OPEN: EU Scenario Storylines Report: - One Planet Economy Network

Consumption and waste
� Footprint Tax. In this Scenario, the Footprint Tax (reflecting the Ecological,
Carbon and Water footprint of the product or service), needed to be higher than in
Scenario 1, due to the lower level of technological innovation. The tax reached up
to 85% of the product‘s value in 2050. As a result, the consumption of electronic
goods, for example, is very low in this scenario. There is a wide culture of repair
and reuse, reinforcing a strong closed loop economy.
� Advanced labelling. Labelling and pricing of resources, goods and services has
taken into account the environmental and social harm caused during extraction,
production and use, including impacts on biodiversity, ecosystem services, air and
water quality, and scarcity of finite resources.
� Household waste measures. As in Scenario 1, the EU required that Member
States encourage municipalities to reduce waste collection services to a biweekly
instead of a weekly scheme and to offer door-to-door recycling collection on a
weekly basis. This reduction in services resulted in an immediate 20% reduction
in the amount of household waste generated and had a longer-term effect of
fostering a culture of zero waste households.
Industrial policy
� Raw material taxation. Similar to Scenario 2, an international agreement made
it possible to harmonise the taxation of raw material inputs with the highest
environmental impact. The shift in focus towards the Beyond GDP model in this
Scenario meant that the tax rate did not have to reach as high a level (reaching
20% by 2040).
� Carbon taxes. In this Scenario, the general trend away from the emphasis on
markets and private sector competition results in a carbon tax system being
introduced to replace the EU ETS as the main carbon policy instrument. In
addition to the carbon footprint tax imposed on products and services (described
above), carbon taxes were imposed on many industrial sectors at the point source
of emissions from 2020 onwards to drive efficiency improvements and the
diffusion of alternative technologies where available.
� Recycled content purchasing regulation. Beginning in 2020, a wholesaler and
retailer purchasing obligation mandated that products must contain a minimum of
20% recycled materials (increased to 50% by 2040).
Water resources
� Full cost recovery water pricing. (Financial, resource and environmental
costs). Under the EU Water Pricing Directive, Member States are required to
ensure full cost recovery water pricing in household, agricultural, and industrial
(including mining) sectors. Under a stepwise increase between 2015 and 2050,
average water pricing for public water/wastewater services in non-water scarce
EU regions is 7 EUR/m³; in water scarce regions, it is of 10 EUR/m³.
� Water pricing and shift of water-related energy subsidies to R&D.
Agriculture and industry voluntarily redirected water pricing and energy subsidies
to R&D.
� Scarcity & drought bands and quotas. Imposed during the summer season
and during any other times of water scarcity and drought in water scarce regions
to reduce average per capita water consumption to 300 m³/ year. An additional
ban on water cooling restricted power generation in Southern Europe and England
to dry cooling only.
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