Commitment of European SMEs to resource efficiency actions to achieve sustainability transition. A feasible reality or an elusive goal?

The European Union has built an interdependent framework to promote sustainability transition through commitment in resource efficiency (RE) actions as echoed in the European Green Deal. Although the factors affecting firms' decision to adopt a green strategy have been extensively explored, those affecting commitment remain unexplored. Thus, we study whether commitment of European SMEs to RE actions fosters sustainability transition and, what drives such commitment.

Green growth & sustainability transition through information. Are the greener better informed? Evidence from European SMEs.

The European Green Deal along with directives promoting Circular Economy support sustainability transition and foster green growth through developing appropriate funding. However, information on how to access such funding affects firms' decision to expand their business strategy. This paper investigates the effect of information about financing tools on the adoption of Circular Economy business activities by exploring whether the better-informed firms are 'greener' and what influences such decision through a switching endogenous regressor model to account for endogeneity and selectivity bias.

Personal attitudes and beliefs and willingness to pay to reduce marine plastic pollution in Indonesia.

Marine plastic pollution (MPP) is one of the most pressing issues especially for fast-growing economies in the Global South where addressing it involves both government and personal actions to achieve effective waste management policies. Alternative modelling strategies accounting for personal traits and beliefs (latent attitudes) which are unobservable characteristics are frequently overlooked in policy assessment studies. This study combines contingent valuation and latent traits questions to derive the willingness of Indonesian respondents to support MPP mitigation initiatives.

Climate action requires new accounting guidance and governance frameworks to manage carbon in shelf seas.

Accounting guidelines exist for the recording of carbon flows in terrestrial and coastal ecosystems. Shelf sea sediments, while considered an important carbon store, have yet to receive comparable scrutiny. Here, we explore whether effective management of carbon stocks accumulating in shelf seas could contribute towards a nation's greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets.

Policy options to achieve culturally-aware and environmentally-sustainable tourism in Fiji.

Increased visitation rates are expected to further impact ecosystems and local communities depending on them to generate income from tourism. We measure how different sustainable tourism management options of such areas in ways that respect the concept of vanua, the Fijian understanding of the connectiveness of the natural environment, humans and traditions, are perceived by a representative sample of potential visitors of the UK population. We then consider some plausible management options and how these may impact welfare.

The value of information: Realising the economic benefits of mapping seagrass meadows in the British Virgin Islands.

Carbon capturing coastal and marine habitats around the world are decreasing in extent every year, habitats found in abundance in Small Island Developing States' territories. However, these habitats are under threat by increased levels of economic activities and extreme weather events. Consequently, as those ecosystems become scarce their value is expected to increase.

The perception of water related risks and the state of the water environment in the European Union.

In this work, we examine the factors predicting the perception of three distinct risks, namely "Algae growth", "Chemical pollution" and "Changes to ecosystems", to the water environment of each European Union Member State. We utilize a novel dataset that combines a Europe-wide Eurobarometer poll on water-related issues and a database of water quality indicators, water stressors and impacts compiled for the European Environment Agency (EEA) under the Water Information System for Europe (WISE). We utilize a three-level logistic regression model with the 2nd and 3rd levels being the region and the country in which the respondent lives.

False positive and false negative errors in the design and implementation of agri-environmental policies: A case study on water quality and agricultural nutrients.

When designing and implementing agri-environmental policies to reduce nutrient loss, action programmes may falsely address areas where the nutrient issue from agricultural activity is not currently important and is not likely to become so in the future (a false positive), or may fail to address areas where the agricultural nutrient issue is currently important or may likely become so in the future (a false negative). Based on a case study of the Louros watershed in Greece, this work identifies database and modelling sources of false positives and negatives and proposes a decision making process aimed at minimizing the possibility of committing such errors. The baseline is well simulated and shows that the Louro's watershed falls behind a Good Environmental Status, at least marginally.

The income elasticity of Willingness-To-Pay (WTP) revisited: A meta-analysis of studies for restoring Good Ecological Status (GES) of water bodies under the Water Framework Directive (WFD).

The income elasticity of Willingness-To-Pay (WTP) is ambiguous and results from meta-analyses are disparate. This may be because the environmental good or service to be valued is very broadly defined or because the income measured in individual studies suffers from extensive non-reporting or miss reporting. The present study carries out a meta-analysis of WTP to restore Good Ecological Status (GES) under the Water Framework Directive (WFD).