Presentation at EMAS Conference, Vienna, 26 September 2018

1. www.ieep.eu @IEEP_eu
Beyond compliance: post-2020 challenges
for European environmental governance
and EMAS
Céline Charveriat
EMAS CONFERENCE AUSTRIAN PRESIDENCY 2018
26 September 2018
Vienna, Austria

2. www.ieep.eu @IEEP_eu
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. www.ieep.eu @IEEP_eu
Evolution of Organisations and Sites:
Source: Official
responses from
national
Competent
Bodies, where
provided

4. www.ieep.eu @IEEP_eu
Organisations and Sites per Country:
Source: Official
responses from
national
Competent
Bodies

5. www.ieep.eu @IEEP_eu
Is Europe on the right track?

6. www.ieep.eu @IEEP_eu
Scoreboard of EU environmental policy vis-a-vis SDGs. IEEP 2018 forthcoming

7. www.ieep.eu @IEEP_eu
Environmental performance per Member States
IEEP 2018, forthcoming, Based on Bertelsman Stiftung & SDSN.
2016. SDG Index and Dashboard – A global report. Average
performance by SDG

8. www.ieep.eu @IEEP_eu
Is decoupling real in the EU?
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.
Sources: EEA, Wiedmann et al. 2015
Material footprint (MF) = Domestic Extraction Used + (IMP +
IFimp) – (EXP +IFexp)
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 2012. 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. www.ieep.eu @IEEP_eu
Source: EEA Trends and projections in Europe 2017 Tracking progress towards Europe's climate and energy targets

10. www.ieep.eu @IEEP_eu
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. www.ieep.eu @IEEP_eu
“Sustainable Development Goals are disruptive.
They imply a radical departure from business as
usual … “
UNEP (2017)

12. www.ieep.eu @IEEP_eu
How to incentivise business to act?

13. www.ieep.eu @IEEP_eu
What future for EMAS?
• Alignment to SDGs and the Paris agreement
• 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. www.ieep.eu @IEEP_eu
Relevant project work from IEEP
Think2030 is a new platform of think tanks, local authorities, NGOs and businesses, which will gather on October 17th-18th 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, 16 – 18 July 2018. 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. www.ieep.eu @IEEP_eu
Thank you for your attention !
ccharveriat@ieep.eu