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Funds provided by the U.S. Dept. of the Interior, Office of Water Resources Research, as authorized by the Water Resources Research Act of 1964, and pursuant to grant agreement no. 14-31-0001-3636 and by the Colorado Division of Wildlife under project no. 31-1771-0131.

Summarization: The objective of this article is to present the basic axes of the recent Directive 2012/27/EU on energy efficiency and to highlight the Member States' challenges during its implementation due to the economic crisis. The innovations it introduces, the new policies and the measures, which need to be adopted by Member States, as well as the seeming effectiveness of the Directive, are critically set out in the first part. In the second part, the Directive's dynamics is presented, in the sense of its implementation in specific geographical areas, such as Member States, which face aggravated financial problems. Greece constitutes a typical example of a state plagued by economic crisis. The issue whether this Directive can be implemented in such states and to what extent its objectives can be realized is critically analysed. The whole approach is made through a critical historical overview of the course of national legislation in the field of energy savings; shortcomings and gaps are detected; suggestions on necessary legislative initiatives are articulated. It should be noted that the present paper is based on literature mostly relating to primary sources (primary and secondary EU law, EU case law and Greek law) with a few review papers. ; Παρουσιάστηκε στο: Advances in Building Energy Research

At present, in international practice, the basis for the legal regulation of liability for environmental offenses has been formed. We can say that the legal regulation of relations on compensation for environmental damage has two levels. The first level is international. It includes acts adopted or approved by a group of states that adhere to uniform standards for compensation for environmental harm. The second level is national, which includes the regulations of individual states

Summarization: The increasing spread of photovoltaic (PV) systems occurring nowadays does not always keep pace with respective legislative initiatives, especially those regarding a specific relation between PV systems, the natural environment and landscape. As a result of this differentiation, the existence of legislative gaps or omissions is noticed. Thus, while the development of Renewable Energy Sources (RES) is actively promoted by the government in general, from a legal point of view there are no equivalent preventive measures for the protection and preservation of physical environment and landscape aesthetics, at least in all types of RES, with the exception of wind farms. In fact, in the case of PV systems, there is no specific legal framework, which would regulate their integration in the environment, and in particular into landscape. ; Παρουσιάστηκε στο: Renewable Energy for Sustainable Development and Decarbonisation

Conflicts between different goals can obstruct progress in sustainability, but interests may also coincide. We evaluated relationships between environmental quality and animal welfare on Swedish farms with grazing livestock, using publicly available databases. Data were collected from 8700 official animal welfare inspections on 5808 cattle farms and 2823 inspections on 2280 sheep farms in 2012-2017. Compliance with three animal-based checkpoints was modeled using logistic regression, including a random farm effect to account for repeated inspections. Compliance was regressed on semi-natural grassland area, participation in the National Meadow and Pasture Inventory, Agri-Environmental Scheme (AES) grassland payments, presence of indicator plant species, and the presence of Natura 2000 habitats. Cattle farms complied more often if they received AES payments for grasslands of special values compared with if they did not apply for them (OR = 1.55-1.65; p <= 0.0001) and there was a similar tendency for cattle farms that applied for but were denied such payments (OR = 1.29; p = 0.074). There was also a strong tendency for Natura 2000 habitats on cattle farms to be associated with higher compliance (OR = 1.36; p = 0.059). These results suggest a direct or indirect causal effect of biodiversity on cattle welfare. The same associations could not be shown in sheep.

Conflicts between different goals can obstruct progress in sustainability, but interests may also coincide. We evaluated relationships between environmental quality and animal welfare on Swedish farms with grazing livestock, using publicly available databases. Data were collected from 8700 official animal welfare inspections on 5808 cattle farms and 2823 inspections on 2280 sheep farms in 2012–2017. Compliance with three animal-based checkpoints was modeled using logistic regression, including a random farm effect to account for repeated inspections. Compliance was regressed on semi-natural grassland area, participation in the National Meadow and Pasture Inventory, Agri-Environmental Scheme (AES) grassland payments, presence of indicator plant species, and the presence of Natura 2000 habitats. Cattle farms complied more often if they received AES payments for grasslands of special values compared with if they did not apply for them (OR = 1.55–1.65; p ≤ 0.0001) and there was a similar tendency for cattle farms that applied for but were denied such payments (OR = 1.29; p = 0.074). There was also a strong tendency for Natura 2000 habitats on cattle farms to be associated with higher compliance (OR = 1.36; p = 0.059). These results suggest a direct or indirect causal effect of biodiversity on cattle welfare. The same associations could not be shown in sheep.

In this study we explore the association between environmental audit and the quality of environmental disclosure as measured by voluntary and timely disclosure. Relying on a multiple theory framework and using a sample of 81 French non-financial companies listed on the SBF 120 index covering the six-year period from 2012 to 2017, we found a positive and statistically significant relationship between the level of voluntary disclosure of environmental information and the environmental audit committee, the environmental auditor's BIG 4, debt levels, firm size, earnings management, and the industry. In addition, findings indicate that the environmental audit committee, CSR committee, the environmental auditor's BIG 4, earnings management, firm size, and the industry have an impact on the timely disclosure of environmental information. However, the regression of the results showed that there is no relationship between CSR committee and the level of the voluntary disclosure of environmental disclosure.

This work presents several different points of view regarding the role of environmental innovation as the driving force of public policy designed to promote sustainabilityand reduce environmental impacts. Environmental innovation is analyzed byexamining concrete practices such as sustainable design, green branding, eco-labeling, the use of medicinal plants, and improved plant varieties, among other things, and the individual and collective intellectual property rights that protect and promote these kinds of innovations. While this thematic diversity is directly proportional to the complexity of the author's presentation, it does not detract from the conceptual unity of the text. On the contrary, by examining the concepts as applied in a variety of contexts, the author highlights not only the challenges that must be faced in order to protect the general interest, but also proposes alternative solutions that promise to improve the structure, emphases, and priorities of these rights. This work represents the culmination of a valuable research project that benefited from the cumulative experience of the author and will be of great interest to scholars in the field, It is an important theoretical contribution to the formulation of strategies for environmental mitigation, adaptation, and recovery.