The European Green Deal (EGD) is a comprehensive and ambitious strategy to achieve climate neutrality in the European Union. Cities play a crucial role as places of accumulation of resources, as well ...as increased consumption. This study attempts to respond to whether the largest cities in Poland (the main development cores of the country and, more broadly, Central Europe) address the development challenges of the EU articulated in the EGD and derived from the concept of a smart city.
In this study, not only the theory behind the smart city concept but also the strategic documents of the largest Polish cities in that matter are analysed. The socio-spatial analyses identified the existing discrepancies between the perspectives of local authorities and inhabitants in implementing contemporary development concepts. There were indicated SHS (smart hot spots) - which are those located in the city centre and places that act as mobility hubs, as well as SCS (smart cold spots) - which are remote from the centre or degraded and decapitalised places. The crucial challenge for urban policymakers is to level internal environmental and socio-economic inequalities and prevent the formation of “emerald islands” in the city interior.
The proposed inclusive approach offers a tool that could be used in many similar case studies, including the need for dialogue with local society, the special consideration of the local context, heterogeneity and greater attention to the new sources of knowledge, including GIS tools, enabling the building of a viable local system.
•Urban development consistent with the smart city concept triggers the European Policy objectives.•The heterogeneity of the smart city concept is crucial to levelling urban internal inequalities.•Achieving an inclusive place-based urban policy must be preceded by ensure the basic infrastructure needs of residents.•GIS tools are distinct urban design governance modes.
In December 2019, the European Commission released its strategy for the European Union (EU), the European Green Deal (EGD), which perceives the 'commitment to tackling climate and ...environmental-related challenges' as 'this generation's defining task'. It intends to 'transform the EU's economy and society to put it on a more sustainable path', and has been hailed for its potential to durably change European societies. This contribution examines if the EGD offers a discursive paradigm shift regarding environmental sustainability. To this end, it performs a critical discourse analysis on the meta-discourse embodied in the EGD and its predecessors, Europe 2020 and the Lisbon Strategy. It finds that the EGD marks a significant discursive break, moving the EU's meta-discourse from a negligence of environmental sustainability in the 2000s, and the idea that sustainability as an attribute to growth can support a 'jobs and growth' agenda during the 2010s, to centre-stage. By empowering pro-environmental forces, it provides unseen overtures towards a paradigm shift of practical consequence for European - and via an example-setting effect - global sustainability policies. The article concludes by explaining the meta-discursive shift and discussing its implications for EU sustainability policies.
•Visibility on features (system boundaries, indicators, transparency, etc.) of environmental impact software tools or databases.•Level(s) framework on Life Cycle Global Warming Potential and Life ...Cycle Tool.
The European Commission has published a framework on the environmental sustainability of buildings, called Level(s), a set of indicators addressing the resource efficiency and environmental impact of buildings. This framework is now a key element of European initiatives to develop a circular economy and aims to address whole life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and to drive a renovation wave for existing buildings. Analysis of the whole life cycle environmental impact of buildings, with an emphasis on GHG emissions, is also the focus of initiatives in several EU Member States. To support users, Level(s) was accompanied by a list of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) software tools and databases for calculating such indicators. A need was identified for practical, user-orientated information about the scope, consistency, cost, and accessibility of LCA software tools and databases. Therefore, a list of LCA tools and databases used in Europe for the assessment of the whole life cycle environmental impacts of buildings was compiled in 2017–2020 and their characteristics analysed based on a set of criteria. This paper describes the policy context of Level(s) and discusses criteria that can be used for the characterisation of LCA software tools and databases from the list compiled for Level(s). The methods included a literature review, surveys/interviews, and the co-creation of criteria for the categorization of tools and databases. The results are criteria including construction-specificity, system boundaries & scope, indicators, modelling granularity, methodological adherence to Level(s) and EN standards, data quality, transparency and verification, accessibility, data exchange and interoperability, cost, training and support, as well as additional information. By providing greater visibility regarding the features of tools and databases, this paper contributes to the mainstream use of Level(s) and also to the implementation of key EU policy initiatives aimed at enhancing the environmental sustainability of the built environment, such as the EU Renovation Wave, the New European Bauhaus, and the EU taxonomy for sustainable activities.
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The worrying environmental situation and increased public awareness in recent years have led many countries to take measures to reduce negative impacts on the environment. The European Union (EU) has ...been one of the most active in environmental protection with the formulation of policies aimed at preserving the health and well-being of citizens and protecting natural resources. One of the objectives of environmental policies is to make the economy of its member states more environmentally friendly, although this requires finding solutions to major challenges such as climate change, the scarcity of natural resources, the emission of polluting gases, and unsustainable consumption and production. This article reviews the main policies that have been implemented in the EU to reduce environmental problems and the scope of climate change conferences. It offers solutions to promote sustainability that could be adopted by companies, individuals, and governmental institutions to jointly contribute to achieving a more sustainable world, where problems such as climate change or the emission of polluting gases are minimized. The aim is to follow the principles of the Circular Economy and the European Green Deal.
