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Studies the economic costs of harmonizing paper recycling standards in countries where the urgency of the waste disposal problems differ. Harmonization of environmental policy instruments to guarantee 'fair' competition in international markets; Estimate on technologically feasible input combinations of pulp and waste paper for paper production; Short-term effects of two environmental policy measures.

Reports on the European Union's release of a white paper outlining how the polluter pays principle might be applied. Potential effects of the white paper on interest groups; Environmental disasters which spurred the development of the scheme; Coverage of traditional and environmental damages under the plan.

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This work explores the transition process towards a circular economic model in the European context. By placing the role of policies and waste as a focus of the debate, it first examines the possible effects that a stringent policy can generate and, secondly, how much waste and its management can influence the goodness of the transition process. By analyzing European data on major indicators of circularity, waste generation, and management, this paper attempts to provide a snapshot of the European situation and its different speeds along the transition path. In light of the recent development programs established by European institutions in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic that strained the world economy, the trends show how program resources should be directed towards key sustainability sectors that can stimulate European countries towards a common circular pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Roma communities in the CEE (Central and Eastern Europe) region work in the informal economy through scavenging municipal waste. This conceptual paper has the aim of examining the extent for integration of scavenging into environmental policy through the development of a research paradigm applied to Roma and similarly marginalized non-Roma individuals. Evidence from studies of informal waste collection outside Europe suggests that in some cases it has been integrated into municipal waste management policy. In the CEE region, environmental policy insufficiently acknowledges the existence of informal scavenging whereby waste material categorization and disposal is not monitored to infer a research gap which is addressed in the research paradigm. This paper also adds to ongoing debate on entrepreneurship theory by developing a typology incorporating categories of ethnic (Roma) and informal (non-ethnic) entrepreneurship and thus serves to inform policy development for more socio-economically effective municipal waste collection and disposal in the CEE region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Will European companies investing abroad be transmitters of EU environmental policies or environmental dumpers? This article utilizes a most-differentcases approach to analyze transnational corporation (TNC) behavior in countries with less stringent environmental standards. Drawing on rational institutionalism, the article examines two significant European business investments in Mercosur countries: paper pulp mills in Uruguay and fishing off the coast of Argentina. These cases demonstrate that EU environmental standards will be diffused beyond Europe's borders if significant fixed assets are involved, high levels of public awareness and action in response to environmental degradation are possible, and if the environmental policy of an industry is successfully implemented in Europe. Paper pulp milling in Uruguay fulfilled these conditions and TNCs, in this case applied EU standards. This was not so with TNC fishing practices in Argentina. Also, with high citizen attention, local companies will adopt similar environmental practices to those of their European counterparts, improving environmental practices even without domestic government regulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACTIn technically complex areas, political actors increasingly rely on private actors to shape public policy, due to the greater expertise of private actors. This article theorises and empirically investigates the conditions under which self-regulation by industry (governance) emerges in environmental policy at the European level and asks how effective it is. Is a shadow of hierarchy (governmental intervention) needed to ensure the emergence and effectiveness of voluntary agreements? We show that the willingness to engage in self-regulation is prompted by the threat of governmental legislation. Once legislation has been pre-empted, environmental self-regulation is implemented under a weak shadow of hierarchy. We identify the causes of this weak control and explain the differential performance in the two sectors on the basis of different market incentives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sustainable management of aquatic ecosystems requires better coordination between policies span-ning freshwater, coastal and marine environments. Ecosystem-based management (EBM) has been promoted as a holistic and integrative approach for the safekeeping and protection of aquatic biodiversity. The paper assesses the degree to which key European environmental policies for the aquatic environment, namely the Birds and Habitats Directives, Water Framework Directive and Marine Strategy Framework Directive, individually support EBM and can work synergistically to implement EBM. This assessment is based on a review of legal texts, EU guidance and