INDEPENDENT & TRIPARTITE
HIGH LEVEL GROUP ON
SUSTAINABILITY TRANSITION MANAGEMENT
Europe is faced with several systemic innovations simultaneously. Looming large over all these is the impact of digitalisation. The interactions with new sciences and technologies, their funding, and the appropriate framework conditions, is a challenge. It requires innovative ways of collaboration between stakeholders. Such collaboration is not easy to achieve, unless there is a common vision about the system innovation and the levers to achieve it. This in turn demands foresight to set the right strategic goals. The launch of the Green Deal by the EU, in order to achieve carbon neutrality, implies a massive transformation of all energy using and carbon emitting economic activities and ways of living.
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Governments have but two levers for such systemic change: research and innovation, and finance. However, as a consequence of the division of competences, the European governance system is confronted with a reductionist policy making approach. One is confronted often with cognitive gaps and information processing capabilities in interdependent, complex systems (for example the impact of big tech, or the links health-food systems), leading to incomplete analysis and failure to comprehend transversal interdependencies each of these systems. In turn, this impacts companies which need to maintain their balance sheet while making large investments in technology transformation and designing new business models.
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This HLG is chaired by Tobias Krantz, former Minister for Research of Sweden.
Previous chair: Klaus Gretschmann, former director general EU Council Secretariat (2012-2021)
After five years of Green Deal policy, its limitations are apparent. Different governance methods are required to achieve a circular and climate-neutral economy. Key reports all indicate higher costs than originally advanced as the balance between economic, social and ecological sustainability has been disturbed.
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An important policy focus has been put on regulation rather than on innovation through research and technology and on incentives and market mechanisms. In addition, many of the Green Deal regulations are lacking synergy, coherence and applicability. Both the European Council and the European Commission have recognised this reality and promised a new approach. The Report on Competitiveness by Mario Draghi also remarks that a new approach for a clean industrial strategy will not succeed without parallel changes in the institutional set-up and functioning of the EU. The same applies to the reform of agriculture and forestry policies.
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Adjusting outdated governance mechanisms in EU institutions in order to design and deliver more coherent, efficient and effective policies is required to achieve the EU’s ambitions in the sustainability, competitiveness, security and social domains. Innovative reforms in the current governance mechanisms of EU institutions can bring more coherent, efficient and effective policies with less collateral economic effects.
The following people, from the European and national public sector, from corporations and from academia, gave their time and expertise to the work on systems innovation:
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Download: HLG Systems Innovation Members List
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​Under revision