The European Green Deal is the new economic growth strategy of the European Union. The core objective of the Green Deal is to fight efficiently against climate change by providing a new, sustainable growth strategy. The goal of the strategy is to transform the European Union into a modern, resourceefficient and competitive economy. In order to reach its goals, the Green Deal has several tools, measures and strategies which support the reduction and total elimination of the emission of greenhouses gases; the green and digital transformation in line with economic growth; and ensures that no country would be left behind
The effect of the implementation of European Green Deal on businesses by using strategic foresight Tartalom Introduction The European Green Deal is the new economic growth strategy of the European Union The core objective of the Green Deal is to fight efficiently against climate change by providing a new, sustainable growth strategy The goal of the strategy is to transform the European Union into a modern, resource-efficient and competitive economy In order to reach its goals, the Green Deal has several tools, measures and strategies which support the reduction and total elimination of the emission of greenhouses gases; the green and digital transformation in line with economic growth; and ensures that no country would be left behind (Ec.Europa.Eu,2019) It is out of question that such an extensive transformation of the economy of 27 countries affects all the sectors of those Ambitious goals come with ambitious financial needs The transformation of Europe from an economy based on the use of fossil fuels and natural resources to a sustainable economy using renewable energy sources and taking a special attention to create environmentally-respectful product cycles with the reuse of materials and wastes, to create a sustainable agriculture, construction sector and transportation, moreover to reduce pollution requires comprehensive strategical and financial implementation plans Going further, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic poses other economic, financial and societal challenges to the European countries On the one hand, the pandemic destabilized the global economy and shown that urgent measures are needed in order to improve the resilience of the economies On the other hand, the pandemic is an opportunity to direct the economy to a sustainable and inclusive growth, as António Guterres, UN Secretary General highlighted in his speech on the 11 th Petersburg Climate Dialogue in April (UN.org, 2020) In order to reach its purposes, the Green Deal offers a coherent financial system There are funds, grants, loans, taxation aligned with the climate objectives of the European Union (Eur-lex.europa.eu 2020) The recently proposed Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) and the NextGeneration EU both aim to support EU member states to be more resilient and to recover and rebuild after the COVID-19 pandemic via green and digital transition (European Commission, 2020) Public subsidies and policies of green transition direct the growth of green investments by businesses There is an increasing need for action for policy-makers, companies and consumers and to adopt appropriate response measures under the pressure Since the Kyoto Protocol has entered into force (2005), this pressure is increasing, increasing discussion has emerged concerning the effects of climate change on economies Overview of literatures In order to find relevant articles and papers on the influence of climate change policies on businesses my literature review search is based on a defined literature selection process The review of the literatures is based on the following databases: • EBSCO Academis Search Complete • Emerald Premier • Jstor - Business and Economics • Science Direct Journals • Scopus • ProQuest Central The advantage of the use of the listed six scientific database is the covering of a large number of publications, moreover it is more transparent and more advanced than by using for example Google Scholar In order to narrow the scope of the search I defined the timeline, keywords, type, language and access type In the mentioned databases it is possible to narrow the search by using context search in the title, abstract and authorspecified keywords - in the case of the latter Emerald Premier is an exception Time frame The applied search term regarding the timeline of publications is between 2005 and present It is defined based on three main criteria First, the issue of climate change has started to emerge in the early 19th century, however first the Kyoto Protocol contained legally binding greenhouse gas reduction targets, which has entered into force in 2005 Second, the thesis research focuses on the economy of the European Union, thus it is more relevant to define a search term after 2004 - the year of the fifth enlargement including 11 countries Third, due to the fast pace of technological developments, the world is changing rapidly, the time indicator of the search should be narrow, in this case 15 years period is applied The effect of climate policies induced changes for businesses highly affect the techonologies they use for their production or service Document type and language The mentioned six databases offers advanced search including the document type and language as well The research focus on academic articles in English language I used the full text option and documents I have access to Keywords The proper keyword setting is the core of the search As this