implementation documents. The paper concludes that EBM can be made operational by implementing these key environmental directives. Opportunities for improving the integration of EU environmental policies are highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - This paper aims to measure carbon footprints (CFs) of products at the sectoral levels. The paper also aims to provide potential solutions to adopt greener supply chains to minimise CFs. Design/methodology/approach - The assessment of CFs uses a data set for nine sectors and environmental extended input output tables, as well as other six models. The analysis uses modules for regional economy, freight, logistics and mode choice, among other modules. The output of these modules includes increases or cuts in carbon dioxide (CO[sub 2]) emissions following a shift in supply chains. Findings - The authors identify five supply chains that are closely connected to the growth of CFs. The highest CF is found for the electronics and textiles products. Offshoring manufacturing capacity produces an increase of emissions (production and freight transport sectors) of 42 million tonnes of CO[sub 2] emissions, or 12 per cent of the Kyoto target of 341 million tonnes of CO[sub 2]. Using a different metric to measure emissions, offshoring the same volume of production appears as a reduction in European Union (EU)-wide CO[sub 2] emissions. To reduce CO[sub 2] emissions, the authors propose a carbon tax on imports, increasing R&D subsidies to industry and freight sectors and on-shoring a greater volume of production into the EU economies, among other measures. Research limitations/implications - This paper only measures CFs at the sectoral level. Further work should include survey data on CFs, longer historical data series and larger set of products for assessment. Another limitation is the lack of analysis of freight transport flows of non-EU regions, (i.e. China and Latin America). Practical implications - The authors propose the following measures: at least five policies to offset offshoring of production, several measures to reduce carbon emissions, propose introducing mandatory audits for CFs and mandatory labelling. This work has implications for carbon taxation of exports and imports in an effort to decarbonise European and global supply chains. Social implications - Social implications include the need to lower personal goods consumption in the EU to minimise the impact of supply chains on carbon emissions; the need to tax exports/imports may have an impact on jobs in the EU, among other effects. Originality/value - This paper is the only study that uses the TRANS-TOOLS model and the only study to measure CFs of products within the context of freight transport flows within the EU. The analysis relies on inputs from several modules that apply data on 24 EU economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the relationship between waste generation and economic development for a sample of European countries. In contrast to previous studies that have considered this relation to be stable over time, we apply methods for testing the presence of structural breaks located at unknown periods. This methodology provides robust evidence against the stability of the relationship, finding ruptures in the so-called dot.com crisis, in the early 2000s, and in episodes related to the Great Recession. Once these breaks are considered, we observe that waste generation shows considerable dependence on the evolution of the economy for those countries with the lowest per capita income levels. This suggests the existence of a trade-off between convergence policies and those aimed at avoiding environmental degradation, suggesting the need to maintain and reinforce environmental policies in the EU., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Nanotechnology has increasing applications in numerous markets, particularly in additive processing (3D printing) and manufacturing, which is important for consumer products, medical devices, construction, and general research and development across many other industries. Nanomaterials are desirable in many products due to their unique properties, but those same properties have made evaluating the risk and regulation of these materials challenging. For risk-based regulations, new applications and nanomaterials should be assessed for both human and environmental hazards and exposure to ensure protection. In general, many risk assessments to date have focused on the non-nano versions of chemicals. The lack of guidance on assessing the hazard and exposure of nanomaterials in 3D printing is apparent, and these areas of assessment are actively being evaluated. Industry in most cases will now need to provide specific additional information for assessing the risk of nanomaterials in 3D printing. This review paper focuses on the use of nanomaterials in 3D printing for industrial and manufacturing applications, summarizes the current literature on human health and safety related to 3D printing and inhalation exposure, and the regulations relating to 3D printing in the U.S., Canada, and Europe for this industry., (Copyright © 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

This article presents an editorial on the contributions of David W. Pearce to environmental economics and policy. Pearce's impact in Europe was formidable as he changed the term "environmental economist" from an oxymoron to a job description increasingly valued by governments. Pearce is known for his ability to take difficult subjects and make them clear and accessible for decision makers. Many of Pearce's accomplishments are outlined.

