamination by AIDS and the hepatitis B and C viruses
Health: New powerful techniques for health care will be developed Regional and social disparities: Genetic testing allows identification of risk groups
Pharmaceuticals
Biotechnology regularly produces remarkable new medical treatments and applications for improving human health. The Food and Drug Administration has approved preventive agents or treatments for: Acute Growth Deficiency, Hepatitis B (vaccine and therapeutic), Anemia, Diabetes mellitus, Cystic Fibrosis, AIDS-related Kaposi's sarcoma, Hairy cell leukaemia, Venereal warts, Acute myocardial infarction (heart attack), Kidney transplant rejection
Gene Therapy
Public health practices, surgery with anesthesia, and antibiotics
Health: New therapies for uncurable diseases, but major societal and ethical concerns
Altering Genes in Sperm
The process will be patented. So far the method has only been applied to animals.
Health: avoiding inheritable diseases
Insertion of Genes from other Technologies for creating transgenic (cross-species) plants and animals species into reproductive cells
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Health: New and improved drugs
Health: improve the quality of life and avoid genetically transmitted diseases or defects. Environment and energy: Resistant and more productive plants
Somatic Gene Therapy
Involves insertion of genes from another species or a human into a sick person.
Health: Treatment of genetically transmitted diseases
Artificial Organs
This technology depends on the manipulation, using computer-aided design, of ultrapure, biodegradable plastics and polymers. It has already been demonstrated in animals with an engineered artificial heart valve for lambs. Innovative electronics may be used.
Health: Possibility to manufacture new types of artificial organs improved health care products and services
Environmental Technologies
Agro-Food
Vaccines
The cost and availability of potential future vaccines may depend on biotechnology research. For example, efforts are underway to sequence the genome Health: of human pathogens and parasites. The goal is to identify genes in these fast response capability in case of new diseases organisms that influence metabolism and could be drug targets or that encode strategic research for risk prevention antigens that could be built into vaccines. Examples include the agents that cause leprosy and African sleeping sickness.
Animal Products
Genetic engineering may improve an animal's economic value. Genetically engineered hormones, transfer of genes from other species, and introduction of human genes to produce specified substances are all being used today for this purpose. Experiments with transplantation of animal organs to humans are under way.
Health: balancing economic interests against public and individual health interests
Plant Biotechnology
- Herbicide-Resistant Plants - Virus-Resistant Plants The current work in plant biotechnology emphasizes modification of plantspecific characteristics such as resistance to weeds, pests, herbicides, and pesticides, tolerance to stress, and improved nutritional content. Other work focuses on improving traits important to agriculture such as frost resistance and nitrogen fixation.
Environment and energy: More productive and resistant crops Regional and social disparities: Could reinforce gap between rich and poor countries Creates dependence of farmers on seed producers
Food Processing
Food-processing research currently focuses on growth and fermentation by yeast and bacteria. These methods are well known technologies used in cheese- and bread- making. Biotechnology applications include producing fermentation starter cultures with specific taste, texture or other characteristics; creating plant tissue for the production of plant-derived ingredients (starches for example); and improving waste management (such as oil or other waste digesting bacteria).
Health care: Guaranteeing food safety - increasing acceptance of new food processing technologies
Environmental Technologies
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Environmental Technologies
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