Archive: previous ESDN Quarterly Reports

The ESDN Quarterly Reports provide in-depth documentation of a selected topic on a quarterly basis. An overview of previous ESDN Quarterly Reports is displayed below. For the current ESDN Quarterly Report click here.

June 2010	Research and development for sustainable development (by Markus Hametner, André Martinuzzi, Michal Sedlacko, Nisida Gjoksi & Andreas Endl)
	This ESDN Quarterly Report (QR) focuses on the role and potential contribution of research and technological development (R&D) in relation to sustainable development (SD). The first section explores selected issues related to science, knowledge, policy making and sustainability. By doing so, it takes a look at the history of the relationships between environmentalism, science and policy making, investigates the role science plays in evidence-based decision making, and describes the characteristics of sustainability science. The second part of this QR presents some main results as regards how research funded with the EU’s seventh framework programme (FP7) contributes to the key challenges and operational objectives outlined in the EU Sustainable Development Strategy (EU SDS). It is based on the monitoring system www.fp7-4-sd.eu that has been recently set up by DG Research. The third section aims at providing an overview of how research and development (R&D) targets are being addressed in National Sustainable Development Strategies (NSDS) of EU Member States. The QR is concluded by outlining the attempts of two countries (Germany and Austria) in compiling and funding national research programmes for sustainable development.
March 2010	Futures studies in the governance for sustainable development (by Michal Sedlacko & Nisida Gjoksi)
	This ESDN Quarterly Report focuses on the potential contribution of future studies and their analytical tools (foresight and scenarios) to governance for sustainable development (SD). Sustainable development is associated with a difficult multi-scale and multi-level transition requiring a long-term vision of the future and new approaches and tools to realise that vision. The examples offered in this report intend to show national- and international-level initiatives where futures studies have been employed successfully and integrated in the policy-making process, and we suggest that these tools are well-capable of supporting governance for SD. In the first section the challenges for governance for SD are explored, and on this basis key features of governance for SD (interactionism, pluralism, reflexivity, long-term orientation, holistic approach) are identified. Following this several types of tools supporting a strategic approach to SD are highlighted. The second section focuses on futures studies (particularly visioning, foresight and scenario planning) and their placement in policy planning and strategic management processes in more detail. It describes the processes of foresight and scenario planning and identifies some of the conditions necessary for successful deployment of these tools. The third section offers an analysis of several case studies (national foresight programmes and horizon scans in the UK and the Netherlands, Belgian Federal Reports on SD, the report Getting Into the Right Lane for EU 2050, Environmental Outlooks of both the OECD and UNEP) of the application of futures studies. It focuses especially on the institutional embedding of these processes and their integration into the policy cycle. The conclusions specifically attempt to show how futures studies can support governance for SD.
December 2009	Sustainable development and economic growth (by Michal Sedlacko & Nisida Gjoksi)
	This Quarterly Report (QR) focuses on the linkages between sustainable development and economic growth from a conceptual perspective and provides reflections of these concepts in the strategies, initiatives and other exploratory events at the international, European Union and national level. The QR is subdivided into four parts. After outlining the historical development of the growth debate and its linkages to the sustainable development process, the current paradigms and the divergences between mainstream economics and ecological economics are presented in the first part. In the second part, the QR presents the manifestation of these concepts in the current Lisbon and European Sustainable Development Strategy (EU SDS). The third part provides an overview of strategies, initiatives and events at international level, specifically from international institution (UN and OECD), the EU institutions and initiatives in the EU Member States (France, UK, Ireland and Austria) and of selected Green Parties in Europe. For each strategy or initiative, the QR provides background information, lists objectives and topics covered, and gives information on the coverage of specific topics such as sustainable consumption, knowledge and innovation, employment and education. The overview on strategies and initiatives also includes information on responsible institutions and on implementation tools and shows follow-up measures for the future. Finally, the QR presents some concluding remarks on similarities and differences between these strategies and initiatives in their understanding of economic growth and sustainable development.
September 2009	Sustainable development strategies beyond Europe (by Gerald Berger & Nisida Gjoksi)
	This Quarterly Report (QR) focuses on sustainable development strategies beyond Europe in order to provide an overview of strategic policy documents for sustainable development in countries of various world regions. After outlining some basic international developments with regard to national sustainable development strategies (NSDSs) and different types of NSDSs, the QR provides an overview of selected sustainable development strategies of countries in the Asian & Pacific region, South and Latin America & the Caribbean, North America and the non-European Mediterranean region. In total, 16 countries and two regional cooperations (Pacific Islands Forum, Mediterranean Strategy for Sustainable Development) are covered in the QR. For each country, the QR provides background information, lists the objectives and topics of the sustainable development strategy, includes information on responsible institutions and on implementation processes, and shows how efforts of strategy delivery are monitored and evaluated. Finally, the QR presents some concluding remarks on similarities and differences among these countries and regions.