Now that it is widely accepted that the European Union (EU) constitutes a system of governance, analysts need actively to explore precisely how it may affect the continuing struggle better to coordinate national and European administrations. In its 2001 White Paper on governance, the European Commission interpreted governance to mean less central control and more network-led steering. Its interpretation of such networks is that they are self-organizing. Drawing upon an empirical study of environmental policy integration (EPI) in the EU, this article shows that this vision may not adequately fit the multi-actor, multi-level coordination challenges associated with some EU problems. By studying the administrative capacities that the European Commission and three member states have created to achieve better environmental coordination, this article shows significant administrative weaknesses. It concludes that the coordination challenges now troubling the EU require a more thoughtful discussion of network management than the White Paper suggests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A growing number of cities around the world have taken advantage of their green image of the purpose of place branding. In the research literature, it is suggested that these practices are motivated by place-based competition over financial and social capital, combined with more holistic motives of sustainable urban development. However, although an increasing number of green cities are engaged in place branding, few studies have researched the impact of place branding on environmental policy-making in a city, building up to the question: how is local environmental policy-making affected by green place branding? Addressing this issue, this paper critically investigates how the continuity of local environmental policy-making is affected by place-branding practices. To tackle this task, the paper firstly develops an analytical framework aiming to understand how green cities emerge and become famous based on their policy-making. Secondly, using that framework, this paper present an in-depth case study of a city branding itself as the 'Greenest City in Europe'. Drawing on the growing body of work on green cities, this paper investigates the 'understudied' practice of using policy for the purpose of place branding as well as the impact of place branding 'on the environment'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last years the objective of European Commission and other E.U institutions was to promote numerous initiatives to simplifying the environmental norms and legislation in order to provide tangible advantages for enterprises and public administrations. In this context the paper investigated the measures and incentives tools implemented in some European Countries to support companies's adoption of Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS). Starting from analysis of the number of EMAS registration among European Union countries the paper seeks to explain why some countries benefit more form existing incentives measures and which are the most powerful incentives for registered companies. It will be shown that the participation of companies in EMAS is markedly differs between member states. In order to understand these differences in participation rates it is important to take into consideration that EMAS is a voluntary scheme and the national regulators set different simplification measures and incentives. The study is focused on the two main categories of tool incentives indicated by European Commission: regulatory flexibility and promotional incentives. Taking into account that Spain, Germany and Italy are countries with the highest number of EMAS registration the paper concludes with some best practices and recommendations that should be considered by governments in order to increase the diffusion of the EMAS among organizations from other countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The key concern of the present paper revolves around the idea that in many aspects effective environmental policy integration has proved to be very difficult to be applied in practice and it has largely remained at a rhetorical level. The authors develop this theme, placing at the core of the analysis the most visible and supranational institution, the executive-bureaucratic arm of the EU: the European Commission, whose role in protecting environmental values is seen also in terms of its new agenda, this time without a portfolio dedicated exclusively to the environment. Authors' main contribution lies in the fact that, unlike other studies that focus primarily on a sterile analysis of the European Commission's functions, they shed light on this EU institution's right of initiative through the Principle of Environmental Integration (PEI). The paper emphasizes that one of the factors that prevents the Commission to make use more often of PEI is rooted in the ambiguous legal nature of PEI. In this respect, useful clarifications were made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explains Eco-Innovation (EI) activities of clusters deriving from 11 countries of Southeastern European (SEE) region. The study indicates that more than a half of the analyzed clusters in the SEE region have set objectives related to EI in their cluster strategies, while just a few of them primarily focused on EI. Thus, results suggest that being primarily focused on EI is positively correlated with most of the activities related to EI which are being implemented. These activities are mostly oriented towards spreading information and awareness-raising, while not towards investing 'heavily' in the implementation of EI. This study offers an outline of the current situation regarding EI activities in the analyzed clusters of the SEE region. Other findings of this paper are: first, clusters have the influential power/potential to steer companies towards engagement in EI by setting the objectives and focus on EI, and second, clusters' primary focus is related to the extent of EI's activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the idea of a "Community of Human Destiny," the Chinese government proposed the "Belt and Road" initiative, and clearly proposed to promote green development and strengthen ecological environmental protection. However, a considerable number of countries are resource-rich economies with serious market misallocations. Using the stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) combined with the directional distance function (DDF) framework, this paper measures the green total factor productivity (GTFP) and its items (i.e., technical change and efficiency change) of 33 countries along the Belt and Road in 1995-2012, and then the impact of market misallocations on GTFP is analyzed. The following conclusions are drawn: (1) The main driving force for GTFP promotion in Asian countries came from technical change, while in European countries, it came from efficiency change. (2) Market misallocations had significantly hindered the GTFP of these economies. Countries with greater market misallocations have smaller GTFP. (3) Results based on counterfactual measures showed that GTFP could be increased by up to 4.04% and the average can be increased by 1.24% after eliminating market misallocations.

