SUSTAINABILITY
SME opportunities by embracing toughening sustainability regulations
Hans Gerdes, Leader Business Development, Metall-Chemie Fine Chemicals
It seems common practice to complain about ever- growing regulations and in particular regulators. However, if we apply the mantra “disruption is good for the agile”, there could be some competitive advantage for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs): “Small is beautiful when it comes to rapid changes”.
Regulation is not driven by ECHA (European Chemical Agency) and others per se, but widely by lobby and interest groups European industry representatives complain about “overburdening and slowing down requirements”. This sentiment also played a major role in the UK’s pre-Brexit-vote deliberations (“take back control”). The Association of the German Chamber of Industry and Commerce sees the flood of government regulations as “a considerable business risk“. However, the source of regulation often comes from a busy army of lobbyists in law firms and association headquarters.
As an example: Taxonomy in Europe – the finance sector aimed to generate growth in “green investments” and hence has supported burning gas (driven by the German Merkel administration pre-Russia’s attack on Ukraine) and nuclear power (driven by President Macron of France).
More down to earth, but with similar politics., industry in Germany is complaining about high cost of and regulations for building residential houses. The red/green/liberal Federal Government of Germany promised 400000 new apartments per year, but by
2022 less than 300000 were built and the forecast for 2023 and 2024 is even more bleak. Weakening demand due to high interest rates, raw material and labour cost are given as explanations as well as constraining regulations. In the area of regulations for thermal insulation a major stakeholder was BASF, the largest chemical company in the world by turnover, and a major producer of insulating material [5].
As good as it sounds to equip new houses with an energy conserving shell, it drives cost-up with little room to move. So is lobbying wrong as such? Not necessarily – but it is as well to be aware of the trade-offs that are pushed for.
In December 2023 COP28 was held in Dubai, hosted by the United Arab Emirates, and the chairman was the CEO of ADNOC, one of the largest oil and gas companies in the world. Formally he is his country’s climate change envoy and founder of the renewable energy company (UAE appoints oil company boss as president of the COP28 climate conference, alarming climate groups | CNN). The BBC learned that the UAE planned to use its role as the host of UN climate talks as an opportunity to strike oil and gas deals [1].
Of the total 97,000 participants 2,456 are formally affiliated to the fossil oil & gas industry [2]. By country, 3081 delegates came from Brazil (the potential host 2030), and 4409 from host UAE, whilst the ten countries most vulnerable due to the climate crisis only had 1509 delegates in attendance between them, with representatives from indigenous groups numbering only 316.
Continued on page 36 LUBE MAGAZINE NO.179 FEBRUARY 2024 35
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