Greening Europe

Today, the European environmental regime seems omnipresent. A rare beetle can stop a building project, the local water authorities have to make sure that the European Eel can reach his home waters after having travelled the Atlantic, European standards for air quality cause trouble for the German diesel-driven car industry, and lighting products are subject to EU energy labelling and eco-design requirements. Implementing laws and sticking to environmental norms and standards has become an integral part of the European integration process. To the EU this is self-evident: We share resources like water, air, natural habitats and the species they support, and we also share environmental standards to protect them. The idea of any such 'shared environment', however, has come a long way and is still being contested. Thinking and writing about the history of protecting the environment requires us to study the long 20th century. In order to understand the peculiar rise of Europe environmental regimes and green values we have to consider the modern concept of Europe as a shared geographical space, linked by habitats, migrating species, rivers, pollutants, climate and risks. Moreover, we have to analyse the 'invention' of conservation as a moral enterprise. That is why environmental history needs a long durée's perspective to understand the evolution of the European Common.

Today, the environment seems omnipresent in European policy within and beyond the European Union. The idea of a shared European environment, however, has come a long way and is still being contested. Greening Europe focuses on the many ways people have interacted with nature and made it an issue of European concern. The authors ask how notions of Europe mattered in these activities and they expose the many entanglements of activists across the subcontinent who set out to connect and network, and to exchange knowledge, worldviews, and strategies that exceeded their national horizons. Moving beyond human agency, the handbook also highlights the eminent role nature played in both "greening" Europe and making Europe a shared environment.

The relationship between environmentally sustainable development and company and business law has emerged in recent years as a matter of major concern for many scholars, policy-makers, businesses and nongovernmental organisations. This book offers a conceptual analysis of the principles of sustainable development and environmental integration in the EU legal system. It particularly focuses on Article 11 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), which states that EU activities must integrate environmental protection requirements and emphasise the promotion of sustainable development. The book gives an overview of the role played by the environmental integration principle in EU law, both at the level of European legislation and at the level of Member State practice. Contributors to the volume identify and analyse the main legal issues related to the importance of Article 11 TFEU in various policy areas of EU law affecting European businesses, such as company law, insurance and state aid. In drawing together these strands the book sets out the requirements of environmental integration and examines its impact on the regulation of business in the EU. The book will be of great use and interest to students and researchers of business law, environment law, and EU law.

The third installment of the ‘European Public Investment Outlook’ series is an important and timely publication that draws together recent analyses to recommend significant increases in public investment in green ventures. Compelling data from key economists affiliated with international organizations like the International Monetary Fund, European Investment Bank and the European Commission, as well as academic departments and policy institutes are a clarion call for green investment to boost the economy and put the planet on a sustainable path. Like its predecessors, the book presents the issues in a lucid and navigable manner. Part I explores the EU’s current levels of green public investment, as well as the challenges ahead in achieving net zero carbon emissions after years of decreasing funding and the obstacles presented by the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The public investment trends of France, Germany, Italy and Spain are systematically evaluated, as well as the REPowerEU policy – accelerated in Spring 2022 – to move away from Russia’s supply of fossil fuels. Part II focuses on the investment needed for green transition; the important economic and fiscal effects and benefits this would bring; and the reality of what is required before 2030 to achieve the EU’s carbon-neutral targets by 2050. Greening Europe is essential reading for economists, environmentalists, and policymakers. It should also be of interest to anyone who wants to understand the cost implications of the ‘carbon-neutral’ policies that governments have promised, and the urgent need to change our approach towards energy usage.