The recently published guide "Environmental Noise Guidelines for the European Region" provides evidence of the non-auditory effects of environmental noise on population health. This guide reflects the current state of knowledge about how traffic noise affects cardiovascular diseases among others. Despite the valuable contributions of this document in terms of current knowledge, there are different points of improvement in terms of implementation of the guide for all Europe. The studies related to Southern Europe have little presence, probably due to the lack of research in this issue, it means, there are few studies that evaluate short-term effects of noise on morbid-mortality. In this sense, it would be advisable to include the most recently published papers on the subject. Due to the aforementioned, the noise exposure assessment should be considerate at the short and long term to evaluate completely the noise effects on health, specially taking into account the characteristics of countries in which leisure-related noise is especially problematic., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Denmark was the first European country to completely ban lead shot for hunting and target shooting. This paper reviews the process behind this phase-out to document its history, successes, and pitfalls, and to make the Danish experiences accessible for the benefit of other countries, authorities, and stakeholders who face nature management challenges implementing similar change. A review of the content of magazines published by the three hunters' organizations during the 1978-1992 transition period was carried out, to assess the general discourse and identify the primary concerns and attitudes during the phase-out of lead shot for hunting in Denmark. Hunters were initially negative towards the change. Resistance was driven by concern about the quality, safety issues, and expensive cost of non-toxic alternatives, compounded by lack of organizational leadership and tensions between stakeholders. As a result of the widening appreciation of the environmental effects of dispersed lead shot and the introduction of new generations of alternative shot types, hunter attitudes became positive and constructive. Change need not pose an obstruction to continued hunting opportunity. On the contrary, it is believed that the value from the enhancement of the public image of hunters resulting from the reduction in the environmental dispersal of a recognized contaminant is of paramount importance for the long-term political sustainability of hunting.

If the multiple negative health impacts associated with lead ammunition are to be mitigated, a transition to the non-toxic alternatives is needed. This paper aims to map out the pathways to such a transition via a modification of Kotter's eight step theory of change, identifying key stakeholders, exploring options for those of us advocating change and the relationships between policy and persuasion. The focus is primarily on the UK, but it is of direct relevance to the rest of Europe and beyond. The theory of change model involves (1) creating urgency, (2) building coalitions, (3) creating a vision for change, (4) communicating that vision, (5) removing barriers to enable action, (6) creating short-term or geospatial wins, (7) building on the change and (8) embedding change in culture and regulation. The paper reflects on good progress to date in initial steps, but throughout subsequent steps creative engagement and other disciplines which appreciate the human dimensions such as mediation and psychology of behaviour change have been lacking. Although significant barriers remain for Step 5, the paper identifies the central vision of sustainability of hunting as a shared value around which most stakeholders can engage. The paper concludes that, given the growing momentum surrounding this issue in recent years, the phasing out of lead ammunition is at a tipping point.

