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

Foreword
Environmental protection is one of the most influential factors that shape business conditions,
especially for manufacturing. Every production process involves a certain degree of direct and
indirect pollution. This has to be removed either by cleaning technologies or by decreasing the
environmental impact of the production process. For the very first time, this publication divides
these technologies into first and second generation technologies, i.e. those of cleaning and lowemission.
Recent technological developments have shown that in addition to the necessity of fast
assertion on the market as an innovating driving force, another important impulse is environmental
legislation, or rather the intention to significantly economically affect current production systems
though legislation. The objective of the “20:20 by 2020” European climate-energy package is
clearly to be a marketing slogan, not the realization of potential energy and carbon savings based
on calculations. Nevertheless, this slogan has helped. In less than two years of discussions over
climate change and European commitments in this area, many innovative changes have been made,
e.g. in the development of low-emission and energy efficient car engines.
Second generation technologies, with their greater energy savings potential and environmental
friendliness than technologies within the same product group, have shown that true economically
efficient environmental protection occurs only in a commercially conforming environment.
Even though some “ecologising” measures are financially demanding, market conditions and
competition do not allow manufactures to add these costs to the price of a product. Instead, they
must look for alternatives that will meet environmental criteria while ensuring their product’s
competitiveness. This is the essence of the “win-win” effect, an environmentally and economically
friendly innovation.
This is also a reason why supporting environmentally friendly technologies and understanding
their importance in overcoming Europe’s economic recession, which we constantly hear about from
powerful voices, does not have to be an empty phrase, a useless green slogan without substance,
but rather a path to a more effective and sustainable economy.
To make this support happen is a hard nut to crack. There are several tools that can be used to
accomplish this and one convenient option is public sector demand since it is one of the largest
customers. On the other hand, it is true that excessively regulating production and support for
selected entities is a path best avoided over the mid-term horizon.
In other words, create a framework and let the market work.
From the long-term perspective, it is the only way to maintain sustainable able development both
within and outside the Czech Republic.
Rut
Bízková
Deputy Minister of the Environment
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