This week in Batumi, Georgia, during the Eighth Environment for Europe (EfE) conference, governments endorsed the Pan-European Strategic Framework for Greening the Economy by acclamation. The Strategic Framework equips countries with a common vision and three broad objectives to reduce environmental risks and ecological scarcities, enhance economic progress and improve human well-being and social equity for the transition to a Green Economy, with nine focus areas to contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals and Agenda 2030 targets.
During the session on "Greening the Economy in the Pan-European Region", Marc Chardonnens, State Secretary for the Environment, Director, Federal Office for the Environment, Switzerland also launched the Batumi Initiative on Green Economy (BIG-E). The Strategic Framework and BIG-E provide countries and stakeholders from the pan-European region with a roadmap to speed up the transition to a Green Economy between now and 2030 and an array of pledges to translate this into action.
In launching BIG-E, Chardonnens noted that 34 countries and organizations had already submitted more than 100 voluntary commitments. Two countries will submit their voluntary commitments after the launch, bringing the total participants to 36 countries and organizations.
Photo: Group photo of the BIG-E stakeholders at the end of the session. Photo by IISD/ENB | Diego Noguera.
The GGKP was highlighted in the Pan-European Strategic Framework, whilst also participating in the signing ceremony at the conference and making a BIG-E commitment. Moreover, Switzerland announced a pledge of 100,000 Swiss Francs to the Green Growth Knowledge Platform to promote knowledge management and sharing around BIG-E implementation in the pan-European region and beyond.
Photo: UNECE, UNEP and GGKP members of the BIG-E Team. Photo by IISD/ENB | Diego Noguera.
“We are pleased to see so many concrete pledges, coming directly from ministers, to put the Green Economy transition in motion in our region,” said Jan Dusik, Director and Regional Representative of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), Regional Office for Europe.
“Old polluting devices such as combustion engines, incandescent light bulbs and old heating systems need to be replaced by electric mobility, LED lamps and modern heat pumps. This creates jobs while protecting the environment, and governments have a key role to play,” Solar Impulse pilot Bertrand Piccard and Goodwill Ambassador of UNEP told ministers in a video message.
“We must think big to shift to a green and inclusive economy,” said Christian Friis Bach, Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). “We need leadership and a strong alliance of all stakeholders in society!”
Photo: Benjamin Simmons, Head of the GGKP.
Countries take up the mantle: examples of pledges
Food
As part of the BIG-E, Lithuania has pledged to ban the disposal of food in landfills and will establish a service collecting produce that would otherwise have gone to waste from residential areas and the catering sector. Policy measures needed to reduce food waste will meanwhile be mapped in Hungary. Linked to this, the Netherlands and Switzerland pledge to work on recapturing phosphorous from their economies and Germany announced a programme promoting the sustainable extraction and use of natural resources along the entire value chain.
Ecosystem services
Sweden has meanwhile tasked its national statistics body to examine how ecosystem services can be included in environmental accounting, and will produce a guide for their valuation. “By 2018, biodiversity and ecosystem services are to be integrated in all relevant decisions in society,” said the country’s Environment Minister Karolina Skog. Germany committed to establish methods for the economic valuation of environmental damage to better inform policy makers on the costs of policy alternatives, while Poland will establish a national market for carbon savings from forests and aims to protect them from threats linked to climate change.
Sustainable public procurement
Sustainable public procurement is a priority for Italy – where minimum environmental criteria already exist for products related to energy and a new scheme for boosting national eco-products was pledged, and Croatia – where action plans on the topic are already underway and an online platform will be created to exchange practices.
Green technology
Green technology will furthermore receive a boost in Switzerland thanks to a CHF 4.2 million annual promotion loan for pilot projects from both the public and private sectors. Loans with at attractive rates will also be created in Lithuania in order to boost the energy efficiency of multi-apartment buildings, which will be required to reach a minimum energy rating – thereby creating jobs while curbing consumers’ bills and emissions.
Fiscal and other measures
Latvia will revise its tax code to provide incentives for sustainable waste management. Moldova announced measures to boost green small and medium enterprises, while Luxembourg announced a novel partnership at state and municipality level supporting measures aimed at tackling climate change.
The voluntary pledges were made during the Green Economy session of the Eighth Environment for Europe (EfE) conference, which sees ministers and other high level representatives from the region gather to identify and address environmental priorities.
All of the actions that countries (and organizations) have committed to can be found here.