Keynote
Address
Cleaner Production -- the future vision
Jacqueline
Aloisi de Larderel
Director, Division of Technology, Industry & Economics
United Nations Environment Programme, Paris
Cleaner Production: Achievements and Trends
Poverty, health, drinking water, shelter, education …. the
problems and issues before the developing countries are plentiful.
Environmental issues have, in the last few years, become important
as well. The decade has seen a clear recognition and acceptance of
preventive strategies, embodied in the concept of Cleaner
Production, as a long-term, cost-effective and more sustainable
approach to tackling environmental problems. The Cleaner Production
concept, founded by UNEP in 1989, along with other similar meaning
terms e.g. eco-efficiency, green productivity, pollution prevention
etc. has earned worldwide acceptance. Let the figures speak for
themselves;
- institution of an International Declaration on Cleaner
Production with over 240 senior level signatories including
governments, companies, industries associations, academia, NGOs
etc.
- establishment of 21 UNIDO-UNEP National Cleaner Production
Centres,
- involvement of over 300 institutions, globally, engaged in CP
related work
- institutionalization of CP Round Tables in major regions;
Asia-Pacific, Europe, Africa, Americas along with a number of
National/sub-regional Round Tables
- conducting six biennial senior level seminars on cleaner
production, the latest one being in October 2000 at Montreal
- recognition and acceptance of concept by financial
institutions like World Bank, Asian Development Bank etc.
- conducting innumerable demonstration projects showing the
potential gains of CP,
- development and training of thousands of CP professionals
- and so on…
The list is quite impressive. However, a few trends are
disturbing;
- CP is not yet internalized in the day-to-day decision making
process of companies;
- the work by CP institutions has mainly been confined to
demonstration projects, awareness creation, training and
information dissemination;
- there are only a handful of financial schemes supporting
implementation of CP;
- CP is still not integrated as a cross cutting theme in the
educational system;
- Cleaner Technologies is still not a targeted programme area of
many R & D institutions
- there is still a lack of supportive governmental policy
framework,
Let me now elaborate upon a few issues that I consider are of
paramount importance in taking the concept of Cleaner Production
further in this decade.
Integrated Framework for Cleaner Production Implementation
The implementation of Cleaner Production concept has so far been
mainly in the hands of Cleaner Production professionals and the
companies. The involvement of other stakeholders has been
conspicuous by absence. It is well understood that the
implementation process cannot go along in isolation and with limited
partners. Increasing the spread and depth of implementation
necessitates actions on the following issues:
- Expanding the stakeholder base: The
implementation process has to involve a larger number of
stakeholders. Representatives from academia, financial
institutions, non-governmental organisations, industry
associations have to join hands to further the Cleaner
Production movement. Engineers, economists and financiers have
to work more closely together so as to develop the economic
instruments and incentives that are necessary. In companies,
there is a need to bring the designers, the production managers,
the marketing managers, and the financiers to work together. The
environment is not an issue to be dealt with only by environment
managers!
- Expanding the activity base: There is a need for
more awareness raising, more information exchange, more
training, more education, more workshops, conferences, seminars
at all levels and in all parts of the world, more good case
studies, more networking. Yes, there is plenty of information
out already, but it needs to be better targeted, better
disseminated, and available in more than one language! It is in
this context that the UNEP/GEF partnership is developing SANET,
the Sustainable Alternative Network, which should provide the
necessary linkages to bring existing information to all involved
in the decision making processes. I hope that you will join us
in developing this network!
- Integrating Cleaner Production with other environmental
issues: Cleaner Production is not just about production
process efficiency. It deals with products and services. It
encompasses a life cycle approach. Accordingly, it has to take
other emerging concepts -- sustainable consumption, life cycle
analysis, product policies, environmental management systems
etc. into its fold. It also should take advantage of emergence
of a number of Multilateral Environmental Agreements and expand
its field by facilitating the implementation of these Treaties.
- Mainstreaming: The death bells of any new
concept like Cleaner Production start ringing if it starts
playing the role of 'solo performer'. For the sustainability of
the concept it is essential that it gets mainstreamed into the
day-to-day decision making process in all spheres of economy.
Thus Cleaner Production has to get into the board room of the
companies, into the agenda of politicians and policy formulators
and even into the decision making process of each consumer.
- Supplementing the existing set of environmental
management tools: Indeed the ISO 14001 and EMAS, and the
related cleaner production assessment methodologies have been
key to identify cleaner production options and help move the
process forward. But, we need more tools to ensure that we are
moving towards a life cycle economy. This is why, together with
Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) we
have launched a Life Cycle Initiative, aiming at developing
common methodologies to assess the life cycle of a product and
at gathering life cycle elementary data.
