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10 years promoting the pollution prevention
With the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the creation of the Regional Activity Centre for Cleaner Production (RAC/CP), an informative brochure titled 10 years promoting the pollution prevention has been published.
With prologue of the Minister of the Environment and Housing of the Government of Catalonia, Mr. Francesc Baltasar, the brochure emphasizes ten of the activities made by the Centre in these last years and informs on the new direction of the RAC/CP, that will extend its scope of activity, among others, to the sectors of tourist and agriculture, energy, etc.
The brochure has been prepared in Spanish, English and French and includes a listing of all material and documents published by the Centre from the year 1996, that can gratuitously be asked for to the Centre or be unloaded in its Web page.
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Presentation of the study
Sustainable Production in the Mediterranean: State and Trends
Next 26th May 2006, the Regional Activity Centre for Cleaner Production (RAC/CP) will present at the meeting of the Mediterranean Commission for Sustainable Development (MCSD) that will take place in Cyprus, the study on Sustainable Production in the Mediterranean: State and Trends.
This study reviews the progress that has taken place in Mediterranean countries since 2003, concerning the development and implementation of policies and measures to implement more sustainable patterns of production, mainly through the application of Cleaner Production (CP) and other pollution prevention-focused mechanisms such as Eco-efficiency, Best Available Techniques (BAT), Best Environmental Practices (BEP), etc.
The aim of the present study is to provide additional elements to the second edition, broadening the information available that remains valid and including new elements.
Therefore, this document contains information on the main changes in the Mediterranean countries with regard to the environmental impacts of industrial pollution, the legal and policy framework, relevant plans, programmes and projects, key agents and institutions and tools and activities in the field of pollution prevention.
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Environmental International Film Festival
The Regional Activity Centre for Cleaner Production (RAC/CP) will participate, jointly with INFO/RAC, in 13ª edition of the Environmental International Film Festival of Catalonia that will take place in Tortosa, Sant Feliu de Guíxols, Prat de Llobregat and Tárrega from 1 to 10 of June.
INFO/RAC will present the 10th of June its last production: The see deserves our voice and it will speak on the Environment and Sustainable Development Network project.
With the INFO/RAC presence, organizers of the Mediterranean Environmental Award initiative of The Mediterranean Action Plan of the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP/MAP) in this edition of the festival, INFO/RAC and the Environmental International Film Festival of Catalonia initiates a stage of collaboration with the objective to spread to the protection of the environment and the sustainable development through the photographic and audio-visual productions.
For further information, please visit the following Web pages: www.inforac.org or www.ficma.com
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Methodological guideline for the preparation of a system of prevention and control of pollution
During the year 2005, the RAC/CP developed a Methodological guideline for the preparation of a system of prevention and control of pollution based on Best Available Techniques (BAT) and Best Environmental Practices (BEP). The guideline attempts to facilitate Mediterranean countries to introduce those mechanisms as components of their legal and institutional frameworks for controlling pollution from industrial activities and thus achieving a progressive reduction of their environmental impacts.
The guideline focuses on five Mediterranean countries - namely, Croatia, Egypt, Israel, Slovenia and Syria – that were selected according to their specific interest in creating an adequate framework for the introduction of BATs and BEPs as effective tools for improving the environmental performance of their industrial sector.
The document sets up a methodology for defining the industrial sectors to be involved in the system as well as the BATs and BEPs to be applied by those sectors. Likewise, it proposes measures for adapting the existing institutional and legal frameworks to the new system and for monitoring its implementation.
In order to endow the methodology proposed by the guideline with a Mediterranean approach, in the first phase of the project a national expert from each targeted country reported on the industrial activity, the main pollution problems associated, and the legal and institutional frameworks for preventing and controlling that pollution. Basing on the information provided by the experts, a diagnosis of the main common trends presented by those countries was prepared and analysed for the preparation of the methodology.
It is foreseen that this guideline will be ready during the first semester of 2006.
For further information, please contact to the RAC/CP: cleanpro@cprac.org
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RAC/CP Annual Technical Publication - Mediterranean Enterprises and Sustainability
The 5th issue of the magazine RAC/CP Annual Technical Publication – Mediterranean Enterprises and Sustainability is already available.
In this occasion, the magazine has articles on the Social Corporative Responsibility, the Ecodesign, the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutant agents (COP) and on Communication and sustainable development, among others.
The Cleaner Technology Centre (Malta); the Spanish Ministry of the Environment (Madrid); le Bureau de Vérification de la Publicité (París); the Center for Environmentally Sustainable Development (Sarajevo); the Environmental Science and Technology Institute, the Chemical Engineering Department of Autonomous University of Barcelona, the Magma Design and the Pompeu Fabra University (Barcelona); the Technological Institute of Packaging (Valencia), the Catalan Centre of Plastics (Barcelona) and the ELISAVA school (Barcelona) have collaborated in this edition.
In order to receive the publication, you can send an email to cleanpro@cprac.org
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New study prepared
The Regional Activity Centre for Cleaner Production (RAC/CP) has completed the study on Pollution Prevention and Reduction at Source in the Chemical Industry.