The European Commission has been currently working towards a form of mobility that is sustainable, energyefficient and respectful of the environment. The scope is to reduce the adverse effects connected to mobility. A special attention must be payed to implementing more sustainable modes of transport, which must become more efficient and attractive. Simultaneously, innovative methods and technologies for energy saving and for the environment protection must be introduced. This paper makes an analysis of the best practices and measures proposed at European level to promote sustainable transport in urban centres, recommendations addressed to citizens and local authorities based on the best practices and successful projects implemented in some European cities. There are emphasized some organizing and planning measures for developing urban transport by adopting green solutions and mobility initiatives, aimed to reduce the air pollution, to use the urban area and the energy resources more efficiently. The paper also presents several case studies of European cities where policies of sustainable transport were implemented successfully. They may be regarded as successful examples for adopting green mobility practices in Romania. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In its Green Paper on a 2030 framework for climate and energy policies, the European Commission calls for a framework for the future development of environment and energy policy beyond 2020. However, much like the Energy Roadmap 2050 adopted by the Commission in December 2011, the Green Paper is based on scenario assumptions that are, to a great extent, not up-to-date. The European Commission would need to provide updated model calculations rapidly to enable energy policy decisions to be taken on the basis of transparent and comprehensible scenarios. A comparison of recent estimates conducted by DIW Berlin indicates that the Commission systematically underestimates the cost of nuclear power and carbon capture, transport, and storage (CCTS), while the cost of renewables tends to be overestimated. In particular this applies to photovoltaics where current capital costs are, to a certain extent, already lower than the Commission's estimates for 2050. In contrast to renewables, neither nuclear energy nor carbon capture, transport, and storage are cost efficient enough to play a central role in the future European electricity mix. It is therefore vital for Europe to continue to focus on the further development of renewables. This requires the setting of ambitious renewables targets for 2030 as well as clear emissions reduction and energy efficiency targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of modelling tools to support decision-makers to plan air quality policies is now quite widespread in Europe. In this paper, the Regional Integrated Assessment Tool (RIAT+), which was designed to support policy-maker decision on optimal emission reduction measures to improve air quality at minimum costs, is applied to the Porto Urban Area (Portugal). In addition to technological measures, some local measures were included in the optimization process. Case study results are presented for a multi-objective approach focused on both NO and PM10 control measures, assuming equivalent importance in the optimization process. The optimal set of air quality measures is capable to reduce simultaneously the annual average concentrations values of PM10 and NO in 1.7 and 1.0 μg/m, respectively. This paper illustrates how the tool could be used to prioritize policy objectives and help making informed decisions about reducing air pollution and improving public health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydropower is the world's largest renewable electricity source and will have an important role in the future energy system with increased requirements to integrate environmental and socioeconomic aspects of sustainability. One important field of interaction is between hydropower and fish. The aim of optimizing hydropower production as well as fish production via Research and Innovation in the context of the European policy framework was the topic of the workshop "Hydropower and Fish - Research and Innovation in the context of the European Policy Framework" organized in May 2017 in Brussels. This paper reports the main messages from the workshop sessions including future research needs, collaboration strategies and knowledge exchange. In particular, the workshop emphasized the need for standardized monitoring and mitigation approaches and of following a balanced approach in addressing challenges between renewable energy production and river and fish ecology. Future research in the area is needed. As perspective and primer for future discussions, the interrelations of hydropower and fish to the different spheres of the total environment are presented and discussed., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

In an increasingly integrated world with declining trade barriers, environmental regulations can have a decisive role in shaping countries' comparative advantages. The conventional wisdom about environmental protection is that it comes at an additional cost on firms imposed by the government, which may erode their global competitiveness. However, this paradigm has been challenged by some analysts. In particular, Porter and van der Linde argue that pollution is often associated with a waste of resources and that more stringent environmental policies can stimulate innovations that may overcompensate for the costs of complying with these policies. This is known as the Porter hypothesis. While there is a broad empirical literature on the impact of trade on environment, the empirical literature on the impact of environmental regulations on trade flows is relatively scarce, very heterogeneous and presents mixed results. The innovative feature of this paper is its attempts to estimate, in a gravity setting, augmented with a proxi of environmental stringency, the impact of three major multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) on 15 EU countries' bilateral exports. According to our estimates, in the period 1988-2008, to be member of MEAs had a positive average impact on EU-15 bilateral exports. This evidence can be partly explained by a possible trade diversion effect with respect to countries that did not sign MEAs and a