Horizon Europe NetDEAL Project: Optimizing complex environmental impact assessment networks to integrate new EU environmental policies

In response to climate change, the historic Paris Agreement established a set of goals to achieve climate neutrality and limit global warming. To help investors and businesses contribute to these objectives, the EU adopted a taxonomy for sustainable activities, according to which investments must not cause significant harm, as outlined in the Recovery and Resilience Facility Regulation. Since its inception, the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) procedure has aimed to minimize the impacts of projects that could significantly harm the environment. While there are recognized weaknesses in EIA, its suitability for addressing complex environmental challenges such as climate change is unparalleled.

Considering the importance of EIA in ensuring increased investment in sustainable energy, NetDEAL focuses on providing innovative and user-friendly methods to improve EIA globally and combines policy analysis and EIA assessment data in complex networks.

First, I will analyze models for impact assessment (IA) legislation that can provide recommendations on how EIA can be adapted to the global effort to address energy and resource crises.

Second, I will present best practice models and, through statistical network analysis, investigate the collaborative links established at each stage of the EIA, which drive successful projects from the perspective of productivity, the circular economy, climate change adaptation, and the achievement of the net-zero emissions goal.

Third, using Exponential Random Graph Models, I will explore the dynamic interaction between EIA actors to diagnose the organizational structures and factors that significantly influence these projects.

Finally, I will create a multi-layered integrated framework to improve the effectiveness of EIAs. The findings will be transferred to the economic sector and provide new tools to facilitate a simplified EIA procedure that will facilitate the adoption of urgent measures to mitigate the current energy crisis.