search concers the effect of European Green Deal policy in the European Union on companies, first the following keywords were used Green Deal AND Europe OR EU OR European Union AND business OR corporations OR organizations As the EU’s Green Deal has introduced first in the end of the year 2019 just a small amount of data available and as the implementation of the actions, strategies and other regulations has not entered into force yet, relatively low amount of data available in this field This suggestion is shown in the number of search results, altogether with the use of the six databases sixteen articles were found, but not all of them are relevant, six out of the fifteen articles are used in the literature review Second, as Green Deal is a collection of climate and environmental policies, strategies and other regulations the combination of keywords is used as follows: Climate policy in Title AND Europe OR EU OR European Union AND business OR corporations OR organizations Environmental policy in Title AND Europe OR EU OR European Union AND business OR corporations OR organizations For the first scenario, the search returned 227 articles with the characterize of climate policy, however not all of them are relevant in the exact research, but a much greater sample could be used In the case of the second scenario the result of the search is 170 articles Altogether, the sample contained 413 articles However, not all provide information about climate policy and its impact on businesses, even it was in the initial sample Out of the 413 articles, 52 articles are selected which are connected to the theme of climate policy and its impact on businesses So, the final sample comprises 52 papers Table demonstrates the year of publication and the number of papers in the sample Within the 15-year time frame most of the relevant articles were published between 2015-2020 It can be concluded that this topic is quite emerging in the academic discource in recent years and the results also refer to the small number of samples found Table number of publications according to years Table shows the geographical distribution of the sample, based on the origin of the authors and the geographical coverage of the research and data collected The diagram shows that in the case of the ⅔ of the used articles the origin of authors is Europe and more than the ⅔ of the researches cover European countries or the European Union 1 Figure Publications by continents - research Figure Publications by continents - first author Results According to the search results, published articles in the sample cover three dominant topics with respect to climate policy and its impact on businesses This review focuses on the three dominant topics refer to: • Green innovation (n=33) - which deals with employment and green jobs, green supply chains and the formation of green business models • GHG (n=14) - this area covers topics such as carbon or green tax, the carbon border adjustment mechanism and the problem of carbon leakage • Circular economy (n=5) - it covers the implementation of the circular economy All the three topics include publications that analyze the topic from different perspectives and by using different data and methodology Each section is analyzed according to the literature collected in the topics Green innovation Within this section three main subtopics can be distinguished related to green innovation First, companies' willingness and motivation to invest in green innovation techniques (n=14) Environmental regulations, climate policies have an impact on the market actors It is debated that these regulations of sustainable development determine whether, to what extent and how affect the competitive performance of companies The effect of environmental regulations on the competitiveness, innovation ability of companies highly depends on the design of the regulation The research of Testa, F et al grouped environmental regulations: direct regulations, such as technology-based standards, limits to emission, environmental regulations The research concluded by using a regression analysis that direct regulation has a positive effect on the increase of investments for innovation (Testa, F et al, 2011) Testa et al reached the conclusion that voluntary, market driven instruments have a positive effect on a firm’s innovation This conclusion could be found in other papers as well (Lundgren et al, 2015) The other group of environmental regulations based on Testa el tal is the different types of economic instruments, such as taxes According to the empirical analysis it concluded that the introduction of economic instruments rather negatively affects the innovation willingness of companies These instruments generate costs, increasing the variable cost per unit of companies and higher costs has a negative effect on the business performance of firms (Testa, F et al, 2011) The last group of regulations are soft instruments, such as green public procurement and environmental management systems The empirical model emphasised the positive effect of soft instruments, however also highlighted the fact that there is little evidence that these instruments are translated into tangible business performance improvements (Testa, F et al, 2011) The study published in 2019 concluded similarly as the 2011 research of Testa, F et al The more stringent the environmental regulation the more negative its effect on the growth of the firm Although stringent environmental policies have a negative effect on the competitive performance of firms, the adaptation