corresponding trade creation effect among members of the environmental agreements. Furthermore, evidence coming from interaction effects estimates seems to show that for exporting countries, having signed the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Montreal agreements partly mitigates (by the amount of the estimated coefficient) the negative impact of having a relatively more stringent environmental regulation on bilateral trade. This result could have important policy implications for the future international trade-environmental negotiations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The idea behind evidence-based instruments for policy-making is to provide objective information regarding the costs, benefits and risks involved in legislative proposals. An example of these instruments is the integrated Impact Assessment system, which has been in place in EU policy-making since 2003. Impact Assessments are designed according to rational decision models and aim to enhance the neutrality and objectivity of policy-making. This paper draws a comparison between the rational paradigm emerging from the EU template and the empirical evaluations carried out to date on Impact Assessments. It questions the conventional concept of Impact Assessments as rational policy-making instruments, because of the influential roles played by individual knowledge and data quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the tight coupling between European climate science and policy. Drawing upon the analytical idiom of co-production it examines how knowledge-making practices are incorporated into European climate policy-making, and more importantly, how EU climate policy has influenced the funding, making and interpretation of useful European climate policy research. The paper identifies a tension between the critical/reflexive ambition built into the co-production idiom, and the more utilitarian interpretation of the term. Whereas the former sets out to expose and interrogate the ontological assumptions underpinning public policy, the latter seeks to be useful by responding to the knowledge needs of societal decision-makers. This tension is analysed through a case study of the integrated research project ADAM (Adaptation and Mitigation Strategies: Supporting European Climate Policy) funded under the 6th Framework Programme of the EU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The aim of this paper is to investigate how green certificates markets have developed in the European Union, with a view to producing consistent recommendations that could be used in future environmental strategies and policies to improve existing schemes for renewable energy promotion and support. Design/methodology/approach - The study was conducted by combining a wide variety of sources, such as regulations, position papers, road-maps, as well as articles and research reports. European experiences in using green certificates to support renewable energies were compared from the point-of-view of the legislative framework and national support systems. Findings -- The findings reveal that improvements in three major areas (legislative framework, national support systems, and cost reduction) are needed in order to achieve a better support for renewable energy generation. Practical implications - The conclusions justify the effort invested in developing green certificates markets and are relevant for policy makers in a very sensitive sector to accomplish sustainability goals - the use of renewable energy. The study may represent a starting-point for further research into renewable energy support systems, environmental issues and economic implications. Originality/value - The paper provides a rational and comparative approach for finding solutions to the problems of green certificates markets in the European Union. The methodology and the results reported in this research could be used for exploring green certificates markets opportunities in other European countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Minimum harmonization in European environmental law essentially means that the Member States have the power to lay down more stringent standards in this area of regulation than those laid down by European legislation. However, there were indications which seemed to suggest that Member States make very little use of their powers to lay down or maintain more stringent national standards. The general question to be dealt with in this paper is whether Member States actually use their power to lay down or maintain more stringent environmental standards after European harmonization. Based upon the papers and discussion at the meeting of the Avosetta Group of European Environmental Lawyers in Monção (Portugal), 6 and 7th February 2009, this paper aims to paint an impressionist picture of the contemporary practice of gold plating (or not) in the Member States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Widely advocated as a means to make policy making more integrated, policy assessment remains weakly integrated in practice. But explanations for this shortfall, such as lack of staff training and resources, ignore more fundamental institutional factors. This paper identifies institutional capacities supporting and constraining attempts to make policy assessment more integrated. A comparative empirical analysis of functionally equivalent assessment systems in four European jurisdictions finds that there are wide-ranging institutional constraints upon integration. These include international policy commitments, the perception that assessment should support rather than determine policy, organisational traditions, and the sectorisation of policy making. This paper concludes by exploring the potential for altering these institutions to make policy assessment more integrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is an analysis of the policy innovations of the European Union's Water Framework Directive and their relationship to a range of economic and geographical interests. It follows a previous paper describing the process of the making of the WFD in relation to the new EU co-decision process. This paper argues that the innovative aspects of the policy reflect a context in which the broader governance arrangements for water management in Europe are shifting in dramatic ways. The paper identifies the aspects of the WFD that are innovative by comparing it with previous European directives related to water management legislation. The paper then describes the state of Europe's freshwater resources as a basis for understanding the regional geography of interests in the policy-making process and examines the contrasting interests of state, market and civil society institutions and their impact on the final draft. The paper ends by bringing the history of the WFD up to date by looking at the initial responses of the key actors to the final WFD and at recent developments in relation to implementation. