Celebrating 40 years of CONCAWE

Volume 12 • Number 2: It is now 40 years since a small group of leading oil companies decided to pool their resources and expertise to deal with the emerging environmental issues associated with oil refining in Europe. In the early sixties, while the oil industry was experiencing very rapid growth, environmental issues were gaining increasing public attention.

An oil industry body, supported by specialist scientific staff, was deemed to be the ideal instrument to undertake professional analysis of perceived problem areas and to define the steps necessary to address them. Thus in 1963 CONCAWE was born, its name, the contraction of CONservation of Clean Air and Water in Europe, illustrating the major areas of concern at the time.