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The emerging European economies have been converging rapidly toward the more advanced European economies in recent years. However, large external imbalances in parts of the region have raised questions about sustainability and concerns about vulnerabilities. Empirical evidence in this paper up to the end of 2007 and based on a number of methodologies suggests that the convergence trend of emerging Europe is based on strong fundamentals and is expected to continue, but at a slower pace. Moreover, the convergence path may be volatile, as countries with large external imbalances adjust, with risks of a hard landing in some cases. The results also suggest that policy could do more to address the region's imbalances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an overview of current environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practice with some of the leading U.S. and pan-Europe institutional real estate open-end fund managers. There were 18 firms that participated in the interviews, which were conducted with 36 persons, of which 72% were at the decision maker level. The participant firms represented over $300 billion in assets under management at year-end 2009. The paper discusses how fund managers balance fiduciary responsibilities and sustainability goals, the impact of green regulatory pressures, holistic approaches to ESG implementation, green push/pull on tenants, perceived and realized economic returns to sustainability, and the need for internal and external "buy in" for sustainability implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Advocacy is one of the core functions of public health and is a key tool for achieving Sustainable Development Goals. Public health associations play a key role in advocating for the development and implementation of strategies to prevent diseases and promote health and well-being. This study aims to map out the focus of public health advocacy carried out by selected national public health associations over 4 years, between 2018 and 2021, in order to identify gaps and strengths and support associations and professionals in their advocacy efforts. Twelve national public health associations participated in the study. Official policy documents produced between 2018 and 2021 were collected and analysed. The title and summary of the policy documents were examined line by line and coded into the main subject categories and themes. A qualitative thematic analysis was conducted. Policies were assessed from global and regional perspectives. A total of 220 policy documents were analysed. Overall, the largest number of policy documents came from high-income countries and dealt with environmental health and communicable diseases, including COVID-19, with, however, important differences among regions. In the African region, public health advocacy focused mainly on strengthening health systems; Europe and South America were mostly concerned with communicable diseases and pandemic management; and North America and the Western Pacific regions focused primarily on climate change. Limited attention was paid to international health and health as a human right in all regions. Our study showed that, especially in high-income countries, public health associations actively engage in advocacy; however, more effort needs to be devoted to implementing a more international and intersectoral approach at the global level, anchored in health as a human right and aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study provides a comprehensive analysis of whether financial development impacts environmental degradation, over time. It highlights how financial development, institutional frameworks, and foreign investment dictate the extent of green development. The sample includes 40 countries in Europe and data is collected on a large set of variables, for the years from 1990 to 2019. Financial development is measured through domestic credit to the private sector, bank credit to the private sector and foreign direct investment (FDI). Environmental degradation is measured through energy use, CO2 emissions, greenhouse emissions and natural resource depletion. The model controls for income levels, institutional quality, technology, education, population, and urbanization. Regression analysis is conducted to analyze the data. The results suggest that financial development has a negative relationship with four different measures of environmental degradation, while FDI and institutional quality appear to worsen the environmental measures. Recommendations for policy makers include development of green finance policies and strong institutions, to lower environmental degradation in the long run. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tourism is one of the world's largest industries and is a source of jobs across national and regional economies. Assessing the economic, environmental and social impacts of tourism development has become a major activity within the tourism and sustainable development communities. The purpose of this research is to demonstrate the contribution of system dynamics for analysing policies that can not only promote sustainable tourism development, but also act as a warning signal to the industry about the potential negative consequences of uncontrolled growth of mass tourism, particularly in island tourist economies. Previous research in the tourism sector has been fragmented, when a holistic approach is needed in order to try to coerce some alignment in the views of the various stakeholders. The main research results illustrated in this paper are: a generic model of a tourism system informed by the (mainly) South European island tourist economies and a set of scenarios illustrating examples of policy analysis. The generic model and the modelling process developed in this research will have some transferability to other issues concerned with policymaking for sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When it comes to sustainability, improving existing buildings is arguably more important than developing better new facilities. But that can be more difficult because it requires cooperation between owners and tenants. Fortunately, owners are finding ways to cooperate thru green leasing, incentives, and educational programs. This paper presents eight examples from the United States, Europe, and Australia. They demonstrate that property firms can work with new and existing tenants toward greater cooperation around sustainable real estate concerns. Transformation to sustainable property investing will be a "sociotechnical" process. It will require technical skill to improve eco-efficiency, but also new social capabilities that facilitate cooperation among owners and their tenants. Fortunately, the cases presented illustrate ways this can be done. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author reflects on economic and environmental policies in Europe. He stresses out that traditional environmental policies are neither helpful on systems level nor preventive in general sense, although such approach has been quite successful in certain aspects. The author also asserts that recycling can contribute toward saving natural resources but having no certainty that the said approach could lead to sustainable conditions.