The European Union works together with local and international partners to showcase green solutions for businesses in Armenia
Ani Grand Hotel (Yerevan), 8 May 2024
With support from the European Union and other international partners, Armenia is transforming its industries by adopting more sustainable, circular economy practices. Since 2013, around one hundred frontrunners, particularly Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs), have taken the path of the circular economy. Their performance shows that such business solutions are beneficial in many ways: by improving energy and material use, reducing waste, and ultimately by supporting the environment, economy, and society.
A national conference, which was conducted on the margins of Europe Day in Yerevan, discussed several case studies from several front-running Armenian enterprises. These and other enterprises took part in demonstration activities within the framework of the “European Union for Environment” (EU4Environment) programme. They reported significant reductions in energy and water consumption, waste generation, and greenhouse gas emissions, coupled with cost savings and improved production efficiencies. Such examples illustrate the potential of a circular economy to drive both environmental sustainability and economic competitiveness. More than 30 business cases were prepared to showcase such results by different manufacturing enterprises.
“The synergies between environmental protection and business competitiveness remain largely untapped in Armenia. We need to promote a circular economy in the country, not just to protect the environment, but also to improve SME competitiveness and to ensure better access to markets in the EU. The EU stands ready to support the efforts of Armenia in this regard”, emphasized Mr. Frank Hesse, Head of Cooperation, EU Delegation in Armenia, at the conference. To accelerate the EU’s transition to a circular economy, a new circular economy action plan was adopted in 2020. It is one of the main building blocks of the European Green Deal, Europe’s new agenda for sustainable growth. The plan targets how products are designed, promotes circular economy processes, encourages sustainable consumption, and aims to ensure that waste is prevented and the resources used are kept in the EU economy for as long as possible.
Mr. Aram Meymaryan, the Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Environment, highlighted: “The Ministry of Environment promotes circular economy practices. The experience gained during the project will be also useful for the development of the circular economy strategy in Armenia, as well as implementing the environmental pillar of the European Union-Armenia Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement.” In this regard, the conference provided a platform to identify resource efficiency potentials, explore strategies to overcome barriers to their adoption and examine the role of government policies and industry collaborations in fostering a green economy in Armenia. By facilitating these discussions, the conference generated actionable ideas and fostered collaboration among key stakeholders.
“Armenia has already stepped on the path of resource efficiency, for instance, in production processes which proves not only to local business but to the whole world that Armenia can be sustainable,” highlighted Ms. Diana Muradyan, EU Economic Cooperation Department representative from the Ministry of Economy.
Overall, in ten years in the demonstration companies, 148 recommendations were identified, initiating savings of energy, water, and materials of 887 000 EUR with a simple payback time of 2,6 years. The RECP recommendations were monitored to confirm high implementation rates of more than 80% observed by the national experts.
The conference gathered some 80 participants representing key stakeholders from Armenia's government, including the Ministries of Environment, Economy, and Territorial Development and Infrastructures, the SMEs, RECP Green Club Member SMEs from Armavir and Shirk regions, expert community, academia, and organizations with focus on green and circular economy agenda promotion in the country.
The EU4Environment activities related to circular economy mainstreaming have been implemented by UNIDO with the support of the Regional Environmental Center for Caucasus Armenia Office, acting as a National Implementing Partner agency.
Background:
The “European Union for Environment” (EU4Environment – Green Economy) Action helps the Eastern Partnership countries preserve their natural capital and increase people's environmental well-being, by supporting environment-related action, demonstrating and unlocking opportunities for greener growth, and setting mechanisms to better manage environmental risks and impacts.
It is funded by the European Union and implemented by five Partner organizations - OECD, UNECE, UNEP, UNIDO, and the World Bank – over the 2019-2024 period, with a budget of EUR 20 million.
For more details please visit: https://www.eu4environment.org/.
For more information about the activities in Armenia, please visit: www.recp.am
Contact details:
Ms. Tatiana Chernyavskaya, Project Manager, Circular Economy and Resource Efficiency UNIT, UNIDO, t.chernyavskaya@unido.org.