- Stronger political leverage: it is to that
effect that the UN Secretary General has launched the
"Global Compact" -- an initiative calling upon
business leaders to abide by 3 sets of universally recognized
principles: human rights, labour rights and Rio principles for
the environment. It is to this effect;
-
that UNEP has also launched the
International Declaration on Cleaner Production,
-
that UNEP is involved with the
Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies (CERES) in
the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI),
-
that UNEP is now the convenor of
yearly Global Ministerial Environment Forum, the first one, as
mentioned earlier, held in Malmo in 2000 and the second one in
2001 in Nairobi. And in both fora, ministers have indeed
emphasized the need for the development of a life cycle economy
Cleaner Production Financing
There has been considerable progress in the implementation of
Cleaner Production investments from companies' own resources. A gap
however, remains between the demand for external funding and their
sources. Current efforts in promoting and implementing Cleaner
Production mostly concentrate on developing and adapting technology
to existing production plants. In the future, the focus will
eventually involve 'technological leaps' or technique transfer. This
will require a shift to fundamental changes in the production plant,
composition of raw materials and intermediary products, product
design etc. The size and magnitude of the Cleaner Production
projects will begin to reflect the change that is taking place
during this transition.
Some well-recognized barriers for facilitating investments in
implementation of Cleaner Production are:
- lack of availability of finances for funding implementation of
Cleaner Production projects,
- lack of interest in the financial institutions and banks to
preferentially finance such projects and
- inadequate capacity in companies and intermediaries in
developing creditworthy and bankable loan applications.
In order to encourage investments in Cleaner Production it is
important that:
- Cleaner Production is embedded in government policies to
encourage commercially competitive Cleaner Production
investments and to discourage perverse subsidies
- Accounting practices in enterprises are improved to reflect
more accurately the actual cost of waste management and external
environmental costs
- Concerted efforts are put in to strengthen the capacity of
financial institutions, business schools, academia and the media
to understand the benefits of preventive approaches
- Enterprises, particularly SMEs, are trained to prepare
creditworthy investment proposals
- Revolving funds and other targeted investment facilities are
encouraged to give a kick-start to the implementation of
bankable Cleaner Production investments particularly in
developing countries.
Cleaner Production Indicators
With over a decade of implementation of Cleaner Production, a
question that often comes up is how far we have gone. The
practitioners of Cleaner Production are looking for benchmarks with
which they could compare the progress made and also set targets for
future. The authorities are keen to know those
qualitative/quantitative parameters, which could help them in
differentiating between 'Cleaner' and 'not so Clean' performers. The
countries are demanding systems through which, they can assess and
measure the environmental sustainability of their development
process. Clearly, there is a need for development of a set of
progress/achievement indicators.
The debate on the subject of Cleaner Production Indicators has
been going on for quite some time. Several models have been proposed
and discussed. These range from intra-unit process performance
indicators to cross-sectoral / transnational concept-development
indicators. Obviously, the task is far from simple. The wide
variances between sectors and countries, the diverse demands of
different interest groups and the wide range of performance
parameters that are need to be measured make it even more
complicated.
I think that it would be prudent to 'start locally'. It is
relatively easier to develop a set of indicators to measure the
progress at the local level. This could then be enlarged to cover
more regions and issues. As the term Cleaner Production itself
indicates a relative improvement, it may apt to develop relative
progress indicators instead of searching absolute performance
indicators. The process of development of indicators should take due
cognizance of the local needs and applications. Care should also be
taken that the indicator system does not become so complex that
measurement and monitoring becomes more demanding and involved than
the actual task of implementing Cleaner Production.
It is always easier to develop technical performance indicators
than those measuring management performance or effectiveness of
policies. UNEP also intends to develop a set of indicators to
measure the progress in the implementation of the International
Declaration on Cleaner Production.
In the light of the work of the Factor 10 Club, I am often saying
that improving the productivity of the use of our natural resources
by a factor of 10 is one of the quantified approximations for the
still blur concept of sustainable development. We need to find
answers to the following questions
- How to translate this global goal into individual targets?
- How to monitor it?
- What are the crucial indicators to follow-up?
- What reporting standards?
Cleaner Production in governmental and corporate policy
framework
For any new concept to get institutionalized and get practiced
along with normal business, the role of enabling policy framework is
of paramount importance. While the task of implementing rests with
stakeholders like companies, CP institutions, financial institutions
etc., the governments can provide the lead by building a policy
framework, which will accelerate the process and encourage other
stakeholders to initiate and implement their own cleaner production
programs.
