Backlogs, resources and expectations for 2012
The ECOS team wishes you a very happy New Year 2012
After another quite disappointing year in terms of policy delivery (only 2 Ecodesign measures and 1 new energy label adopted), we all hope that the situation will improve this year. There is a long list of product groups in the pipeline, still suffering from delays: boilers, water heaters, computers, monitors, water pumps, commercial refrigeration, tumble driers, vacuum cleaners. Consultations have also started in 2011 on directional lamps, network standby and coffee machines. And additional key product categories such as game consoles, machine tools, tertiary air-conditioning or electric transformers will only be discussed in the coming months.
All these products were part of the 2008-2011 Ecodesign Working Plan of the European Commission. Considering the delays, it is probable that the next Working Plan for 2012-2014 will primarily focus on solving the current bottleneck and revising the measures adopted in 2008 and 2009. Under the current situation, little room will be available for adding virgin product categories.
Next Working Plan
A study commissioned last year has however looked into the potential new energy-related products that could eventually be added to the scope. The final report (available on http://www.ecodesign-wp2.eu/documents.htm) concludes that the highest energy saving opportunities lie in indirect energy-related products, such as insulation materials, taps, showerheads, windows. Other interesting candidates could be detergents, servers, displacement pumps, fractional HP motors, power cables and steam boilers.
The European Commission has issued a draft Working Plan 2012-2014 to be discussed this month with stakeholders. It suggests to consider only one indirect energy-related product (windows), steam boilers, power cables, servers and adds smart meters. Other developments would be conditional to the progress on the current backlog.
The draft plan is available here.
Updated methodology
The methodology to prepare and substantiate Ecodesign and Energy Labelling measures (the one applied by consultants in preparatory studies) is also undergoing a revision. A final report is available (on http://www.meerp.eu/documents.htm), suggesting improvements on several aspects: data collection, environmental indicators, more harmonised assumptions, better streamlined reports, etc. This updated methodology is supposed to improve the consideration of non energy-related ecological aspects and lead to more structured policy suggestions.
Resource and staff issues
These developments should not hide the fact that the main reason for the slow delivery of implementing measures is the insufficient staff and resources allocated by the European Commission to these policies, and some lack of political support at high-level.
The resource issue is clearly flagged out in the final draft of the study evaluating the impact and effectiveness of the Ecodesign Directive. This study launched last year - to be finalised in March - will be discussed during a final stakeholder meeting this month. ECOS and partner organisations such as CLASP have been actively involved in providing expertise and comments to the study team. We are satisfied to see several of our remarks considered in the latest draft chapters available here: http://www.cses.co.uk/ecodesign_evaluation/documents/ For a quick overview, a good quality executive summary is available.