June 2009	Horizontal Policy Integration and Sustainable Development (by Gerald Berger & Reinhard Steurer)
	Horizontal policy integration in the context of sustainable development (SD) is commonly understood as balancing economic, social and environmental interests and policies in a way that trade-offs (or negative effects) between them are minimised and synergies (or win-win-win opportunities) maximised. This ESDN Quarterly Report explores the meaning of horizontal policy integration in the context of SD, it highlights in how far the functioning of public administrations stand in the way of meeting this governance challenge adequately, and what governments do to overcome these barriers. It briefly characterises selected strategic instruments (e.g. SD strategies, departmental action plans, impact assessments, etc) and institutional structures (e.g. inter-departmental committees, national SD councils) that aim to foster horizontal policy integration. The report concludes that addressing horizontal policy integration adequately requires not only an update of existing SD strategies or the launch of more inter-ministerial institutions. It would require a more holistic approach of ‘Strategic Public Management’ that reforms the functioning of the public sector in more fundamental ways. As the New Public Management movement (geared mainly towards efficiency gains) has shown, this is an ambitious but not an impossible task.
March 2009	Involvement of sub-national authorities in National Sustainable Development Strategy processes (by Gerald Berger & Michal Sedlacko)
	This ESDN Quarterly Report (QR) focuses on the involvement of sub-national authorities (i.e. regions and municipalities) in the various processes related to National Sustainable Development Strategies (NSDSs). After outlining some general aspects of strategic public management of NSDSs and vertical integration, this QR presents an overview of sub-national involvement in NSDS processes in the EU Member States. The four identified types of sub-national involvement (general consultation processes, national sustainable development councils/commissions and inter-ministerial committees, institutionalised mechanisms for better coordination between national and sub-national levels, links between NSDSs and sub-national sustainable development activities) are then explored in more detailed by describing examples of their application in individual Member States. This is followed by an exploration of general findings of sub-national involvement in NSDS processes and by conclusions and recommendations. Substantive parts of this QR represent a summary of the study Contributions of regional and local authorities to sustainable development strategies which was commissioned by the Committee of the Regions (CoR) and conducted by the Research Institute for Managing Sustainability (RIMAS).
December 2008	The Interfaces between the EU SDS and the Lisbon Strategy (by Gerald Berger & Wilhelm Zwirner)
	This ESDN Quarterly Report (QR) focuses on the interfaces between the EU Sustainable Development Strategy (EU SDS) and the Lisbon Strategy processes. These two main EU strategies outline important development trajectories, include sustainable development (SD) objectives and define governance structures which have impacts not only on the European, but also on the Member States’ and sub-national levels. Due to the similar timetables of review processes of both strategies and the fact that the Lisbon Strategy will terminate in 2010 make a reflection on their interfaces and the future strategic development of the EU necessary and timely. After a brief outline of two major governance issues in relation to both strategies (policy integration and multi-level governance), the QR provides an overview of the Lisbon Strategy and the EU SDS as well as of the similarities, differences and interfaces of the strategies. This is followed by two scenarios of future strategic development in the EU post-2010. On interfaces and future scenarios, the QR includes topics presented in the keynote speeches and the main issues raised and discussed during the 3rd ESDN Workshop in Brussels in November 2008. Finally, the QR presents the results of a survey among SD coordinators, conducted by the ESDN Office, on the links between the EU SDS and Lisbon Strategy processes on the Member States level.
