Eco-innovations for economic growth and environment protection

Abstract

The aim of this work is the presentation of current EU issues on eco-innovations in the light of its role for economic growth and natural environment protection. Within the EU economic and environmental climate, eco-innovations can be the key to Europe’s competitiveness in the future. However, in many EU countries, including Poland, the market of eco-innovations is developing too sluggishly and faces a number of obstacles. Moreover, there are many differences between the EU countries in the field of eco-innovations. Although at the European level numerous support tools are currently applied, there is a growing necessity to gear them towards making eco-innovations commonplace on the market. This paper makes an attempt at answering a few questions crucial for finding optimal solutions for the development of an integrated support system for ecological innovations, in particular: what are the potential benefits of the implementation and development of innovations for the economy and natural environment, what are the current eco-innovation support tools and the main issues in their development, and what is the level of eco-innovation in the EU countries including Poland, seen through the available data.