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Abstract: This paper presents a new approach to the development of environmental policy, relying on the combination of several instruments to achieve different objectives and on the active involvement of the stakeholders in the policy development process. The development of an innovative system of environmental policy instruments for sustainable management of pig farming in a municipality in Portugal is used to illustrate the proposed approach. The system is based on the adoption of a policy mix, combining a command and control approach, established through a regulation for the pig farming sector, with economic instruments (a sustainability fund and a tradable pig raising rights system) and voluntary approaches (an eco-label for meat products from farms with superior sustainability performance). The design of the instruments has followed a participatory and transparent approach, where the stakeholders were actively engaged in the decision making process. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper provides an overview of the treatment of technological change (TC) in economic models of environmental policy. Numerous economic modeling studies have confirmed the sensitivity of mid- and long-run climate change mitigation cost and benefit projections to assumptions about technology costs. In general, technical progress is considered to be a non-economic, exogenous variable in global climate change modeling. However, there is overwhelming evidence that TC is not an exogenous variable but to an important degree endogenous, induced by needs and pressures. Hence, some energy–economy–environment models treat TC as endogenous, responding to socio-economic variables. Three main elements in models of technological innovation are: (i) corporate investment in research and development (R&D), (ii) spillovers from R&D, and (iii) technology learning, especially learning-by-doing. The incorporation of induced TC in different types of energy–environmental–economic models tends to reduce the costs of environmental policy, accelerates abatement and may lead to positive spillover and negative leakage. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This article presents the quantitative eco-efficiency method developed for prioritising environmental investments in NOGEPA, The Netherlands Oil and Gas Exploration and Production Association involving all major oil and gas producers in The Netherlands. They are committed to a high level of environmental improvement in a Covenant with Dutch central government. Quantitative assessment of eco-efficiency in terms of cost per unit of environmental improvement requires the quantification of both costs and environmental impacts, each in a single indicator. The present study focuses on the development of a single environmental indicator for that purpose. The overall process for arriving at such an indicator has been structured according to ISO 14042 about the life cycle impact assessment. For the last step in this process, the establishment of weighting factors across environmental themes, a panel method has been chosen, involving as stakeholders the government officials involved, the industry experts and independent experts from scientific institutes. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Over the last decade, waste management and prevention have become important in the transition towards a circular economy (CE). This study explores how voluntary environmental policies, adopted at a regional level, contribute to green transition from the perspective of the CE. By considering general and region-specific trends in waste management and environmental certifications, we perform a two-step analysis on a panel of 20 Italian regions between 2015 and 2019: the first step extrapolates the relative efficiency by using a Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), while the second step extrapolates the efficiency in terms of productivity changes supported by Malmquist Productivity Analysis (MPA). The DEA results show an overall rising trend of efficiency among the Italian regions, supported by the MPA. Furthermore, they reveal that technological innovation in Italian waste management contributes to a greater efficiency in socio-economic systems which are characterized by 'environmental federalism'. From a decision-making perspective, this study suggests that measures such as the incentivization of voluntary environmental policies should be proposed to promote techno-organizations' transition to CE, in coherence with regional economic/industrial specializations and strategies, possibly based on a diversified policy mix, setting a knowledge-based framework by using budgetary measures and policy actions at the regional level. • Circular Economy with resource recovery is a driving force to achieve green transition. • Increase in resource efficiency is an unexplored economic opportunity to support growth. • EMAS and UNI EN ISO certifications are proxies for the level of attention paid to the environment. • Voluntary environmental certifications facilitate the transition. • Choices made at the regional level contribute to the transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Can dirty incumbents leverage their existing knowhow to transition to clean technologies? To address this question, we systematically measure direct and indirect knowledge spillovers between clean and dirty technologies using the patent citation network. We assume citations reflect pathways of learning and knowledge proximity. We first examine the proportion of citations in clean patents that directly refer to dirty technologies. Secondly, we investigate how clean and dirty technologies are indirectly linked in the citation network and which sectors most frequently bridge these two fields. We find that less than one-tenth of clean patents contain a direct citation to prior dirty patents, but nearly two-thirds are indirectly linked. Significant sectoral heterogeneity exists. Patents related to control technologies, data processing and optimization, and the management of heat and waste, frequently serve as bridges between clean and dirty technologies in the citation network. Our results have implications for: firm-level diversification strategies, green industrial policy, and the modelling of directed technical change, where lower knowledge spillovers between clean and dirty technologies correspond to higher path dependencies. • We present novel evidence on the extent to which clean technologies learn from prior dirty technologies. • We construct a new measure of indirect knowledge spillovers between clean and dirty sectors. • We systematically identify "bridge technologies" that connect clean and dirty sectors. • We highlight key implications for the transition from dirty to clean innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]