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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.
There
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: www.environment.gov.au/epg/environet/eecp/publications.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:
www.environment.gov.za/waste_management/index.html
)
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.
(details:
www.cpc.cz/eng/ncpc/handbookNCPC.rtf
)
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:
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/english/)
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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