Introduction
Increasing industrial production, growing energy consumption and the use of fertilizers and pesticides in agriculture are placing ever greater pressures on the environment and natural resources. At the same time the European Union is committed to a strategy that requires the integration of sustainable development and environmental protection into all policies and activities. To achieve sustainability it is necessary to decouple economic growth from unsustainable use of resources. European research on nanotechnology is contributing to this objective by enabling cleaner, renewable technologies for energy, industry and transport and can help improve the environment though the use of more efficient monitoring systems and methods for avoiding and cleaning up pollution. The Environmental Technologies Action Plan for the European Union refers specifically to the impact that nanotechnologies could have. Applications include clean technologies, environmental monitoring and management systems, end-of-pipe technologies and remediation methods.
European research activities in this area have been explored in two workshops, organised by the Institute for Environment and Sustainability of the European Commission Joint Research Centre and Nanoforum. The first workshop dealt with the broader issues surrounding the safe use of nanotechnologies for the benefit of the environment and covered applications in monitoring, pollution prevention and resource saving. The second focussed on nanotechnologies for remediation and addressed the questions of which are the most effective nanotechnologies for prevention or clean up of pollution, how dependable and close to market are remediation techniques based on these and what additional work is needed to exploit their full potential. Future research priorities were identified to ensure safe and responsible development of environmental nanotechnology. The reports from both these workshops can be downloaded from the Nanoforum
website and two review articles have been published summarising the main conclusions. Several major European projects already in progress are highlighted below and it is anticipated that additional funding will be available in future.