Search Results (758)

Non-food geographical indications (GIs) are emerging as strategic policy instruments in the European Union after Regulation (EU) 2023/2411 extended protection to craft and industrial products. While the literature on agri-food GIs is extensive, empirical and comparative evidence on non-food GIs remains scarce and fragmented. This study addresses this gap by constructing a harmonised dataset, combining 132 registered and 380 potential non-food GIs identified by EUIPO (512 in total across the EU). Using secondary institutional data, descriptive and comparative statistics, and a hierarchical clustering (Ward, squared Euclidean distance) on normalised indicators total GIs, GIs per million inhabitants (GI/POP), and GIs per € billion of GDP (GI/GDP), the analysis identifies three country typologies differing by scale and intensity. Results reveal a strong geographical concentration in Southern Europe but also unexpectedly high intensity in smaller or mid-sized economies such as Portugal, Cyprus, and Slovenia. A forward-looking scenario analysis based on Cost of Non-Europe (CoNE) estimates suggests that the full implementation of the new Regulation could generate 284,000–338,000 new jobs and € 37–50 billion in additional intra-EU trade. The study contributes to EU policy debates by introducing comparative indicators (GI/POP, GI/GDP) as monitoring tools for evidence-based policymaking and by highlighting the role of non-food GIs as hybrid institutions connecting industrial competitiveness, cultural identity, and sustainability transitions. Full article

This study investigates the multifaceted impact of digitalization on economic performance across the 27 European Union member states from 2017 to 2023. Using a comprehensive panel dataset, the analysis moves beyond aggregate metrics to dissect how specific digital levers contribute to trade performance and national income. A two-way fixed effects (FEs) regression model is employed to rigorously control for unobserved country-specific heterogeneity and common time-based shocks, with diagnostic tests confirming the suitability of this specification. The results reveal a complex and often counter-intuitive set of relationships. One key finding is a statistically significant negative association between the EU’s headline Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) and goods exports, a paradox that emerges in the model once specific business-level digital tools are accounted for. This suggests that composite indices can be misleading for granular policy analysis. The marginal benefit of cloud adoption diminishes significantly in countries with higher levels of public investment in Research and Development (R&D), indicating a substitution rather than a complementary relationship between these two innovation channels. Full article

The management of municipal solid waste (MSW) plays a crucial role in advancing sustainable development and circular economy goals across the European Union. In Italy, despite improvements in separate collection, significant regional disparities in MSW performance and costs persist. This study assesses the eco-efficiency of MSW services in 5516 Italian municipalities to uncover performance gaps and their underlying drivers. Eco-efficiency is measured using a Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model based on the Generalized Directional Distance Function (GDDF). This model incorporates per capita cost as an input, sorted waste as a desirable output, and residual waste as an undesirable output. A second-stage quantile regression is then utilized to explore how contextual factors influence eco-efficiency across various performance levels. The results reveal significant territorial disparities, with only 0.13% of municipalities achieving full eco-efficiency. Paradoxically, higher levels of separate waste collection—typically a policy goal—are associated with increased costs, especially in more efficient municipalities, suggesting a trade-off between environmental performance and economic sustainability. Similarly, population density negatively affects eco-efficiency but may facilitate economies of scale in collection systems. These findings highlight a tension between achieving optimal sorting rates and maintaining cost-effectiveness. Policy interventions should consider these trade-offs, prioritizing basic performance in lagging areas while promoting cost-control strategies in high-performing municipalities. Full article

Heating and cooling (H&C) account for nearly half of the EU’s energy consumption, with significant potential for decarbonization through renewable energy sources (RES) integrated in district heating and cooling (DHC) systems. This study evaluates the environmental and social impacts of RES-powered DHC solutions implemented in three European small-scale demo sites (Bucharest, Luleå, Córdoba) under the Horizon 2020 WEDISTRICT project. Using the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA) methodologies, the research compares baseline fossil-based energy scenarios with post-implementation renewable scenarios. Results reveal substantial greenhouse gas emission reductions (up to 67%) and positive environmental trade-offs, though increased mineral and metal resource use and site-specific impacts on water and land use highlight important sustainability challenges. Social assessments demonstrate improvements in gender parity, local employment, and occupational safety, yet reveal persistent issues in wage equity, union representation, and inclusion of vulnerable populations. The findings emphasize that while renewable DHC systems offer significant climate benefits, social sustainability requires tailored local strategies and robust governance to avoid exacerbating inequalities. This integrated environmental-social perspective underscores the need for holistic policies that balance technical innovation with equitable social outcomes to ensure truly sustainable energy transitions. Full article

