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July 18, 2020 · 11:04 am

The European Union’s circular economy plan for cleaner production and sustainable consumption of resources

This is an excerpt from my latest paper that was accepted for publication in Wiley’s Sustainable Development (impact factor: 4.082).

The circular economy strategy (EU, 2014)

This is an excerpt from my latest paper that was accepted for publication in Wiley’s Sustainable Development (impact factor: 4.082).

The EU’s (2020) plan is encouraging businesses as well as their consumers to engage in the circular economy’s sustainable production and consumption behaviors, and to use and reuse products, materials and resources. It is urging them to minimize their impact on the natural environment by reducing their waste and emissions.

The transition towards the circular economy can be facilitated if the EU national governments would create a favorable climate for stakeholder engagement. They can provide technical assistance, mobilize financial resources and facilitate positive impact investing in circular economy systems.

For instance, the European Green Deal Investment Plan (EIP) is currently supporting industry sectors relating to the provision of sustainable energy, energy efficiency, sustainable cities and sustainable agricultural practices, among other areas.

Various academic articles confirmed that practitioners will only be intrigued to engage in the circular economy if it adds value to them, in terms of the economic return on investment, process improvements and product benefits. The business case will motivate practitioners, creditors and investors to shift from unsustainable and irresponsible practices to the circular economy’s sustainable production and consumption behaviors.

Business and industry practitioners are perceiving that there are economic and environmental benefits if they adopt cleaner production systems and sustainable supply chains. Notwithstanding, there are various organizations, including non-profit organizations that are actively engaged in repairing, refurbishing, restoring and/or recycling materials.

On the other hand, this paper identified some of the possible challenges that could have an effect on the businesses’ engagement in the circular economy. The advancement toward the circular economic practices may still prove to be difficult and challenging for some industries.

For the time being, there are many practitioners that are opting to remain in their status quo as they still rely on linear economy models. In pragmatic terms, it may not be feasible for businesses in the mining and extraction industries and/or for those that manufacture products and components for textiles, plastics, electrical and electronic items, among others, to avoid using hazardous substances (as there are no sustainable options for them) or to reduce their externalities, including emissions and waste.

These industry sectors are still finding it hard to reuse and recycle materials or to dispose of their waste in a sustainable manner. For example, the construction and demolition industry will incur significant costs to sort, clean, repair and reutilize materials like scrapped steel, metals, tiles, cement, glass, et cetera.

The smaller business enterprises may not have access to adequate and sufficient financial resources to make green investments. They may not perceive the business case for the long term, sustainable investment, or they may not be interested in new technologies that will require them to implement certain behavioral changes.

There may be other challenges that could slow down or prevent the industry practitioners’ engagement in the circular economy strategies. The governments may not introduce hard legislation to trigger the corporations’ sustainable production and consumption behaviors as this could impact on the businesses’ prospects.

For these reasons, businesses may not mitigate their externalities, including their emissions or unwanted waste, as these responsible actions would require changing or upgrading the extant technologies or practices. Alternatively, they may face other contingent issues like weak economic incentives; access to finance; shortage of green technologies; and a lack of appropriate performance standards in their workplace environments, among other issues.

The EU needs to overcome these barriers. To do so, it requires the cooperation of all stakeholders including policy makers (of different member states), industry practitioners, consumers and non-government organizations, among others, to translate its policies into concrete action.

Conclusions and Recommendations

This review indicated that, in many cases, the European policies and strategies have led to a significant reduction in waste and externalities in different EU contexts. However, the Commission ought to accelerate the shift toward the circular economy ~ in the light of the significant changes in our natural environment and biospheres.

Relevant academic research reported that policy makers can possibly provide the right infrastructures, resources and capabilities in terms of logistics, supply, distribution, training, et cetera, to different businesses and industry practitioners. For instance, they can create clusters that would facilitate the circular economy’s closed loop systems. The development of clusters may result in less dispersed value chains, economies of scales and scope, as well as improved operational efficiencies in manufacturing and logistics.

