Search

The article considers the role of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), the generally accepted information and beliefs of a specific society about its environmental conditions and ecosystem use, in environmental policy formation in Europe. A relative lack of research on TEK within European rural communities is noted. Forestry management is among the examples cited of an environmental issue in which TEK could implement sustainable resource management.

The article discusses the report "Sustaining Europe for a Long Way Ahead: Making Long-Term Sustainable Development Policies Work," by the Network of European Environmental and Sustainable Development Advisory Councils (EEAC) during its annual meeting in October 2008. The statement's aim is to evaluate how well various aspects of societies and economies plan, adapt, think, and assess actions for sustainable projects. Topics include a definition of sustainable development, as defined by the EEAC, the relationship between governance, social justice, and budgets in promoting sustainability in European Union (EU) countries, and the availability of markets that offer long-term sustainability for humanity. Also discussed is the role culture, demography, and localism play in sustainability.

Focuses on the concern surrounding air pollution in Europe. Protocol of the European Union (EU) and the Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution (CLRTAP), which calls for cuts in such air pollutants as sulfur dioxide; Goal of a parallel National Emission Ceilings (NEC) Directive to reduce pollutant emissions; Effort to develop an effective response to the threat of global climate change; Outlook for the effectiveness of these air-pollution policies. INSETS: Environmental Policymaking in the European Union: The Main...;The Clean Air for Europe Programme.

European scientists have developed an integrated computer model called RAINS that combines regional data on air pollutant emissions, atmospheric processes and environmental effects. The RAINS model will help policymakers and researchers in forecasting the effects of today's pollution control measures on tomorrow's environment.

This commentary discusses the European Union's Emissions Trading system. In their very instructive and useful overview of the European Union's Emissions Trading System (EU ETS), "Greenhouse Gas Trading in Europe: The New Grand Policy Experiment," Joseph A. Kruger and William A. Pizer note that implementation of the system has been an impressively rapid process. They indicate that a main factor for understanding the character and speed of this process is the constructive use of lessons from U.S. trading programs by EU decisionmakers. The EU's high-speed decision-making process in constructing the emissions trading system can basically be understood and explained by a combination and interaction of three perspectives. First, the EU system was more ripe and ready for emissions trading when the process started in 1998 than may be readily apparent. Second, the European Commission (the Commission), the formal EU agenda-setter, played an extraordinarily strong entrepreneurial role throughout the development of the system, which sped up the process. Third, there is the perspective of the lessons learned from the U.S. emissions trading experience, as emphasized by Kruger and Pizer.

Editorial. Discusses the role of green parties in environmental politics in Europe. Comments on an article by Wolfgang Rüdig which examines how well green parties have been faring; Outlook for the future of sustainability politics in Europe.

Editorial. Compares the precautionary principle of Europe and the United States (US). Analysis of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety; Policy paper published by the European Commission; Concern in the US Codex Office.