Technology can aid environmental sustainability, says Wallström
Speaking at a seminar on achieving effective sustainable development in London on 15 March, the EU's Environment Commissioner, Margot Wallström, stressed the contribution that technology has to make to environmental sustainability. Innovation means new products, services and market, said Ms Wallström, who noted the necessity of incentives for research. 'Developing technology is not enough if the market provides no incentive for deploying it,' warned Ms Wallström. 'However, the move towards a knowledge-based society should create a big opportunity for a less material-intensive society and that should be good news for the environment, all other things being equal,' she continued. Ms Wallström spoke to her audience of the European policy agenda during the Swedish Presidency, and outlined her wish that EU leaders complement the Lisbon Strategy with a new sustainable development agenda when they meet for the Gothenberg Council in June. 'Sustainable development starts in our heads. It is about the enlightened economic interests of companies and the economy as a whole, and of course of everybody as a consumer. It is also about the responsibility that we have towards society and towards future generations. And it is about a vision about what world we want to live in, or how the future city should look like,' Commissioner Wallström concluded.
Kraje
Sweden