of green technologies is positively associated with the growth of companies (Colombelli, A., 2019) The research of Robinson, S & Stubberud, H.A made analysed the difference in green innovation ability between small, medium and large companies The paper reached the conclusion by quantitative analysis that large businesses main motivation in green innovation is the benefits the companies can gain, such as cost savings on materials and energy Large businesses value more the economic benefits of innovations than the reduction of their environmental impact In the case of small businesses the direct benefits from environmental innovation and the green awareness and environmental protection are equally important (Robinson, S & Stubberud, H.A 2015) Another perspective is based on not the size of companies, but the level of the firm’s energy consumption The research of Stucki, T 2019 analysed low, medium and large energy consumption The article has the findings based on data from Austria, Switzerland and Germany by using regression analysis, that companies with low or medium energy consumption level are less likely to invest in green technologies, as the profit opportunity is low or marginal as well The green investment increases productivity for large businesses, thus those firms are more likely to invest in green technologies on their own initiative Policy interventions and subsidies can increase the attractiveness of green innovations(Stucki, T., 2019.) The implementation of green technologies, the study of Simionescu measures the effect of the innovation in renewable energy sources on the country’s GDP and competitiveness, according to the GCI report It concluded that energy consumption from renewable sources positively affects the economic growth of a country and could be a driver of economic competitiveness It is also concluded by the quantitative analysis that the impact of renewable sources on GCI is lower than the impact on GDP (Simionescu, M et al, 2020) Schmidt, T et al emphasis the importance of long-term emission reduction targets and corporate innovation activities This study also argued for the stringent policy is an important factor in directing technological change (Schmidt, T et al, 2012) The role of state subsidies is an important tool to spur innovation in green technologies In addition, the innovation inertia of firms is crucial for innovation The voluntary, innovation inertia is a driving factor in innovation for firms, even if there is a lack of government subsidies supporting firms’ innovations willingness The study of Li, Q et al pointed to the importance of regional differences Governments could either direct subsidies to more developed regions in order to increase the high-level output of the innovation, or concentrate to less developed regions within the country to direct firms to innovate However, in the latter case firms probably would innovate to receive the subsidies from the government (Li, Q., 2020) The study of Phillippe, B raises the attention that not only private but state-owned enterprises have a significant role in the reduction of CO2 emission as well (Phillippe, B.,2019) Second, the support of new, green business models (n=10) The business model of firms influences the strategic positioning of it, affecting the characteristics of the company’s customers, and the base of the competitive advantage Green business models offer a higher value proposition to ecological and social values than to economic values The research of Quintás et al identified nine voluntary practices for greening business models and support the generation of environmental value in the transition These are energy and environmental audits, product life cycle with ecological design, eco-labeling, best available techniques, recycling, reuse of sub-products and wastes, use wastes and recycled materials to generate energy, cogeneration and trigeneration (power saving techniques) and finally, the adoption of renewable energy systems (Quintás, M.A et al, 2019) The transition of businesses to the green business models influencing their export performance as well argued by the research of Bỗakcolu, N et al (Bỗakcolu, N et al, 2019) SMEs have a significant role in decarbonisation of the society The quantitative research of Quintás M.A et al concluded that SMEs not widely use decarbonisation in their business models Stringent policies might influence more the environmental awareness of businesses Regarding the adoption of the nine practices, the research findings show that only a few percent of SMEs adopt any of the practices The reason behind it may come from the size of the companies and that they are highly dependent on a small number of customers (Quintás, M.A et al, 2019) According to the study of Hsueh L large companies are more likely to transform their business models to green business models Going further, the research shows that those multinational companies who interface with consumers on a regular basis are more likely to introduce green business models The sample of the study was the Global 500 companies (Hsueh, L., 2016.) The pressure from customers is acknowledged as a driving force of the transition to green business models The request of customers has a significant importance for companies to decide in the implementation of both external and internal low-carbon supply chain management practices (Damert, M et al, 2018.) The role of intermediary organisations in the formation of green and sustainable businesses could be crucial and highly supportive The study of