Zero Pollution: A Target that Matters for Everyone

A clean environment is crucial for people’s health and well-being.  Climate change, the destruction of the ozone layer, soil degradation, and the steep decline in biodiversity are only a few of the challenges that threaten the environment and human health.

In Europe, some of the most serious environmental health challenges are air pollution in open and indoor areas, low water quality, inadequate sanitation, and hazardous chemicals.

Climate change and environmental degradation pose an additional threat to the existence of Europe and the world. The European Green Deal covers all sectors of the economy, including transport, energy, agriculture, construction, and industry. In all these sectors, pollution in air, soil and water is prevalent. And so ensuring that we safeguard our overall environment and thus our own health is now at the center of EU’s political agenda.

Europe needs a new development strategy that will transform the Union into a modern, resource-efficient, and competitive economy. That’s why the European Commission has introduced several policies and actions to achieve zero net greenhouse gas emissions up to 2050 and clean air, soil, and water for all Europeans.

The EC has adopted the EU Action Plan: “Towards a Zero Pollution for Air, Water and Soil, the zero-pollution ambition of which sets out a holistic, long-term and integrated approach to tackle pollution affecting health and biodiversity.

Achieving the aims set out in the Zero Pollution Action Plan and, more broadly, in the European Green Deal, requires active participation from all parts of the European economy from European Institutions to industry and civil society.

While the plan sets out a pragmatic and comprehensive approach, the EU should emphasize the following objectives:

• Investing in environmentally friendly (low-energy and low-emission) technologies
• Promoting digital technologies as enablers of the green transition across industries
• Supporting industry to innovate and switch to greener processes
• Working with international partners to improve global environmental standards

The private sector should work with governments to encourage the green transition by equipping people with the skills needed to ensure the rollout and uptake of digital technologies. Huawei is a member of the European Commission’s Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition, and to really deliver on the green transition, we believe the reskilling and upskilling of everyone is key. 

We have indicated key actions in which we believe further action is needed – we stand ready to contribute to the ambitions set out in the Plan as well as help with technologies we have developed to tackle and monitor pollution.

Collaboration Is Key

Huawei is committed to open collaboration. We will continue working with our global partners to build out the industry ecosystems that thrive on shared success.

Together, we can promote inclusive and sustainable development. As part of these efforts, we believe that equipping people with the right skills and expertise is the key to driving the environmental and digital innovations needed for a more sustainable world. We are therefore working with our partners to develop a more robust digital talent ecosystem and bridge the digital divide to help achieve a greener society.

Huawei has recently joined the ‘Digital with Purpose Movement’ and signed a pledge to governments and policy makers to accelerate the realisation of the Paris Agreement and UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Huawei is also a member of GeSI’s working group on digital inclusion, of which objective is to bring together industry actors to play a part in achieving more equality in the digital future.

We want to bring the benefits of technology to everyone and protect our planet in the process. We will redouble our efforts to conserve energy; reduce environmental impact; and build a low-carbon, green, and fully connected world for future generations.

With “zero pollution” as the theme of the EC-hosted EU Green Week 2021, Huawei will organize and co-host a series of events and sessions to demonstrate how digital technologies can achieve the ambitions of the European Green Deal and highlight the need for global cooperation against pollution and the importance of technology in achieving the EU’s zero-pollution ambition.

The week of events will kick off with an interactive digital event and a parallel physical networking event on the terrace of the natural Museum of Sciences in Brussels on 8 June, before a wider series of Huawei events to be held online, in different regional office of Huawei in the context of European Green Week 2021.

For more information please visit Huawei’s EU website and read more about the upcoming green week partners events.

Further Reading

Visit the Huawei Tech for a Better Planet minisite for the solutions & goals that are helping build a cleaner world.

Visit the Huawei TECH4ALL environmental page for our non-profit projects and be sure to follow us on on Twitter @HUAWEI_TECH4ALL.

Disclaimer: Any views and/or opinions expressed in this post by individual authors or contributors are their personal views and/or opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views and/or opinions of Huawei Technologies.