How to Cite: Camilleri, M.A. (2021). European environment policy for the circular economy: Implications for business and industry stakeholders. Sustainable Development, https://doi.org/10.1002/SD.2113

Related papers:

Camilleri, M. A. (2019). The circular economy’s closed loop and product service systems for sustainable development: A review and appraisal. Sustainable Development, 27(3), 530-536. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/sd.1909

Camilleri, M. A. (2018). Closing the loop for resource efficiency, sustainable consumption and production: a critical review of the circular economy. International Journal of Sustainable Development, 21(1-4), 1-17. https://www.inderscienceonline.com/doi/abs/10.1504/IJSD.2018.100802

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November 14, 2015 · 6:20 pm

EU-African Leaders Meet at the Valletta Summit on Migration

vlt summit

In the wake of the migration crisis in September, 2015, the European Union (EU) Commission’s had presented comprehensive proposals to relocate more than 160,000 irregular migrants around the its bloc. Yet, so far moved there were fewer than 200 immigrants that have been redistributed from Italy, Greece and Hungary to all other member states (excluding Britain, Ireland and Denmark, who are exempt under EU treaties). In this light, another summit on migration was hosted in Valletta, Malta on the 11-12th November 2015.

In the Maltese summit, there were more than 60 European and African leaders. The EU has agreed on the establishment of a €1.8bn “trust fund” to tackle the migration crisis. Moreover, the commission has also established an Emergency Trust Fund for Stability  to redirect resources toward  the root causes of irregular migration and the displacement of persons in Africa. Notwithstanding, it is envisaged that the EU Commission will shortly request some additional €3bn to give to Turkey, to halt the flow of migrants from the east. This budgeted figure is over and above the €4.2bn that the EU has already mobilised to Syrian refugees that are currently hosted in Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq.

This week’s summit was yet another attempt to better manage the migration flows and to strengthen the fight against irregular migration. The Valletta summit’s political declaration implied that both Africa and Europe will have to reinforce their existing agreements and obligations under international law on return and readmission. At the same time, both EU and African leaders have reaffirmed their commitment to ensure that the returning migrants ought to be treated with full respect of human rights and dignity.

The heads of state declared that they seriously intended to scale up their joint efforts to prevent and fight migrant smuggling. The European and African counterparts agreed to eradicate the trafficking of human beings as they shall be combating those individuals who exploit vulnerable people. The trafficking of human beings (including for the purpose of sexual exploitation and forced labour) is a serious crime. As such, it is considered as an unacceptable infringement of fundamental human rights. In addition, the EU and African leaders sought to strengthen the fight against organised criminal networks, including their links to terrorism; through effective border management, enhanced cooperation and the implementation of legislative and institutional frameworks.

Following this summit, the delegates have pledged to step up their support toward the humanitarian dimension. In the main, they maintained that humanitarian protection should be granted to all those who are entitled to it (in accordance with international and regional instruments).

In conclusion, the Valletta Summit has yielded another action plan that responds to the latest challenging issues, in the face of the ongoing migration and mobility crisis. This action plan features the following five priority domains:

• Development benefits of migration and addressing root causes of irregular migration and forced displacement;
• Legal migration and mobility;
• Protection and asylum;
• Prevention of and fight against irregular migration, migrant smuggling and trafficking in human beings;
• Return, readmission and reintegration.

More details are available here: http://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/meetings/international-summit/2015/11/11-12/

Links:

http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-15-5596_en.htm

http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/home-affairs/what-we-do/policies/european-agenda-migration/background-information/index_en.htm

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/11/12/us-europe-migrants-africa-idUSKCN0T11E820151112
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-34797715
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/12/migration-crisis-european-and-african-leaders-agree-18bn-trust-fund
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/eu/11989847/EU-drops-plan-to-give-African-migrants-deportation-papers.html
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20151112/local/watch-trust-fund-for-africa-to-come-into-being-at-valletta-summit-this.591845

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April 18, 2015 · 2:52 pm

Environmental, Social and Governance Disclosures in Europe

Excerpt from: Camilleri, M. (2015). Environmental, social and governance disclosures in Europe. Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal, 6(2). http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/SAMPJ-10-2014-0065

 

Last year, the European Union (EU) announced its new guidelines on non-financial reporting that will only apply to some large entities with more than 500 employees. This includes listed companies as well as some unlisted companies; such as banks, insurance companies and other companies that are so designated by member states; because of their activities, size or number of employees. There are approximately 6,000 large companies and groups within the EU bloc (EU, 2014).  The most prevalent reporting schemes in the EU were often drawn from; the G3 Guidelines of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC). In addition, several platforms and organisations that promote corporate sustainability reporting have developed partnerships with AccountAbility, OECD, UNEP, Carbon Disclosure Project and with many governments and sector organisations (Van Wensen et al., 2011; Kolk, Levy & Pinkse, 2008).