CP in policy framework does not refer to just making a few
provisions (tax rebates, speedy environmental clearances etc.) in
the existing system. It essentially involves interweaving the
concept of preventive strategies in all facets of the governmental
policy framework so as to make it explicitly supportive and
favorable to the CP concept. It requires a change of thinking in the
policy formulation and implementation process. It requires a
paradigm shift -- from the current reactive and 'post-event cure'
approach to proactive and 'pre-event preventive' approach. Pollution
and environmental management do not remain a subject, which is
external to the process of economic development but gets
internalized and integrated with the developmental process.
Here are several examples of integration of, fully or sporadic,
Cleaner Production in the governmental policy framework:
The Dutch environmental policy is in a way one of the most
progressive in introduction of new approaches. The decade of 90's
saw the greatest thrust of building eco-efficiency approaches in the
Dutch National Environmental Policy Plan (NEPP). The NEPP in 1989
set high objectives at levels of factor 4-10 for all chemical
emissions and attempted to stabilize carbon dioxide emissions. The
targets for recycling used materials were set at 75%. The Second and
Third Plans in 1993 and 1998 respectively, reinforced the ideas
which seemed to be too optimistic at the beginning, however, proved
to be realistic at the end. The policies for NEPP4, which are under
preparation, will have (but not limited to) components such as:
- long-term eco-efficiency targets in search of cleaner
production solutions;
- dealing with economic, environmental and social objectives in
an integrated way;
- eco design of products;
- incentives to persuade consumers to aim for sustainable
consumption etc.
In December 1998, Australia published its national strategy for
Cleaner Production; "Towards Sustainability - Achieving Cleaner
Production in Australia". The strategy establishes a framework
for the increased adoption of cleaner production in Australia by
identifying the barriers to its uptake and by proposing measures to
overcome these barriers. The strategy, inter-alia, consists of a
national framework describing existing and new measures to be
pursued by all parts of the Australian Community. (details:
http://www.environment.gov.au/epg/eianet/case_studies.html
)
The South African Action Plan for Waste Minimization, which forms
part of the National Waste Management Strategy, provides the
framework for a comprehensive set of initiatives that government
should adopt to ensure that there is sufficient motivation and
capacity amongst waste generators to implement waste minimization
and cleaner production practices. (details: http://www.environment.gov.za
-- see Waste Management )
The Czech Government adopted the National Cleaner Production
Programme in Feb. 2000, in the form of a governmental decree. The
purpose of the programme is to change the approach of enterprises,
local governments, state administration and public towards a
preference for preventive measures within environmental protection.
The programme is based on the realization that implementation of
cleaner production is influenced by all ministries and it should
therefore be integrated into sector policies of all of them such;
industrial policy, agricultural policy, health care policy, energy
policy, educational policy, local development policy etc. (see http://www.cpc.cz/eng/
)
The State Government of Andhra Pradesh in India adopted a
simultaneous promotional cum regulatory strategy. To start with, a
number of CP demonstration projects were carried out in proactive
volunteering industries. The results were widely disseminated
through a series of sectoral seminars. The major CP recommendations
from the assessments were then included as compliance conditions in
the Regulatory permitting process. To ensure ongoing implementation
the firms were also required to submit yearly progress reports.
Other additional regulatory and incentive measures included;
issuance of permits (Consent for Operation) for longer duration
validity (3 years instead of one) and awarding
"appreciation" certificates for outstanding achievements.
(details: contact Mr. Tishya Chatterjee at tishya@india.com
)
The Chilean Ministry of Economy has been applying the
"National Policy for the Encouragement of Cleaner Production
" (Politica de Fomento a Produccion Limpia). The programme is
aimed at four main issues: integration, adaptation and development
of CP fiscal and financial incentives; CP encouragement based upon a
public-private partnership; strengthening country's technological
and informational capabilities; capacity building and strengthening
coordination among several environmental agencies and agencies for
industrial development. (details: http://www.corfo.cl
)
I believe you all know, better that I, of the extensive efforts
of the Chinese government to promote cleaner production. It is the
recommended primary approach in Chinese laws on air pollution, water
pollution, solid waste prevention and control and energy efficiency.
The then, National Environmental Protection Agency, issued the
document “Policy Suggestions and Action Plans for the Promotion of
Cleaner Production in April 1997” which elevates the application
of preventive approaches and requests the integration of cleaner
production into existing environmental protection policies and
procedures, specifically in the Environmental Impact Assessment
process. It also suggests that Life Cycle Assessment be undertaken
in the development of environmental labelling systems. To mainstream
the cleaner production practice into the various economic activities
in China, the State Economic and Trade Commission developed
technical guidelines on implementation in different industry sectors
and implemented cleaner production demonstration projects in cities.
