Taking the eco route
The EU wants to be a pioneer in adopting cleaner technologies and is encouraging policymaking within its Member States to achieve this objective. The EU-funded project 'Policy pathways to promote the development and adoption cleaner technologies' (POPA-CTDA) assessed relevant issues and barriers to adopting these technologies. It investigated firms' uptake of innovations in transport, industry and agriculture, outlining tasks and policy initiatives needed to achieve greener sectors. The project surveyed over 350 key players about their initiatives related to cleaner technology. Important insights emerged from interviews with over 100 stakeholders including regulators, researchers, users, manufacturers and distributors of environmentally friendly innovations. The evaluation included the automotive, construction, fuel cell, biofuel and renewable energy sectors in its survey, finding that most respondents expect eco-innovation to increase. This bodes well for the environmental technologies sector, particularly in generating innovations in water treatment, wastewater treatment and environmental instrumentation. Emerging economies such as Brazil, China and India will increasingly demand solutions for sanitation, pollution control and environmental services or equipment. In this light, POPA-CTDA successfully advanced environmental and technology policy research by developing mechanisms to evaluate drivers and obstacles for businesses to develop and/or use cleaner technologies. It worked on tools to help test the innovative behaviour of firms, as well as to bring out policy changes that specifically encourage adoption of cleaner technologies. Now that there is clear information on obstacles and drivers of adopting eco-innovations, Europe can work towards this noble objective and stoke the world economy in a sustainable way.
