2. Environmental Policy
Environmental policy means any measure taken by a public or private organization or by a government concerning the impact of human activities on the environment. Primarily, these are measures aimed at preventing or reducing the harmful effects of human activities on ecosystems
[2]. Thus, “environmental policy may include regulations and rules on water and air pollution, chemical and oil spills, smog, drinking water quality, land conservation and management, and wildlife protection such as the protection of endangered species”. Environmental management systems, preservation, and natural resource management were formerly the responsibility of the national sector officials. Recently, climate awareness and management have been framed as a larger enterprise that necessitates the active participation of communities, people, non-governmental groups, and the business sector
[23][29]. As a result, there is a growing trend with regard to environmental conservation and preservation in the interest of the public to be delegated widely
[24][30].
Furthermore, as customers, private landowners, and policy debate members, people and democratic institutions have a larger influence on the ecosystem. Developments in the government’s involvement in environmental policy have occurred in reaction to social, economic, and technical changes that countries have experienced during the last several decades
[7]. This movement comprises a transition from a vision of governance defined by the nation-state to one that acknowledges the contributions of many levels of authority (global, multinational), as well as the responsibilities of the private industry, nonprofit actors, and society organizations
[25][31]. The complexities, ambiguity, and urgency of many global and local environmental challenges have prompted numerous questions about the validity of the classic model of development and the interaction between society, commerce, and ecosystem
[26][32]. It has also generated concerns about the local governmental model’s capacity to satisfy the needs of economic management in a responsible way.
As a result, attention for sustainable development has shifted upwards to international institutions and multinational corporations, and downwards to local authorities, enterprises, and resources users
[27][33]. PEP2030 is a justification and successful implementation of the SRD provisions within a strategic documentation system. As a result, the core purpose of PEP2030, namely the development of the environment’s potential for the benefit of residents and enterprises, was directly transferred from the SOR. Specific aims of PEP2030 have been defined in response towards the most important environmental trends highlighted in the diagnostic, in such a way that it allows for the harmonization of environmental regulation with economic and social demands
[28][34].
2.1. Europe Adaptation of Environment Policy
EU nations have established objectives that will guide European environmental policy until 2020, as well as a roadmap for continued growth until 2050. Furthermore, funding has been identified for specific research programs, regulations, and investment to safeguard, maintain, and enhance the EU’s ecological integrity, and reshape the EU into a source of green energy, being a competitive and affordable economy as well as a safeguard to EU members from negative impacts on the environment
[23][29]. Despite the fact that several environmental organizations are making efforts to promote green projects, they are disorganized and divided, and political parties have paid minimal attention to environmental difficulties, while the public consciousness has switched to the core economic matters of everyday living.
Up to this point, achievements have been impressive, but only partially, as a result of government decisions, industry slowdown and restructuring having all had a significant influence on reducing pollution
[29][25]. Unsatisfactory outcomes in Poland as a minimally environmentally committed EU member country influenced Polish preferences for revised EU green initiatives. Existing EU policies, their alignment with Poland’s energy objectives, and a shift in expectation of future EU policies account for a large portion of the fluctuation in opinions. Second, Poland’s policy response had a considerable impact on the EU 2030 climate action agenda
[23][29].
Responding to the anticipated limitations in the Polish electricity industry, decision makers did not support European climate change policy
[29][25]. Climate change policy in Poland following the change in the 1990s may be described as centrally managed and technologically implemented
[30][35]. Gas imports from Russia, as well as their dispersion owing to the political environment, have long overshadowed Polish energy security concerns. This may seem remarkable, given that gas contributed only 13 percent of total primary energy supply in 2009, with a third generated internally. More than 80% of gas was imported from Russia, which many analysts and politicians saw as the main danger to Polish energy security as a result of political actions
[31][36].
2.2. Poland—A View towards Environmental Policy
It is sometimes stated that over the previous two decades, Polish environmental policy has moved in the opposite direction of the major advancements in EU nations. Whilst the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and enhancement of renewable energy were significant in the outline of Polish protection of the environment, by the end of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first, the government began to perceive European climate policy as a threat to the Polish economy
[23][29]. Following the launch of the ‘Energy and Climate Package’ in 2008, the Polish authorities implemented a “pre-emptive veto” policy that stymied future progress. Polish energy is dominated by coal, the majority of which comes from domestic sources. In 2013, it accounted for 54% of the energy industry and 88% of the power sector
[30][35].