September 2008	Participatory Mechanisms in the Development, Implementation and Review of NSDS (by Wilhelm Zwirner, Gerald Berger & Michal Sedlacko)
	This ESDN Quarterly Report (QR) focuses on participatory mechanisms in the development, implementation and review of National Sustainable Development Strategies (NSDSs). Generally, public participation is one of the key elements of NSDS processes as it builds a basis for involving various stakeholder groups and aims to link top-down and bottom-up approaches. Viewed from a ‘new governance’ perspective on policy-making, participatory mechanisms are crucial for multi-stakeholder and cross-sectoral settings of collaboration to successfully address the challenges of sustainable development (SD). However, practical experiences show that establishing meaningful and effective exchange mechanisms between different stakeholders remains a challenge that needs to be addressed more systematically. This QR attempts to provide an overview of various aspects of participation in policy-making in general and its application in NSDS processes in particular. After a general introduction on public participation in policy-making and SD strategy processes, the QR includes several empirical findings on public participation in NSDS processes. In order to demonstrate how participatory mechanisms are applied in practice in NSDS processes, the QR includes three case studies of experiences made in Austria, Finland and the UK. The empirical findings and the case studies are partly based on a research project on participatory mechanisms in NSDS processes that is commissioned by the German Environment Agency (UBA) and the German Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety and conducted by Ecologic and RIMAS. The project started in December 2007 and will be finished in late 2008 with a final project report. In April 2008, an ESDN workshop on the same topic was organised in Berlin. A full documentation of the workshop, including the workshop report, can be found on the ESDN homepage.
June 2008	Public policies on CSR in EU Member States (by Reinhard Steurer, Sharon Margula & Gerald Berger)
	Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is ‘a concept whereby companies integrate social and environmental concerns in their business operations and in their interaction with their stakeholders on a voluntary basis’ (European Commission, 2001). Since the European Commission has published a Green Book on the topic in 2001 and a Communication in 2002, CSR has gained significant importance across Europe, also as a new field of public policies. This report describes how EU Member States aim to facilitate CSR by raising awareness, by advancing Sustainable Public Procurement, and by fostering Socially Responsible Investment. It provides a systematic description of CSR policies in Europe. This report is based on a 2-year research project on CSR policies in the EU that was terminated in March 2008. It was commissioned by DG Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, and conducted by RIMAS, the Institute that operates the ESDN Office. This, the report summarises findings of extensive empirical research, and it draws evidence-based conclusions. Since each of the three studies summarised here is longer than this report, we had to focus on some key findings. The three final reports as well as several PowerPoint presentations delivered to the EU High-Level Group for CSR can be downloaded from the project website at www.sustainability.eu/csr-policies.
March 2008	The Governance of the Lisbon Process (by Reinhard Steurer, Markus Hametner, Gerald Berger & Ewald Rametsteiner)
	In March 2000, the heads of states of the then 15 EU Member States agreed upon a ten-year development strategy, the so-called “Lisbon Strategy”, with the strategic goal to make Europe “the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world, capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion” (European Council, 2000, para 5). To achieve this goal, the so-call “Lisbon Process” was launched. In the political discourse, the Lisbon Process and SD strategies are framed as two complementary policy-making processes that both attempt to integrate economic, social and environmental policies, although with different emphases. While previous ESDN Quarterly Reports as well as other parts of the ESDN website explore SD strategies in Europe in detail, this report addresses different aspects of the Lisbon Process. It describes the governance of the Lisbon Process as well as some basic characteristics of Lisbon National Reform Programs. Furthermore, it reviews the coherence of Lisbon indicators used across the EU. Finally, it draws some conclusions on similarities, differences and the relationship between Lisbon National Reform Programmes (NRPs) and SD strategies. Overall, it seems that the coherence of Lisbon NRPs across the EU is not as strong as one might expect due to the prominence of OMC, and that the governance routines of Lisbon and SD strategies in the Member States do not resemble the complementarity rhetoric mentioned above, but run very much in parallel to each other.
December 2007	Objectives and Indicators of Sustainable Development in Europe (by Markus Hametner & Reinhard Steurer)
	This ESDN Quarterly Report gives an overview of objectives and indicators of sustainable development (SD) in Europe. It first introduces objectives and indicators as key ingredients of strategic processes in general, and of SD strategies in particular. The report then summarizes some key findings of a study that was commissioned by Eurostat and conducted by RIMAS (operating the ESDN Office) together with the Department of Economics and Social Sciences at the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences (BOKU) in early 2007. One purpose of the study was to compare objectives and indicators of SD across Europe. The points of reference used for the European comparison were (i) the objectives of the renewed EU SDS from 2006, and (ii) the indicators of the EU Sustainable Development Indicators (SDI) framework from 2005. By using these two points of reference, both the study and this report provide a comprehensive picture of how coherent objectives and indicators of SD are across Europe.
