Brussels gets the Green Week buzz

Date: 28/05/03

By Karen Carstens

Catherine Day, head of DG Environment, is a big fan of the Commission's 'Green Week'.

NEXT Monday sees the start of the European Commission's annual 'Green Week' - and Catherine Day can barely wait for it to begin.

For the director-general of DG Environment, the week's activities provide the environmental policy community with an unparalleled opportunity to network and brainstorm in a flexible and fun setting.

"It's got quite a buzz to it," says the articulate and affable Irishwoman, who is often cited as one of the Commission's rising stars. "It's certainly not a stuffy, boring policy event.

"We see it as a showcase for the year, and as an important event in the global environmental policy calendar. It's the only time in the year when we bring the whole agenda together."

It enables the Commission to serve as a platform for new ideas - energizing networks and enabling a whole range of stakeholders to meet up and exchange "best practice".

A highlight of this year's Green Week - the third so far - comes on Thursday (5 June) at an awards ceremony to honour top ecological entrepreneurs and other green achievers in Europe.

"One could even say we've added a touch of glamour to this year's event," says Day, as she sips coffee in a Brussels brasserie ("my office for the afternoon") and rattles off reasons why Green Week is so important.

"Well, maybe not exactly glamour," she concedes, "but some exciting media-style aspects."

Whereas last year's Green Week was structured as a preview to last September's landmark World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, this year's event picks up where the summit left off.

It also coincides with UN World Environment Day (5 June): UN environmental programme chief Klaus Töpfer and Environment Commissioner Margot Wallström will be among speakers opening the four-day Commission shindig.

Under the over-arching theme of 'changing our behaviour' it will focus on three broad issues: sustainable consumption and production, renewable energy and climate change and water.

"There are so many things to choose from, but we thought these areas would be important to highlight now," Day says.

She takes particular pride in one key gathering on renewable energy policies to be held during Green Week - the first international ministerial meeting to discuss renewables since Johannesburg.

The EU pushed for setting global renewable energy targets in South Africa, but ended up butting heads with, as Day puts it, the "fossil fuel brigade" - namely, the United States and OPEC, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.

"We couldn't get the international community to sign on to our way of looking at things," she says. Since then, however, a coalition of more than 80 countries - including 28 European nations, all the so-called 'small island states' (which would cease to exist if global warming continues unabated), Brazil, Argentina and others - have "signed up to work on this".

The meeting is also perfectly timed ahead of the first World Council for Renewable Energy, backed by German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and scheduled to take place in Berlin from 13 -15 June.

At the closed ministerial meeting in Brussels, which all Green Week participants will be able to follow on closed-circuit television, policymakers will hammer out strategies for innovative financing techniques and to try to "work up to a cumulative target". The basic idea, says Day, "is to link our political commitment to a financial commitment".

The European Investment Bank will also participate in the debate "and we hope that it will bring results for the coalition to move forward".

Water was another major topic in Johannesburg. According to the UN, some two billion people lack access to safe drinking water. Several Green Week workshops will focus on future water policy, water in the city or the impact of floods. Day says the Commission wants to draw attention to such critical global environmental issues "in a way that is fun, too - so we decided to have a 'water tasting' event".

"It's a bit of a gimmick," she admits. "But it makes people think we take it for granted but in other parts of the world it's life or death - just look at Iraq, where they immediately had problems with water [due to the war]."

For the test, tap-water samples will be brought to Brussels to be tasted by a "panel of experts". Then, the three best will be chosen in several categories, such as visual appearance, taste and smell.

Cities that have so far agreed to submit their water are: Zurich, Helsinki, Linz, Salamanca, Tallin, Amsterdam, Cologne and Brussels. There will also be a session on the EU's own 'water initiative' - for which Commission President Romano Prodi has pledged €1 billion, to help provide people in Asia and Africa with clean drinking water and sanitation. Day also cites several workshops on 'environmental tool kits for citizens'.

"Lots of people are concerned about the environment, but they often feel a bit powerless: these tool kits are intended as a stepping stone to hands-on environmental action."

Several initiatives across Europe will be highlighted. One example is a plastic chip card used in Rotterdam that provides "a system of bonuses linked to consumer behaviour" whereby people are rewarded for being environment-friendly with perks, such as free concert tickets.

Day says she hopes that "over time, Green Week will become a landmark event. We've had a lot of suggestions from stakeholders and we definitely want to put it on the map every year".