The European Green Deal is a set of policy initiatives on climate action laid out by the EU Commission that aim to make Europe the first climate-neutral continent by 2050. Proposed in 2019, and approved in 2020, the deal aims to transform the EU to become a more modern, resource-efficient, and competitive circular economy – increasing its resilience, and decreasing its carbon footprint.

In July 2021, the European Commission adopted a series of legislative proposals on how to achieve climate neutrality which include a revision of EU climate legislation and concrete ways to reach the EU climate targets.

Most recently in March 2023, three proposals from the Green Deal Industrial Plan, which supports the transition to climate neutrality by enhancing the competitiveness of Europe’s net-zero industry, were presented: the European Critical Raw Materials Act, the Net-Zero Industry Act and the reform of the electricity market design. These proposals will support the Plan by helping create a simpler and more predictable regulatory environment for clean technologies to either find or secure their home in the EU.

With the prevalence of single-use products and devices, the healthcare sector is a large producer of waste. A part of this waste is considered harmful and its incorrect disposal can have serious environmental impact, causing air pollution or water contamination. Other aspects such as sterilization methods, wasteful design, and device packaging also have a negative impact.

To counter the current environmental impact of the healthcare sector, the EU Green Deal intends to foster sustainability in manufacturing, use, and disposal of products. Its goal is to decarbonise all sectors of industry and to transform the linear economy (extract resources, use them, dispose of them) into a circular economy, which is carbon neutral and minimises resource waste and loss by focusing design on longer lasting products, maintenance, repair, reuse, and recycling.

Our free EU Green Deal whitepaper below delves deeper into:

• The existing environmental requirements regarding medical devices
• Regulations and legislative initiatives connected to the EU Green Deal concerning medical devices
• How the EU Green Deal will improve sustainability in the medical devices sector

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