Programme
Registration and coffee
Staying ahead of PFAS regulation: PFAS tracker demo
Welcome and introduction by the moderator
Keynote: PFAS: A major risk factor for European water resilience
Session 1: The latest European updates
European Commission overview
- Status of the various environmental legislations on PFAS
- Status of the chemicals-related legislation on PFAS – in the EU and globally
- Update on policy-related topics
Evaluation of the uPFAS restriction proposal in the ECHA committees
- State of play
- Next steps
- Consultation on the SEAC draft opinion
UK regulatory developments
VIRTUAL PRESENTATION
- Regulatory and policy actions from Defra, including the Environmental Improvement Plan
- PFAS within the UK REACH work programme
Q&A
Refreshment break and networking
PFAS and the recycling sector: Enabling a clean circular economy
- The PFAS challenge in recycling: Sources, prevalence and implications for recyclate quality and marketability
- Regulatory dilemmas: How current and proposed restrictions may clash with circularity goals – what’s missing?
- The way forward: Need for monitoring technologies, risk-based approach and harmonized enforcement to enable both safe and circular systems
Implications of PFAS exclusions from insurance policy coverage in the EU
- Expanding EU PFAS litigation
- PFAS exclusions from liability policies
- Lloyd’s market association PFAS exclusions – LMA5595 and LMA5596 – pave the way
- The German Insurance Association (GDV) model clause and other developments
Q&A
Panel discussion on societal and environmental costs of PFAS
Lunch break and networking
Session 2: Sectoral perspectives, solutions and substitutions
The PFAS ban and the challenges for the automotive industry
- How is the automotive industry affected by PFAS?
- What are the challenges, especially for automotive original equipment manufacturers (OEMs)?
Case study: How Coop Denmark led national change on PFAS
- Early action from 2014
- Collaboration with scientists and authorities
- Targeting food contact materials, identifying risks and implementing safer alternatives
- Influencing national policy: Danish government followed Coop’s lead
- Communicating PFAS-free is difficult, but consumers deserve transparency
- PFAS contamination is widespread
- testing and documentation - high demand for scientific verification
- Beyond compliance: tackling unregulated chemicals of concern ahead of legislation
Road mapping towards a PFAS-free portfolio for coating technologies
- SME perspective on the challenges of identifying and replacing PFAS in the product portfolio
- Impact on new product approval processes and meeting market demands
- Future solutions for the eyewear industry and beyond
Q&A
Refreshment break and networking
Cooling and heating within (planetary) boundaries: How fair policy can reward PFAS-free industry innovators
- The cooling and heating dilemma: a human need with constraints
- The proven solution: following the lead of established innovators
- The policy and regulatory imperative: reward innovation, not stagnation
PFAS and non-REACH regulated substances: Issues with plant protection products and biocides
- Active substances meeting the definition of PFAS in plant protection and biocides
- Which approach for their risk assessment/risk management?
- Future possible scenarios
AI tool to help speed up PFAS phase-out
- The future belongs to the companies that generate new data
- AI does not give us the entire truth, and may give us false information – but is much faster than humans at analyzing text and data. How do we balance accuracy and speed?
- Innovative ways to use the AI models
Q&A and panel discussion: What happens to PFAS through the life cycle from production to waste in the different sectors?
Close of the conference