The European Union has positioned itself: Incineration is incompatible with the practice of combating climate change
- The European Union has rejected incineration, together with coal and nuclear energy, in the technical report on "EU taxonomy" for sustainable activities. It highlights the negative effects of incineration, blockages and environmental impacts. The Europa Zero Waste partnership welcomed the decision: “A great precedent for future climate action and sustainable EU investment”.
The Technical Expert Group has worked on the creation of the EU Taxonomy, a 590-page report. With this they have created a system of classification of environmentally sustainable economic activities (hence the word taxonomy, the science of classification of elements). The work of these experts has been to draw up a list of processes compatible with efforts to curb climate change, classifying each practice according to the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals governing European legislation. And it leaves waste incineration out of the list.
The expert group stresses that much of the waste currently incinerated in Europe could be recycled and that the measures being taken to increase incineration capacity could lead to blockages on the road to the objectives set out in the two agreements.
The Taxonomy of the European Union says that waste incineration (euphemism and in English Waste to Energy) cannot be considered as a contribution to curbing climate change because “it is harming the environmental objectives of the circular economy”.
Janek Vahk, Coordinator of the European Climate, Energy and Air Pollution Programme, presented the report by saying:
"The time has come to recognise that incineration is a major obstacle to the circular economy, as it burns valuable materials that can be recycled, composted or reused. The burning of these resources has high environmental and climate costs and the urgent need to mitigate climate change requires that incineration be discarded as soon as possible in order to maintain the global warming level at temperatures below 1.5 degrees."
The Taxonomy of the European Union will serve as a basis for the development of new rules for the financial sector, as the activities left out of the list will be outside the prioritised processes of being a candidate for public subsidies. The Europe Zero Waste partnership welcomes the fact that incineration has been excluded from the area. “The coming months will be critical to ensure the rapid implementation of these principles and their consistent implementation across the EU’s overall policy. We now have a unique opportunity to create a more sustainable Europe, we must not waste it,” they said.
Zero Waste Europe has called on the EU institutions to ensure public policies that prevent incineration in their climate and environmental legislation.
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