8 A resource-efficient Europe
(32473)
5869/11
COM(11) 21
| Commission Communication: A resource-efficient Europe Flagship initiative under the Europe 2020 Strategy
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Legal base |
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Document originated | 26 January 2011
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Deposited in Parliament | 1 February 2011
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Department | Environment, Food & Rural Affairs
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Basis of consideration | EM of 14 February 2011
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Previous Committee Report | None, but see footnotes
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To be discussed in Council | No date set
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Committee's assessment | Politically important
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Committee's decision | Cleared
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Background
8.1 A Commission Communication[45]
in March 2010 "Europe 2020 A strategy for smart,
sustainable and inclusive growth" identified a number
of so-called flagship initiatives, one of which relates to a "Resource
efficient Europe". This aims to support a shift towards a
low-carbon economy which is effective in the way it uses resources,
and in particular to decouple economic growth from resource and
energy use and promote greater energy security. The Commission
has now sought in the current document to outline how those objectives
might be achieved.
The current document
8.2 The Commission says that, in order to enjoy the benefits of
a resource-efficient and low-carbon economy, three conditions
must be met coordinated action, enjoying political visibility
and support, in a wide range of policy areas; urgent action to
take account of the long investment lead-in times involved; and
enabling consumers to move towards resource-efficient consumption,
thereby encouraging innovation and ensuring that efficiency gains
are not lost. It says that the aim of this initiative is to boost
economic performance whilst reducing resource use; to identify
and create new opportunities for economic growth and to boost
the EU's competitiveness to ensure security of supply of essential
resources; and to fight against climate change and limit the environmental
impacts of resource use. It goes on to suggest that this in turn
requires technological improvements, a significant transition
in energy, industrial, agricultural and transport systems, and
changes in the behaviour of producers and consumers: and it stresses
the need to take immediate action in order to give businesses
the certainty they need to invest now.
8.3 The Commission says that the EU has already shown
that progress on resource efficiency is possible, with recycling
having become a normal practice for businesses and households;
a 10% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions having been achieved
since 1990, at a time when EU economies have grown by about 40%;
and reliance on fossil fuels having been reduced. However, it
also points out that there is now a need to accelerate progress,
and to extend efforts to other areas, by means of a strategic
and integrated approach which optimises synergies and mainstreams
resource efficiency into a wide range of policies.
Exploiting synergies
8.4 The Commission notes that the complex and interlocking
approach needed can only be achieved with a policy mix which optimises
synergies and addresses trade-offs between different areas. Thus,
typical synergies would involve the benefits for energy security
arising out of action on climate change, the benefits in terms
of air quality, noise and public health associated with the reduced
emissions arising from low-carbon technologies, the reduced pressure
on the demand for primary raw materials arising from increased
recycling, and the reduced pressure on land resources and infrastructure
needs as a result of improved energy efficiency.
8.5 At the same time, it says that resource-efficiency
policies need to address trade-offs by considering the whole life-cycle
of resource use. For example, just-in-time production processes
(and waste collection and recycling) may reduce the energy needed
to store products, but may also require more transport; "green"
vehicles may reduce the use of fossil fuels, but increase the
demand for electricity and certain rare raw materials; land used
to produce food may compete with that used for energy (and both
may compete with land which supports biodiversity); insulation
materials can reduce the energy needed to heat a building, but
be more resource-intensive to produce; expanding nuclear power
can reduce carbon emissions, but give rise to problems of safety
and waste management; and desalination may address water supply
problems, but increase fossil fuel consumption.
Delivery of the resource-efficient initiative
8.6 The Commission says that a key aim is to increase
certainty for investment and innovation by forging a long-term
agreement, which ensures that resource efficiency is factored
in a balanced manner into all relevant policies, such as climate
change, energy, transport, industry, raw materials, agriculture,
fisheries, biodiversity and regional development.
8.7 In particular, it says that the key components
of the long-term framework will involve a series of coordinated
roadmaps to:
- outline what the EU needs to
do to create a low-carbon economy by 2050, cutting greenhouse
gas emissions by 80-95%, whilst improving energy security and
promoting sustainable growth and jobs;
- analyse how the EU can create an energy system
by 2050 which is low-carbon, resource-efficient, secure and competitive,
so as to provide the necessary certainty for investors, researchers,
policy makers and regulators;
- present a vision for a low-carbon, resource-efficient,
secure and competitive transport system by 2050 which removes
all obstacles to the internal market for transport, promotes clean
technologies and modernises transport networks;
- define medium and long term objectives and the
means for achieving them, the main aim being to decouple economic
growth from resource use and its environmental impact.
8.8 The Commission goes on to identify medium term
measures which are consistent with that framework. These include:
- an energy efficiency plan with
a 2020 time horizon to identify measures to achieve 20% energy
savings across all sectors, followed by legislation to ensure
energy efficiency and savings;
- proposals to reform the Common Agricultural Policy,
the Common Fisheries Policy, Cohesion Policy, energy infrastructure
and trans-European networks for transport in the context of the
next EU budget;
- a new EU biodiversity strategy for 2020 to halt
further loss, and restore ecosystems;
- measures to tackle the challenges in commodity
markets and on raw materials so as to ensure sustainable supplies,
including the promotion of extraction, recycling, research and
innovation and substitution inside the EU;
- a strategy to make the EU a "circular economy",
based on a recycling society with the aim of reducing waste generation
and using waste as a resource;
- early action on adaptation to climate change
in order to minimise threats to ecosystems and human health, support
economic development, and help adjust infrastructure to cope with
unavoidable climate change;
- a water policy aimed at saving water and increasing
efficiency, so as to ensure the availability of sufficient quantities
of water of appropriate quality.