Matschoss, K draws the attention to the role of intermediaries, such as facilitators, brokers Intermediaries connecting actors They could bring actors together who otherwise might not cooperate, or connect local initiatives to infrastructure and energy related technological innovations (Matschoss, K and Heiskanen, E., 2017.) Third, environmental regulations affect employment as well (n=9) The green innovation as previously discussed affects the competitiveness of companies, but not only the competitiveness Green innovation brings the formation of new types of jobs, green jobs on the one hand, on the other hand, as it was mentioned above, stringent policy instrument effects on the costs of companies, which may influence the number of employees of the company A 2016 research demonstrated the connectedness of green innovation and employment (Kunapatarawong, R and Martínez-Ros, E., 2016.) The quantitative analysis shows that if companies receive subsidies for green innovations they tend to affect employment more positively Moreover, it was found that firms introducing green innovation voluntarily the relationship between green investment and employment is more positive compared to firms who introduce green investments due to the regulations (Kunapatarawong, R and Martínez-Ros, E., 2016.) Green jobs are the results of environmental solutions Most of the green jobs occur in the sectors of renewable energy sources, the construction sector, waste, restoration and conservation of biological diversity, green infrastructure and green transportation The definition of green jobs is diverse among countries, as countries identify their own rules and requirements on green jobs The common is that green professions contribute to the reduction of the negative impact of climate change and they emerged due to the climate related regulations and policies Green jobs are usually new professions, for example in the renewable energy sources sector green professions are consultants and researchers, quality control, maintenance technicians (Stoyanova, Z., 2017.) Based on the research of Stoyanova, Z., the sectors of green transport, eco-industries, waste management and renewable energy sources are the leading sectors of creating green jobs Waste management and renewable energy sources sector are expected to create more than 2,5 million green jobs in 2020 According to the calculation, the renewable energy sector would create more than million jobs in a year in 2050 On the other hand, green employment policies could be a risk raising the level of unemployment as well, which could mitigate by employment aiming initiatives by policy makers GHG emission The European Union with the introduction of the Green Deal also demonstrated that the European Union would promote strongly the idea of sustainable development, decarbonisation and the fight against climate change To protect the environment policymakers introduce, among several other instruments, the so-called green taxes The idea of green taxes is the reduction of the incentives of customers to buy products which harm more the environment than other, maybe less expensive products This is an effective tool for public sector environmental policy and also can contribute to the public financial system Green tax could be the CO2 tax rates as well (FILIPIAK, B.Z and WYSZKOWSKA, D., 2019) However, the unilateral introduction of policies aiming the reduction of emission could lead to carbon leakage due to international trade on the world market The Paris Agreement was signed by almost all countries - countries committed to reduce GHGs emission however, in reality the contribution of nations vary In addition, the USA, one of the main emitter country has already formally withdrawn from the Paris Agreement In the EU the introduction of the EU Emission Trading System (EUT ETS) with the application of free allowances is common, aiming the mitigation of carbon leakage However, free allowances also can weaken the incentive to substitute for carbon-free products (KAUSHAL, K.R and ROSENDAHL, K.E., 2020.) Another research argues regarding the corporate responses to ETS, that the carbon price is a less incentive than other industrial investment decisions, in other words, ETS is not the most effective instrument to foster innovation which reduces GHGs emission The exception is the rise of electricity prices which urges firms to facilitate specific innovations and reduce their CO2 emission (Gulbrandsen, L and Stenqvist, C., 2013.) It is also concluded that the EU ETS system has no substantial negative effect on production cost, employment and turnover in the main emitting industries - cement, iron, steel, electricity (Chan, H., et al 2013.) Another research analyzed a bigger number of firms and resulted in that EU ETS has no significant effect on employment and investment efforts, however it does have a negative effect on productivity and profit (Commins, N et al, 2011) The ETS system is a demand side regulatory policy, aiming at the reduction of demand on fossil fuels A recent study stated that the less frequently used supply side regulations would be effective measures in the reduction of emission and of the dependence of fossil fuels supply side measure could be the reduction of extracting the oil (Fæhn T, 2017) Another alternative policy supporting industrial decarbonization is Carbon Border Adjustments.