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract. In this paper we consider two important aspects in the complex problem of transboundary air pollution in Europe, namely (i) the interdependence of the problems of tropospheric ozone and acidification and (ii) the dynamic processes related to soil acidification. We develop an optimal control model to analyse the interaction between acidification as a stock pollutant and tropospheric ozone as a flow pollutant for several countries. Using a cost-benefit framework an analysis is performed to determine efficient emission paths for nitrogen oxides, sulphur dioxide and volatile organic compounds. The model jointly analyses acidification and ozone. The current European reduction plans do not fully take into account the multi-pollutants multi-targets nature of the problem. In addition, the plans allow for temporary exceedance of critical loads without considering the consequences for the temporal development of the soil quality. This paper shows the complex relations and interactions which one should deal with while designing policies that are efficient with respect to the cross-effects between the different environmental problems. It also shows how dynamic efficient abatement strategies would look if the cross effects and the dynamic processes in soil acidification are explicitly incorporated in the analysis. Key words: acid rain, acidification, cost benefit analysis, environmental economics, multi-pollutants, optimal control, transboundary air pollution, tropospheric ozone [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

These essays are offered as a contribution to the ongoing scholarly discourse concerned with environmental problems in East Central Europe (ECE). In this volume we concentrate on the local through papers that indicate the nature of environmental challenges and ways in which progress is being made not merely by legislation but by negotiating sustainability in a range of local situations. Written by social scientists, largely geographers and anthropologists, from Western Europe as well as ECE and North America these essays provide ethnographically-detailed case studies of local environmental transformations in eight different countries. The emphasis on locality studies unites all the authors who, in different ways, develop the central idea that the macrosociological oversimplifications of the 1980s and 1990s can only be countered, and indeed corrected, through careful consideration of the diversity of local realities. All the case studies are concerned with the environmental dimensions of postcommunist transformations, whether that be through pollution abatement, restructuring over rights to natural resources such as forests or the implementation of ecotourism as a local redevelopment strategy. Sustainable development is therefore a leitmotif of this collection and most of the papers offer empirically-grounded critique of the concept insofar as it has permeated debates about local development in the postcommunist world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents results from a large multi-country study focusing on public perceptions of climate change and relevant mitigation and adaptation policies in Spain, Netherlands, UK and Germany. The purpose of this paper is two-fold: first, to understand the nature of public perceptions of global climate change in different countries; and secondly, to gauge the public's support of climate change measures in terms of mitigation and adaptation policies. Our analysis shows high levels of public indecisiveness regarding the danger climate change poses, which source of climate change information to trust and whether to support any mitigation or adaptation strategies. The high levels of uncertainty present an opportunity to increase policy support and foster behavioural changes in the future through well-designed communication programmes. Therefore, this study has identified several aspects that need to be considered in future communication programmes. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The beginning of our century has seen the rise of Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDIs) and crowdsourced geographic information projects. This study analyses and compares the most relevant initiatives for Europe in both contexts: INSPIRE, the Directive aiming to establish a pan-European SDI used for environmental policies, and OpenStreetMap (OSM), the largest and richest crowdsourced geospatial database. Similarities and differences, advantages and disadvantages of the two initiatives from an end user perspective are presented for a number of characteristics: underlying approach and governance, spatial scope, data structure and encoding, data access, and licensing framework. Overall, both initiatives have developed specific strengths and have achieved different types and degrees of interoperability, which would make their integration highly beneficial to multiple stakeholders. From the pure technical perspective, such integration is fully enabled by the maturity of the available FOSS4G, which offers specific support for both INSPIRE and OSM resources, also reviewed in the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Foucault's account of the emergence of biopolitics in the late 18th century helps frame the political economy of 'improvements' as an environmental project linked to the well-being of the population. Since the 1970s, biopolitical concerns have shifted towards non-human populations and the reproduction of natural resources and ecosystems. This has become evident in the European fisheries, where after decades of exploitation greatly intensified since the 1960s, the extractive demands of the fishing industry have caught up with the reproductive capacities of most commercially