Research policies and environment protection
- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- Assembly
debate on 29 September 2021 (28th sitting) (see Doc. 15357, report of the Committee on Culture, Science, Education
and Media, rapporteur: Mr Olivier Becht). Text
adopted by the Assembly on 29 September 2021 (28th sitting).See
also Recommendation 2215
(2021).
1. The United
Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development commits all countries
to taking “urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts”
(Goal 13) while the Paris Agreement calls on them to cut greenhouse
gas emissions to reach climate neutrality by the second half of
the century. The Parliamentary Assembly is concerned that, despite
the significant results achieved, current policies and the level
of effort of Council of Europe member States remain below what is
required to achieve this result.
2. Climate change, as well as the progressive depletion of resources
that are being overexploited, risks triggering tragic consequences
for hundreds of millions of people, especially the most vulnerable,
and undermining social cohesion, democratic stability and peace
in all regions of the world. Research can provide the innovative
solutions that are necessary to counter both the impoverishment
of the planet and the problem of climate change, and to ensure the
sustainable development of our societies.
3. Economic systems will have to change radically if the planet
is to be saved. There is a need to rethink an economic model that
relies too heavily on (over)consumption, to have the courage to
take a stand against planned obsolescence of goods and to review
consumption habits; clean transport systems must be developed, living
spaces reorganised and less energy-intensive homes built. Through
individual behaviour and lifestyle choices, it is possible to help
contain the demand for energy.
4. The growth of the world’s population, social and economic
development, which must benefit all, and the new horizons that progress
opens up, with the deployment of technologies and activities that
create huge demands for energy (such as the expansion of the digital
world, artificial intelligence and the plans to conquer space),
make it highly unlikely that there will be a decline in energy consumption.
Reducing the carbon footprint of human activities therefore necessarily
requires decarbonised energy production, so more research needs
to be carried out on the energy sources of the future.
5. Moreover, the resources that humankind has at its disposal
are limited and the way those resources are used today is not sustainable.
Another key focus of research, therefore, is the circular economy.
It is important to learn to reuse and recycle the resources on which
existing economic systems rely so heavily, including those required
for energy transition, without which development would come to a
halt.
6. In order to steer the research effort, it is important to
objectively assess all the constraints – economic, social, environmental
and temporal – that are apt to make certain paths hazardous and
to properly weigh up the consequences of our strategic choices.
The impact of fossil fuels is disastrous but there is also damage caused
by the extraction of the rare metals and minerals that are indispensable
for the development of renewable energy production and storage technologies.
Research must be directed at minimising and, if possible, avoiding
this damage and any environmental impact that renewable energy production
may have, such as visual and noise pollution or the presence of
substances that may be hazardous to health.
7. Because of the large-scale deployment of renewable energy,
future demand for essential raw materials is expected to increase
significantly. We should not underestimate the risks to which European
countries would expose themselves by becoming dependent on the countries
that produce these rare minerals, whose widespread use (in the absence
of their full recycling) can only lead to increased prices, scarcity
and exhaustion. A similar risk arises from the quasi-monopolies
that one or a few countries may hold in the processing of these
rare minerals and/or in manufacturing components that are essential
to European countries’ industrial production. Failure to take due
account of these risks will only make those countries weaker.
8. In order to ensure the competitive edge and sovereignty of
European industry, Council of Europe member States must ensure a
secure, sustainable and responsibly sourced supply of raw materials,
but also make choices to increase their autonomy with regards to
critical raw materials, and maximise the value of the resources
and materials available to them; reusing and recycling can reduce
the risk of scarcity and also help to preserve countries’ economic
independence, or even sovereignty.
9. In a world of interdependencies, technological responses to
current problems are perforce multisectoral. Interdependency and
complexity lead to, and make indispensable, co-operation on cross-cutting
areas and issues between researchers and others in research and
development. In addition, policy solutions (and hence plans) necessarily
involve several levels, from local to international, both in their
development and in their implementation.
