Twenty pinfa member companies met to discuss the green transition, regulatory developments and actions worldwide. pinfa’s General Assembly was fixed in Berlin to coincide with the AMI Flame Retardants in Plastics Conference 2023, with online participation of pina North America and pinfa China.
As a guest speaker, Elisa Todesco, Cefic, presented the Cefic Transition Pathway to a net-zero, sustainable chemicals industry in Europe (see pinfa Newsletter n°146). Chemicals are the essential foundation for all European industries, from construction to the electronics needed for AI. Fire safety is essential throughout. Cefic estimates at 220 – 240 billion € the investment needed to achieve net-zero and green, recycled, bio-sourced chemicals (nearly three times the GDP of Luxemburg) and has identified 187 actions. The challenge is to secure such levels of investment. The European Commission has engaged task forces with Member States and Cefic and a call for information on initiatives open to stakeholders (below).
pinfa’s ongoing actions were discussed, covering regulatory dossiers, fire safety in construction materials, electric vehicles and charging, EU Fire Information Exchange Platform (FIEP), organophosphorus flame retardants, melamine compounds, inorganic flame retardants and particles. The EU chemicals agency (ECHA) expects to revise its Flame Retardants Strategy for aliphatic brominated FRs and certain organophosphorus FRs in 2025 and pinfa is working with ECHA to prepare data collection, e.g. on end-of-life, analysis, possible substitutes. pinfa’s outreach and communications actions include pinfa North America’s public information video explainer series on the value of flame retardants for fire safety (http://www.pinfa-na.org/learnfrmaterials), pinfa China energy storage workshop (Suzhou, 30th November), pinfa LinkedIn (nearly 700 followers) and pinfa Newsletter (over 150 issues, 1200 subscribers).