The Environment, Employment and Sustainable Development

Monica Hale, Mike Lachowicz

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2002
• Print ISBN:
  9780415180290
• eBook ISBN:
  9781134679454
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Environmental policies and initiatives have had a significant impact on businesses and employment practices across Europe. The Environment, Employment and Sustainable Development is a wide-ranging collection featuring contributions by academics and practitioners from countries including the UK, Spain, Switzerland, France, Belgium, The Netherlands and Ireland. Subjects covered include:
* the effects of EU environmental directives, programmes and legislation and global conventions and agreements
* assessment of environmental training, education and qualifications across Europe
* national and international case studies
* the commercial logic for businesses in 'going green'
* examination of the growth in the public and private sector of career opportunities for those with environmental expertise.

1
THE ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN ENVIRONMENT AGENCY IN ENSURING STANDARDISATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION ACROSS EUROPE

Hilary Hillier

BACKGROUND

The European Environment Agency (EEA) was established by the Council of the European Union under Regulation 1210/90 and it is independent of the Commission.

The EEA began work on 30 October 1993, the day after it was agreed to site the Agency in Copenhagen, and it was officially launched in Copenhagen on 31 October 1994.

The Agency is open to countries which are not members of the European Union, and representatives from both Norway and Iceland (as members of the European Economic Area) already fully participate in the Management Board and other Agency institutions.

MISSION

The main goals of the EEA are to:

• Produce objective, reliable and comparable information for those who frame, implement and develop European environmental policy and for the wider European public.
• Co-ordinate the European Information and Observation Network (EIONET) and publish a report on the state of Europe’s environment every three years.
• Liaise with other relevant national, regional and global environmental programmes and institutes.

The priority areas of work identified in the Regulation are:

• Air quality and atmospheric emissions;
• Water quality, pollutants and water resources;
• The state of the soil, of fauna, flora and biotopes; • Land use and natural resources;
• Waste management;
• Noise emissions;
• Hazardous chemical substances;
• Coastal protection.

Management Board

The Management Board is the Agency’s main decision-making body and consists of one representative from each Member State, two from the Commission and two scientists nominated by the European Parliament. The Board is also supported on scientific matters by a Scientific Committee. It will advise the Director on technical matters such as staff recruitment and will also provide scientific expertise and advice on progress with European Topic Centres set up to work on major projects under contract to the EEA.

Executive Director

The Board has appointed an Executive Director (Sr Domingo Jimenez-Beltran of Spain). He is responsible for the preparation and execution of decisions and programmes adopted by the Management Board; for the day-to-day administration of the Agency; for the preparation of state of the environment reports; and for all staff matters. He is also responsible for all financial matters and is fully accountable to the Management Board.

Budget and staffing

The EEA’s budget for 1994 was 9.5 million Ecu. For 1995 it was 11 million Ecu and for 1996 it was 15 million Ecu. Under its organigram (Figure 1.1) the Agency was set to have 23 professional staff, 11 administrative staff and 8 national experts by the end of 1995. It will also have at any one time up to 9 consultants on short-term contracts.

EUROPEAN INFORMATION AND OBSERVATION NETWORK (EIONET)

From the size of the Agency’s staff and its budget it can be seen that it is not intended to set up new monitoring and information-collecting across the whole of Europe. Instead, the role of the Agency is primarily one of coordinating, setting standards and reporting environmental information, using established networks and expert organisations in Member States. This it will do via the EIONET, an EU-wide network for collecting and disseminating environmental information. The main elements of EIONET are:

Figure 1.1 EEA organigram

• National Focal Points (NFP) in each Member State to serve as a co-ordinator between their national network and the EEA;
• Main Component Elements (MCE) —organisations in national networks which are regular collectors and suppliers of environmental information at the national level and/or possess relevant knowledge of environmental science, monitoring or modelling;
• National Reference Centres (NRC) —organisations which are also MCEs and are nominated by NFPs to play a role in technical co-ordination within their countries and co-operate with the EEA on specific themes;
• European Topic Centres (ETC) —centres of expertise which work under contract to the Agency to undertake tasks identified in the multi-annual work programme.

Other organisations, such as EUROSTAT and the Joint Research Centre (JRC), are not formally part of EIONET under the Regulation, but are linked to it to ensure there is no duplication of work between the respective bodies.

