April-June 2023 - LIFE PROFILE

Α) Identity of the project

Β) Best Practices

Good decision and policy-making practices include sharing expertise, participatory processes for accurate and objective mapping of the current situation, as well as joint decision-making regarding the way of acting and developing strategies. In this context the project has established the operation of the Management Board for internal decision making (internal environment) and the Consultation Forum for a better understanding of the project’s impact, the identification of problems and the exchange of opinions and know-how (external environment).

In parallel, info-days and seminars are organized under the aim of informing the target groups and the public about the actions of the project as well as about its results/outcomes. More specifically, in the context of the Info-days, a general and simplified description of the actions and the expected results of the project over time is presented, for the public by the LIFE PROFILE partners. The seminars deepen on the above by focusing more on the existing situation and how it is expected to be improved with the use of the tools that will be developed in the framework of the project for the analysis of environmental risk and the economic evaluation of environmental damage. The concepts of "environmental liability", risk and damage are being analyzed and special emphasis is placed on the concept of attribution of responsibility and remediation of damage to protected species of flora and fauna and to natural habitats, soil, and water, through the use of financial tools. The project’s methodology is also briefly presented on this regard.

Within the framework of the LIFE PROFILE project, a reliable and sustainable information tool will be developed to be provided free of charge in order to assess the environmental risk of each activity. At the same time, the Consultation Forum will contribute to identify, address and correct further problems from the operation of the informative tool, also contributing to the dissemination of knowledge and its use.

In addition, the interest of other countries (Cyprus, Bulgaria, Czech Republic) in the use of the project's tools has already been confirmed, and seminars are planned to present the tools and the relevant methodology in these countries where similar problems have been identified and where there is a willingness to address them.

Initially, the project had as a preparatory action the identification of the institutions that should be involved during its implementation. This was very supportive for the Consultation Forum’s set-up, involving thus the main public and private sector actors as well as NGOs during the implementation of the project.

Good practices for ensuring the active participation of (public/private) stakeholders and the implementation of the replication/transfer plan are the Consultation Forum and the seminars. Knowledge communities have been growing and gaining ground for several years now.

With the participation of the Ministry of Environment and Energy and the Green Fund supervised by it, three universities (NTUA, UoA and Panteion - UEHR) and a scientific body (National Observatory of Athens) that has been dealing with the environment and climate for a number of years, the Hellenic Association of Insurance Companies, an association that brings together most of the insurance companies at national level and a private environmental and consulting company, the maximum possible dissemination is ensured. The in-time invitation of potential participants / interested parties (stakeholders) and reminders both through the websites and social media of the partners, as well as online through electronic messages, sufficiently enhances the representation of different groups and communities. In some seminars, where it was possible, for practical reasons, online participation was also promoted, while the organization of regional seminars ensured a satisfactory level of representation of stakeholders at local level. For the replication / transfer of the good practices, potential recipients have already been identified. At the same time, the organization of the seminars in countries where there is relevant confirmed interest is expected to contribute in ensuring the active participation of the interested parties.

The project’s best practices are the accurate assessment of environmental damage (through the project's methodology) and consequently the more justified attribution of environmental liability to those responsible for causing environmental damage, by the application of the "polluter pays" principle (through the project's tools).

C) Results

So far, the preparatory actions of the project have been completed, namely the analysis of the current state in the assessment of the environmental risk of the activities concerned by Directive 2004/35/EC on environmental liability, the analysis of the state of the national insurance market, and the analysis SWOT along with the identification of key stakeholders.

At the same time, several publicity actions have been carried out to disseminate the project’s activities and create synergies. Finally, the first meeting of the Consultation Forum on related issues has taken place and its establishment was officially completed.

The results of our project will be used by operators (industrial and other activities), public agencies that attribute environmental responsibility (Environmental Inspectors and Auditors) and potentially by other entities (insurance companies, banks, NGOs) interested either in economic, social reasons or for reasons of environmental and / or public interest, for the most accurate undertaking of environmental liability and for ensuring environmental remediation and protection.

The development and operation of the project's IT tool and platform, two tools that, through different scenarios and models and the development of an environmental liability cases database, will fulfill the main purpose of the project, namely the best possible attribution of environmental liability and evaluation of the cost of remediation of environmental damage.