A multicriterion classification approach for assessing the impact of environmental policies on the competitiveness of firms

In the world of today, despite economic developments, there is an increase in negative social and environmental conditions. Sustainable development is to improve a better quality of life for current and future generations. Sustainable entrepreneurs develop products and services that are suitable for society and the environment instead of using traditional business processes and systems. Sustainable development and providing a liveable life for future generations depend on these entrepreneurs' use of innovation in their business processes and the effects of this situation on society. The aim of this study is to conceptually address the importance of international policies in sustainability entrepreneurship within the framework of the European Union's climate change and environmental sustainability policies, considering the social, environmental, and economic dimensions of sustainable development. Literature review methodology provides the advancement of knowledge by scoping and analysing previous research on the study. A literature review will be conducted regarding the research method, and determinations and suggestions will be presented within the framework of the purpose of the study. The data is collected from European Commission and Eurostat database. Entrepreneurship plays an important role in the transformation of countries towards a more sustainable future by protecting the environment and in harmonizing social, economic, and ecological goals. Climate change is one of the most important challenges of the 21st century. As climate change becomes more evident, the European Union's environmental policy has also evolved. The EU's policies on climate change and environmental sustainability create opportunities for technological development and sustainable entrepreneurship.

The fight against climate change is one of the significant challenges of the 21st century. The European Union's environmental policy has evolved as the perception of the problem has become more evident. This paper examines the environmental commitments made by the European Union on the global scene to verify its involvement and responsibility in environmental policy. A comprehensive analysis of the European Union's environmental policies compared to other countries has been carried out using a comparative methodological framework of these commitments. The results confirm the European Union's leadership in promoting and implementing policies to combat climate change and environmental sustainability, which therefore opens windows of opportunity for technological development and entrepreneurship. Future lines of research are proposed following the conclusions, considering the current economic and environmental situation in an environment of energy crisis and inflation.

Human activity has caused profound changes to the environment, and not infrequently the resulting effects have proven to be irreversible. Man becomes the main responsible and the most dangerous actor on the scene of pollution to the environment. Today, nature is exploited and polluted more than at any time in history. Any source of pollution becomes a disturbing factor for the smooth running of phenomena encountered at the level of natural ecosystems. Even if each ecosystem has the capacity for self-regulation, this function may be outdated in the face of dosage and the force of polluting elements. Contemporary European society feels most strongly the need for anti-pollution policies, but especially for the immediate implementation of measures to stop various phenomena and actions harmful to the environment and human life. Although the problem is real and topical, various economic and social interests reduce the number of participants with an active role in greening. This raises the need to raise broad awareness of environmental issues and encourage civil initiatives, a task that is shared between various environmental non-governmental organisations and the European Union. It currently has a broad set of rules on environmental issues, including: air quality, chemical safety, climate action, nature protection, waste management and water quality. When it comes to climate, nature and chemicals, the EU has been a pioneer in environmental and health protection, inspiring others around the world to follow suit. However, the European Union's achievements are not just a thing of the past, but its attitude towards environmental protection is future-oriented. The preservation, protection and improvement of the quality of the environment, the protection of human health and the prudent and balanced utilisation of natural resources are objectives of the European Union's environmental policy. This policy is based on the precautionary principle, as well as on the principles that preventive action should be taken, that environmental damage should, as a priority, be rectified at source and, last but not least, that the polluter pays.

The European Parliament has traditionally played an important role in the elaboration of European environmental policy and legislation. But environmental issues are becoming more and more complex, which raises the question whether the Parliament has the capacity, professionally, technically and institutionally, to tackle environmental issues in a necessarily much more integrated way. The perspective of the next Intergovernmental Conference in 1996 has led to reflections on how to improve the Treaty itself, so that environmental considerations and sustainable development conditions are taken into account, as well as on how to enhance the role of the Parliament in the decision-making process on the basis of the experience acquired in the last years with the implementation of the Single European Act and the Maastricht Treaty on the European Union.

This article studies the significance and role of the regulatory activity of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development in the formation of the principles of such a comparatively new field of international law as international environmental law. It is shown that although at the time of its creation in 1960, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development was in no way an international organization of environmental character, but since the early 1970s, environmental issues have become an important area of international legal cooperation under the auspices of this organization. In 1971, an Environmental Protection Committee was formed within the OECD, now called the Environmental Policy Committee. During the 1970s, under the auspices of the OECD, the Recommendations on Guiding Principles concerning International Economic Aspects of Environmental Policies of 1972 and the Recommendation on the Implementation of the Polluter-Pays Principle of 1974 were adopted, enshrining the polluter-pays principle, which imposes on the polluter the costs of implementing pollution prevention and control measures to ensure that the environment is in good condition. The provisions of the OECD Recommendation on the Implementation of the Polluter-Pays Principle of 1974 were quickly implemented in the law of the European Communities and today the Lisbon version of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union contains it in paragraph 2 of Article 191, together with such principles of the European Union's environmental policy as the precautionary principle, the principles that preventive action should be taken, that environmental damage should as a priority be rectified at source. The «polluter pays» principle is normatively enshrined only in The Rio Declaration on Environment and Development of 1992, The Convention on the Transboundary Effects of Industrial Accidents of 1992, etc. Regulatory activity under the auspices of the OECD were also essential for the establishment and formation of such principles of international environmental law as the principle of preliminary environmental impact assessment, the principle of undiminished environmental protection of other states and areas beyond national jurisdiction, etc.