UK NATIONAL INFORMATION NETWORK

The National Focal Point for the UK is situated within the Department of the Environment. The UK national information network consists of around 95 organisations, the majority of which are data suppliers already producing environmental data for the Department. The remainder are organisations with a proven expertise in environmental research in specific areas. There are 32 MCEs in the UK network, including the Countryside Commission, the Countryside Council for Wales, English Nature, Geological Survey for Northern Ireland, the RSPB and Scottish Natural Heritage. There are 17 NRCs (which are also MCEs) including the Institute for Terrestrial Ecology, British Geological Survey, Institute of Hydrology, Joint Nature Conservation Committee, National Rivers Authority and NETCEN.

WORK PROGRAMME

The Management Board has agreed the first multi-annual work programme for the period to 1999. It has agreed that priority be given to improving data quality and comparability, to trans-frontier issues, to addressing needs at the European level and to the links between natural science and socioeconomic conditions.

The ten programme areas of the multi-annual work programme are:

1. Dissemination and pooling of existing information and know-how;
2. Periodical reports on the state of the environment;
3. Guidelines for reports, assessments and data processing of special interest at the European level;
4. Media-oriented monitoring;
5. Source-oriented monitoring;
6. Integrated environmental assessment;
7. Scenarios for environmental improvement;
8. Instruments and challenges for environmental policy development and implementation;
9. Capacity building in the functions of the EEA and EIONET;
10. Exchange and dissemination of information through publications, seminars, conferences and education.

EUROPEAN TOPIC CENTRES

European Topic Centres have been selected by the Management Board to work in the areas of air quality, air emissions, inland water quality, nature conservation and marine/coastal matters. The Inland Water Topic Centre is led by the Water Research Centre (WRC), Medmenham, and UK organisations are playing an active role in the other four ETCs. These are led by RIVM, The Netherlands (air quality); Umweltbundesamt, Berlin (air emissions); National Museum of Natural History, Paris (nature conservation); and Marine Environmental Research Centre, Italy (marine/coastal). It is expected that further Topic Centres will be set up on land cover and on cataloguing of data sources. Following these, it is planned that Topic Centres will be established covering soil, wastes, integrated assessment and forest conditions.

DISSEMINATION OF INFORMATION

The EEA is required to produce an annual report detailing its activities over the previous year. This is sent to the European Parliament, the Council, the Commission and all Member States. The Regulation also specified that the Agency produce a state of the environment report every three years.

The Agency assumed responsibility for publishing the pan-European Report on the State of the Environment (the Dobris Assessment). The EEA also issues a regular newsletter to Member States reporting recent developments within the Agency. The UK National Focal Point issues a newsletter to provide information on the work of the Agency to all members of the national network and other interested organisations.

FUTURE ROLE OF THE AGENCY

Under the Regulation setting up the Agency, its role is to be reviewed by the Commission within two years of its commencing operation. Future roles envisaged for the Agency might include a role in implementation and enforcement of EU environmental legislation, setting standards in relation to eco-labelling of products and eco-auditing of companies, and advising on environmental impact assessment.

STAFFING REQUIREMENTS OF THE AGENCY

The Agency will require staff with a range of skills and experience: environmental scientists will of course be necessary, as will statisticians and economists. Above all, however, the role of the Agency is to oversee and co-ordinate work done elsewhere—in Topic Centres and in Member States. Managerial skills will therefore be important—including personnel management, information management and project management. Interpersonal skills —influencing and negotiating—will also be very important. Finally, since the Agency is going to be operating with other countries across the whole of Europe, a working knowledge of at least one other language (probably French) is a highly desirable, if not essential, requirement.

2
THE ENVIRONMENT AND INDUSTRY

Legislation and voluntary standards schemes and their potential effects on environmental employment

Rita Raum Degrève

SUMMARY

The EU Fifth Environmental Programme ‘Towards Sustainability’ aims to create a new interplay between the main groups of actors (authorities, enterprises, public) and industry through the use of an extended and integrated range of instruments that should allow for the integration of the requirements for competitiveness and the environment.

A successful strategy for integration needs to be based on the dual approach of high environmental standards combined with incentives to improve performance continually according to economic and environmental standards.

