European Environmental Technology Action Plan. Policy Pathways
POPA-CTDA project
Carlos Montalvo1
TNO-STB
Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research, The Institute for Strategy,
Technology and Policy
At the European Council in Lisbon in March 2000, the European Union set itself the objective
of becoming “the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world”. At
the Göteborg European Council in June 2001, a strategy for sustainable development was
agreed, by adding an environmental dimension to the Lisbon Strategy. Environmental
technologies are an important bridge between the Lisbon strategy and sustainable
development, having the potential to contribute to growth while at the same time improving
the environment and protecting natural resources. The recognition in the Lisbon Strategy that
we need to renew our capital stock to improve our economic performance therefore gives us
an opportunity to invest in an economy that is both more competitive and capable of
supporting sustainable development. In particular, the enlargement of the EU and the
investments needed to comply with the environmental acquits provide a great opportunity for
the EU15 and the new Member Countries to increase their uptake of environmental
technologies, thus potentially increasing the market and competitiveness of the European
eco-industry.
There are some European Community policies already promoting new environmental
technologies in a variety of ways. But much of the potential of environmental technologies is
not realized because of different barriers that hinder their use. The Commission is developing
a comprehensive Action Plan to address the barriers that hinder the wider diffusion of
environmental technologies and to promote their development and use. POPA-CTDA is
intended to give critical input to the design of the Action Plan in the priority sectors outlined in
the Göteborg European Council: Transport, Agriculture, Energy and Industry.
The aim of POPA-CTDA is to assess the issues driving and barriers slowing the
development and uptake of cleaner technologies across the energy, agricultural, transport
and industrial sectors of the economy. POPA-CTDA will clarify what are the barriers
impeding progress of cleaner technologies and what policy initiatives, and additional
research tasks, are needed to address these barriers. The output of this policy targeted
research will be of particular use to policy makers looking for new tools and insights into how
to encourage innovation and use of cleaner technologies and hence help in the practical
implementation of sustainable development. This POPA-CTDA proposes to explore the
drivers, barriers and policy context for cleaner technologies in each of the sectors,
complemented by an in-depth analysis of 8 technology-specific case studies. In the case of
the transport sector the project focuses on two case studies: clean vehicle technologies and
chain mobility implementation.
The analyses will combine extensive survey work into the reasons behind innovation and
business engagement in technology development and uptake, with stakeholder and expert
consultation. The analysis will differentiate between countries and industrial, economic and
regulatory settings. Conclusions on required policy instruments will distinguish between
national and sectoral differences and consider the possibilities as well as limitations of
transferring policy measures from one country or case study to another. Special effort will be
placed on the design of policy measures that define new environmental and technology
policy pathways to tackle barriers that hamper the development and diffusion of cleaner
technologies. This will be done in an interactive fashion with a broad range of stakeholders
from EU 15 and the new Member Countries.
1
Contact author: Senior Adviser on Innovation Policy at the Netherlands Organisation for Applied
Scientific Research. Schemakerstraat 97, 2600JA Delft, The Netherlands. Email: montalvo@stb.tno.nl