targeted fish stocks. This contradiction has given rise to a new political economy of 'improvements' that seeks to sustain the biological health of commercially targeted fish populations while maintaining an economically profitable fishing industry. Central to this transition is the active role that fishers are expected to play in sustainably managing the fish stocks they exploit while adapting to 'green' market opportunities. Tradeable quota systems, eco-accreditation schemes and community-based resource management have all emerged as managerial strategies for inciting the active participation of fishers in this 'common' project of sustainable development. Drawing on Foucault's perspective of governmentality, this paper argues that these strategies represent distinct but overlapping apparatuses of neoliberal governmentality that are representative of broader tendencies within environmental governance today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable development is an important principle for improving human life and ensuring the wellbeing of the planet. It posits a desirable future for human societies in which living conditions and resource-use meet human needs, without undermining the sustainability of natural systems and the environment, so that future generations may also have their needs met.2 It ties together concerns for the capacity of natural systems and challenges faced by humanity which concentrates on a balance between social, economic and environmental variables in relation to current and future existence. To accomplish a successful balance of these variables a transition is required which necessitates a move away from fossil fuel by the mid-twenty-first century.3 Through focusing on the Europeanization of sustainable development in the UK this paper will assess the extent that successful implementation of EU policy requires socio-political acceptance. Europeanization will focus on the adaptive response by actors to changing environmental policies (specifically offshore wind farms) which have a direct impact on renewable resources and planning implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Throughout the legal and practical implementation of the European Union (EU) Water Framework Directive (WFD), subnational implementing agents experience how this policy works in practice. The feedback, or reloading, of these experiences is an important contribution to create resilient EU water governance and to further elaborate the flexible requirements of this framework directive. However, a gap exists concerning our knowledge on the strategies that implementing actors use to mobilize experiential knowledge. Our objective is therefore to understand the reloading of implementation experiences in the WFD's policy process, by studying the conditions that affect strategic mobilization behavior of implementing agents. We build upon existing studies to explore which mobilization strategies are used in WFD reloading cases, and assess which conditions contribute to the identified strategic agency choices. The main finding of this study is that the mobilizing agents often use a smart combination of framing, coalition‐building, venue shopping and timing strategies for reloading implementation experiences as policy‐relevant knowledge. The choice of such combinations is affected by agency and institutional structure‐related conditions, that is, a mobilizing agent's interests, resources and capacities plus the existing EU water governance network contribute to strategic mobilization behavior. Our study is a first exploration of the topic. We therefore conclude this paper with some suggestions for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers from various disciplines have built impressive but distinct compendia on climate change; the defining challenge for humanity. In the spirit of Lord Dahrendorf, this paper represents the output of interdisciplinary collaboration and integrates state-of-the-art academic expertise from the fields of philosophy, economics and governance. Our focus is on Europe, which is widely perceived as a leader in climate change mitigation and adaptation. However, leadership weakness on climate over recent years, largely due to recession and political vacillation, is eroding this perception. What is needed is a firm justification for strong climate action, acknowledgement of the available tools, awareness of the reasons for our failures to date, and a realistic, but goal-oriented strategy for an integrated climate policy. We therefore present current normative insights from climate justice research highlighting the need to make institutions responsive to those most vulnerable; we discuss the economics of the transition to a low-carbon economy, pointing to key policy instruments and post-2020 climate targets for the EU; we contrast the normative and quantitative synoptic principles with the particularistic implementation schemes and politics of (not) implementing measures on the ground; and we suggest a careful coordination of European climate policies with acute challenges that could increase both climate justice and political feasibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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ABSTRACT Cities and municipalities are vital actors in addressing climate change. Because they are directly affected by the consequences of environmental transformations, cities are motivated to shape adaptation and mitigation. This paper looks at the possible mechanisms which cities can use to engage in climate change issues without decoupling themselves from the national or sub-national level and while remaining consistent with other local initiatives. The paper analyses the European approach towards transnational municipal networks (TMNs) and community collective efforts and assesses its possible application in other jurisdictions. We argue that while TMNs are the institutional foundation for a concerted effort in climate change within and between countries; they are also subject to provisions from national and regional governments, which might hamper their benefits. Based on a typology of TMNs and an analysis of the national contexts, the paper finds that those networks that target a specific region and are supported by government have the most benefits for climate change. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]