Türkiye’s role in the global lemon trade was evaluated using the Constant Market Share (CMS) method to assess changes in export competitiveness across major destination markets. The CMS framework decomposes export performance into three components—market share effect, commodity composition effect, and commodity adaptation effect—which, respectively, represent competitiveness, product–market alignment, and structural responsiveness. Trade data for the ten largest importing countries, representing over 80% of Türkiye’s lemon exports, were analyzed to identify the drivers of export growth and structural change. Results show a sharp decline in competitiveness during the COVID-19 disruption, followed by a partial recovery in markets such as Iraq, Poland, Russia, and Azerbaijan. Persistent structural rigidities were identified in several Eastern European and Gulf markets, indicating limited responsiveness to shifting import demand. The findings highlight the need for flexible production systems, improved alignment of export structures with market requirements, and strategic partnerships to sustain long-term competitiveness in the global citrus sector. Full article

The European Union’s (EU) Farm to Fork strategy seeks to reduce agricultural pesticide use by 50%, both of total pesticide use and of the most hazardous chemicals. While Ireland has achieved the goal of overall pesticide use reduction, more progress is needed regarding more hazardous substances. Ireland’s cool damp climate is unique within the EU, and with little empirical data on the possible impacts of achieving this goal on Irish farming, we sought to estimate these in cereal crops using a ‘Delphi’ style iterative expert panel methodology, conducted over two rounds, rather than until consensus was reached, to allow for knowledge gaps that may exist to become apparent. A total of 17 crop production experts with at least five years of relevant experience were surveyed anonymously, and then their answers were compiled and fed back to them, allowing participants to revise their responses based on the opinion of the group. Participants estimated that reduced use of more hazardous fungicides and insecticides could both reduce yields by 10–15%, while reduced use of herbicides would reduce yields of winter cereals by up to 30%. These impacts are substantially higher than those predicted in other Europe-wide studies. Application of additional Integrated Pest Management measures was estimated to reduce yield loss but not entirely mitigate it. These findings highlight the economic and food security trade-offs that may be required to achieve the Farm to Fork strategy’s goals. Full article

Global enterprises face increasingly volatile market conditions, with foreign exchange (FX) movements often forcing executives to make rapid pricing and strategy decisions under uncertainty. While artificial intelligence (AI) has transformed operational decision-making, its role in supporting board-level strategic choices remains underexplored. This paper examines how AI and advanced analytics can serve as a ‘decision companion’ for management teams and executives confronted with global shocks. Using Roblox Corporation as a case study, we apply a Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) neural network to forecast bookings and simulate counterfactual scenarios involving euro depreciation and European price adjustments. The analysis reveals that a ten percent depreciation of the euro reduces consolidated bookings and profits by approximately six percent, and that raising European prices does not offset these losses due to demand elasticity. Regional attribution shows that the majority of the decline is concentrated in Europe, with only minor spillovers elsewhere. The findings demonstrate that AI enhances strategic agility by clarifying risks, quantifying trade-offs, and isolating regional effects, while ensuring that ultimate decisions remain with human executives. Full article

This study examines the incorporation of biodiversity loss into the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of buildings, with a specific focus on the Danish construction sector. Motivated by the ecological crisis reflected in the Planetary Boundaries and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, it addresses regulatory gaps that prioritise climate indicators, such as Global Warming Potential (GWP), while largely ignoring biodiversity. The study analyses 73 Danish building cases for GWP and a custom method linking material quantities to ReCiPe 2016 endpoint data for biodiversity loss. The findings indicate key methodological issues include the quality of Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs), the regional relevance of assessment methods, and differences in European standards. While average GWP levels mostly meet upcoming Danish limits, variability, especially in Office and Other building categories, supports the need for differentiated regulations. Results show embodied impacts mainly drive GWP, while biodiversity loss is split between embodied and operational impacts. Detached and Terraced houses, which use more bio-based materials, have low embodied GWP but higher biodiversity loss, highlighting trade-offs in regenerative design. The shift in GWP impacts to end-of-life phases stresses the need to consider forest dynamics. Operational impacts rank similarly, despite differences in the data. The study concludes that progress toward regenerative design requires addressing climate and biodiversity together to avoid shifting environmental burdens. Full article

In the process of responding to global climate change, carbon tariffs have attracted much attention as a new type of trade protection and environmental governance means. The European Union is a pioneer in global carbon tariff policies. Currently, there is no research system to assess the impact of the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism on China’s economic, energy and environmental development. Based on the dynamic computable general equilibrium model, this paper assesses the long-term impact of Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism on China’s economic growth, power supply and demand, and environmental benefits. The research findings are as follows: (1) The implementation of Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism has reduced China’s total GDP, especially when the free quota was completely abolished, which is when the decline was the greatest; The output of high energy-consuming industries such as steel and aluminum will also decrease simultaneously. (2) The implementation of Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism has significantly increased the proportion of photovoltaic power generation, while reducing the electricity consumption of the manufacturing industry, accelerating the green transformation of China’s power generation structure. (3) Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism has enabled China to reach its carbon peak earlier and lower the peak value, but the marginal cost of emission reduction is higher than that of existing carbon reduction measures. This research is of great significance for addressing the challenges of Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism and promoting the low-carbon transformation of the economy. Full article

