EuCheMS – Green and Sustainable Chemistry

EuCheMS, the European Association of Chemical and Molecular Sciences, is an overarching body for all the Chemical Societies in Europe. It represents 160 000 chemists in almost 40 European countries, including Israel, Russia and Turkey. EuCheMS acts as a trusted independent voice for chemistry in all European institutions and seeks to place chemistry at the heart of European policy and planning. We are currently building up a network of contacts with the newly elected members of the European Parliament.

EuCheMS pays a role in lobbying the European Commission and Parliament through directly addressing the Presidents of the Commission and the Parliament (recently, in the area of green and sustainable chemistry, on climate change¹) as well as by holding workshops within the European Parliament (see below). EuCheMS runs the biennial EuCheMS Chemistry Congress which is the major chemistry conference in Europe. ECC6² will be held in Seville on the 12^th–15^th September, 2016. EuCheMS is organised into Divisions,³ which organise conferences in the years where there is no ECC and hold a variety of summer schools, workshops and events for younger scientists. In some cases, the Divisions also award prizes. There is an extremely active and effective younger members Division, the European Young Chemists Network (EYCN).⁴

Green and sustainable chemistry is one of the areas where EuCheMS has a particular interest, so much so that one of the most prestigious EuCheMS prizes is the biennial European Sustainable Chemistry Award (ESCA),⁵ which is intended to raise the profile of sustainable chemistry and be a spur to innovation and competitiveness. The 2014 award went to Professors Walter Leitner and Jürgen Klankermayer (RWTH, Aachen) for their important contribution to the field of catalytic transformation of carbon dioxide. In particular, the judges were impressed by the use of fundamental research to assist the development by Bayer Materials Science of a new polyurethane within their laboratories in RWTH (Leitner), which is being commercialised. This polymer replaces part of an epoxide feed by CO₂, thus reducing the carbon footprint of this important material. They have also used CO₂ for methanol synthesis and for making drug molecules with fewer steps and less waste (Leitner and Klankermayer). More details can be found at Integrating CO₂ in the Value Chain: The Role of Chemistry,⁶ a report on a workshop held for the European Parliament on 3^rd March 2015, chaired by MEP Julie Girling, where the winners presented their work. They also presented the work at the 5^th EuCheMS Chemistry Congress, Istanbul, September, 2015, where they were presented with their award.

Previous winners of the ESCA include Professor Matthias Beller (Rostock) for his inspirational work on homogeneous catalysis (2010) and Professor Marc Taillefer (Montpelier) for his work on the environmentally sustainable conversion of small molecules into more valuable substances catalysed by copper and iron molecular complexes (2012).

Several other workshops on Green and sustainable chemistry have been held in the Parliament, including The Energy Storage Challenge: Which Contribution from Chemical Sciences?⁷ and Sustainable Chemistry: Supporting Research, Innovation and Competitiveness in Europe.⁸ A workshop on endangered elements is in the early stages of planning. EuCheMS also co-hosted (with SCI and CNR) a meeting in Rome on Chemistry for the Future of Europe – Food, Energy, Environment⁹ on the occasion of Italy's assuming the EU Presidency. Further lectures will be held at EXPO 2015 in Milan on Feeding the Planet: Energy for Life and three linked meetings in Edinburgh embracing climate change, energy options and fracking are being planned for 27^th May, 2015. An initiative on photochemically driven chemistry is also being developed as a contribution to the International Year of Light. The Roadmap, Chemistry – Developing Solutions in a Changing World¹⁰ has many sections devoted to green and sustainable chemistry

Although EuCheMS has many Divisions that support sustainable chemistry the most relevant are the Division on Chemistry and the Environment,¹¹ which organises a number of events and publishes a large journal, the Working Party on Chemistry and Energy,¹² which is heavily involved in organising Energy Science and Technology,¹³ Karlsruhe, 20–22^nd May, 2015, and the Working Party on Green and Sustainable Chemistry,¹⁴ which is expected to become a Division later this year. Members of the Working Party on Green and Sustainable Chemistry are currently organising the 2^nd EuCheMS Green and Sustainable Chemistry Conference,¹⁵ Lisbon, 4–7^th October, 2015.

If you wish to become involved in EuCheMS, please visit the home page¹⁶ and sign up using the very short questionnaire. Much more detail of all of the issues discussed in this editorial will also be found there.

David Cole-Hamilton

President, EuCheMS

References

1. http://www.euchems.eu/fileadmin/user_upload/news/EuCheMS_letter_greenhouse.pdf .
2. http://euchems-seville2016.eu/ .
3. http://www.euchems.eu/divisions.html .
4. http://www.eycn.eu/ .
5. http://www.euchems.eu/awards/european-sustainable-chemistry-award.html .
6. http://www.euchems.eu/publications/reports/integrating-co2-in-the-value-chain-the-role-of-chemistry.html .
7. http://www.euchems.eu/publications/reports/the-energy-storage-challenge-which-contribution-from-chemical-sciences.html .
8. http://www.euchems.eu/publications/reports/sustainable-chemistry-supporting-research-innovation-and-competitiveness-in-europe.html .
9. http://www.euchems.eu/news/single-news/article/chemistry-for-the-future-of-europe.html .
10. http://www.euchems.eu/fileadmin/user_upload/home/Euchems_Roadmap_gesamt_final2.pdf .
11. http://www.euchems.eu/divisions/chemistry-and-the-environment.html .
12. http://www.euchems.eu/divisions/chemistry-and-energy.html .
13. http://www.est-conference.com/ .
14. http://www.euchems.eu/divisions/green-and-sustainable-chemistry.html .
15. http://web.ist.utl.pt/jnlopes/2EUGSC/The_Conference.html .
16. http://www.euchems.eu/ .

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