To differentiate the power mix, the government plans to build a nuclear power plant. Meanwhile, closures of unprofitable mines meet stark sectorial resistance. The government of Poland in 2019 adopted the National Environmental Policy 2030 (PEP2030). Since then, PEP2030 has become the most important strategic document in the sphere of environment and water management in Poland
[29][25]. This document was, in the system of strategic documents, a specification of the medium-term Strategy for Responsible Development until 2020 with an outlook until 2030. The task of PEP2030 is to ensure Poland’s ecological security and high quality of life for all inhabitants. Furthermore, PEP2030 supports the worldwide execution of Poland’s objectives and obligations, along with the EU and the UN, particularly in the framework of the EU’s energy and climate change policy objectives till 2030 and the 2030 Agenda For Sustainable Development (SDGs) included in Agenda 2030
[1].
In 2019, the Council of Ministers in Poland adopted an important strategic document: the 2030 National Environmental Policy (PEP2030). The role of PEP2030 is to ensure Poland’s ecological safety and high quality of life for all residents. State National Policy until 2030 (PEP2030) is a strategy in accordance with the act on the principles of development policy (SOR). In the strategic model, it specifies and operationalizes the “Strategy for Sustainable Development until 2020” with a perspective until 2030, which is valid for the years 2023-2027. Supporting the achievement of the 2030 goals
[32][37], PEP2030 repeals the Strategy “Energy Security and Environment—a perspective until 2020” in the part concerning Objective 1: Sustainable management of environmental resources and Objective 3: Improvement of the environment.
2.3. Asia Adaptation of Environment Policy
Climate change has been a major challenge for countries in Asia. There is considerable talk around the rebuilding of the climate and to be resilient to disasters. Tackling climate change and enhancing the environmental sustainability is the major concern
[32][37]. The Asian Development Bank has set its strategy until 2030. The main theme of the strategy is to keep committed and ensure the support for climate change mitigation and adoption activities by 2030, though there were challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic that were hurdles for the global development. Still, countries have the most possible initiatives for the adoption of environment policy. The Asia climate change adaptation forum met in 2021 under the theme of enabling resilience for all with scaling up the action programs and sharing their learning for the climate resilient developments
[33][38].
The main agenda of this meeting established addressing resilience by inclusivity of all, resilience for nature by each individual, being resilient towards the economic sector, and resilience for local areas and communities. Asia is witnessing environmental change, which is impacting living organisms
[24][30]. The growth-led countries in Asia are polluting their air and water bodies, which is a serious concern that needs to be addressed without delay. Asia is committed to the adoption of environmental policy for sustainable development. Asia is constituted of a mix of developed and developing economies, which has brought the continent to the crossroads of environmental sustainability. These countries have a large variation in their economic, political, and social developments.
The countries Japan and Singapore are more focused on efficient energy production and consumption, as well as the protection of ecosystems. However, at the same time, the countries China and India are more focused on policy making for sustainable growth. However, in all cases, the concern is energy security for each and every individual all around the world
[34][26]. There is a requirement of close observation for the framing of environmental policy because a varied participation brings a deviated approach among stakeholders to tackle ecological challenges. However, the emergence of India and China as leading economies in Asia has made the world assume that the current century is the century of Asia, though it is evident that the environment footprint generated by the economic developments are essential to policy framing. At the same time there is a question: Is this development of Asia environmentally sustainable?
2.4. India—A View towards Environmental Policy
Environmental policy is the core of India for its vision to exceed on the path of a sustainable economy. India took pledges in 2021 for keeping climate change at the center of environmental policy structure under the commitments of the Paris Agreement. The pledge to have zero carbon emissions by 2070 and the production of 500 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity by 2030 is leading India in its environment policy
[35][39]. There are several steps taken by the government of India for sustainable development following environmental policy. The evolution of environmental policy in India began with its independence in 1947 and is positively moving forward every year
[33][38].
