Designing sustainability policies
The objective of this book is to explore a potentially successful strategy to design sustainability policies, taking sustainability aspects and requirements appropriately into account. Sustainability, in the last decades has become a more and more important guideline for economic, social and environmental processes. For more than a decade, the European Union (EU) has taken a leading role in the promotion of sustainable development, as is emphasised by various key political decisions put in place in the Maastricht Treaty (1992). At the Lisbon Summit in March 2000, a new strategic goal for the European Union was established. The European Council formulated a ten-year strategy to make the EU the world's most dynamic and competitive economy. Under the strategy, a stronger economy will drive job creation alongside social and environmental policies that ensure sustainable development and social inclusion. The book stresses that, in order to appropriately implement the concept and lead the world towards a sustainable path, the wider notion of sustainability needs to be taken into account. The direction taken must also acknowledge the original intention of the World Commission on the Environment and Development (WCED) pioneers. It goes on to discuss the transition to innovative economic structures and the major challenge to economic policy design this poses. Furthermore, it stresses the need for an energetic implementation of reform in all the different spheres through integrated strategies. It highlights the fact that insufficient implementation of the Lisbon strategy could produce significant net costs for Europe. For example, in terms of reduced economic welfare and a growing gap with some of the large industrial partners in the fields of education and research and development. In order to promote progress towards the Lisbon targets, better ways of incorporating the broader aspects of sustainability are required.