To carry out the study, we consulted the National Focal Points (NFP) of the countries in the Mediterranean Basin and had more than 350 contacts with public administrations, associations, committees and federations from the chemicals industry, societies, centres and development agencies, Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Embassies, economic and commercial offices, National Statistics Institutes, the Association of Mediterranean Chambers (ASCAME), the European Chemical Industry Council (CEFIC) and Responsible Care as well as chemicals industries in the countries that were the object of the study. The aim was that when choosing the reference prevention opportunities in the chemicals sector they should take into account the technologies and conditions existing in each country and participate in all the areas involved, through a communications network that has been set up in the sector.
While the study was being written, B&B Asesores, the consultancy agency in charge of its preparation, set up a contact on the RAC/CP website (http://www.cema-sa.org/) in three different languages (English, French and Spanish) for disseminating and compiling documentation. Based on all the information collected, we prepared a description of the situation of the chemical subsectors being studied in each country. Therefore, the guide offers real knowledge about the situation of the fine chemicals sector in the Mediterranean Arc: about the size of the sector, its particular problems, and the economic and legislative framework.
The manual is particularly aimed at small and medium-sized enterprises in the fine chemicals sector. This sector is defined by its discrete, varied productions, not by the similarity of activities, as they are grouped into sectors as varied as base pharmaceuticals, surfactants for special use (not detergents for the public), colorants, biocides or aromas and fragrances, which use techniques and activities from very different settings. The approach tried to establish pollution prevention measures and good practices associated to the phases of the process and to basic operations which are common to most of the subsectors in question. We excluded the chemical reactions themselves from these operations, given the enormous diversity and heterogeneity in synthetic chemical products.
In this sense, the aim of the study is to help companies achieve sustainable development, through the study of their impacts and by suggesting a wide range of possibilities for reducing pollution, which include reduction at source, recycling and recovery at source, waste recovery, redesign of product and process, good environmental and hygiene practices and the replacement of raw materials.
The manual also hopes to provide a useful tool that serves as a guideline for minimising the pollution generated in the discontinuous chemicals sector and to be a useful, practical guide for managing the real application of pollution prevention opportunities in their different varieties through practical proposals whose application is within the possibilities of the chemicals companies in the MAP countries.
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New MedCleans
There are already available four new MedCleans, numbers 81 to 84.
In this occasion, they present examples of: Recovery of cleaning solvent by means of vacuum distillation, carried out by the painting company Tintas K+E, S.A. (Spain); Improvement of the cleaning system-CIP, carried out by the company Elastogran (Spain), Reduction and recycling at source of cleaning waters and solvents, of the company Pinturas Jallut Ibérica, S.L. (Spain) and Minimisation of residual waters, in a canning industry of Slovenia.
These new numbers can unload directly through the RAC/CP Web page - http://www.cema-sa.org
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Seminar "Good housekeeping practises in the region of the Maghreb"
As the result of an on-site dissemination project on Good Housekeeping Practices in the Tanning Industry in the Maghreb Region, which started in the middle of 2005 thanks to an Advanced Seminar in the framework of the Azahar Programme, a Seminar on Good Housekeeping Practices in the tanning sector was held the 18th April 2006 at the Centre National du Cuir et de la Chaussure (CNCC) in Tunisia.
This information seminar had the main objective of the diffusion between the implied operators of the good environmental practices of cleaner production. In addition, it was not only addressed to the tanning companies, but also to the companies of chemical agents that could contribute to the optimization of the use of the raw materials, the chemical aids, the water, the energy, etc. while maintaining the parameters of quality of the finished skins.
This action, that it is framed in the performances of cooperation between Tunisia and Spain, has been carried out jointly by the CNCC, AIICA (Asociación de Investigación de las Industrias del Cuero y Asociadas) within a global project of diffusion of the Good environmental practices in the region of the Maghreb carried out and promoted by the Regional Activity Centre for Cleaner Production (RAC/CP).
The overall objective of the project is the dissemination of good housekeeping practices in the sector through training trainers and writing a manual which has been disseminated in the Maghreb region (Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco).
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Expo CO2: markets, financing and funds
The last 4-5 May 2006 it was held in the Auditorium of the Agbar tower in Barcelona (Spain), the seminar Expo CO2.
Expo CO2 is born with the ultimate aim to become the main meeting point in Spain for all public and private players who are actively participating in the creation and expansion of this new economic commodity. The objective of Expo CO2 is to annually present the main answers to the needs generated by the introduction of this new economic-environmental variable within the businesses’ organization.
The first edition of Expo CO2 coincides with the closing of the exercise of 2005, within the first period of the trading of CO2 emissions. The access of companies to CO2 exchanges and markets, or the experiences in private trade between counterparts, are some of the current key challenges that the European market of emissions faces. The appearance of this new fast growing market, activates other very attractive mechanisms that facilitates acquiring emission allowances at a better price, as well as the Carbon Funds allow the public and private participation to wider portfolios of CO2 credit generating projects, which represents a huge potential in generation of resources by the market, for the innovation and improvement of the companies’ competitiveness.
