There has been a mixed response to Local Agenda 21 (LA21) across Europe, but a new study from the Basque Country in Spain has identified factors that contribute to a successful LA21 strategy. These are a local entrepreneurial presence, joint problem-solving and joint decision-making by local government members.

Sustainable development aims to improve quality of life without compromising the well-being of future generations. A new study highlights the challenges of setting environmental sustainability goals and cites the EU Climate and Energy policy package, with its ‘20-20-20’ targets, as a model example.

With ever-increasing global consumption, the impacts of resource depletion, land use change and pollution are being felt worldwide. A new study reveals how international trade is shifting the environmental burden from the consuming nation to other parts of the world, and calls for changes in the way national material use is accounted for.

Researchers have proposed a new approach to identifying sustainability indicators for Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM). It consists of three steps: identify the most important factors in ICZM for coastal stakeholders, model relationships between these factors, and analyse these factors to identify the most relevant for use as indicators.

A new index for measuring the health of oceans considers the benefits of the sea to humans, as well as the status of natural components, such as biodiversity. According to the researchers who developed the index, it provides a powerful tool for allocating resources and improving policy in the management of marine ecosystems.

‘Doing good’ can lead to ‘doing well’ for companies that implement corporate sustainability, according to a new study by Polish researchers. Eighty-five American companies that met corporate sustainability criteria proved to have better returns and greater stability in stock price than average, and better growth rates than their less sustainable counterparts.

A recent international study has compared different Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) methods and suggests that improved enforcement and compliance would increase implementation of key strategies. It also highlights the potential for environmental impact assessments (EIAs) to develop science and policy integration.

Ecosystem-based adaptation to climate change relies on the services provided by nature; new research has now demonstrated the wide potential of urban ecosystem services to aid local adaptation efforts. This study developed and trialled a streamlined method for assessing ecosystem services, such as temperature reduction and carbon sequestration, in four European cities, providing a valuable tool to help city planners enhance ecosystem services.

As buildings become increasingly energy-efficient in terms of heating and operation, researchers are highlighting the importance of reducing the energy needed to construct the buildings. However, there is a lack of accurate, consistent data, or a standard methodology to properly assess energy requirements at this stage, a new study has found.

Two ‘best practice’ case studies of brownfield regeneration in Germany and the UK have been analysed by researchers. Liverpool's and Cologne's two flagship waterfront developments were chosen in order to provide insights for other redevelopment projects. The assessment demonstrates that, if correctly managed, brownfield sites can help stimulate economic development in poor areas.

Including civil society organisations (CSOs) when negotiating climate policy can mobilise public support for international agreements, a new study suggests. Using online surveys researchers found that the popular legitimacy of global climate governance decreases when CSOs are excluded.

A new tool to help planners choose urban designs that positively influence flows of energy, carbon, water and pollutants in cities is presented in a recent study. It is designed to integrate scientific knowledge into the planning process and support cities in achieving sustainability objectives.

A new economic tool designed to encourage sustainable production and consumption has been proposed in a recent study. To ensure that the environmental impact of products is reflected in their cost, the authors of the research recommend a system of green value added tax (VAT) based on life cycle assessment (LCA).

China does not export cars to Europe, yet it has adopted the Euro emissions standard for vehicles. A recent study argues this is because international standards can encourage foreign investors to share advanced technical knowledge with companies in developing and emerging economies – thus bringing a package of environmental and economic benefits. In China’s case, its car industry is now better prepared for future trade in a global market, thanks to this strategy.

A pilot Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) project in the UK has found MSP to be a useful approach in managing marine waters sustainably. Sharing the knowledge and experiences gained in developing the Shetland Islands’ Marine Spatial Plan (SMSP) can help other authorities in the process of developing similar plans, says the project team.

Plans for new Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) need to consider social impacts alongside economic and environmental impacts, according to a recent study, which found that an MPA in the UK has increased some tensions within its local community. The researchers suggest that collaborative management could also help increase support for MPAs and reduce stakeholder conflict.

A new five-step method has been developed for assessing the resource efficiency of products and improving the reuse, recycling and recovery of material at a product’s end of life. The Resource Efficiency Assessment of Products (REAPro) method allows the identification and testing of practical measures to improve resource efficiency at both the product and policy level.

The drive to increase renewable energy production can sometimes be at loggerheads with the desire to preserve natural landscapes. In this study, researchers from across Europe assessed the environmental impacts of renewable energies in the Alps, making key recommendations to resolve conflicts between different users of habitats.

A human rights ‘protection gap’ exists for people forced to migrate by environmental stress and climate change, according to researchers. The lack of a legal framework and practices to protect ‘environmental refugees’ stems from the historic and political context of migration issues — and land access rights more broadly — the researchers say in a recently published paper.

