scholarly journals A Multicriteria Approach for Assessing the Impact of ICT on EU Sustainable Regional Policy

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 4869
Author(s):  
Christiana Koliouska ◽  
Zacharoula Andreopoulou

As a global actor, the European Union (EU) plays a leading role in international efforts to promote sustainable development globally. All sustainable objectives and targets need Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) as key catalysts, since ICTs constitute tools of unprecedented power which help people to face the growing challenges of rising population, poverty, epidemics and climate change. Policy makers in the EU are increasingly putting ICTs into relations with sustainable regional development. This paper aims to study and assess the impact of ICT on the EU regional policy in terms of sustainable development by applying the multicriteria approach, PROMETHEE II, using the software Visual PROMETHEE. The criteria that were used in this research are the criteria that both the European Commission and member states define to assess the ICT implications of new EU legislation since 2010. The results revealed that the impact of ICT on EU sustainable regional policy has gotten stronger in the last two decades.

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 3687
Author(s):  
Vincent Smith ◽  
Justus H. H. Wesseler ◽  
David Zilberman

This perspective discusses the impact of political economy on the regulation of modern biotechnology. Modern biotechnology has contributed to sustainable development, but its potential has been underexplored and underutilized. We highlight the importance of the impacts of regulations for investments in modern biotechnology and argue that improvements are possible via international harmonization of approval processes. This development is urgently needed for improving sustainable development. Policy makers in the European Union (EU) in particular are challenged to rethink their approach to regulating modern biotechnology as their decisions have far ranging consequences beyond the boundaries of the EU and they have the power to influence international policies.


2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 285
Author(s):  
Omer Ugur ◽  
Kadir Caner Dogan ◽  
Metin Aksoy

The European Union has grown up in terms of influence and size in international politics. The size of its economy and the ever-increasing membership, have seen its ambitions grow meaning that the EU now has an international presence it did not have at its formation. It is easy to say that with the EU being an ambitious actor in international politics, the rise into prominence of climate change naturally came in handy for the EU as it provided an opportunity for the EU to assert itself and prove both its capacity and presence. The 1992 Rio Earth Summit and the withdrawal of the USA from the obligations of the Kyoto came as a blessing in disguise for the Union as it seized the moment to assert itself. Thus, in trying to understand what role the EU has or is playing in international climate change politics, there is need to assess its leadership claims and what it has done to prove these claims. To get there, the paper will navigate through a part of the discipline of International Relations (IR) to understand how it provides for a basis to explain or understand the EU’s limitations and strengths on actorness.


2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 43-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Jordan ◽  
Harro van Asselt ◽  
Frans Berkhout ◽  
Dave Huitema ◽  
Tim Rayner

The European Union (EU) has sought to lead the world in the adoption of ambitious climate change mitigation targets and policies. In an attempt to characterize and broadly explain the resulting pattern of EU climate governance, scholars have employed the term “multi-level reinforcement.” This term does help to account for the paradoxical situation whereby the EU seeks to lead by example but is itself a relatively leaderless system of governance. Drawing on a much fuller empirical account of the evolution of EU climate governance, this article finds that the term captures some but not all aspects of the EU's approach. It identifies four other paradoxical features of the EU's approach and assesses the extent to which they exhibit “multi-level reinforcement.” It concludes by looking forward and examining the extent to which all five features are expected to enable and/or constrain the EU's ability to maintain a leading position in climate governance.


2012 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 165-177
Author(s):  
Ilze Prūse

Abstract Latvia is covered by the European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) and therein 80 participants from Latvia have participated. The goal of the paper is to analyse the impact of the EU ETS on the sustainable development of its participants in Latvia. The concept of sustainable development is explored with respect to both macro and micro scale and in the context of sustainable development the EU ETS is described. The impact of the EU ETS on its participants in Latvia is considered by means of methods of quantitative and qualitative analysis. It has been established that in past the participants of the EU ETS from Latvia had generally beneficial positions in the EU ETS; hence although the EU ETS did not directly promote greenhouse gas emission reductions, it provided opportunities to gain additional profits and many of the EU ETS participants in Latvia made use of them. In addition, certain interrelationships have been identified between the data on the EU ETS participants performing EUA trading and the data on the EU ETS participants not performing EUA trading. It has been concluded that the EU ETS might have contributed towards the sustainable development of its participants in Latvia within its certain dimensions.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 592
Author(s):  
Sorin-Iulian Cioacă ◽  
Silvia-Elena Cristache ◽  
Mariana Vuță ◽  
Erika Marin ◽  
Mihai Vuță

Information and communication technologies (ICT) play a central role at the European level because it fosters innovation and increases productivity through an enlarged access to information. As such, the main objective of this work was to assess the impact of various ICT core indicators at the European Union level on two of their sustainable development goals: economic growth and reduction of inequality. To this purpose, we used panel data models based on data collected from the Eurostat database. We proposed two panel data regression models, according to which we found a positive statistically significant relationship between the variable measuring level of internet access and change in GDP per capita. We also found a negative relationship between the transition towards a digital society and the dependent variable INEQ_INC, namely an increase of 1% of ICT sector share in GDP will lead to a decrease of 0.27% of income inequality distribution. This result showed that the progress made in implementing a digital society may decrease societal income inequality.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 3363 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bartosz Fortuński

