CONCAWE Review – Autumn 1999

Volume 8 • Number 2: In May this year the CONCAWE Council elected me as the new Chairman of the organization. It is both a privilege and a challenge to take over this responsibility.

A privilege to be in charge of leading CONCAWE’s activities of developing sound scientific information in support of requirements in the fields of environmental protection, health and safety. But also a challenge to ensure continuity of CONCAWE’s successful work during a time of extensive reorganization and rationalization within the organization’s member companies.

I would also like to take this opportunity to express our gratitude to the previous Chairman, Peter Gill, for his inspiring leadership over the last three years.When CONCAWE was founded in 1963, the prevention of pollution and its resulting adverse effects on human health and ecosystems were still low on the agenda of governments and the public at large.

Since then legislators, NGOs and industry have taken up public concerns about the state of the environment, which has resulted in massive reductions of emissions from all major sources and a proportional increase in environmental legislation.