VINACHEM

AMSTERDAM (ICIS)--Members of an EU research group have unveiled new proposals for partnerships between Europe’s chemicals industry and the public sector that promote sustainability, the group said on Tuesday.

Sustainable Chemistry (SusChem), a group of stakeholders in the chemicals industry founded by the European Chemical Industry Council (Cefic) and EuropaBio, unveiled the proposals at a meeting in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

The partnerships are designed to bring together both private and public actors at the EU, national and regional levels to tackle such challenges as climate change and energy security.

The first partnership proposal, “resource efficiency”, aims to use a demonstration plant to find ways of reducing C02 emissions by 50% and increasing the use of renewable feedstocks by 20% beyond 2020.

The second proposal, “water-efficient Europe”, would reduce competition between the public and private sectors for scarce water resources.

The third proposal, “smart cities”, would improve energy conservation and the renovation of urban housing stock, said SusChem officials.

The final proposal, “raw materials for a modern society”, would research new materials and methods for improving recycling to tackle the scarcity of resources.

“We have set a lot of horizontal policies, we need something which cuts through,” said Waldemar Kutt, a member of European Research and Innovation Commissioner Maire Geoghegan-Quinn’s cabinet.

“There has to be a clear EU value, take action and drive this…otherwise there is no use in bringing together all these actors [in SusChem],” added Kutt.

SusChem’s proposals on raw materials, sustainable agriculture and water are under preparation, said Kutt.

Peter Nagler, head of innovation management for chemicals at Evonik and a SusChem board member, said: “Neither the public or private sector can do it alone. These partnership proposals have the potential to improve the quality of life in Europe and deliver key gains for society as a whole.”

“They can also drive new markets and make a major impact on various business sectors. The time is right therefore to give our stakeholders a clear-cut proposal of what our industry can achieve in the innovation partnerships,” he added.