Climate change and environmental degradation are the crisis generators today and, in the years, to come as they threaten our social, economic and political order in Europe and worldwide. In this ...context, European Union committed to reaching climate neutrality by 2050 as the member states have agreed on a European Green Deal, and the European Commission has adopted several proposals for reducing net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030. Nevertheless, achieving no net emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050 requires high investments in the decarbonisation of the economy and in developing ways to remove carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere for the residual emissions that cannot be eliminated. In this paper, I will focus on the EU's strategy for carbon removal, especially on carbon farming, where carbon can be naturally captured in the soil or forests. Since the signing of the Kyoto Protocol in 1997, when an offsetting carbon mechanism was also created for the Voluntary Carbon Market (VCM), many projects based on different carbon crediting schemes were created worldwide. However, there needs to be more presence of European projects on voluntary carbon markets and the EU prepares legislation for its certification scheme. In this context, I will try to figure out the main challenges of VCM in Europe and answer the following research question: "why European Union is trying to boost its voluntary market through specific legislation?". Moreover, my examples will focus on forestry projects as nature-based solutions are the cheapest way to remove and store carbon.
Contemporary concepts of economic development in the European Union (EU) progressively focus on environmental protection. At the stage of their implementation by the EU countries, some of the ...policies include sustainable development, green growth, green economy, and circular economy. The leading concept in this regard is the European Green Deal. It should be noted, that a multitude of means exists within EU countries, by which plastic waste is managed, with a significant share of countries largely landfilling it or placing it in waste storage facilities. The aim of this paper is to introduce a proposal meant to propel the prospects related to managing plastic waste through chemical recycling. This recommendation would contribute to the fulfillment of the circular economy model implemented by EU countries. By means of chemical recycling, it is possible to transform plastic waste into a full-value market product which can be used, for example, in the fuel industry, constituting an alternative to the agricultural products used (biocomponents). Thereby, it may result in the production of, for example, engine fuel components that can replace plant-based components or other added-value chemicals. The findings demonstrated on four levels: environmental, technical, economic, and managerial, confirm the technological possibilities of chemical recycling of plastics and the legitimacy of the implementation of the presented concept.
This article analyzes the recently decided EU-wide emission trading scheme for road transport and heating fuels. The so-called ETS2 is part of the ‘Fit for 55’ policy package, which also includes ...tighter vehicle emission standards, a reform of energy taxation, provisions to enhance advanced fuel infrastructure and a Social Climate Fund to alleviate financial pressure for low-income households. We argue that the ETS2 should be understood as an element of a broader policy mix, which considers multiple market failures, fairness both within and across EU member states within the institutional constraints of EU policy making. We conclude by discussing specific potential modifications to the design of the ETS2 that could help achieve the EU's climate target in an efficient and equitable way. These include linking ETS and ETS2, reducing price volatility, increasing the size of the Social Climate fund, and clarifying penalties for countries missing targets under the Effort Sharing Regulation.
•Various measures complement EU carbon pricing in heating and transport.•Distributional concerns, within and across countries, are key to policy design.•Various measures aim to ensure prices in ETS2 remain limited.•Continued inclusion of ETS2-sectors in ESR ensures rich EU countries must mitigate.•We propose further evolution of ETS, including linking, price corridors, larger SCF.
Highlights: Political and economic analysis of the policy mix to decarbonize road transport with a special focus on the role of the recently decided new emissions trading scheme for this sector.
Green Deals - policy packages aimed at streamlining climate mitigation investments - have recently been established in several countries to stay within the 1.5 °C global warming target. They are ...usually adopted on a national or supranational level, such as the European Green Deal, and follow a top-down approach of policymaking. Given the crucial role of social acceptance in successful energy and climate policy implementation, a stream of literature pointed out the important role of citizen co-investment and community participation. This paper focuses on two countries that are currently considering the introduction of a Green Deal, namely Switzerland and Ukraine, and investigates citizen preferences for design options to enhance community participation. The results show varying degrees of preferences for local participation: Ukrainian respondents are sensitive to local communities being involved in Green Deal-related decision-making, whereas this is less important to Swiss respondents as long as there is transparency and they have veto rights on specific projects. While respondents from both countries prefer a Green Deal to involve a diversified portfolio of renewable energy, clean transport and energy efficiency in buildings, they exhibit interesting differences with regard to their preferred funding sources and who should be eligible for Green Deal financing.
•Choice experiments (N = 2000) in two European countries.•Community participation can enhance social acceptance of climate policy.•Local population appreciates transparent reporting and veto rights.•Trusted source of funds shapes social acceptance of a Green Deal.•Segmentation allows tailoring Green Deal to different voter groups.
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