The popularity of exotic animals, including turtles, kept as pets, has grown steadily in recent decades. Limited awareness of the biological and ecological requirements of these species, combined with insufficient regulation in the pet trade, has contributed to frequent cases of release into the wild. Consequently, the risk of the introduction of non-native turtle species has increased; while not all introduced species establish viable populations or compete with native fauna, some compete for habitat and food resources, transmit pathogens and parasites, or disrupt ecosystem functioning. This study assessed the availability and prevalence of problematic turtle species in the Polish pet trade. Data were collected in 2024 from three main distribution channels: zoological fairs, pet shops, and online platforms, resulting in 1001 recorded observations. A total of 15 freshwater and 11 terrestrial turtle species were identified. The most frequently offered were members of the genus Pseudemys (49.5%) and Mauremys reevesii (13.84%)—both potentially invasive taxa already recorded in natural environments of several European countries. Additionally, species prohibited from trade in Poland, such as the pond slider Trachemys scripta and the false map turtle Graptemys pseudogeographica, were found among online listings, constituting a total of 3.03% of all observations. These results highlight a significant risk of further introduction of alien turtles into Poland’s natural environments, posing a serious threat to biodiversity, including the endangered native European pond turtle Emys orbicularis. Urgent public education and additional legal regulations are needed for the pet trade to prevent the further spread of invasive turtle species in Poland and across Europe. Full article

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is a highly contagious disease of livestock caused by the FMD virus (FMDV). It is not dangerous to humans but can cause severe disruption to the farming sector and hampers trade in animals and animal products. Given the characteristic of transmissibility of the virus, the legislation in force in the European Union requires that some control activities be initiated in peacetime: the so-called “emergency preparedness”. As part of a research project on FMD, a dynamic transmission model was developed to test the effectiveness of the main control strategies in different livestock settings in Italy. This manuscript focuses on the control of the disease in densely populated livestock areas (DPLAs). Reduction in farm density was simulated to identify a threshold density compatible with disease control in the study area and to understand whether this was acceptable in terms of the sustainability of the livestock production system. Considering that in some municipalities the density of animals greatly exceeded the identified threshold, we adopted an original risk-based approach aimed at identifying farms which were most likely to play a central role in FMDV transmission. This approach has proven to be the most effective in controlling the spread of FMDV and can be proposed for practical applications where limited information on contacts between farms is available. Full article

Sand is the backbone of modern civilization and faces heightened demand in the Anthropocene. The uncontrolled extraction of sand raises concerns regarding its irreversible ecological impact. The sand industry is not well understood, especially from the perspective of sustainability. To address this knowledge gap, this systematic review combines policy analysis with the use of material flow analysis (MFA) indicators, environmental externalities, and geopolitics to assess the overall sustainability of the sand industry. By utilizing trade data, this study identified the primary importers and exporters of sand within each continent and selected the top 3–4 countries for analysis. Based on these countries, relevant studies in the literature on the trade and domestic extraction of sand and that used the principles of MFA were found to assess the patterns of its consumption. Illicit sand mining adds a further challenge regarding data accuracy and verification. This study revealed that China’s consumption of sand surpasses that of all the other countries studied, at 17,700 million tonnes, and China has the highest mass of recycled aggregates in use. Using gross domestic product as a proxy for size of the economy, it was found that China consumed 0.001251 million tonnes of sand per million USD. European nations showed a striking balance in their sand industries by placing equal importance on using virgin sand and recycled aggregates, thus contributing to a circular economy. The use of MFA for future research can reveal hidden flows by positioning itself as a science–policy interface, enabling greater circularity within the lock-ins of the construction sector. Full article