The first in this series is ‘Paris Agreement Ratification’, providing a framework for the immediate action all around the world on the issue of climate change. The second is the ‘Clean Development Mechanism’, aiming to optimize Indian industries on the factors of efficiency, energy, fuel transition, solid waste management, etc., to reduce the pressure on the environment. The third is the ‘State Lead Action Plans on Climate Change’ to create organizations that can be capable of promoting activities and addressing issues in climate change. The fourth is the ‘National Clean Energy Fund’, which is the initiative of the government of India of imposing carbon tax over coal and promoting clean energy. The fifth and last is the ‘National Adaptation Fund for Climate Change’ means of financial support at the state and national level to support the solution to tackle climate change.
The policy-making activities in India are controlled by government authorities. The environmental policy framing has been conducted through a multilateral approach based on historic incidents at the national and international levels. Since gaining independence, the environmental issues were also incorporated into economic development. Later, during the 1980s, the policy framework pushed to align with international standards, which transformed the structure and vision for environment policy (
Figure 2)
[33][38]. In the later years, during the 1990s, the approaches shifted to participative and collaborative tools to solve the environmental issues among global communities. The current decade is the era of global uniformity to be univocal for the activism including the judiciary and civil society implementing scientific approaches to cater to environment issues
[35][39].
Figure 2. Evolution of India’s environmental policy [33]. Evolution of India’s environmental policy [38].
3. Sustainable Development
There are a great many definitions of sustainable development (SD) in the literature. The idea of sustainable development originated in the early 1960s. It was a report presented to the session of the General Assembly on 26 May 1969 by U Thant, Secretary-General of the United Nations, entitled the problems of human environment expressed in resolution 2398, which stated that “for the first time in the history of mankind there was a worldwide crisis caused by the destruction of the natural environment, he documented this thesis with alarming statistical data and called for a planned international action to save the environment”
[36][40].
The idea seems to have achieved wide interest-based attention that other development concepts lack, and emerges prepared to remain the ubiquitous development paradigm for the future
[37][38][39][41,42,43]. Despite its ubiquity and acceptance, disillusionment with the phrase is common, as scholars continue to pose concerns regarding its meaning or description, as well as what it includes and suggests for developing principles and application, with no clear solutions appearing
[34][38][40][41][42][26,42,44,45,46].
As a result, SD risks becoming a truism, similar to suitable technology—a trendy and rhetorical word to which everyone pays tribute but no one appears to be able to explain precisely
[34][35][26,39]. The environmental economist Jack Pezzey identified, in the late 1980s, more than 60 definitions of SD (Pezzey 1989)
[43][27], while Michael Jacobs in the following decade established as many as 386 definitions (Jacobs 1995), and already in the 21st century Barbara Carroll has pointed to the operation of more than 500 (Carroll 2002). Lithuanian researchers, on the other hand, found that there are about 100 definitions in the economic literature alone (Ciegis et al. 2009). However, those without undertaking a deeper analysis are presented as the most important ones.
The Club of Rome, 1972, and then the Brundtland Report, 1987, by Gro Harlem Brundtland (WCED) (UN) (1987) says “Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. Conway, 1987: 96 says “The net productivity of biomass (positive mass balance per unit area per unit time) maintained over decades to centuries”. Turner, 1988: 12 says “In principle, such an optimal (sustainable growth) policy would seek to maintain an “acceptable” rate of growth in per-capita real incomes without depleting the national capital asset stock or the natural environmental asset stock”. Rio Declaration, 1992 said “The rearrangement of technological, scientific, environmental, economic and social resources in such a way that the resulting heterogeneous system can be maintained in a state of temporal and spatial equilibrium”.
Sustainable development is defined as the type of human development that fulfills the necessities of the actual generation without impairing the possibilities for the next generations to meet their necessities
[44][47]. According to Sen, 1999, a sustainable society is one in which the individual ability to do what they have good reason to value is continually enhanced. Another study by Johannesburg, 2002 says that sustainable development means the integration of social, economic and environmental factors into planning, implementation and decision making so as to ensure that development serves present and future generations. Stappen, 2006 defines sustainable development as a development that meets the basic needs of all human beings, which conserves, protects and restores the health and integrity of the ecosystem, without compromising the future generations’ ability to meet their own needs.