The Regional Activity Centre for Cleaner Production supports Expo CO2 jointly with the organisers, the Fundació Fòrum Ambiental. The Fundació Fòrum Ambiental is one of the organizations that has better impelled the development of the economic mechanisms derived from the Protocol of Kyoto in Spain with the conviction that their correct application is essential for the reduction of the emissions that affect the climatic change, at the same time that can be very positive in strictly economic and enterprise terms.
For further information, please visit the Web page: http://www.expoco2.org
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Initiative "Horizon 2020: working to together to de-pollute the Mediterranean"
To eliminate pollution of the Mediterranean Sea in 15 years. This is the objective of the initiative 'Horizon' 2020 presented in the meeting of high level held, within the framework of the Euromediterranean Partnership, the last 19th December 2005, at the Palace of Congresses of Barcelona
The initiative was presented by the European commissioner of Environment, Mr. Stravros Dimas, with the support of the Spanish and Catalan authorities.
The "Horizon 2020" initiative does not try to create new political processes and institutions. It tries to support and to combine efforts with the already existing initiatives in the region and give them a new impulse to depollute the Mediterranean.
The main objective of the initiative will be to attack the main pollution problems mainly industrial emissions, municipal wastes and urban wastewaters.
For it, it will be worked hand by hand with The Mediterranean Action Plan, its programs and institutions for the implantation of the Barcelona Convention.
The "Horizon 2020" initiative wants to be a vehicle to assure the greater possible participation of all actors working on the protection of the environment in the Mediterranean region.
It is planned that shortly the European Commission presents a roadmap with the following steps for its attainment. For further information: http://www.iisd.ca/ymb/horizon2020/
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The Mediterranean states commit to reduce their generation of hazardous waste
A major milestone was set for combating industrial pollution at source in the Mediterranean when the Contracting Parties to the Barcelona Convention, during the second week in November, undertook to reduce 20% of the generation of industrial hazardous waste by the year 2010.
XIII Conference of the Parties to the Barcelona Convention and its Protocols
Catania, 11-14 November 2003
At their last meeting (13th Meeting of the Contracting Parties to the Barcelona Convention, 11-14 November, Catania) the Mediterranean countries approved the approach presented in the regional plan carried out by RAC/CP to reduce the generation of hazardous waste by applying cleaner production in industrial installations.
During the meeting, Mr Lucien Chabason, Co-ordinator of The Mediterranean Action Plan, acknowledged the quality of the Plan and reminded the attendants of the vital importance it represented since it provides specific measures for the application of the vast concept of sustainable development in the Mediterranean.
Mr Chabason recalled the importance of the plan to the Contracting Parties
The Regional plan for the reduction of the generation of hazardous waste from industrial installations presents the situation in the Region, identifies priorities to address according to industrial sectors and types of waste, and proposes an approach for reducing the "hazardous waste generation factor" (quantity of industrial hazardous waste generated / industrial GDP in euros). The plan also provides, among others, several technical options of reduction at source and on-site recycling aimed at reducing priority flows of identified hazardous waste.
The plan was carried out by RAC/CP within the Mediterranean GEF project for the application of the SAP through an extensive consultation process involving experts from various parts of the Region and different actors working within the framework of The Mediterranean Action Plan. It was also discussed by the national focal points on cleaner production and presented for information to the MED POL focal points. Finally, it was presented to the MAP focal points, who decided to submit it to the Contracting Parties for them to consider its adoption.
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New CP/RAC Director
Since January 1st, 2006 the Regional Activity Centre for Cleaner Production (CP/RAC) appointed Dr. Virginia Alzina as the new Director to guide the Center´s overall mission, strategy and programs. This new appointment arrives during a restructuring process of CP/RAC which will become the tool for MAP to integrate environmental management issues and pollution prevention measures in the industry, service and agricultural sectors. In particular CP-RAC will focus on the major challenges arising from the Land Based Sources Protocol and its application trough the Strategic Action Programme and the Mediterranean Strategy for Sustainable Development
The professional and academic experiences of Dr. Alzina reflect a wide-ranging abilities, real world experience and interests that place her in a favourable position to be the Director of CP-RAC. During the last 9 years Dr. Alzina was an Environmental Protection Specialist at the Interamerican Development Bank in Washington DC. Previously she worked promoting small and medium enterprise development in Latin America and Africa at the United Nations Secretariat in the Department for Development Support and Management Services in New York. She also worked for a Spanish NGO helping developing countries of Latin America.
She has a PhD in Engineering Management and Systems Engineering with a specialization in Air and Water Quality Management, Hazardous Waste Management and Pollution Control from the School of Engineering and Applied Science of George Washington University (USA), a M.Sc. in Environmental Sciences and Policy from Johns Hopkins University (USA), and a graduate degree on Political Science from Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca (Spain).
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