Resource Management & Recovery magazne - ESA Pages
2 May 2008

Indicators unwrapped at OECD Resource Efficiency Conference
ESA supported a UN-OECD conference on resource efficiency which took place on 23-25 April 2008. Dirk Hazell, ESA Chief Executive, took part in a panel debate on the business approach to resource efficiency.

Other speakers included Peter Jones of Biffa, who outlined the work of Biffaward on material flow indicators and the need for governments to develop this agenda, and Jérôme Le Conte of Veolia who anticipated the future economic and environmental contribution of the waste management sector.

The Conference brought together governments, business and NGOs to consider how best to develop resource productivity to reduce the negative environmental impacts of resource extraction, processing, use and disposal, while securing adequate supplies of materials to sustain economic activity.

Coming ahead of the European Commission’s own paper and the Government’s work on the subject, the Conference provided first sight of the European Environment Agency’s work on indicators. It reviewed knowledge and information about material flows and resource productivity and discuss how markets and public policies improve resource productivity.

In his introductory presentation, Mr Hazell called for an international environmental accounting framework that is consistent, coherent and robust and which facilitates innovation while minimising competitive impacts and said that a “global context is required to capture the full lifecycle emissions of products and services which – in our globalised era – may be consumed thousands of miles from where they are produced”.

Mr Hazell drew attention to the significant progress Britain’s waste and recycling industry had made in tracking and improving its own environmental, highlighting how this was done voluntarily first with the Green Alliance, and now through the Sector Agreement voluntarily reached with the Environment Agency. He suggested this evidenced how voluntary initiatives deliver environmental improvements when there is agreement as to what needs to be achieved. Mr Hazell also suggested that it was worthwhile for governments to seek such agreement with business.

Finally, Mr Hazell welcomed the Government’s return to fiscal neutrality for business regarding the Landfill Tax escalator.

ESA address to OECD Environment Ministers
ESA Chief Executive, Dirk Hazell spoke on behalf of business at the OECD meeting of Environment Ministers on Monday 28 April 2008, the first business speaker at such an event.

He praised the economic expertise and cross-disciplinary perspective which the OECD brought to environmental debate and noted the need and business incentives for enhanced resource productivity. Asserting the need for robust metrics, he emphasised that business was a more than willing partner for governments in delivering economic and environmental success.

ESA meets Conservative Front bencher
ESA recently met the Conservative front bench Treasury Spokesperson Justine Greening MP in Parliament to set out ESA’s views on relevant issues within the Finance Bill.

Other issues discussed included regulatory and resourcing issues related to environmental crime, and competitive dialogue. ESA will be providing Ms Greening with a written briefing.

Scotland’s National Planning Framework
SESA recently responded to the draft National Planning Framework which sets out the Scottish Government’s strategic development priorities to guide spatial development until 2030. Placed on a statutory footing for the first time, the National Planning Framework describes in Scotland in 2008 and identifies key issues and drives for change.

Planning authorities will be required to take account of the National Planning Framework in preparing development plans and the Framework will form a material consideration in the determination of planning applications.

Crucially, the National Planning Framework defines certain planning projects as national development – which effectively establishes the need for such development.

Any subsequent examination of the detailed planning implications, whether by a session of a public inquiry or a hearing, will therefore be concerned with matters such as siting, design and the mitigation of environmental impacts, and not generally the principle of the development. Ministers are provided with powers to intervene at any stage in the planning process to ensure expeditious determination of such applications.

In principle, SESA supports the development of the National Planning Framework on a statutory basis and welcomes it as a material consideration in the determination of planning applications.

However, SESA expressed concern that the draft National Planning Framework fails to provide adequately robust guidance to deliver the range of waste management infrastructure essential for Scotland’s compliance with the Landfill Directive and other EU waste law.

SESA pressed the Scottish Government to designate waste management development as national development – which recognises that waste management facilities of varying sizes, types and capacity are essential for compliance with EU waste law. SESA noted that smaller, strategically located facilities can also play a significant role in achieving national objectives and targets.

Attendance at IPPC Committee
ESA attended the recent Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC) committee of BusinessEurope, the confederation of European Businesses of which the CBI is the British member.

During the event ESA Chief Executive Dirk Hazell met the Rapporteur of the European Parliament’s Industrial Emissions Directive committee, Mr Holger Krahmer MEP who sits on the European Parliament’s Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety and is part of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe.