Beyond compliance: post-2020 challenges for European environmental governance and EMAS

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1 Beyond compliance: post-2020 challenges for European environmental governance and EMAS Céline Charveriat EMAS CONFERENCE AUSTRIAN PRESIDENCY September 2018 Vienna, Austria

2 EMAS: Mixed Success to date EMAS leads to enhanced environmental performance However, overall effectiveness is undermined by lack of uptake Implementation is uneven Certain environmental indicators are inconclusive Registration has been dropping recently

3 Evolution of Organisations and Sites: Source: Official responses from national Competent Bodies, where provided

4 Organisations and Sites per Country: Source: Official responses from national Competent Bodies

5 Is Europe on the right track?

6 Scoreboard of EU environmental policy vis-a-vis SDGs. IEEP 2018 forthcoming

7 Environmental performance per Member States IEEP 2018, forthcoming, Based on Bertelsman Stiftung & SDSN SDG Index and Dashboard A global report. Average performance by SDG

8 Domestic material consumption = Domestic Extraction Used + IMP EXP i.e. the amount of materials directly used by an economy including the annual quantity of raw materials extracted from the domestic territory, plus all physical imports minus all physical exports. Material footprint (MF) = Domestic Extraction Used + (IMP + IF imp ) (EXP +IF exp ) Is decoupling real in the EU? Indirect flows of imports Indirect flows of exports i.e. MF does account for the hidden flows of raw materials embodied in the production of traded goods. e.g. all the raw materials that were needed to produce the good which is imported, e.g. cell phones. Imports of electric and electronic products accounted for 75% of EU consumption of these goods in Sources: EEA, Wiedmann et al Why? Changing structure of the economy with a move towards services and greater dependence on imports for final consumption of goods requiring high levels of raw materials for their production

9 Source: EEA Trends and projections in Europe 2017 Tracking progress towards Europe's climate and energy targets

10 Major challenges for post-2020 European environmental governance The knowledge and policy science interface gaps The ambition deficit Closing the implementation gap (subsidiarity vs. single market; regulation vs. voluntary commitments and incentive) The integration: between existing schemes within the EU and in light of the SDGs Source: Kate Raworth. Doughnut Economics. 2017

11 Sustainable Development Goals are disruptive. They imply a radical departure from business as usual UNEP (2017)

12 How to incentivise business to act?

13 Alignment to SDGs and the Paris agreement What future for EMAS? Coherence with other reporting requirements/initiatives (e.g. Sustainable finance action plan, CE action plan) Vehicle for registering and verifying private sector pledges Spurring eco-innovation Meaningful regulatory relief measures Green public procurement Better support and awareness raising to implementing authorities and EMAS end users Vehicle for pushing ambition globally? Within the right business environment!

14 Relevant project work from IEEP Think2030 is a new platform of think tanks, local authorities, NGOs and businesses, which will gather on October 17 th -18 th in Brussels to inform a science-based agenda for European environmental policy beyond 2020, including an 8th Environmental Action Programme, and provide policy recommendations on a range of sustainability issues for policy makers including the European Parliament in the run up to the upcoming European elections. Make It Work (2017), project funded by The Netherlands (Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment), the UK (Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs), and Sweden (Ministry of Environment and Energy). Enabling eco-innovations under EU environmental legislation, aims at establishing a more coherent framework for the EU environmental acquis through identifying better design principles and problems arising from administrative burdens. Development of an assessment framework on environmental governance in EU Member States (on-going), funded by European Commission, DG Environment. Assessment of environmental governance for forthcoming Environmental Implementation Review (2019). IEEP (2018) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the UN High Level Political Forum (HLPF), New York, July Briefing for the EP ENVI Committee. IEEP (2017) Measuring progress on Europe s e European Economic and Social Committee (EESSC), two presentations in September 2017 (Overview and focus on SDG12).

15 Thank you for your attention!