Taking forward the EU resource efficiency agenda

26 November 2014
A stakeholder event, organised by the UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources under a UCL EI Small Grant to debate policy options for taking forward the resource efficiency agenda at the EU level.

The process and outcome of the recent European Parliament Elections are proof, if any were needed, that EU governance and policy-making have moved into a new phase. The new European Commission will likely find that the days when it could be confident of Member States approving its binding new policies are past. New ways of proposing and winning support for policies from stakeholders are therefore needed if it is to see them adopted by Member States.

This stakeholder event, run by UCL's Institute for Sustainable Resources as part of a project funded under the UCL European Institute's Small Grant Scheme, will examine these new approaches to EU policy-making as they may be applied to resource efficiency. A 'flagship initiative' of the Europe 2020 strategy, resource efficiency has also been vigorously promoted over the past five years by DG Environment, not least by way of the European Resource Efficiency Platform. But will the new Commission take up the challenge with equal zeal? How should resource efficiency best be taken forward in the new EU political context?

The project is a corollary to the FP7 project Policy Options for a Resource Efficient Europe (POLFREE), and aims to discuss how policy options for a more resource-efficient future may be most successfully taken forward in the new political context. It will also feed into a discussion paper reviewing current EU policy-making processes and exploring stakeholder views from policy and business.

Agenda

Followed by networking and reception

More

Conveners:

• Professor Paul Ekins
• Dr Teresa Domenech

• More on the overall project.