8.9 The Commission goes on to observe that resources
are often used inefficiently because information about the true
consumption costs is not available, preventing businesses and
individuals from adapting their behaviour, and it says that policy
measures must place greater emphasis on "getting prices right"
and making them transparent, for example by the use of smart metering,
so that they reflect the full costs of resource use to society.
It adds that EU-wide coordinated public support for R&D and
innovation will be important, and that policies to increase resource
efficiency should be well balanced and address both the demand
and supply sides.
Building up the knowledge base
8.10 The Commission says that any analysis of initiatives
must be based, where possible, on common assumptions, parameters
and baselines, and that it proposes as a first step to present
in early 2011 joint modelling scenarios up to 2050 on climate,
energy and transport policies. In the meantime, it observes that
preliminary modelling results suggest that an 80% domestic reduction
in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 compared with 1990 is possible
using technologies such as carbon capture and storage, renewable
energies, nuclear power and electrification, with the power generation,
residential and industry sectors able to secure reductions of
more than 80%, the transport sector by around 60%, and the agricultural
sector by around 40%. However, it cautions that the need for action
in such a broad range of areas means that modelling is particularly
complex, and cannot capture fully the interdependence of policy
measures: as a result, further analytical work is being carried
out on the estimation of economy-wide impacts.
The global dimension
8.11 The Commission suggests that the global dimension
of key environmental issues requires the EU to address resource
efficiency issues internationally and to cooperate closely with
key partners. In particular, it says that this is due to growing
international awareness of the strategic importance of avoiding
risks to the supply of resources, to mitigate the rise in global
demand, and to promote exchanges of skills, technology and best
practice, and that the EU must further increase its work in these
areas to bolster its competitive position. It also believes that
the EU should continue through its external commercial relations
to continue efforts to provide a level playing field for industry,
to improve conditions for the sustainable supply of raw materials,
and to promote the liberalisation of trade in environmental goods
and services. It adds that the EU has a strong interest in deepening
cooperation on resource efficiency with international partners,
in order to encourage a shift to cleaner modes of energy generation
and transmission, with a Rio+20 conference in 2012 focussing on
the green economy and environmental governance.
Governance and progress monitoring
8.12 The Commission says that the EU needs tools
to monitor and measure progress on resource efficiency, and that,
although some key benchmarks are already provided in the Europe
2020 headline 20-20-20 targets, it is working to ensure the availability
of appropriate indicators to cover issues such as the availability
of natural resources, where these are located, how efficiently
they are used, waste generation and recycling rates, impacts of
the environment and biodiversity.
8.13 The Commission also points out that effective
governance and monitoring are essential to ensure that the EU
achieves greater resource efficiency, and that such actions are
closely linked to other flagship initiatives under the Europe
2020 strategy, notably those on industrial policy, the innovative
union, the digital agenda, and the agenda for new skills and jobs.
It says that governance and monitoring will take place within
the framework of the Europe 2020 strategy, and will integrate
the relevant elements of the EU Sustainable Development Strategy
in order to ensure overall coherence.
The Government's view
8.14 In his Explanatory Memorandum of 14 February
2011, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary at the Department for
Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Lord Henley) says that
the Communication does not have direct policy impacts, but rather
outlines the policies that are likely to form the basis of future
Commission proposals across a broad range of dossiers. It may
also have procedural effects because it is an incentive to improve
policy preparation and co-ordination in the Commission and other
institutions.
8.15 He says that the Government received the Communication
positively in a letter to the Commissioner, particularly the intention
to provide coherence and embed resource efficiency between the
various policy strands and within the context of better regulation,
the need for a sound evidence base, and the commitment 'to promote
the liberalisation of trade in environmental goods and services
so as to ensure industry's international competitiveness'. However,
it has cautioned against a presumption for targets, given potential
perverse impacts and the large differences between Member States.
8.16 The Minister also says that the current absence
of a concrete plan of action is an opportunity for the UK actively
to develop proposals which will inform and contribute further
to the development of the forthcoming roadmap to a resource-efficient
Europe, and that a "non-paper" setting a more concrete
UK position is being developed, addressing sensitive subjects
mentioned in the Strategy, such as the need for resource efficient
targets for Member States. Also, a review of resource efficiency
support to business is currently underway and would provide useful
evidence for input to the development of the EU roadmap.
8.17 The Minister says that the UK will wish to emphasise
the EU's responsibility to take greater action around the single
market to support the competitiveness of EU manufacturing, and
that it would also welcome a greater emphasis on the need
to close the loop for critical resources in the EU economy, together
with the development of secondary reprocessing industries to reduce
dependence on virgin resources.
Conclusion
8.18 Although this document purports to be a strategy,
in reality it comes across as little more than a catalogue of
the broad areas where further action is needed, and gives little
or no indication of how the various objectives are to be achieved.
Consequently, although we are drawing it to the attention of the
House as one of flagship initiatives under the Europe 2020 strategy,
we see no need for any further consideration, and we are therefore
clearing it.
45 (31373) 7110/10: see HC 5-xiv (2009-10), chapter
1 (17 March 2010). Back
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