Environmental Technologies and Eco-innovation in the Czech ...

The highest share of total investment, roughly 80%, occurred in the area of protecting
climate and air and the handling of waste water. Investments in technologies of the first
generation clearly prevailed. In the case of waste water, they are of a systemic nature.
With regards to air, most innovations occurred before 2000. Examples of important
investment into environmental technologies of the second generation in the area
of air protection before 2000 are the extensive programme of installing gas delivery
equipment in municipalities and support for renewable energy sources.
As with supranational organizations and with most developed countries, the Czech
Republic has a strong interest in supporting the development and application of
environmental technologies.
In Government Resolution of February 22, 2006 No. 181, the government of the
Czech Republic approved the Programme of Support of Environmental Technologies
in the Czech Republic (hereinafter only “Programme”), which was prepared based on
a recommendation of the European Commission that the member states should prepare
national plans of ETAP implementation.
The objective of the programme is defined as the coordination of support of
environmental technologies and a contribution to ETAP implementation under the
assumption that specific measures will be reflected into the policies and programmes
of individual ministries. The Programme focuses on the maximum possible utilization of
the potential offered by environmental technologies with the goal of reaching as high
a reduction of the environmental impact as possible.
In the Programme, environmental technology is defined as a technology whose
usage causes less damage to the environment than the usage of comparable
alternatives.
The National Policies and Strategies chapter of the Programme features a brief
characterization of several important strategies and political documents as to the
possibility to support development and application of environmental technologies. They
are: Strategy of Sustainable Development of the Czech Republic, Strategy of Economic
Growth of the Czech Republic, National Reform Programme, National Innovation Strategy,
National Innovation Policy, Long-Term Trends of Research and Development, State
Environmental Policy of the Czech Republic, Resource Policy of the Czech Republic, State
Energy Concept of the Czech Republic, Industrial Policy of the Czech Republic, Concept
of Pro-Export Policy, Concept of Consumer Policy, Transport Policy of the Czech Republic,
Framework for Sustainable Production and Consumption of the Czech Republic.
An analysis of the 14 aforementioned strategy documents implies the following:
In the Czech Republic, there is both the will and space for supporting all relevant
aspects of developing and implementing environmental technologies. The most
important downside is, however, the low degree of coordination, which, in turn,