Chemical Leasing Goes Global

European Parliament, Brussels, 19 September 2006

The workshop at the EU Parliament "Getting fit for REACH applying Chemical Leasing, a Joint EU Workshop of Austrian Ministry of Environment, Dow Chemicals and UNIDO" was opened by a welcome speech of the Austrian MEP, Mr. Seeber, and the Managing Director of the Programme Development and Technical Cooperation Division of UNIDO, Mr. Piskounov. 43 representatives of the EU Parliament and Council, involved in the discussion of the REACH Directive, participated in the workshop.

A UNIDO international expert on Chemical Leasing illustrated the concept of Chemical Leasing and its impact at company level. The potential benefits of Chemical Leasing as a policy tool were also illustrated and further expanded in the presentation of the representative of the Austrian Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management . The latter described the Austrian experience in the implementation of Chemical Leasing and clarified the common philosophy shared by the REACH directive and Chemical Leasing.

A representative of the industrial sector presented the point of view of the chemical providers and gave additional details on one case of implementation of Chemical Leasing business model in Austria. Ms. Petra Schwager, UNIDO coordinator for Chemical Leasing, presented the results of the project on Chemical Leasing and Cleaner Production under implementation in Egypt, Mexico and Russia, as well as the future strategy for its global dissemination, suggesting a potential cooperation in this direction between UNIDO and the EU.

The discussion was opened by a presentation of the representative of the Austrian Ministry of the Environment, focusing on the synergies between the REACH directive and Chemical Leasing.