6533b857fe1ef96bd12b3937

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Transferability to LDC of Some European standards concerning the environmental certification of products and services

subject

description

Goal and Scope. Western developed countries (DC) are currently involved in an important process of releasing new rules and standards devoted to the environmental certifications of urban systems, in order of accomplishing the requirements established by the international protocols (Kyoto, among them), aimed at the reduction of greenhouse gases emitted in the atmosphere and at the limitation of the environmental impact as well. Within this frame, the European Union is giving a rising importance to the so-called 'Integrated Product Policy' (IPP), that is an integrated approach of the environmental policy, aiming to an improvement of the environmental performance of products and services during all their life cycle. This new approach promoted the realisation of 'the green book of the integrated product policy' [COM(200)68:7.2.200 I]. This document was prepared to guide and to improve the environmental policy concerning the products, also promoting a development of an ecological product's market'. The green book focused the attention on the necessity of pursuing an eco-oriented design, on a wider diffusion of environmental information and on the introduction of suitable incentives for supporting the diffusion of eco-compatible products. The well known ECOLABEL (1 980/2000) and EMAS 11 (n' 761/200 1) regulations are part of this context. But, since the goal of protecting the natural capital is recognised as a general must and provided that less developed countries (LDC) are supposed to exert a major impact on the environment in the next future with their rising activities, these countries are strongly called to consider the possibility of introducing new effective rules for achieving the environmental assessment and certification of products and services.