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Background
The European New Deal sets a target of no net emissions of greenhouse gases in 2050. By this date, economic growth should also be decoupled from resource use.
Towards more sustainable technologies
The Green Deal states that “Europe needs a digital sector that puts sustainability at its heart”. The Commission will consider measures to improve the energy efficiency and circular economy performance of the sector, from broadband networks to data centres and ICT devices.
The European Commission will design a new Action Plan on circular economy to stimulate the developments of lead markets for climate neutral and circular products in the EU and beyond. This action plan will cover all sectors but will more particularly focus on resource-intensive sectors, such as electronics. It will analyse the need for a “right to repair” and limit the built-in obsolescence of devices, in particular for electronics.
Additionally, EU companies should benefit from a robust and integrated single market for secondary raw materials and by-products. Mandatory recycled content will be considered by the European Commission, for instance for vehicles and batteries. The Commission will propose a legislation in 2020 to ensure that the value chain for all batteries is safe, circular and sustainable.
The Commission plans to fight against green washing: companies making green claims should substantiate these against a standard methodology. The Commission will also propose a legislation to favour green public purchasing.
Regarding the risk of having emissions being displaced outside Europe, the Commission will consider a potential carbon border adjustment mechanism for selected sectors. This means that the price of imports should reflect their carbon content.
New technologies: an opportunity to tackle environmental challenges
The European Commission believes that digital transformation must be leveraged to reach the Green Deal objectives. It will explore measures to ensure that digital technologies, such as artificial intelligence, 5G, cloud and edge computing and IoT, can accelerate and maximise the impact of policies dealing with climate change.
Data needs to be accessible and interoperable to achieve these goals, as data combined with digital infrastructure and artificial intelligence solutions can help understand and tackle environmental challenges.
New technologies will be particularly useful in the energy sector, which should be fully digitalised and interconnected. The Commission will review the framework for energy infrastructure (TEN-E Regulation) to foster the deployment of innovative technologies, such as smart grids.
The Commission also believes that digitalisation can improve the availability of information characteristics of products sold in the EU. The document mentions the example of an electronic product passport which could provide information on a product’s origin, composition, repair and dismantling possibilities, as well as end of life handling.
Next steps
The Green Deal’s annex sets a roadmap to implement the strategy. This includes:
During the first 100 days, the Commission will present the first “European Climate Law”.
March 2020: The Commission will present a new Circular Economy Action Plan.
March 2020: EU Industrial strategy.
October 2020: legislation on batteries.
2020: strategy for sustainable and smart mobility. |
