APRAISE

Assessment of Policy Impacts on Sustainability in Europe

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'The EU has formulated ambitious environmental policy targets in a variety of sectors aimed at forming the basis for a sustainable European growth with increasing prosperity and reduced pressure on natural resources and the environment. The overall motivation of the APRAISE (Assessment of Policy Interrelationships and Impact on Sustainability in Europe) project is to improve the decision basis for EU and national policy makers for selecting an efficient environmental policy mix leading to the transition towards a sustainable European society, including appropriate support for environmental investments. APRAISE aims to provide an improved understanding of the efficiency, effectiveness and efficacy of environmental policies impacts and their interactions at both the European and Member State level by taking into consideration the social, environmental and economic dimensions of sustainable development. Furthermore, APRAISE will offer guidance on ex-ante policy impact assessment and come up with general policy recommendations. APRAISE will therefore assist policymakers in reducing inefficiencies in policy design and to create win-win situations whereby economic strength goes hand in hand with environmental protection and efficient use of natural resources. The strategy of APRAISE is to combine an empirical data collection and assessment component with model-based policy scenario analysis in order to achieve a synergetic use of a variety of empirical and model-based impact assessment tools using different sources of data. The empirical component consists of ex-post assessments of policy effects, costs and social implications as well as on an improved systems understanding including interactions between different policies. In addition, the effects of environmental policies on technology development and deployment will be empirically analyzed through the use of both top-down and bottom-up models. Furthermore, stakeholder consultations will provide input through their diverse perspectives that exist within industry and government and validate the relevance of the different model components, in particular the outputs from model-based scenario analysis. Exchanges between the empiric and model-based components and their results’ integration of APRAISE will lead to methodological and policy recommendations . The overarching motivation of the APRAISE project is to contribute to the research and application of sustainability oriented policymaking by building a more comprehensive understanding of the policy systems at the sectoral level, the national level, and a pan-European level. Including interrelationships and trade offs within each level on different scales of observation is of crucial importance when designing efficient policy mixes that can lead Europe to more significant sustainable pathways. European and national policymakers need a more holistic understanding of these relationships in order to design efficient environmental policies.'

Introduzione (Teaser)

In an effort to transition to a sustainable European society, the APRAISE project assessed policy implementation and introduced new tools for policy analysis, ensuring both short- and long-term success.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

The EU has set ambitious policy targets for its sustainable development. To attain and sustain such goals, the EU funded the http://www.apraise.org/ (APRAISE) (Assessment of policy impacts on sustainability in Europe) project, consisting of 10 environmental research agencies. The project has provided an analysis that will allow the formulation of more efficacious, efficient and effective EU sustainability policies.

One of the project's main accomplishments was creation of the 3E method for evaluating policy results. It accounts for a wide range of factors influencing policy and, as it is implemented, it will improve knowledge, and the consequent effectiveness, of environmental policy instruments.

The APRAISE 3E method, in combination with quantified models, was tested through six case studies across seven EU Member States. Case studies considered the interactions of various policies. These included policies relating to renewable wind energy with biodiversity, renewable bioenergy with biodiversity, and agriculture and water. Additional combinations included hydropower with river basin policies, and building energy efficiency with waste policies. Lastly, recycling was considered against waste and water policies, and renewable energy was evaluated in terms of production efficiency and integration in the building sector.

APRAISE importantly noted the necessity of focusing not only on achieving targets as this can mask underlying unsustainability or policy inefficiencies, as some of the case studies showed. Instead, environmental policies must pay close attention to processes of policy design, implementation and evaluation if they are to support the EU's medium- and long-term sustainability goals.

The project used a variety of methods to ensure dissemination of its results and continued implementation of its methods and tools. These included the production of leaflets, brochures, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnXWoaWiSN0 (videos), newsletters, and several articles in high-visibility newsletters and magazines. Members have also attended external conferences and workshops where the case studies and the 3E method were analysed and discussed.

Valuable feedback provided by the project on effective policy implementation will hopefully lead to a stronger and more sustainable EU. This will be an EU capable of environmental leadership, not only setting but also continually attaining goals through effective policy processes.