(KAUSHAL, K.R and ROSENDAHL, K.E., 2020.) As the Green Deal aims for net zero emission, free allowances are not suitable, another instrument is needed to solve the problem of carbon leakage The EU is considering the introduction of Border Carbon Adjustment (BCA), which could be the alternative measure or ETS and free allocation However, BCA can be used only for import products, for exports it is not consistent with WTO rules (Evans, S., et al 2020.; WARWICK J MCKIBBIN, et al, 2009) It is argued by the research of Evans, S et al that the introduction of BCA and the elimination of free allowances would results in an increase in production costs of non-EU producers on their sales in the EU, compared to external markets, while free allowances offer more competitiveness support The paper suggests the mix use of BCA and free allowances A criticism of BCA is raised regarding its administrative complexity, due to supply chains, manufactured goods may contain intermediate goods which have several sources across several countries, thus the administration of the country-of-origin is very complex (WARWICK J MCKIBBIN, et al, 2009) Carbon leakage could lead to raising production costs and loss of competitiveness in the global market (KAUSHAL, K.R and ROSENDAHL, K.E., 2020.) Carbon tax systems could harm the economies of a country Those countries who are more environment conscious in their policies seem to be more protectionists in their trade policy preferences (Bechtel, M., 2012) On the one hand, protectionism could harm the economy of countries in international trade on the world market On the other hand, the revenue collected from carbon tax could be used by the fiscal policy of countries for either to reduce the public debt of a country or to support corporations in the form of other tax rate reduction (Tuladhar, S., 2015.) Finally, I would like to highlight a study that pointed to the difference between market driven and environmental policy induced environmental performance of companies Environmental policy induced - such as any form of carbon tax - has a less positive effect on the economic performance of companies than a voluntary or market driven one (Lundgren et al, 2015) Circular economy Resource efficiency of the European economy is a core concept in the European Green Deal strategy Thus, the transition towards a circular economy has received more emphasis and importance in the policy-making in Europe recently Although, circular economy is not a new concept, but an emerging one The European Union’s Horizon 2020 plan has a focus on a circular economy with a budget of 964 million EUR for the period of 2018-2020 (Thomas Völker, et al, 2020.) The idea behind the circular economy is the creation of such a system which regenerate, where products having their best value as long as possible, moreover resources are reintegrated to the economy, wastes are transformed to resource The transition from a linear to a circular economy requires giant changes and effecting the whole economy Beside the change of innovations and technology, the change of business models, policies, finances are also demanded Moreover, the benefits of such an economy is estimated, raw material savings are up to 17-24% in the EU, cost savings around 630 million EUR in Europe (Domenech, T and Bahn-Walkowiak, B., 2019.) The EU is raising the attention of companies and consumers to the circular economy agenda and to the sustainable production and consumption behaviours in all stages of the value chain (Camilleri, M., 2020.) In the case of small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) a study defined which activities regarding the implementation of circular economy SMEs would be likely to implement There is an interdependency in the activities with a hierarchy as follows Waste minimization is the most likely activity to be implemented in SMEs, followed, in descending order of likelihood, by replanning of energy use, redesigning products and services, and finally using renewable energy and replanning water usage (Katz-Gerro,T., 2019) The present policies mostly concentrate on the resource flow’s output side, such as the level of emission or the waste management There is less awareness of the input side - raw materials - and its connection to trade and development Input side is as important as the output in the introduction of circular economy (Domenech, T and Bahn-Walkowiak, B., 2019) A publication mentioned the significance of public procurement in circular economy and sustainable business models The argument for the importance of public procurement in this sense is that according to the EU Public Procurement Directive that supplier has to be awarded to the tender that is economically the most advantageous A public procurement could be sustainable if sustainability criteria is incorporated in the tender Indeed, public organisations can enlarge the market for sustainable products and services A good example is the switch to green electricity by all EU public organizations In that case, more than 60 billion tonnes of CO2 could be saved (Witjes, S and Lozano, R., 2016.) Moreover, the increase in the demand for sustainable products and services change the whole life cycle of products or services (Witjes, S and Lozano, R., 2016.) Methodology The sample of the 52 publications shows divergent methodology techniques More than half of the articles use quantitative methodology and around one-third of the sample use qualitative methods Only in a few cases publications use both quantitative and qualitative, or any other type of methods In numbers, out of the 52 publications in the sample 30 papers use quantitative or mixed methods Qualitative methods are used by 17 articles In the case of qualitative