One of the ways of implementing the concept of sustainable development by the European Union is their energy policy. Among the three main objectives in its energy policy is a reduction in greenhouse gases (mainly CO2) emissions to at least 20% below 1990 levels by 2020. This study aims to assess the impact of international trade on actual CO2 emission in the EU, China and the USA for the period 1997–2017. For this aim, the Actual-Open CO2 emissions were calculated, taking into account the transfer of CO2 in exported products and services from China and the USA to the EU and vice versa. It is concluded that the actual CO2 emissions in China, the USA, and the EU differed from the traditionally calculated emissions. This has serious consequences for policy, as the factual level of implementation of the EU energy policy goals may be different from what is assumed. Without including the goals of energy policy into trade policy, the effectiveness of measures may be limited. This also has implications for the effectiveness of environmental management systems. When improvements rely on increasing trade with large CO2 emitting countries, the final effect may be opposed to the assumed effect.


2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 189-201 ◽  
Author(s):  
Onur Kulaç ◽  
Evinç Torlak

Abstract When assessed from a global perspective; environmental problems, especially in the last five decades, have been a threat to almost all countries. International organisations and institutions struggle to develop effective solutions for arising issues. Climate change is also evaluated as one of the most crucial risks for the environment. European Commission regular progress reports hold a guiding role for the candidate countries and in light of that numerous policies of the relevant countries have aligned with the European Union (EU) acquis. The main purpose of the study is to analyze the climate change policy of Turkey within the context of regular progress reports in an effort to mend the gap fill the void in literature regarding climate change policy of Turkey. Therefore, 7 regular progress reports between the years 2010-2016, when climate change was considered as a title, will be scrutinised in terms of legislation, institutional structure and emission gas through content analysis method with the aim of having a functional assessment about the determinations and the expectations of the EU. The study reveals that although Turkey has made fundamental progress over the years regarding climate change, there are still some crucial issues that need to be reconsidered to have an effective climate change policy.


1998 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 449-461
Author(s):  
Peter Palinkas

The EU has always tried to play a major role in coordinating the activities of its now 15 Member States in the broad area of climate change policy. This active role of the EU was demonstrated in the first climate protection negotiations (Rio de Janeiro, 1992), the follow-up conferences (Berlin 1995 and Geneva 1996) and finally at the Kyoto-Conference in December 1997. At the Kyoto-Conference the EU negotiators had to abandon their original negotiating position of 15% reduction based on three greenhouse gases. The final Protocol requires a collective EU reduction by 8% based on 6 gases. This modification is, however, closer to the initial EU position than it indicates, since the final commitment based on six gases is roughly equivalent to a 13% reduction based on 3 gases only. Further compromise made by the EU was on the issue of differentiation. Keeping the “EU-bubble” approach, the EU had to accept country-specific reduction targets as initially proposed by the Japanese delegation. The EU also had to agree on including emissions-trading and joint implementation in the Protocol. During the negotiations EU representatives expressed their concern that trading must not become a substitute for any domestic actions. Consequently, in the Protocol any emission trading is declared as supplementary to domestic actions. Despite the number of unavoidable concessions made by the EU negotiators, the European Commission recognized that the Kyoto protocol is an important first step toward reversing the upward trend in the emissions of greenhouse gases. However, the EU Commissioner Ritt Bjerregaard expressed a certain disappointment in not reaching agreement on even more ambitious commitments.


2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hyuk Jeong

Despite its short history of development, the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) policy has started to establish itself as an effective policy for securing carbon offsets for large emitters of greenhouse gases including the European Union (EU). Corresponding to the direction of the international climate change policy area, this article primarily presents the current state of the EU REDD+ policy implementation. It offers considerations and suggestions to overcome the challenges facing an ongoing EU REDD+ project in West Papua and Papua in Indonesia to better direct the policy. First, to provide a primary overview of EU REDD+ policy developments, the article analyses the policy developments at the EU level, including its legal basis, as well as the roles of the EU’s REDD+ policy as it relates to institutions. Second, this article presents the background of the ongoing project in West Papua and Papua, Indonesia, and identifies and analyses the main challenges facing the implementation of the ongoing project. Third, the article discusses the author’s own view regarding these challenges. Finally, in the conclusion, it discusses the prospects and limitations of the EU’s REDD+ policy.


2008 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 179-192
Author(s):  
Chad David Damro ◽  
Iain Hardie ◽  
Donald MacKenzie

The European Union (EU) is a prominent player in the politics of climate change, operating as an authoritative regional actor that influences policy-making at the national and international levels. The EU’s climate change policies are thus subjected to multiple pressures that arise from the domestic politics of its twenty-seven individual member states and the international politics of non-EU states with which it negotiates. Facing these multiple pressures, how and why could such a non-traditional actor develop into a prominent player at different levels of climate change policy-making? This article argues that the EU’s rise to prominence can be understood by tracking a number of historical-legal institutional developments at the domestic and international levels. The article also provides a preliminary investigation of the EU emissions trading scheme, a new institutional mechanism that illustrates the policy pressures arising from different levels.


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