Hjort, Marit, Skobelev, Dmitry, Almgren, Richard, Koh, Terence, Hjort, Marit, Skobelev, Dmitry, Almgren, Richard, and Koh, Terence
The Best Available Techniques (BAT) concept first emerged in the 1960s. It primarily serves as a tool for preventing industrial pollution and setting conditions for Integrated Environmental Permits for larger industrial installations. BAT include technological, technical and managerial solutions aimed to prevent or control pollution and provide for high resource and energy efficiency (EE) of production processes and minimisation of waste. Lessons learnt by various countries prove that the BAT concept has potential for a much wider application, going beyond pollution prevention and control. This paper considers opportunities opened up by BAT with respect to achieving several of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). These opportunities form a BAT flower, petals of which are discussed in the paper. Internationally, the BAT concept is becoming an effective environmental policy instrument, and is gradually strengthening its position in the development of industrial policy. Stringent BAT requirements do not jeopardise industrial development and economic growth, but help harmonising progress towards SDG 8: Sustainable Economic Growth. Smart application of BAT requires reduction of pollution and enhanced EE. This also provides for the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions though regulatory instruments for climate change mitigation and industrial pollution often are separate, both at the national and international levels. BAT-based programmes for EE enhancement and GHG emissions reduction function in the European Union (EU), the United States (US) and Canada, making BAT a powerful instrument for energy and climate policies used to achieve SDG 13: Climate Action. Circular economy entails gradually decoupling economic activity from the consumption of finite resources, and designing waste out of the system. BAT require minimisation of waste in all technological processes and provides advice for replacing raw materials by waste in many industrial sectors (metallurgy