Preventing climate change and preserving biodiversity are two key priorities of the European Union's environmental policy. Paradoxically, the European Union (EU) was not quick to recognise their multidimensional interactions, to the detriment of biodiversity. This means that these two fundamental issues require immediate, coordinated responses, given the urgency and severity of the threats incurred on different space/time scales. This has a significant influence on the solutions offered by society, particularly on the forming and application of laws. Our chapter will focus on EU law, taking into account its essential role for regional integration in these fields. The EU is a key player that holds great responsibility in the environmental crisis that the world is currently facing. Accordingly, the EU has subscribed to various international and internal commitments to meet the crisis. The continued degradation of the environment therefore invites analysis of the reasons for the short- fall, or even inadequacy of EU action. Numerous evaluation reports and studies show the diversity and connected nature of interdependence between climate change and bio- diversity. Have they been integrated into EU law? How? What results were obtained? In law in its current state, the results are inconclusive. Three factors prove this: Firstly, in the wake of the environmental policies that form the overall frame for EU policy in this field, clear strategies for climate change and the conservation of biodiversity6 have been developed.

The adoption of sustainable development as a guiding principle in European Union (EU) environmental policy has coincided with a growing influence of the subsidiarity principle and the deregulation doctrine. Both show areas of overlap and compatibility with the basic tenets of sustainable development and could in principle contribute to a strengthening of environmental protection in the EU. However, their influence to date has mainly been negative. One problem is that while ideas such as ‘action as close to the citizen as possible’ and the application of a market‐based approach sound attractive, especially considering the shortcomings of EU environmental policy to date, political and economic realities mean that subsidiarity and deregulation are two‐edged swords, as the example of the EU's response to the climate change issue demonstrates. The subsidiarity principle is being exploited in the interest of national sovereignty, and the change to a more market‐based approach for environmental instruments has mainly focused on self‐regulatory tools with dubious effectiveness. In general, EU environmental policy has lost momentum in recent years and there has been little progress with the integration of environmental concerns into other policy areas, beyond marginal adjustments.

Demand Management Methods for the Environment Oriented Hybrid Traffic System to be Implemented in Istanbul

Application of high doses of organic amendments in a Mediterranean agricultural soil: An approach for assessing the risk of groundwater contamination

Cooperation between business and non-governmental organizations to promote sustainable development

<div class="htmlview paragraph">This paper reports the results obtained in the ECOBUS Project. This project has been supported by the LIFE Program, one of the spearheads of European Union's environmental policy. The main aim for this project was to convert used cooking oil into biodiesel and then use this biodiesel in urban buses, contributing to reducing in one hand waste cooking oil that can create problems in the drainage city system and water contamination and on the other hand reducing engine polluting emissions.</div> <div class="htmlview paragraph">Departamento de Máquinas y Motores Térmicos (DMMT) facilities at the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia (Spain) were used to conduct detailed performance and emission measurements in a Diesel engine similar to those used by the urban transport operator in Valencia (Empresa Municipal de Transporte, EMT). The test engines were operated with conventional Diesel fuel (EN 590) and three different biodiesel blends: 30, 50 and 70%, using the pure biodiesel obtained from used cooking oil (EN 14214). Tests were conducted using a modified year 2000 model, four stroke, 300 kW, Renault VI Diesel engine equipped with computer controlled electronic fuel injection system.</div> <div class="htmlview paragraph">The engine was not operated according to a standard test routine. Instead, an specific transient cycle was defined representing standard Valencia city bus performance. Using this specific cycle, real emission differences between conventional Diesel fuel and biodiesel were evaluated. In a further step, the use of biodiesel will be evaluated on a field test, using 350 urban transit buses on real service in Valencia city.</div>

Abstract: An essential component of the European Union's environmental policy is its participation in international legally binding instruments. Owing to the shared nature of its competence, the Union is most commonly a party to multilateral treaties alongside the Member States. This arrangement, however, is not without its inherent difficulties. The article examines the key stages of the procedure, as laid down in the Treaties and demonstrated by practice: the Commission recommendation to open negotiations, the Council authorization, the negotiating process, and the signing and conclusion of the agreement. The study reveals that the procedure is fraught with tension on two levels. First, each of the EU institutions involved strives to maximize its influence on the final outcome. The European Parliament warrants special attention due to its newly expanded powers. Second, the Member States are unwilling to take the back seat, especially in the sphere of climate talks. As a result, the Union still has recourse to pre-Lisbon practices and is yet to resolve its internal coordination issues in order to achieve its ambition of global leadership in environmental matters.

Multi-criteria analysis of transport infrastructure projects

Differential national responses to the European Union's environmental policy have led to the idea that two worlds of environmentalism exist in Europe. In its harsh version, Europe is divided into North and South, with the South suffering from a Mediterranean syndrome. Southern European countries are viewed as environmental laggards, a perception attributed to, among other factors, a weak civil society intertwined with political systems characterized by patronage, clientelism, and lack of respect for public authority. This article provides new evidence documenting that civil society in Greece, Italy, and Spain appears to be much stronger on environmental matters than anticipated by the proponents of the above view. It also offers an alternative theorization of environmental politics, emphasizing aspects of organizational structures and political processes.

The ‘polluter pays principle’ (PPP) is one of the four principles that govern the European Union's environmental policy. Although PPP justifies Pigovian taxation as a legitimate policy means to internalise externalities, there is a potential contradiction between PPP and Pigovian taxation depending upon the definition of pollution control costs. We summarise this debate and focus on the lump-sum refunding of tax revenues in order to reconcile the PPP and Pigovian taxation. We propose equity as the guiding principle to select among various refunding schemes, and empirically examine a specific application.