NEWS

Many initiatives have been launched both at national and European level to achieve the European objectives for climate and energy by 2030 and for the Paris Agreement. One of these is now a reference about environmental policies and governmental actions: CEN Workshop Agreement (CWA) 17675 ‘Mapping of the mandatory and voluntary Carbon Management framework in the EU’.

Climate change impacts are already affecting ecological and socio-economic systems, and it is anticipated that these impacts will continue well into the future. Organisations of all types and sizes have increasing needs to understand, mitigate and manage climate change risks. A recently published standard, EN ISO 14091:2021 ‘Adaptation to climate change - Guidelines on vulnerability, impacts and risk assessment’ offers organisations a consistent, structured and pragmatic approach to understanding their vulnerabilities and to preventing or mitigating negative consequences caused by climate change, while taking advantage of opportunities. 

On 24 February 2021 the European Commission adopted the new EU Strategy on Adaptation to Climate Change.

The European Commission released its new Circular Economy Action Plan (CEAP) in support of the European Green Deal on 11 March 2020.

Under the leadership of NEN, the Dutch National Standardization Body, CEN/TC 19 'Gaseous and liquid fuels, lubricants and related products of petroleum, synthetic and biological origin' started to improve the existing European standards for the identification of oil pollution in 2018.

‘The main challenges regarding the fishing gear of the future will be to design gear with a maximum lifespan, suitable for re-use and/or recycling and with a minimum risk of losing, abandoning or discarding it before the end of its life’, recognises the Workshop Report ‘Re-imagining gear in a Circular Economy’, issued in January 2020.

The European Union counts on the publication of new standards on sustainable development, which will help implement its Green Deal.

Through the Green Deal, the European Commission has set a series of ambitious goals to transition towards a fully green economy and reach the global climate target of net zero by 2050. To reach these objectives, all actors involved will have to rethink the way to produce and consume, the way our infrastructures work, the use of resources and the functioning of transportation systems.