estonia-2030_en

social commitments. The green economy comprises many business sectors, from renewable energy,building passive housing and recycling materials through to manufacturing electric cars and producingorganic food. A large part of the green economy rests on biotechnology, many branches of whichare only just being developed. The silver economy comprises products and services provided to theelderly to ensure that the extra life years are spent being healthy, active and secure.1.2. EU policyAs a Member State, Estonia participates in the making of common EU policy and, by implementing it,discharges its obligations. In terms of spatial development, a major role is played by the environmental,energy, transport, agricultural, fisheries, maritime and foreign policies.With its environmental policy, the EU leads the world in environmental conservation. The Union hascreated legal mechanisms for the continual promotion of environmental conservation, set specificobjectives for meeting stringent environmental standards and created economic incentives forbusiness operators and the public sector to develop green economy. The EU is a leader when it comesto the conclusion of global climate-policy treaties. Within the Union, a system for trading greenhouse-gasemissions is in place. Under the biodiversity policy, the European Commission in 2011 adopteda biodiversity strategy to 2020, which aims to stop the decrease in diversity and transition to asustainable economic model. Development is in progress on a green infrastructure strategy (completiondue in 2012) applying a consistent philosophy of preserving biodiversity and linking naturereserves.The EU is also a world leader in developing a new energy policy. It has set the objectives of highenergy security and a low-carbon economy. The main trends include creating a single market forelectricity and natural gas in the Union, constructing single energy networks, improving the energyefficiency of technology, energy conservation, increasing the proportion of renewable energy, reducingdependence on external energy consumers and constructing alternative supply channels.The transport policy of the Union promotes above all the free movement of individuals and goods,assuring the functioning of the single internal market. The priority of the white paper, “Roadmap toa single European transport area – towards a competitive and resource efficient transport system”,published by the European Commission in 2011 is improving mobility by 2050. This includes plans toreduce greenhouse-gas emissions by means of novel technological and logistical solutions by 60% by2050 (compared to 1990). Attaining freedom from the use of fossil fuels is considered important. Thetransport policy spearheads the transformation of transport charges and taxes so that these reflectthe total and external costs of the infrastructure.The common agricultural policy of the EU impacts on spatial planning above all through the developmentof rural life, ensuring amongst other things the preservation of land in agricultural use and ofsecurity in food production Given the dwindling employment in agriculture, the intention is to secure8