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are widely used to safeguard marine ecosystems across Europe. This study investigated the effect of a partially protected area (PPA) off the coast of Norway on a population of Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua). The PPA reduced the number of deaths due to fishing, increased survival and stimulated movement to surrounding areas. The authors say that preventing fishing altogether would increase survival even further and recommend no-take zones in areas where populations are severely reduced.

Urban green spaces provide important ecosystem services in cities, from recreation to the mitigation of noise and air pollution. This study quantified the ecosystem services (ES) provided by green spaces in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, using new methods to evaluate high-resolution land-cover data. The findings show that different types of green space provide different ES, highlighting the importance of careful design during city planning. The authors say their method to map ES supply will aid the design of healthy, climate-resilient cities.

Marine protected areas (MPAs) have well-reported ecological benefits, but may also have important socioeconomic effects on local communities. Existing methods to assess these effects have been hampered by a number of limitations. This paper describes a new framework to monitor and assess the socioeconomic effects of MPAs, which overcomes many of these limitations to provide greater value for decision makers.

Industry has traditionally claimed that strict environmental regulation has a negative effect on its competitiveness. However, a recent theory proposes it may actually increase productivity and innovation. This study used a large database of inter-sectoral transactions to investigate the effect of environmental taxation on manufacturing businesses across Europe. The findings show that environmental regulation can increase innovation and productivity.

Effective regulation of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) calls for monitoring of the potential environmental risks. This study explored whether the German permanent soil monitoring programme could be a useful tool for this purpose. The researchers say the programme has potential to monitor the effects of GMOs on local soil communities, but that adaptations would be necessary.

Greenbelt policies in Germany, used to curb urban sprawl, are effective in protecting open spaces and the valuable natural resources they cover, a new study has found. Nevertheless, urban development can ‘leapfrog’ greenbelts, hopping over them into areas with less restrictive planning policies. Researchers recommend that such areas are also included in urban development control plans.

Green public procurement (GPP) – authorities considering environmental criteria when allocating contracts to private suppliers – is becoming increasingly popular as an environmental policy instrument. This study analysed data from Swedish cleaning service procurements, finding a ‘weak’ effect on supplier behaviour in this situation. The researchers say that, for GPP to be an effective policy instrument, it is important to consider suppliers’ decisions to participate in procurement and to screen them against mandatory green criteria.

Researchers have provided a set of guidelines to help policymakers, designers and operators develop sustainable solutions for energy-storage systems for electricity grids. The guidelines cover a range of energy-storage technologies and grid-integration options.

Norway has the highest battery-electric vehicle market share of any country worldwide. A new study investigated the incentives that have persuaded consumers to purchase electric vehicles in Norway, revealing that up-front price reductions (such as exemptions from purchase tax) are the most powerful incentives.

The concepts of instrumental value (protecting nature for humans’ sake) and intrinsic value (protecting nature for nature’s sake) are fundamental to environmental policy. This paper — based on a literature review and critical analysis — argues that using these concepts alone overlooks important concerns for the environment. The authors recommend also considering relational values, which derive from the relationships between people and nature.

Landfill taxes and ‘enhanced waste management’ practices have been introduced to reduce the amount of waste that goes to landfill and to convert waste into useful products. This study investigated the interplay of these two policy options in Belgium, generating findings that could help Europe move towards a resource-efficient, circular economy.

Global interest in urban agriculture is growing. However, the importance of local context is not reflected in current governance approaches, argues a new study which evaluated urban agriculture in Belgium and Poland. The authors say that considering city-specific factors can help urban agriculture achieve its full potential, and recommend a broader policymaking strategy that considers the benefits beyond food production.

Regardless of how well-designed environmental legislation is, for it to be effective it must be properly enforced. This study explored the enforcement practices of several environmental agencies, recommending that strategies are chosen based on regulatory context and environmental risk.

Alongside fines, prison sentences are important punishments for environmental crime, but there is uncertainty about how often they are used. This study summarises evidence from several countries, showing that prison is indeed a genuine threat for environmental criminals, but that more needs to be done to improve its credibility.

Policymakers often have to make decisions under great complexity, uncertainty and time pressure. A new study presents a support tool for the first stage of policymaking: identifying and exploring alternatives to solve problems. The software tool, called QUICKScan, increases the speed of this process and combines the input of many stakeholders in participatory workshops. It has been applied 70 times in 20 different countries, for a wide range of environmental policy issues.

As the sources and severity of noise pollution continue to grow, there is a need for new approaches to reduce exposure. This Future Brief looks at the complex and pervasive problem of noise pollution: a problem with no single solution, requiring a combination of short-, medium- and long-term approaches and careful consideration of the nature of the noise source.

