Innovation is key to tackle global challenges and Europe needs to change its model of economic growth, policy papers say.
The Council of the European Union (Council) published its Conclusions ‘Towards an even more sustainable Union by 2030’ on 9 April as a response to the European Commission’s (EC) Reflection Paper from 30 January 2019. The Reflection Paper outlined the European Union’s (EU) approach to implementing the United Nation’s (UN) Agenda 2030 and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at its core (see SwissCore article). The Council generally welcomes the EC’s approach and its ambition to take on a global leadership role in promoting sustainable development. At the same time, the Council urges the EC to elaborate a comprehensive action plan towards the Agenda 2030 including a concrete timeline; a demand already articulated in the last Council Conclusions on SDGs in June 2017. The Council further stresses the importance of raising awareness for the SDGs, e.g. through the UNESCO Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) initiative. The Council is looking forward to the European Union’s participation at the High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) on Sustainable Development of the UN in September 2019, expecting the Member States’ (MS) Voluntary National Reviews (VNR) as part of the reporting process. Lastly, the Council states that the SDGs will be included in the next Strategic Agenda of the EU for 2019–2024.
After the publication of the Council Conclusions, the EC organised a high-level event on sustainable development in Brussels, where the European Political Strategy Centre (EPSC), the in-house think-tank of the EC, presented two recently published papers. The paper ‘Global Trends to 2030’ analyses global mega-trends and the challenges that Europe is facing. Although the paper does not give specific policy recommendations on addressing these challenges, it outlines two scenarios of how the world may look like in 2030. In the first scenario, the EU takes action and addresses climate- and technological change proactively now (since these two underlie all the other problems). By limiting global temperature rise to less than 1.5 degrees, Europe takes on a global leadership role. It tackles problems such as the health of citizens through applying new technologies. The estimated short-term cost of this scenario amounts to between €9 and €32 billion, which will be offset by many benefits in the long-run, according to the paper. The second scenario describes a world, where Europe has not taken action, which would create a vicious circle, where the effects of climate change on health and migration will pose a threat to Europe’s internal political stability and Europe’s position in a global context.
The second paper ‘Europe’s Sustainability Puzzle’ highlights several challenges that policy makers face, when implementing the Agenda 2030, e.g. decoupling economic growth from emissions and the outsourcing of unsustainable practices. The paper also addresses the EU’s new Research and Innovation (R&I) programme, Horizon Europe, and highlights the role of innovation. There is a consensus that disruptive and systemic innovation is key for a transition to a sustainable society and requires investments into Europe’s R&I sector. However, this transition demands innovation steered into the right direction, so the argument of EPSC, otherwise it can result in unsustainable outcomes, e.g. a higher rate of obsolescence of products and thus more waste. The EPSC considers the mission-oriented approach of Horizon Europe as an adequate instrument to steer innovation, allowing MS and regions to participate in EU-wide R&I Missions.
For the informal meeting of the Economic and Financial Affairs Council configuration (ECOFIN), taking place on 5 April in Bucharest, the economic think tank Bruegel published a policy contribution on sustainable and inclusive growth calling for a new growth model for the EU. The EU’s economy is currently booming, but may soon face stagnation, since economic growth can no longer be achieved by only productivity growth in the long-run. Similar to the EPSC publication, Bruegel suggests that the EU needs to focus on innovation and increase public investments into the R&I sector. The paper states that the EU has to work on becoming emission neutral by 2050, while at the same time improving social cohesion.