methodology, which is the second dominant method which is used in the sample, the most common type of data collection are surveys and interviews and document reviews and analysis Most of the interviews were done with representatives of organizations, senior managers or with experts in the specific field of business in order to find answers for the research questions Reviews and analysis are mainly common in papers which aim to give a comprehensive view on a policy framework, evaluate policies or create a systematic literature review Further, some papers use case studies in order to find relevant information for the hypothesis of the research In the case of quantitative methods, the dominant methodology in the sample, the most common are the linear regression analysis and correlation, and empirical case studies However, several different type of quantitative analysis can be found within the sample, for example the NewERA model, a computable general equilibrium model; G-Cubed model;Malmquist-type of quantity index;Cobb–Douglas function; Chi-square analyses; EEMRIO analysis and many others Different mathematical procedures are also common Going further, my thesis focuses on strategis foresight, however, within the sample the use of strategic foresight is not typical Foresight analysis happens to be used in one article The study examines the electricity industry by using foresight analysis on business model innovation, technological adaptation, and market design policy alternatives The foresight study focused on distribution system operators operating in a smarter EU electricity sector The objective of the research is to give policy-adaptation guidelines on the possible pathways for redesigning the electricity distribution industry The foresight study used a Policy Delphi technique, gathering experts' knowledge The survey had two rounds, in the first 207 experts, in the second 103 experts were surveyed from more than 20 countries (Pereira, G., et al, 2018) Results Conclusion The literature collection covers a sample of 52 articles dealing with whether, to what extent and how the introduction of climate and environmental policies influence companies It could have been suggested, but the sample of literature also confirmed that the transformation of the economy to a more sustainable and green economy does influence businesses Based on the sample three main areas are defined: green innovation, green business models and the implementation of circular economy Most researches are done regarding the topic of the relationship between green innovation and business performance It was highlighted by more studies that market-driven or voluntary inertia is more likely to be a driving factor than regulation-based However, within regulations the more direct such as standards are the effective, in contrast to economic instruments which increases the costs of firms in form of taxes for example Many aspects of green innovation are covered by the sample collection, however some open questions still remain - the collection does not include an empirical study on the interaction effects of policy - instruments and its targets That could be interesting, to analyse how significant the role of environmental - regulation for companies is regarding their willingness in green innovation Only some researches in the sample cover the topic of green jobs and their relationship with and effect on non green jobs I assume that not only environmental policies could support the raise of green professions, but a range of policies covering other areas – such as education policy The relationship between green jobs and non green jobs could be further studied The second main area of the sample including the topic of GHG emission targets More articles debated about the effectiveness of both the present EU ETS system containing the free allocation of allowances and the BCA system The European Green Deal deals with the introduction of BCA However, according to the literature collection, the introduction of BCA is not definitely the most effective tool as it only controls imports and excluding exports Moreover, BCA puts extra administrative burdens to either companies or countries due to intermediary products Moreover, it is argued that BCA can distort competitiveness within the EU region The per unit cost of importers from countries which not apply as ambitious emission mitigation goals as the EU is increased by BCA within the EU market This could lead to the problem of green protectionism Further open questions remained in this topic: - The implementation of the EU Green Deal and its effects on the trade would be an - interesting question for research The analysis of export companies how those could strengthen their presence in the world market after implementing the environmental regulations, and reached the net - zero emission The switch to green business model, invest in green innovations and green professions would be very expensive to companies, it is not yet defined to what extent these investments influence their competitiveness on the global market, or - whether results in any increase in preference to stay in the domestic market Moreover, the unilateral decarbonisation of the EU would affect global value chains The implementation of the circular economy is seemingly an emerging topic and a core of the European Green Deal The implementation of such a different system requires huge investment and transformation of businesses and business models This topic also rise several questions, how corporations are influenced