Agri-environment schemes (AES) are widely researched; some important issues, however, remain unstudied. Researchers have investigated some of these issues using a sample of olive growers in southern Spain. Their study reveals the level of monetary incentive needed for farmers to accept an ‘ecological focus area’, and a general unwillingness to participate collectively. These results could help policymakers design more cost-effective AES.

Milan and Seoul are considered by many as pioneering examples of cities in promoting a sharing economy. A new study has analysed governance in these two cities, and concludes that they have both laid the right foundations for a sharing economy to develop. The researchers propose that while such economies carry risks, they are also able to benefit the economy, environment, and society.

A study into how agriculture can help humanity meet the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals finds that research in Europe on agricultural land systems largely omits key priorities from policy and practice. The researchers identify 32 variables that researchers, policymakers and practitioners collectively prioritise when it comes to European agricultural systems, and suggest that future research includes these in order to more comprehensively analyse trade-offs and identify opportunities for sustainable progress.

To better understand the social and ecological implications of the non- food sector of the EU’s expanding bioeconomy, an economy which is based on the production and conversion of renewable biological resources into products and energy, a study has assessed the global cropland footprint of the region’s non-food products. The results show that the EU was the world’s biggest consumer and importer of these products from 1995 to 2010: two-thirds of the cropland required to satisfy the EU’s non-food consumption is located elsewhere in regions including China, the USA and Indonesia, bringing potential impacts for distant ecosystems. These findings can inform EU policymaking and support the EU Bioeconomy Strategy.

The German Renewable Energy Sources Act was introduced in 2001 to encourage an increase in renewable energy supply. Since then, supply has increased from 7% (in 2001) to 37% (in 2017. Wind energy is an important part of Germany’s renewable energy production — but deploying sufficient turbines to achieve the climate goals requires a large amount of raw materials, many of which are metals in limited supply. This study found copper and dysprosium to be the most critical of these metals, as they could face future bottlenecks and are essential elements in present and future turbine design.

A new study has analysed how to reduce the environmental footprint of EU trade by preferentially importing goods from countries that have greener production processes. The study concludes that the environmental impacts of 200 product groups imported into the EU could be considerably reduced in this way. For example, water consumption caused by these imports could be cut by 72%, and land use by 65%.

A new study outlines the challenges faced in securing Europe's coastlines against flood damage. The study highlights the importance of taking an integrated approach to coastal management which accounts for scientific, socio-economic and political factors, and considers the problem at local, regional and national levels, from the perspectives of all stakeholders.

Increasing crop production to meet demand for biofuels potentially increases the use of nitrogen fertilisers, which can lead to nitrate pollution in surface and groundwater. A new study is the first to consider the unintended extra energy needed to treat water to remove nitrate contamination in drinking water supplies.

Solar-powered irrigation that delivers water directly to plant roots could help ensure food security in Africa, say researchers. Their study in the Sudano-Sahel region of West Africa indicated that this irrigation method could increase both household income and nutritional intake, particularly during the dry season.

Individuals and groups of individuals have been influential in changing the Tisza River water policy in Hungary, according to a new study. A shift away from engineering solutions towards sustainable flood management was achieved through new policy ideas being recognised by civil servants at the national level and a regional coalition championing the ideas at the local level.

A recent study highlights the need to consider water consumption when evaluating low-carbon energy production systems, such as biofuels and solar photovoltaic systems, for use in transportation.

Carbon footprints are an established means of communicating one aspect of a product's environmental impact. New research suggests additional 'nitrogen footprints' for food products could give consumers a more informed choice and help reduce eutrophication in water. However, it warns that there are environmental trade-offs for some food groups, for example, oil products have a small nitrogen footprint, but a fairly large carbon footprint.

Increases in population and urbanisation are challenging current systems of water supply. A new study has assessed existing examples of alternative supply systems, such as wastewater reclamation, rainfall collection and desalination of seawater. It suggests that adopting several types of system may provide a better and more flexible solution.

To assess the impact on ecosystems of chemical contamination in aquatic environments, scientists need to measure not only the concentration of the contaminants, but also the extent to which they can disrupt biological processes at a cellular level in plants and animals and at an ecosystem level. According to a new study, considering these complex inter-relationships in combination will help improve the ecological status of waterways, in line with Water Framework Directive (WFD) commitments.

A new study has estimated the water consumption and land use for the production of 160 crops that constitute most of the world’s cropland. The results suggest that, collectively, wheat, rice, cotton, maize and sugar cane account for 49% of water scarcity and 42% of land resource stress caused by worldwide crop production.