Initial reactions against measures taken by public authorities to reduce the environmental impact of industries tended to concentrate on the immediate costs compared with the less tangible benefits and a partial view of the situation possibly resulting in losses in competitiveness. Nevertheless, implementation of clean and low waste processes, products and services has progressively emerged as a key factor of industrial competitiveness. The environmental dimension has to be integrated in a progressive, responsible and constructive manner.

Therefore, the management of human resources must respond to the challenge of turning environmental concern into competitive advantage by bringing together the necessary skills to manage the integration process successfully.

INTRODUCTION

According to the Treaty on European Union it is stipulated that environmental protection must be integrated into the definition and implementation of other policies. Industry is asked to take an important role in the promotion of the harmonious and balanced development of economic activities, which will lead to sustainable and non-inflationary growth respecting the environment. Industry will make a key contribution to the improved and continued welfare of EU citizens.

Conversely, however, industry is the main cause of environmental degradation as virtually all industries use natural resources for their processes/ products and are responsible for various types of pollution emission. Perpetuation of this situation is not viable on either economic or environmental grounds.

The European Union framework is well placed to manage the co-ordination of industrial and environmental integration. It can serve to influence Member States and promote the integrity of Community achievements, notably the internal market.

EU POLICY—FIFTH PROGRAMME: ‘TOWARDS SUSTAINABILITY’

Industry has therefore been selected for priority attention under the EU Fifth Environmental Programme ‘Towards Sustainability’. This aims to create a new interplay between the main groups of actors (authorities, enterprises, public) and industry through the use of an extended and integrated range of instruments to allow integration of competitiveness and the environment.

Environmental regulations

In order directly to control the potential for industrial activities to harm the natural environment, a common strand of policy has been the development of environmental legislation that tended previously to be divided in sectors (water/wastes/air) with the emphasis on a ‘command and control’ approach. Increasingly, environmental legislation needs to be more comprehensive and based on integrated pollution control in order to avoid converting one form of emission into another, and to achieve more far-reaching improvements than are possible under individual regulatory requirements.

Regulatory approaches, however, cannot control all the environmental effects of industry. The reasons for this include the sheer cost of policing the regulatory framework to ensure compliance, and the fact that much environmental damage derives from second-order activities which are not so amenable to regulatory control; packaging and product life cycles are classic examples. However, the regulatory approach will continue to be a basic tool for environmental management. Emphasis is to be placed on its implementation and the enforcement of existing instruments so that they can be effective.

Voluntary initiatives

Voluntary initiatives range from the general, such as public education to promote greater awareness of environmental problems and encourage behaviours to reduce environmental effects, to specific programmes intended to provide information and give consumers confidence in the environmental claims made by industry. These latter include eco-labelling and eco-audit schemes. By providing all the relevant information on the environmental impact of industry, these initiatives are intended to enable the general public and the social partners to become more actively involved in industrial policy and to take up their environmental responsibilities as consumers and citizens.

In the past few years some federations and professional organisations have made efforts to increase their members’ awareness of environmental aspects. Programmes, codes of conduct and guiding principles have been prepared to encourage and help companies systematically integrate environmental management into their policies. Environmental audits are preferred tools...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Figures
• Tables
• Contributors
• Foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• 1 The Role of the European Environment Agency in Ensuring Standardisation of Environmental Information Across Europe
• 2 The Environment and Industry
• 3 NGO Perspectives on Environmental Employment
• 4 Employment Implications of Environmental Action
• 5 Global Conventions and Agreements and EC Environmental Directives
• 6 The Mediterranean Region
• 7 The Environment and Industry
• 8 The Impact of EC Environmental Programmes and Legislation on Employment
• 9 Expansion and Professionalisation of the European Environmental Employment Sector
• 10 Sustainable Development and the European Jobs Market
• 11 Environmental Careers and Environmental Scientists
• 12 The Environment—New Qualifications, New Competencies
• 13 Environmental Employment
• 14 Two Pan-European Initiatives in Course Development and Networking
• 15 Qualifying for the Environment
• 16 Competencies in the Environment
• 17 Changing Environment
• 18 The Evolution of Environmental Careers
• 19 Professional Recognition in the Environment Across Europe
• 20 Career Routes of Environmental Professionals
• 21 Developing the Skills for Environmental Professionals in Europe
• 22 Skills for Environmental Professionals
• 23 Reaching a Common Language of Skills, Qualifications and Professional Development