September 2007	Strategic Approaches to Climate Change in Europe (by Gerald Berger, Markus Hametner & Reinhard Steurer)
	This ESDN Quarterly Report provides an overview of strategic approaches to climate change in Europe. It is a very topical issue because the debate about climate change has constantly increased over the last years and has led to the formulation of policies that try to reduce manmade greenhouse gases (GHG). As climate change mitigation cuts not only across many policy fields (e.g. energy, transport, industry, agriculture, waste, etc.) but also involves long-term planning, strategic policy approaches play an important role. First, the report introduces some key scientific reports on climate change that inform political action and briefly portrays the UN climate change regime (UNFCCC and Kyoto). Second, it describes the EU’s climate change approach and the latest Greenhouse Gas emission trends, suggesting that significant additional efforts are needed in numerous countries if the EU-15 want to meet their Kyoto reduction target of -8%. Based on a comprehensive review of all SD strategies in the EU-27 and other European countries, the report then gives a complete picture of climate change policy objectives and indicators in the context of SD strategies. Fourth, the report provides a list of climate change strategies in Europe, complemented with a portrait of the climate strategies of Sweden and the UK – two EU-15 countries that have the best climate policy performance with respect to their Kyoto emission reduction targets.
June 2007	Sustainability Impact Assessment (by Gerald Berger)
	This ESDN Quarterly Report (QR) focuses on sustainability impact assessments (SIAs) in Europe. Generally speaking, impact assessments (IAs) address governance challenges like informed (or knowledge-based) decision-making, policy integration, improved strategic management, transparency and stakeholder participation. The growing acceptance of sustainable development (SD) as an overarching guiding principle for policy-making stimulated the use of IAs in order to evaluate the impacts of (cross-)sectoral policies regarding SD. This QR will first provide a definition and overview of different IA approaches. Second, it will describe the integrated IA method developed and applied by the European Commission. Finally, two case studies on Switzerland and Belgium will show how IAs are applied to national policy-making.
March 2007	The EU SDS Process in the Member States (by Gerald Berger & Reinhard Steurer)
	The report follows up on the EU Sustainable Development Strategy (EU SDS) which was adopted by the European Council in June 2006. It focuses on recently established governance arrangements that help to implement the renewed EU SDS at the Member State level . By focussing on the European Commission and the practices in five EU Member States (Belgium, Czech Republic, Finland, Sweden and the UK) the report describes in particular the appointment and the roles of the SDS Coordinators and the biannual progress reporting from Member States as well as the European Commission. The report also provides a reflection of the support the ESDN could offer to the SDS Coordinators in terms of exchanging experiences and sharing information, and it highlights that the EU SDS process increasingly resembles the so-called Open Method of Coordination/OMC.
December 2006	The Finnish NCSD and the UK SDC (by Gerald Berger & Reinhard Steurer)
	This ESDN Quarterly Report complements the overview of participatory arrangements provided in the country profile section of this website. It addresses the role of National Councils for SD (NCSD) as a key mechanism of involving different stakeholder groups in SD policy making. After a brief introduction it describes two distinct models of stakeholder involvement, namely: (i) The Finnish National Commission on SD (FNCSD) and (ii) The upgraded UK Sustainable Development Commission (SDC). While the FNCSD applies a partnership model that brings government officials, businesses and civil society organisations together in one organisation, the SDC is an independent ‘watchdog’ and advisory body involving different stakeholders. Based on the description of the two models of stakeholder involvement, the Report tries to summarize some of their key characteristics.
September 2006	Evaluation and Review of NSDS (by Gerald Berger & Reinhard Steurer)
	This ESDN Quarterly Report gives an overview of different approaches in the evaluation and review of National Sustainable Development Strategies (NSDS) in Europe. In so doing, it concentrates on qualitative evaluations and reviews that assess the quality of process-related aspects of SD strategies, such as policy-making processes, policy instruments, implementation procedures, stakeholder involvement, coordination activities, etc. Taking the relevant presentations and discussions at the ESDN Conference 2006 in Salzburg into account, the report provides further details about evaluation and reviewing experiences made in Austria, France, Switzerland and the UK. It summarizes the different approaches by discussing their strengths and weaknesses.
May 2006	The EU SDS process (by Ursula Kopp)
	This report gives a basic introduction to the EU Sustainable Development Strategy (EU SDS) process launched in 2001, its connections to the related Cardiff and Lisbon processes and the revision of the EU SDS between 2004 and 2006. Since the renewed EU SDS has been adopted by the Brussels European Council at June 15-16, 2006, this updated report also summarizes some key features of the renewed EU SDS mainly focussing on those parts in which the EU SDS refers explicitly to policy making at the Member State (MS) level. Reactions of important stakeholder groups and links to relevant documents and events (such as public hearings on the EU SDS) are provided at the end of the report.