|
Resource Efficiency in the World's Largest Economy
The Role of Sustainable Waste Management
ESA/FEAD Joint Conference
14 October 2003
Stephen Timms speech: Government's Vision for the UK Environmental Services Industry
Thank you very much for inviting me to speak at this year's annual conference - I am delighted to be here. It is for me a welcome opportunity to re-engage with the Association after a couple of years dealing with other topics since leaving the Treasury in June 2001 - and a first opportunity for me to get up top date with the industry's concerns since taking on this responsibility at the DTI. I am particularly pleased to see the European Federation of Waste Management and Environmental Services involved today, and I would extend on behalf of the Government a warm welcome to London to those visiting the UK from across the European Union and the Accession States.
A sustainable system of waste management has a great deal to offer to us. I see the benefits as threefold:
- First, benefits to the environment - through protecting resources, the ecosystem and the attractions of its natural beauty;
- Second, social benefits - improving our quality of life, recognising that reducing environmental degradation can have particularly strong benefits for the least well off;
- Third, benefits to the economy - because better resource efficiency will reduce costs and also create new industrial opportunities in environmental technology.
Sustainable Consumption and Production
The World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg last year set out a number of challenges for businesses. Accelerating the shift towards sustainable consumption and production was one of the key commitments.
At the end of last month my Department published jointly with the Department for the Environment, Farming and Rural Affairs, DEFRA, a framework document on sustainable consumption and production. It is the first major statement from any Government since the World Summit on how to approach sustainable consumption and production in practice. It focuses in particular on the correlation between economic growth and environmental degradation, and how much further we have to go to break that link. It makes clear our aim to decouple economic growth from environmental degradation. We hope the framework will help us to influence debate within the European Union and internationally. It will also guide our actions at home through presenting a clear rationale for future policy.
The framework does not claim to provide all the answers - particularly not on the consumption side where the greatest challenges arise. But it represents the important first step in a journey towards working out how we can continue to enjoy the benefits of our modern economy but in a sustainable way. We want to improve our quality of life, but in ways that minimise the damage from pollution, waste and environmental degradation.
We welcome the European Commission's Thematic strategy on recycling. That provides us with a clear agenda. Recycling has a vital role to play. Of course, recycling itself is an industrial process which whose impact has to be addressed like any other. The Commission strategy helpfully recognises that and accepts that optimal targets will vary between member states. But there is no doubt that we need to do more in the UK to encourage sustainable waste management and achieve higher levels of recycling.
The Prime Minister's Strategy Unit published its report 'Waste Not, Want Not' last year, and the Government's response was published in May this year. Action has already been taken in response, in the increase of the rate of landfill tax - a demand I was lobbied on vigorously by members of this Association when I had responsibility for Landfill Tax at the Treasury - and the reformation of the Landfill Tax Credit Scheme. These changes have led to the creation of the Waste Implementation Programme within Defra to deliver a package of strategic measures recommended by the report.
This will include a New Technologies programme to remove barriers to the development of new approaches to sustainable waste management. In recognition of its importance to successful delivery of the new programme, the Environmental Services Association is represented on the new Programme Steering Committee.
Innovation
Support for innovation is key to our recently published strategy for the Department of Trade and Industry, because innovation will be the key to our future economic success in an increasingly competitive global economy. We have supported a number of of industry-led Innovation and Growth Teams to investigate the barriers to innovation. The Environmental Innovation and Growth team - in which the ESA took part -reported its findings last November. It was a task force, comprising industry, Government, and other stakeholders and had the objective to define actions to build the competitiveness of the environmental goods and services sector, in both UK and overseas markets over the next 15 years. The overarching vision set out in the report was that the UK environmental sector should strive to increase its share of global markets, particularly through the development of a strong home market. We want to increase our market share from its current 4.7% to 7% by 2010.
As a result of the work of the Innovation and Growth Team, my department's Joint Environmental Markets Unit has now expanded its trade support role to focus also on fostering long-term innovation across the environmental goods and services sector. We have also set up an Environmental Innovations Advisory Group, comprising representatives from across the sector, to provide an industry view on where priority actions are required.
Innovation has the potential to make significant contributions to greening the economy. This industry does not need me to tell you that in the UK we place too much reliance on landfill which adversely affects the environment through greenhouse gas emissions, impacts on transport and visual intrusion and potential long term liabilities. We need to place a higher priority on recycling and reuse and perhaps on other methods of waste disposal too.