by the regulations and subsidies by the governments My research focuses on the use of strategic foresight, which method is rarely used according to the sample However, the introduction of Green Deal in the EU member states is an ongoing process, many strategies, funds and actions will be implemented in the following years, therefore the analysis of the future effect of the present of planned regulations is relevant in this case References Bỗakcolu, N., Theoharakis, V and Tanyeri, M (2019), "Green business strategy and export performance: An examination of boundary conditions from an emerging economy", International Marketing Review, Vol 37 No 1, pp 56-75 https://doi.org/10.1108/IMR-112018-0317 Bechtel, M., Bernauer, T., & Meyer, R 2012 The green side of protectionism: Environmental concerns and three facets of trade policy preferences Review of International Political Economy, 19(5), 837-866 Retrieved December 21, 2020, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/42003239 Camilleri, M., 2020 European environment policy for the circular economy: Implications for business and industry stakeholders Sustainable Development, 28(6), pp.1804-1812 Chan, H., Li, S and Zhang, F., 2013 Firm competitiveness and the European Union emissions trading scheme Energy Policy, 63, pp.1056-1064 Colombelli, A., Krafft, J and Quatraro, F., 2019 Firms’ growth, green gazelles and ecoinnovation: evidence from a sample of European firms Small Business Economics, Commins, N., Lyons, S., Schiffbauer, M and Tol, R., 2011 Climate Policy & Corporate Behavior The Energy Journal, 32(4), pp.51-68 Damert, M., Feng, Y., Zhu, Q and Baumgartner, R., 2018 Motivating low-carbon initiatives among suppliers: The role of risk and opportunity perception Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 136, pp.276-286 Domenech, T and Bahn-Walkowiak, B., 2019 Transition Towards a Resource Efficient Circular Economy in Europe: Policy Lessons From the EU and the Member States Ecological Economics, 155, pp.7-19 Evans, S., Mehling, M., Ritz, R and Sammon, P., 2020 Border carbon adjustments and industrial competitiveness in a European Green Deal Climate Policy, pp.1-11 Eur-lex.europa.eu 2020 EUR-Lex - 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Evidence from dynamic and threshold models Journal of Cleaner Production, p.124992 Lundgren, Tommy, and Per-Olov Marklund 2015 “Climate Policy, Environmental Performance, and Profits.” Journal of Productivity Analysis, vol 44, no 3, 2015, pp 225–235 JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/44508538 Accessed 21 Dec 2020 Matschoss, K and Heiskanen, E., 2017 Making it experimental in several ways: The work of intermediaries in raising the ambition level in local climate initiatives Journal of Cleaner Production, 169, pp.85-93 Pereira, G., da Silva, P and Soule, D., 2018 Policy-adaptation for a smarter and more sustainable EU electricity distribution industry: a foresight analysis Environment, Development and Sustainability, 20(S1), pp.231-267 Phillippe, B 2019 STATE-OWNED ENTERPRISES: NO CLIMATE SUCCESS WITHOUT THEM Journal of International Affairs 2019/2020, Vol 73 Issue 1, p135-143 Quintás, M.A.; Martínez-Senra, A.I.; Sartal, A 2019 The Role of SMEs’ Green Business Models in the Transition to a Low-Carbon Economy: Differences in Their Design and Degree of Adoption Stemming from Business Size Sustainability 2018, 10, Robinson, S & Stubberud, H.A 2015, "GREEN INNOVATION AND ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT IN EUROPE", Journal of International Business Research, vol 14, no 1, pp 127138 Schmidt, T., Schneider, M., Rogge, K., Schuetz, M and Hoffmann, V., 2012 The effects of climate policy on the rate and direction of innovation: A survey of the EU ETS and the electricity sector Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, 2, pp.23-48 Stoyanova, Z., 2017 Impact of climate change related policies on the sector of green jobs Trakia Journal of Science, 15(4), pp.374-380 Stucki, T., 2019 Which firms benefit from investments in green energy technologies? – The effect of energy costs Research Policy, 48(3), pp.546-555 Simionescu, M.; Păuna, C.B.; Diaconescu, T 2020 Renewable Energy and Economic Performance in the Context of the European Green Deal Energies 2020, 13, 6440 Testa, F., Iraldo, F and Frey, M., 2011 The effect of environmental regulation on firms’ competitive performance: The case of the building & construction sector in some EU regions Journal of Environmental Management, 92(9), pp.2136-2144 Tuladhar, S., Montgomery, W., & Kaufman, N 2015 ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY FOR FISCAL REFORM: CAN A CARBON TAX PLAY A ROLE? National Tax Journal, 68(1), 179193 Retrieved December 22, 2020, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/24369999 Thomas Völker, Zora Kovacic & Roger Strand 2020 Indicator development as a site of collective imagination? The case of European Commission policies on the circular economy, Culture and Organization, 26:2, 103-120, DOI: 10.1080/14759551.2019.1699092 WARWICK J MCKIBBIN, PETER J WILCOXEN, Nils Axel Braathen, (Tom) Hu Tao and Arik Levinson, 2009 The Economic and Environmental Effects of Border Tax Adjustments for Climate Policy [with Comments] Brookings Institution Press pp 1-34 Topics covered Witjes, S and Lozano, R., 2016 Towards a more Circular Economy: Proposing a framework linking sustainable public procurement and sustainable business models Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 112, pp.37-44 Table Number of publications per year table of articles