10. Citizens’ active participation and engagement are cornerstones
to building the green economy; citizen involvement in decision making
from the outset is both a democratic requirement and a condition
for achieving the desired results: citizens are the drivers of the
paradigm shift, and the ones who bring it about through their action.
If the ecological transition is to succeed, a collective effort
is needed; behavioural economics should make it possible for citizens
to co-design the technical solutions and innovations of tomorrow.
11. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals point the
way. Policy action must not be diverted from the path of sustainable
development, because time is running out. In the view of the Assembly,
the process of making market-ready technologies available for sale
and upscaling them needs to be supported. At the same time, it is
important to dedicate more resources to researching and developing
new solutions, while making the best use of existing funding mechanisms
and considering new forms of funding.
12. Public finances are under severe strain due to the economic
impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the urgent need to address the
social distress that this pandemic has caused among the more vulnerable
sections of the population, in Europe and elsewhere. The Assembly
considers, however, that when seeking to rebuild our societies and
economic systems, it is to tomorrow’s world that attention should
be directed, not yesterday’s. To some extent, the crisis is an opportunity
for change, one that we cannot afford to miss. Research and innovation
for the green economy must be among the “beneficiaries” of national
post-crisis recovery plans.
13. Accordingly, the Assembly calls on Council of Europe member
States to review their research, innovation and development policies,
in order to give the highest priority to the green economy, and
more specifically energy transition and the circular economy, so
as to bring economic development into line with the goal of achieving
carbon neutrality by 2050. In this context, the Assembly calls on
member States to:
13.1 develop specific
research programmes on:
13.1.1 renewable
energies, without forgetting the specific constraints that may hinder
large-scale deployment of the relevant technologies, and in particular
the importance of developing storage technologies, and the imperative
need to upgrade the electricity grid and ensure the security and
resilience of the energy production and distribution system, which
also require significant research efforts;
13.1.2 the circular economy, including notably the recycling
(if not replacement) of critical materials needed for energy-transition
technologies and for waste-heat recovery and carbon capture and
storage (or reuse) technologies;
13.2 maintain fundamental research projects that may lead to
the discovery and harnessing of new sources of sustainable, abundant
and cheap energy, and ensure that any progress in this direction
is discussed within the scientific community;
13.3 take due account of the geopolitical risk, as well as
economic, social and environmental constraints, because, alongside
sustainable development issues, there is also the question of markets and
strategic autonomy, or even national sovereignty;
13.4 encourage, including through funding, collaboration and
pooling of research efforts at national level, having regard to
public-public, public-private and private-private co-operation and
synergies;
13.5 promote co-operation between universities and large companies
and foster through incentives the creation of consortia among large
companies to work together with publicly funded scientific institutions;
13.6 develop a technology watch activity in strategic areas
to identify innovative projects and support their development and
transition to the commercialisation stage;
13.7 put in place funding mechanisms that can be activated
with a degree of flexibility and speed; direct research funds towards
long-term innovation demands and provide incentives for the creation
of research-industry partnerships, with more funding for collaborative
projects between research laboratories and industry projects on
strategic matters;
13.8 consider new forms of research funding and, in this context:
13.8.1 consider the possibility of
issuing public debt securities, “green bonds” accessible to the general
public and designed to fund strategic research in the fields of
energy transition and the circular economy;
13.8.2 consider supporting the establishment of a national online
platform with a selection of innovative projects to which a State
would undertake to provide financial support and which would be
open to participatory financing;
13.9 strengthen the European dimension of their research policies,
and – when possible – encourage and support participation in the
European programmes through tools such as better information, advice and
assistance in completing the required steps and procedures, as well
as financial incentives;
13.10 define core areas where it is crucial to widen co-operation
between European countries, but also between Europe and other regions
of the world, and design the research framework accordingly, to foster
mutually beneficial co-operation and strategic international partnerships,
for example to ensure complementarity and greater efficiency in
terms of research efforts.
