Green jobs in the Blue Economy: a bottom-up approach
Specific contract under Framework contract ENV.D.2/FRA/2012/0025
Task 1 of the Project: |
The aim of this project is to take stock of the initiatives by economic actors that are relevant for the greening of the blue economy, both those that exist, those that have been tried but failed, and those that are planned or discussed. It should present the state of the art and assist the Commission in taking it further. It should thus give further information on how the maritime sectors can become more environmentally friendly, and who could be engaged in early action in this area in the Member States, at a local level.
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The Commission is dedicated to developing the Blue Economy, in line with the 2012 Communication on Blue Growth and the subsequent Communication on Blue Innovation. At the same time, the 7th Environment Action Programme, under the heading of "Living well, within the limits of our planet", aims inter alia to "protect, conserve and enhance the Union's natural capital" and to "turn the Union into a resource-efficient, green, and competitive low-carbon economy". Specifically regarding the marine environment, the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) aims to achieve Good Environmental Status by 2020 by orchestrating Member State action, culminating in the development of Programmes of Measures (PoMs) by 2015. The Commission is aware that protecting the environment and maintaining our competitiveness can and indeed must go hand-in-hand, and that environment policy also plays a key role in creating jobs and stimulating investment. President Juncker's mission letter to Commissioner Vella spells out that the 'Green Growth' approach to environmental policy should be further developed as a way to promote a sustainable environmental framework, with environmental innovations which our industries can successfully implement and export. We are thus in a situation where we seek to develop the "green" aspects of Blue Growth as well as the "blue" aspects of Green Growth. A sustainable blue economy will be possible in a framework that provides incentives for sustainable investments from both the public and private sector. Individual economic actors may undertake two types of action. (1) They may continue to engage in existing sectors and activities, but in new ways in order to reduce environmental impacts while at the same time boosting innovation, profitability and employment. (2) They may develop new types of products and services with the aim of reducing impacts on the environment.
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In order to help developing the blue-green economy the Commission can act at the EU level, for example by means of funding research and innovation, unlocking data and information, promoting the exchange of good practice and in many other ways. In a novel area such as this, many promising ideas are developed locally by people with intricate knowledge of their industries, their communities and their environment. Such knowledge and experience may not be readily available at the EU level. Making it accessible could help identify ways in which the EU can act to further support such initiatives, for example by removing unintended hurdles. Knowledge about economically and environmentally successful initiatives can also inform the Commission's assessment of the PoMs drawn up by the Member States. The objective of this project is to explore the knowledge and experience held by economic actors who are engaged in, or thinking about making the maritime economy more environmentally friendly in a profitable manner, either by introducing innovative products or by changing the way businesses operate in the various maritime sectors. The purpose is twofold: (1) to enhance the knowledge about potential action and support the spreading of good practice, and (2) to inform EU-level policy in cases where action at the EU level can make a difference to the local efforts. |
The project will take a bottom-up approach. It will reach out to local actors engaged in different sectors of the maritime economy, in all regional seas of the EU, in order to collect examples of greening the operation of traditional businesses or launch new, environmentally friendly ones. This could include local roundtables, workshops, questionnaires, open-ended interviews etc. It will involve actors including industry bodies and associations, chambers of commerce, port authorities, NGOs, communes and other actors. It will aim to learn from successful examples, collecting relevant information suitable for the replication of success stories elsewhere in the EU. In particular, it will seek to identify what the conditions of success were, where policy action has played a role, and at what level (local, regional, national, EU). It will also aim to learn from unsuccessful examples and seek to understand the factors in their failure. In order to increase the relevance of the outcome for the implementation of the MSFD, the examples found shall be characterised by the type of environmental pressure that they address, such as fishing pressure, marine litter, changes in hydrographic conditions, pollution, noise etc. Based on this information the project will identify ways in which policy at regional, national and EU level could enable and support such activities.
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