We investigate the key factors that shape the dynamic evolution of Day-Ahead spot prices of seven European interconnected electricity markets of the Core Capacity Calculation Region, Core CCR (Austria AT, Hungary HU, Slovenia SI, Romania RO), the Southeast CCR (Bulgaria BG, Greece GR) and the Greece-Italy CCR (GRIT CCR), with emphasis on price surges and discrepancies observed in SEE CCR markets, during the period 2022–2024. The high differences in the prices of the two groups have generated political reactions from the countries that ‘suffer’ from these price discrepancies. By applying Machine Learning (ML) approaches, as Markov Blanket (MB) and Local, causal structures learning (LCSL), we are able of ‘revealing’ the entire path of volatility spillover of both spot price and the Cross-Border Transfer Availabilities (CBTA) between the countries involved, from north to south, thus uncovering i.e., ‘lifting the blanket’, to discover the ‘true’ structure’ of the path of causalities, responsible for the price disparity. The above methods are supported by the ‘mainstream’ approach of computing the correlation of the spot price and CBTA’s volatility curves of all markets, to detect volatility spillover effects across markets. The main findings of this hybrid approach are (a) the volatility of some Core CCRs (AT, HU, RO) markets’ spot price and CBTAs with neighboring countries, ‘uncovered’ to be pivotal, operating as a ‘transmitter’ of volatility ‘disturbances’, over its entire connection and causal path from Core CCR to SEE CCR markets, partially contributing to their price surge, (b) reduced available capacity for cross-border trading of some Core and SEE CCRs (they have not satisfied the minimum 70% requirement margin available for cross-zonal trade, MACZT), combined with local weather and geopolitical conditions, could have exacerbated the impact of the Flow-based Market coupling method (FBMC) used in the Core CCRs, on the prices’ surge of SEE CCR’s countries, e.g., via induced non-intuitive flows. This phenomenon questions the efficiency and reliability of the European Target’s model (TM) in securing ‘homogeneous’ power prices across all interconnected markets, core and peripheral. Full article

This study assesses decarbonization progress in the European Union manufacturing sector between 2015 and 2023, using harmonized Eurostat indicators. The dataset covers emission intensity, energy intensity, renewable energy use, and structural markers of value added. After standardization, variables are reduced through principal component analysis (PCA). The resulting scores are then clustered with k-means, with the number of clusters chosen using elbow and silhouette diagnostics and validated through hierarchical clustering, representing a methodological innovation over existing typological studies. The results highlight persistent heterogeneities across member states. A group of frontrunners combines low intensities with a high share of RES; efficiency-centric groups advance mainly through energy intensity reductions but lag in fuel-switching, while structurally constrained groups remain hindered by energy mix limitations and outdated capital stocks. Dynamically, moderate convergence is observed along the main transition dimension, but persistent divergence remains in structural composition. These patterns justify differentiated policy approaches: accelerating fuel substitution where efficiency gains have already been achieved and integrated packages of modernization and infrastructure in structurally constrained economies. The novelty of this study lies in providing a harmonized, EU-wide, and reproducible typology of industrial decarbonization trajectories, enabling systematic cross-country comparison. Policy relevance is reinforced by linking the typology to current EU instruments such as the Emissions Trading System (ETS), the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), the Innovation Fund, and the Net-Zero Industry Act. The integration of PCA with clustering provides an evidence-based that is valuable for prioritizing European industrial policies in line with the Green Deal. Full article

Morocco, located in an arid region and increasingly affected by climate change, faces chronic water stress. This structural vulnerability places mounting pressure on the country’s water resources. International trade contributes significantly to this pressure, particularly through the export of water-intensive agricultural products. This study investigates the virtual water trade flows of the 32 most-traded agricultural products between Morocco and its primary trading partner, the European Union, over the period of 2000–2020. This study adopts a bottom-up approach, employing the FAO’s CROPWAT 8.0 software based on the Penman–Monteith climatic model to estimate crop water requirements. The results indicate that Morocco was a net importer of virtual water in its agricultural trade with EU countries, with a cumulative net virtual water of 51,839.171 million cubic meters (Mm³). During the study period, Morocco exported a total of 3393.791 Mm³ of virtual water to the EU, primarily through fruits (2903.028 Mm³; 85.539%) and vegetables (467.928 Mm³; 13.788%), notably those with high water footprints. The top three EU importers of Moroccan virtual water were France (1138.785 Mm³), the Netherlands (874.323 Mm³), and the United Kingdom (430.872 Mm³). Conversely, virtual water imports by Morocco amounted to 55,232.963 Mm³, overwhelmingly dominated by cereals, which accounted for 99.697% of the total. These imports originated mainly from France (37,154.090 Mm³), Germany (4980.296 Mm³), and Poland (2330.039 Mm³). The analysis of Morocco’s virtual water balance with EU countries revealed that Morocco was a net virtual importer in trade with most of them. Furthermore, the crop-level virtual water trade balance revealed a tendency to export water-intensive crops that offer relatively low economic water productivity. However, four agricultural products recorded a high economic return per unit of Virtual Water Exported: tomatoes returned 19.80 USD/m³, strawberries 16.02 USD/m³, carrots 13.06 USD/m³, and watermelons 8.11 USD/m³. These findings underscore the importance of integrating water footprint analysis into national agricultural policy to maximize the economic productivity of water and ensure the sustainability of resources in a water-stressed country. Full article