Fiscal and regulatory framework
Across Government we are acting decisively in view of the challenges we face with waste in the UK. One key thing to focus on from a resource productivity perspective is the fact that the government will be increasing the active rate of the landfill tax to £35 per tonne in the medium to long term, encouraging efforts to minimise the amount of waste generated and to develop more sustainable waste management techniques.
The broader, non-fiscal, regulatory framework also has a role to play. But it has to be flexible. Where the legislation has its origins in European Union discussions, the requirements need to reflect the different economic structures that exist. I give high priority to ensuring the resultant domestic regulations deliver the objectives in a way that best suits our domestic circumstances; imposing the minimum costs on the UK economy. That is our approach to the legislation we are developing for waste electrical equipment which is an important topic for many businesses, and which it is essential that we get right.
In July I received from David Arculus the report of the Better Regulation Task Force on Environmental Regulation, advising on how we can avoid repeating the difficulties we faced with the EU packaging waste regulations and the fridge mountain. He called on us to be open about when decisions will be made, to take a fresh look at our communication with stakeholders, to be clear about what we art trying to achieve and to make sure that there are adequate resources available for fair and consistent advice and enforcement. We shall certainly be aiming to take that advice on board.
Another key issue is the Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC) Directive. The UK response to the EU Communication earlier this year points out that it is too early to make a definitive assessment of the Directive's success in achieving its objective, but that we can see it as a good example of environmental legislation, striking a sound balance between environmental protection on the one hand and safeguarding the interests of industry on the other. The Directive is limited to setting out essential items such as fundamental concept of permits with installation-specific conditions, but rightly places prescription in the hands of national competent authorities where it belongs.
I want to highlight another area of significant potential for innovation. Our commitment to modernising regulation is being followed through across Government. One important area of focus is waste management. Defra and the Environment Agency have jointly reviewed the legislation under which the Agency works. One recommendation was for a review of waste permitting by Defra. This will allow us to replace the current system of Waste Management Licensing, which delivers the relevant EU Directives on waste.
The new system will be purpose built and risk-based and will continue to deliver the UK's obligations under the Directives by an integrated permitting system. It will be proportionate to the risks to the environment and to human health, and will satisfy the principles of better regulation. The review is being carried through with extensive informal consultation as the new permitting is being developed from first principles. It is very important to us that key stakeholders like this Association can have their views taken on board before policy has been finalised.
The challenge to Industry
Of course we are not working alone. Industry also has a responsibility in working towards a more sustainable world. Its first task should be to control its own polluting activities. It is estimated that inefficient use of resources costs the UK manufacturing industry £3 billion each year. There is however, a wide range of sources of help and information already to support companies.
The Envirowise programme for example, funded by the DTI and Defra, was established to help businesses to reduce both costs and environmental impacts. Since its inception in 1994, we reckon that it has helped businesses to save over £800 million. An organization working with the programme can expect to save £1000 per employee, or convert an additional 1% of turnover into profit.
The Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), launched in 2000, has helped to expand the markets for recycled products, and helped UK businesses to take advantage of opportunities in the recycling sector. Getting the framework right for environmental innovation will be crucial. Next month we will publish the results of our departmental Innovation Review. Doing more to stimulate environmental innovation and resource productivity will be a priority.
Industry also needs to develop new ideas and new technologies to help others to address pollution. The world market for environmental goods and services is currently valued at $515 billion, comparable to the aerospace or pharmaceutical industries. It has been forecast to reach nearly $700 billion by 2010 - a growth rate of 3% per annum. We have in the UK a significant share of this market. I know that we can achieve a greater share still - that is an ambition we share and I hope we can work together to achieve it.
We are confronted with an ever increasing demand for waste management expertise from developing and industrialising countries. Countries such as the Accession States which must comply with EU Directives, as well as countries as diverse as Turkey, Mexico, Brazil, China, South Korea. The strength of this demand has been demonstrated time and again through the work of our Joint Environmental Markets Unit around the world. It brought 50 delegates from nine countries to the annual Chartered Institution of Wastes Management conference and exhibition, and many others would have been keen to come.
Conclusion
With that high level of worldwide demand, and the potential for continuous innovation in technology and in resource efficiency, it is clear that sustainable waste management has an ever-increasing role to play in the world's largest economy. We are setting the foundations for increased growth and innovation and we want to work with you to achieve the high ambitions for a more sustainable future that all of us share and which it is in the interests of every one of our citizens that we achieve.
Thank you very much. 
|
