The European Council,the Council and the Member States: changing environmental leadership dynamics in the European Union

ABSTRACT

The leadership dynamics between the European Council, the Council and the Member States in European Union (EU) environmental policy since the 1970s are analysed. The puzzle is that, although the EU was set up as a ‘leaderless Europe’, it is widely seen as an environmental leader, albeit sometimes as a one-eyed leader amongst the blind. While differentiating between leadership types, it is argued that the European Council has the largest structural, the Council the most significant entrepreneurial, and the Member States the most important cognitive and exemplary leadership capacities. Most day-to-day environmental policy measures are negotiated by the Environment Council (in collaboration with the European Parliament). The European Council’s increased interest in high politics climate change issues is largely due to the EU’s global leadership ambitions. Member States have traditionally formed environmental leadership alliances on an ad hoc basis although this may be changing.     

Life cycle assessment of Italian citrus-based products. Sensitivity analysis and improvement scenarios

Though many studies concern the agro-food sector in the EU and Italy, and its environmental impacts, literature is quite lacking in works regarding LCA application on citrus products. This paper represents one of the first studies on the environmental impacts of citrus products in order to suggest feasible strategies and actions to improve their environmental performance. In particular, it is part of a research aimed to estimate environmental burdens associated with the production of the following citrus-based products: essential oil, natural juice and concentrated juice from oranges and lemons. The life cycle assessment of these products, published in a previous paper, had highlighted significant environmental issues in terms of energy consumption, associated CO₂ emissions, and water consumption. Starting from such results the authors carry out an improvement analysis of the assessed production system, whereby sustainable scenarios for saving water and energy are proposed to reduce environmental burdens of the examined production system. In addition, a sensitivity analysis to estimate the effects of the chosen methods will be performed, giving data on the outcome of the study. Uncertainty related to allocation methods, secondary data sources, and initial assumptions on cultivation, transport modes, and waste management is analysed. The results of the performed analyses allow stating that every assessed eco-profile is differently influenced by the uncertainty study. Different assumptions on initial data and methods showed very sensible variations in the energy and environmental performances of the final products. Besides, the results show energy and environmental benefits that clearly state the improvement of the products eco-profile, by reusing purified water use for irrigation, using the railway mode for the delivery of final products, when possible, and adopting efficient technologies, as the mechanical vapour recompression, in the pasteurisation and concentration of juice.     

Compostable cutlery and waste management: an LCA approach

The use of disposable cutlery in fast food restaurants and canteens in the current management scenario generates mixed heterogeneous waste (containing food waste and non-compostable plastic cutlery). The waste is not recyclable and is disposed of in landfills or incinerated with or without energy recovery. Using biodegradable and compostable (B&C) plastic cutlery, an alternative management scenario is possible. The resulting mixed homogeneous waste (containing food waste and compostable plastic cutlery) can be recycled through organic recovery, i.e., composting. This LCA study, whose functional unit is "serving 1000 meals", shows that remarkable improvements can be obtained by shifting from the current scenario to the alternative scenario (based on B&C cutlery and final organic recovery of the total waste). The non-renewable energy consumption changes from 1490 to 128MJ (an overall 10-fold energy savings) and the CO(2) equivalents emission changes from 64 to 22 CO(2) eq. (an overall 3-fold GHG savings).     

Assessing indoor air quality of school environments: transplanted lichen <Emphasis Type="Italic">Pseudovernia furfuracea</Emphasis> as a new tool for biomonitoring and bioaccumulation

The aim of this research is to evaluate the ability of transplanted lichen Pseudovernia (P). furfuracea to biomonitor and bioaccumulate in urban indoor environments. The elements As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Ni and Pb and 12 selected polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were used to assess P. furfuracea as a biomonitoring tool for the indoor air quality of school environments. To achieve this purpose, lichen samples were exposed for 2 months in the outdoor and indoor environments of five school settings located in urban and rural areas. The results demonstrated that transplanted lichen P. furfuracea is a suitable biomonitoring tool for metals and PAHs in indoor settings and can discriminate between different levels of air pollution related to urbanisation and indoor conditions, such as those characterised by school environments. A transplanted lichen biomonitoring strategy is cost-effective, “green”, educational for attending children and less “invasive” than traditional air sampling methods. The feasibility of indoor monitoring by P. furfuracea is a relevant finding and could be a key tool to improve air quality monitoring programmes in school scenarios and thus focus on health prevention interventions for children, who are one of the most susceptible groups in the population.     

Flash Flood Occurrences Since the 17th Century in Steep Drainage Basins in Southern Italy

The historical floods that have occurred since the seventeenth century were collected for a study area in southern Italy. Damages caused by floods, rainfall and the main anthropogenic modifications are discussed all together. The aim was to assess whether the frequency of floods is changing and, if so, whether these changes can be attributed to either rainfall and/or anthropogenic modifications. In 4?% of cases, mainly occurred in past centuries, floods damaged people. Hydraulic works, roads and private buildings were the more frequently damaged elements (25, 18 and 14?% of the cases, respectively). The annual variability of rainfall was discussed using an annual index. Short duration-high intensity rainfalls were characterized considering time series of annual maxima of 1, 3, 6, 12, and 24?h and daily rainfall. The rainfall shows a decreasing trend, in terms of both the annual maximum of short duration and the annual amount. The population has been progressively increasing since the sixteenth century, except during the years following the catastrophic 1908 earthquake. The rate of population growth has been very high since the second half of the twentieth century; the urbanized areas greatly increased, especially following the second half of the twentieth century. At the same time, the trend of damaging floods has been increasing, especially since the seventies. The analysis indicates that, despite a rainfall trend favourable towards a reduction in flood occurrence, floods damage has not decreased. This seems to be mainly the effect of mismanagement of land use modifications.     

Ecotoxicological effects of sediments from Mar Piccolo,South Italy: toxicity testing with organisms from different trophic levels

The Mar Piccolo of Taranto (Ionian Sea, Southern Italy) is a semi-enclosed and strongly polluted basin. For decades, it has been subjected to different anthropogenic impacts. These stressors caused severe sediments contamination with high concentration of different pollutants (PAHs, PCB, heavy metals). In order to assess the current status of sediments contamination, an ecotoxicological investigation combined with chemical analysis (heavy metals, PAH, and PCB) has been performed. In order to derive ecologically relevant conclusions, a multiorganisms and multiend-points approach has been applied, exposing organisms from different trophic levels to elutriate and whole sediment. The battery of bioassays consists of a microalgal growth inhibition test (Dunaliella tertiolecta), acute and sublethal assays (end-points: mortality, immobilization and swimming speed alteration) on crustaceans larvae and juveniles, and rotifers (Amphibalanus amphitrite, Artemia salina, Corophium insidiosum and Brachionus plicatilis), and embryotoxicity test on echinoderms (Paracentrotus lividus). Considering the high levels of sediment contamination highlighted from chemical analysis, an unexpected very low toxic effect was observed, even considering the sublethal end-point (larval swimming speed alteration). The results of this study suggest a very complex contaminants dynamic in the Mar Piccolo sediments that, despite a strong level of contamination, seems to not affect in a proportional manner the biological compartment.