As can be understood based on the literature explained above, the concept of SD is ambiguous. All definitions indicate that SD is a process related to economic activity. Various definitions of ecological policy exist in the literature to date. For the purpose of this
article
ntry, it has been agreed that the ecological policy is a conscious and purposeful activity of the state, local self-governments and economic entities in the field of environmental management, i.e., protection of ecosystems or selected elements of the biosphere, shaping of ecosystems or selected elements of the biosphere, and management of the environment, i.e., the use of its resources and values
[45][48]. The subject of the ecological policy is therefore the natural environment and its condition assessed from the point of view of human biological, social and economic needs. One of the principles of ecological policy is the principle of sustainable development
[46][49]. It should be noted that the essence of the sustainable development is equal treatment of social, economic and ecological reasons, which means the necessity of integrating the environmental protection issues with the general state policy
[47][50].
4. Green Consumer Values
The concept of green consumer values is the main focus of production companies. They know if the consumer will not accept the product and service offerings, then the viability of the business will be in question. The sustainable offerings are the requirement for the current time. Consumers are looking for products and brands advocating the sustainability in their offerings. The demands are so much higher that many brands have claimed the growth in their offerings of green values twice as high compared to traditional offerings by their competitors
[48][23]. However, at the same time many counter problems are a hurdle for the green offerings, such as the price for the offering. The consumer awareness about the sustainable consumption to save the planet is the major enforcement to transform consumers for their consumption values. There are initiatives by government and non-government organizations everywhere to support the green consumption by awareness creation and providing factors of sustainable production. Manufacturing companies are also motivated to be participative in these activities with their commitment to the environment and a sustainable planet
[49][51].
Collaborative activity by all stakeholders can make green consumption for a sustainable future. Research all around the world has been promoting sustainable consumption for many years. There is sufficient experimental research in economics, marketing, and psychology, measuring the consumer behavior towards green offerings
[22]. The result of this research has given learning to academicians about consumer preferences on green consumption. Policy has come up as the intervention in many studies where the findings are mostly focused on consumer behavior towards sustainable purchasing
[48][23]. Companies are advised to apply activities to use social influence following actions of using social media, shaping habits for green consumption, leveraging sustainable consumption, thinking over the decision from the heart or the brain, and the favoring experiences. Sustainable business has the sufficient momentum to go ahead, but still brands are required to create a relevance that may be justifiable to the green consumer values
[19].
Behavioral science may help companies to realize their value among consumers and to understand consumer and target market demand for offerings. There are many drivers pushing green consumption shaping consumers’ green values, including behavioral factors, product- and producer-related factors, personal capabilities, context, socio-demographic variables, interpersonal environment values, and intrapersonal non-environment values
[50][52]. The environmental protection and the concern of sustainable consumption depends upon human behavior and the consumer’s lifestyle
[21]. Studies have witnessed that consumers concerned about the environment prefer to consume green products. However, consumer preferences keep swinging and switching from ecofriendly green products to traditional products and vice versa. The reason behind these swings and switching over is the lack in consistent appeal from green products to keep hold of customers with emotions. The consumer reluctance to switch over is called the green gap
[51][53]. This gap is the reflection of customer denial on green consumption, though they are favoring the environment and are concerned about the planet sustainability.
Further, this may lead to the problem that demand for green products will drag companies to instability
[45][48]. The green gap has been seen from different perspectives, such as social desirability bias, limited availability of green products, lack of marketing messages, higher price perception, lack of quality, and high effort in purchasing. Above everything, the most important factor in the green consumption is observed to be the consumer’s consumption values
[22]. Consumers have been attracted to adopting environmentally sustainable lifestyles, which has been increasing over the last few years. Modern consumers are not ready to compromise with the future and they are very conscious with their consumption habits. This is leading to buzzwords such as green consumers and green products
[21]. So, the companies are unfolding the new realms of production by understanding the green consumer values and buyer behavior for green products and services. Though the importance of consumer values is known to companies, still the challenge in the consumer behavior is implicit criteria of fluctuating evaluations. Green marketing activities can be a tool for companies to respond consumers’ green values
[52][54].