EU Policy Highlights
Creating a supportive policy environment in Europe is critical to our mission as Change Chemistry. Following on the European elections earlier this summer, a new European Commission is being established, and the long-awaited revision of the REACH regulation (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals) will likely be back in focus. However, a greater focus on incentivization of sustainable innovation in the next phase of the Green Deal is also likely as a result of the greater emphasis on competitiveness, security and safety.
Given the focus on stimulating innovation in industry initiatives, such as the Antwerp Declaration, we believe that there is a unique opportunity in Europe to focus on policy incentives for innovation, commercialization and adoption of sustainable chemistry solutions that can address multiple policy priorities including chemical safety, net zero, and circularity. Our near-term focus is building an outreach campaign to educate European policymakers about industry challenges and needs in responding to increasing market, investor, and policy demands for sustainable chemistry and how they can incentivize innovation, commercialization and adoption. We need our members to help us design that outreach campaign and partner with us in implementing it.
We believe that there is a unique opportunity in Europe to focus on policy incentives to support and incentivize R&D, commercialization and adoption of sustainable chemistry solutions that can address multiple policy priorities. Some of our impact to date are:
- Representation in European Chemical Strategy: Active participation in the European Chemical Strategy High-Level Roundtable provided influential guidance to the European Commission on policy implementations.
- Contributions to European Chemical Agency Strategies: Through the UMass Lowell Sustainable Chemistry Catalyst, Change Chemistry's sister organization, contributed to the creation of the European Chemicals Agency Substitution Strategy, advocating for Safe and Sustainable by Design principles.
- Shaping Key European Chemicals Strategy Programs: Collaborated closely with the European Commission to shape programs like Safe and Sustainable by Design, making significant strides in fostering sustainable practices within the chemical sector.