As the need to confront unplanned growth increases, planners, policymakers, and citizens are scrambling for practical tools and examples of successful and workable approaches. Growth management initiatives are underway in the U.S. at all levels, but many American "success stories" provide only one piece of the puzzle. To find examples of a holistic approach to dealing with sprawl, one must turn to models outside of the United States. In Green Urbanism, Timothy Beatley explains what planners and local officials in the United States can learn from the sustainable city movement in Europe. The book draws from the extensive European experience, examining the progress and policies of twenty-five of the most innovative cities in eleven European countries, which Beatley researched and observed in depth during a year-long stay in the Netherlands. Chapters examine: the sustainable cities movement in Europe examples and ideas of different housing and living options transit systems and policies for promoting transit use, increasing bicycle use, and minimizing the role of the automobile creative ways of incorporating greenness into cities ways of readjusting "urban metabolism" so that waste flows become circular programs to promote more sustainable forms of economic development sustainable building and sustainable design measures and features renewable energy initiatives and local efforts to promote solar energy ways of greening the many decisions of local government including ecological budgeting, green accounting, and other city management tools. Throughout, Beatley focuses on the key lessons from these cities -- including Vienna, Helsinki, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Zurich, Amsterdam, London, and Berlin -- and what their experience can teach us about effectively and creatively promoting sustainable development in the United States. Green Urbanism is the first full-length book to describe urban sustainability in European cities, and provides concrete examples and detailed discussions of innovative and practical sustainable planning ideas. It will be a useful reference and source of ideas for urban and regional planners, state and local officials, policymakers, students of planning and geography, and anyone concerned with how cities can become more livable.

How the objective of a resource-efficient low carbon economy is to be reached and how the transition is managed are the key issues addressed by this publication. The two main focuses are industrial policy and employment prospects on the road to a green economy that retains its industrial base. Any lasting recovery of the real economy will necessarily take the shape of a more resource-efficient production model. While we argue that only a more ambitious and comprehensive European climate policy framework would have a chance of delivering the broader 2050 climate targets, this does not mean that Europe has to give up its industrial base and its related competences. Several chapters of this book argue that the option of attaining a low-carbon economy through ‘deindustrialisation’ would prevent Europe from preserving its competitiveness and knowledge base, which are also essential for exploiting the potential of the emerging eco-industry. While decoupling economic growth from resource use is also possible with an industrial base that is more energy-and resource-efficient, this does require a fundamental shift in terms of how the economy is managed and how business decisions are made. Sustainable industrial and structural policies are needed also in order to ensure that this revolutionary process takes place in a socially balanced manner.

Integrating environmental policies into the policies of all other sectors is the core European environmental policy. But there has been no thorough investigation of the political process involved. This volume provides the first. It analyses the process of policy integration - the greening of public policy - across the relevant sectors and countries. It finds significant variation from sector to sector and from country to country, and analyses the reasons for this. (Surprisingly the UK, traditionally the 'dirty man' of Europe is far more actively engaged than environmental 'progressives' such as Germany.) It identifies the obstacles to integration and offers solutions for policy formulation, decision making and implementation at the relevant political levels.

In the absence of federal leadership, states and localities are stepping forward to address critical problems like climate change, urban sprawl, and polluted water and air. Making a city fundamentally sustainable is a daunting task, but fortunately, there are dynamic, innovative models outside U.S. borders. Green Cities of Europe draws on the world's best examples of sustainability to show how other cities can become greener and more livable. Timothy Beatley has brought together leading experts from Paris, Freiburg, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Heidelberg, Venice, Vitoria-Gasteiz, and London to illustrate groundbreaking practices in sustainable urban planning and design. These cities are developing strong urban cores, building pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure, and improving public transit. They are incorporating ecological design and planning concepts, from solar energy to natural drainage and community gardens. And they are changing the way government works, instituting municipal "green audits" and reforming economic incentives to encourage sustainability. Whatever their specific tactics, these communities prove that a holistic approach is needed to solve environmental problems and make cities sustainable. Beatley and these esteemed contributors offer vital lessons to the domestic planning community about not only what European cities are doing to achieve that vision, but precisely how they are doing it. The result is an indispensable guide to greening American cities. Contributors include: Lucie Laurian (Paris) Dale Medearis and Wulf Daseking (Freiburg) Michaela Brüel (Copenhagen) Maria Jaakkola (Helsinki) Marta Moretti (Venice) Luis Andrés Orive and Rebeca Dios Lema (Vitoria-Gasteiz) Camilla Ween (London)