As you have heard at this conference, to further strengthen cleaner
production as a national strategy and ensure its full integration in
relevant government policy and business activities, the Chinese
government is further enhancing cleaner production laws. ( http://www.zhb.gov.cn/english/
; http://www.setc.gov.cn
)
From these examples and discussions it could be concluded that:
- Building Cleaner Production in the policy framework is not a
one - time job. It is an on-going process -- emerging and
developing as the framework does.
- Cleaner Production Policy is not a one person's/department's
job. It requires collaborative and collective action from all
the players in the entire policy arena.
- Building CP in policy should start at the top of ladder of
policy-making process and percolate down to the policy
enforcement and implementation level.
- It requires commitment at all levels from all corners -
politicians, bureaucrats, industrialists, opinion leaders etc.
At this stage the relative importance of the policy framework at
the corporate level should also be highlighted. A number of
corporate houses led by 3M, Interface Co., Nike etc. have built
preventive strategies into their business policies. The corporate
and government policies have to be supportive of each other. They
have to be equal partners in promotion and adoption of preventive
strategies. For example, the UNEP's voluntary initiative --
International Declaration on Cleaner Production -- is addressed to
all the stakeholders; government, companies, industry associations,
NGOs, academia etc. Both the policy frameworks - governmental as
well as corporate-- draw support and strength from each other and
need to be developed simultaneously.
Conclusions
The vision of Cleaner Production is probably most succinctly
enunciated in the Principle 8 of Rio Declaration on Environment and
Development:
"To achieve
sustainable development and a higher quality of life for all people,
States should reduce and eliminate unsustainable patterns of
production and consumption …"
Ten years after, the issue still remains. As late as last year,
when the Environment Ministers from all over the world met in Malmo,
on the occasion of the First global Ministerial Environment Forum
they agreed that -- " the root causes of global environmental
degradation are embedded in social and economic problems such as
pervasive poverty, unsustainable production and consumption
patterns,…".
Clearly, the problems have been quite well identified. Objectives
have been defined and directions for action have been set. BUT --
environmental degradation has been continuing, at both local and
global level.
Why so little progress:
In my view, there are three main reasons:
- The agenda of Cleaner Production has remained out of the
mainstream decision-making process. Environmental considerations
are not integrated in the development of government or industry
policies and strategies. They are considered as bringing
additional constraints, bringing new costs and new financial
burden for their companies, instead of seeing them as productive
investments, building an economically sound future.
- Market forces are not working adequately The costs of
environmental and social impacts of production processes and
products use and disposal are not included in the price of
products. They are borne by the society as a whole, often the
poorest, and not by the polluters. Moreover, direct or indirect
subsidies are encouraging unsustainable use of natural
resources.
- There is certainly a growing awareness of environmental and
sustainability issues, but not of the alternative policies,
technologies and practices that are already existing and can be
used to bring triple dividends: environmental, social and
economic. The feeling of "environmental citizenship"
has not yet permeated each individual, bet it in his/her
personal or professional life.
But let's now conclude.
Yes, the current situation is not good. Yes; there is a need for
urgent action, but yes, there are signs of hope:
One aspect is obvious. The potential, applicability, efficacy and
usefulness of the concept of Cleaner Production no longer need to be
proven and established. It is well accepted now that preventive
strategies are the most supportive of simultaneous economic
development and environment protection. It is now up to the
regional, national and local stakeholders to take actions. It is
also clear that no body is going to put the morsel in the mouth. The
initiative has to come from the stakeholders themselves. We, at UNEP,
are contributing our might:
- providing information -- bringing out the publications as
mentioned earlier;
- partnering with other organizations -- bringing out a
practical Handbook on Policy Integration and Action Planning on
Cleaner Production with Asian Development Bank;
- sensitizing and drawing public commitment from stakeholders --
signing of the International Declaration on Cleaner Production;
- building capacities; establishing NCPCs in partnership with
UNIDO
- providing foras: establishment of Regional Round Tables on
Cleaner Production and so on
Let us all take a step forward -- towards action and
implementation.
Next year, in May, the 7th International High-Level Seminar on
Cleaner Production will be held in Prague, hosted by the Czech
Government, on the road to September World Summit on Sustainable
Development in Johannesburg.
I am sure that this Conference will be another seed that will
enable us to talk, walk and deliver results.
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