Waste policy should be viewed not only as a matter of environmental impact, but also resource efficiency, writes Suzanne Arup Veltzé
Twenty-four of Europe’s environment ministers met in Turku, Finland on 15 July to discuss new forms of environmental policy. Under the leadership of Finland’s Minister of the Environment Jan-Erik Enestam, the meeting gave important new messages to EU Member States and the rest of the world.
The environment ministers emphasized that globalization highlights the need to use natural resources sparingly and to promote more eco-efficient production and consumption patterns. Without such developments, it would be impossible to curb climate change and halt the ongoing decline in biodiversity. Using natural resources in a more sustainable way can improve the competitiveness of EU countries in global markets and reduce Europe’s dependence on imported raw materials, while also reducing harmful environmental impacts.
The ministers also stressed that the EU action plan on sustainable consumption and production will play a key role when future consumption patterns are set. According to Enestam, one product of the action plan should be an EU eco-efficiency strategy, based on targets on material and energy efficiency set through dialogues involving key actors.
Financial instruments and incentives will play a major role in improving the eco-efficiency of production and in promoting more sustainable consumption patterns. Europe’s environment ministers expect the European Commission to promptly issue a green paper on the use of market-based and financial instruments in environmental policies in order to ensure that the EU can become the world’s most competitive economy. They also expressed the need to integrate environmental considerations into the EU’s trade and co-operative development policies.
This meeting is timely in light of recent trends in EU policy where the approach to sustainability has been taking a new turn. The waste hierarchy, as a driver for future waste policy, is being challenged by the life-cycle thinking approach. By introducing the waste ‘problem’ as a matter of environmental impact instead of as the loss of natural resources, EU policymakers no longer consider the waste hierarchy as a sufficient policy guideline.
The EU Commission’s proposal for changing the perspective of future EU waste policy to one based on impacts has introduced a new debate within the EU, on how to gain the needed knowledge base on impacts and which methodologies to use.
ISWA is ready to play a major role in promoting and implementing the outcome of the Turku meeting not only to EU countries but also to countries outside the EU. With its strong co-operation and partnership already achieved with UNEP, ISWA will work with UNEP further to address globalization issues and include eco-efficiency in sustainable waste management. This is also a major theme for the upcoming ISWA Annual Congress 2006 in Copenhagen.
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Suzanne Arup Veltzé is Managing Director of ISWA.
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