 

esg

 

When one explores the key topics that companies reported on, it transpired that carbon emission disclosures have become quite a common practice (Kolk et al., 2008). Moreover, recently there was an increased awareness on the subject of human rights and the conditions of employment (Lund-Thomsen & Lindgreen, 2013). Curiously, online reporting has offered an opportunity for accountability and transparency as information is easily disseminated to different stakeholders (Zadek, Evans & Pruzan, 2013). This has inevitably led to increased stakeholder engagement, integrated reporting and enhanced external verification systems. This subject has also been reported by Simnett and Huggins (2015), who have also presented a number of interesting research questions which could possibly be addressed through engagement research. At this point in time, stakeholders are considering reporting schemes as a valuable tool that can improve the quality of their reporting, particularly as it enables them to benchmark themselves with other companies (Adams, Muir & Hoque, 2014). The GRI is often regarded as ‘a good starting point’ for this purpose. Moreover, the provision of a UNGC communication on progress is a new global trend that has become quite popular among business and non-profit organisations. Some of the European organisations are gradually disclosing environmental information or certain other key performance indicators that are of a non-financial nature in their reporting (Zadek et al., 2013). Generally, public policies are often viewed as part of the regular framework for social and employment practices. Therefore, a considerable commitment is made by local governments who act as drivers for stakeholder engagement (Albareda, Lozano, Tencati, Middtun & Perrini, 2008).

 

One way to establish a CSR-supporting policy framework is to adopt relevant strategies and actions in this regard. Such frameworks may be relevant for those countries that may not have a long CSR tradition or whose institutions lack accountability and transparency credentials (Zadek et al., 2013). It may appear that EU countries are opting for a mix of voluntary and mandatory measures to improve their ESG disclosure. While all member states have implemented the EU Modernisation Directive, they have done so in different ways. While the Modernisation Directive ensured a minimum level of disclosure, it was in many cases accompanied by intelligent substantive legislation. National governments ought to give guidance or other instruments that support improvements in sustainability reporting. Lately, there was a trend towards the development of regulations that integrate existing international reporting frameworks such as the GRI or the UNGC Communication on Progress. These frameworks require the engagement of relevant stakeholders in order to foster a constructive environment that brings continuous improvements in ESG disclosures. Regular stakeholder engagement as well as strategic communications can bring more responsible organisational behaviours (Camilleri, 2015). Many corporate businesses use non-governmental organisations’ regulatory tools, processes and performance-oriented standards with a focus on issues such as labour standards, human rights, environmental protection, corporate governance and the like. Nowadays, stakeholders, particularly customers expect greater disclosures, accountability and transparency in corporate reports.

 

At the moment, we are witnessing regulatory pressures for mandatory changes in CSR reporting. Of course, firms may respond differently to reporting regulations as there are diverse contexts and realities. In a sense, this paper reiterates Adams et al.’s (2014) arguments as it indicated that ESG disclosures are a function of the level of congruence between the government departments’ regulatory environment and the use of voluntary performance measures. Somehow, EU regulatory pressures are responding to energy crises, human rights matters and are addressing the contentious issues such as resource deficiencies including water shortages. Notwithstanding, big entities are also tackling social and economic issues (e.g. anti-corruption and bribery) as they are implementing certain environmental initiatives (e.g. waste reduction, alternative energy generation, energy and water conservation, environmental protection, sustainable transport et cetera). In this light, there are implications for practitioners and assurance providers of integrated reports, standard setters and regulators (Simnett & Huggins, 2015). Future engagement research can possibly consider how report content and reporting formats, might impact on organisations’ decision making (Correa and Larrinaga, 2015). This paper indicated that practice and policy issues would benefit from additional empirical evidence which analyse how the European disclosure regulations may positively or adversely affect the corporations’ stakeholders.

http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/SAMPJ-10-2014-0065

 

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