The main objective of this paper is to identify the intensity and the sense of the impact that eco-innovation and recycling exert on raw material consumption in the European Union member-states. The basic hypothesis is that eco-innovation and recycling have a significant influence on raw material consumption. The authors consider that, in the long run, by promoting eco-innovation and recycling, countries will minimize their demand and use of raw materials. In the paper, the material footprint per capita has been considered as an adequate indicator to measure the material consumption induced by economic and social activities. The model used has estimated the influence of eco-innovation and recycling on the material footprint per capita using panel data regression by considering the 27 EU countries, for the 2010–2019 time period. The authors found that the most adequate econometric model is the panel model with fixed effects. The respective econometric model validates the hypothesis that eco-innovation and recycling have significant influence on reducing the material footprint per capita and reveals heterogeneity existing among EU countries. At the same time, the model shows the intensity of influence exerted by each regressor. The eco-innovation and recycling have an important role in decreasing the material footprint per capita and should be in the centre of policies aimed at decoupling the economic growth from the raw material consumption.

Economic assessment of forest ecosystems is especially important for determining efficiency of investment in: biodiversity conservation, expansion of the national forest and rational use of forest resources, sustainable forest development. In Romania, although discussed and debated in recent years, this subject has generated and still produces theoretical, methodological and practical issues. Economic and social consequences of changes in forest ecosystems are difficult to predict. Changes in the dynamics of river basins, ecologic regions or wildlife systems, for example, can reduce or increase various aspects of human welfare. Without sufficient knowledge about the value of forest ecosystem services, consequences unpredictability tends to increase with the degree of change. This paper will address some issues related to estimating the economic value of forests in Romania and ecosystem services provided by forests. The methodology used includes: clarifying and defining the main methodological and operational concepts, charts and diagrams to describe correlations and mechanisms of forest functions, qualitative and quantitative assessment (tables, matrices) of ecosystem services, with identification of the most important benefits, analysis of main methods of economic assessment of forest ecosystem services with recommendations and conclusions

In this paper, we shall resume some of our research in the field of water security and sustainable economic development. Therefore, we define and further analyze the concept of water security, highlighting its actual increased importance for sustained economic growth and poverty alleviation. While the global demand for food is rising, there are several actors that will critically limit food production: the increased urbanization, the rising prices on inputs, the pressure on water resources and the increased crops and livestock vulnerability to climate change.We may find a strong link between water security and food security, in the global resource nexus model. These issues are shown to be important also in Romania, in our times of climate change and of increased small-scale farmers’ vulnerability. In agreement with the experts and considering the strategic relevance of these aspects, we aim to stress more on the importance of investment in water infrastructure in the rural areas of Romania, to achieve the water security required for a sustainable agri-food and rural development. Moreover, we highlight directions of integrated water management in view of a green economy. As a main recommendation is the need to implement programs and policies promoting water security, as well as water resource efficiency in the Romanian agriculture and rural development programs

This paper resumes some of the issues and outcomes raised by the research theme “Economic and financial risk management of environmental projects financed from European funds; impact of the crisis”. Although some of the economic and financial risks that arise in the field of water supply and sanitation (WSS) have been already presented and analysed in one of our previous papers, here we aim to assess and analyse the main economic risks to a specific regional WSS project in Romania. Based on the data analysis for the case-study and on some previous own research outcomes, we shall employ the qualitative risk assessment matrix by applying risk matrix scores that reflect our opinion on the impact of the crisis as well as of other specific factors, on a major WSS regional project. The main economic risk to such projects is currently the risk of demand (risk of non-payment). In the end, we shall highlight some conclusions, prospects and recommendations of mitigating the demand risk for more effective economic and financial management in the water sector

Availability of infrastructure significantly influences the development of regions and countries, hence theoretical and empirical research on the relationship between infrastructure capital and economic growth should provide answers to an important question: increasing the stock of public capital can stimulate economic growth? The issue of investment in infrastructure is critical as infrastructure development in Romania is supported by the EU Structural and Cohesion Funds. Channels and models of economic growth with one factorial variable characterizing the infrastructure will be compared, analysing their approaches, features and limits.Also, our case study will present some results for the impact of selected categories of public infrastructure sectors on the recent economic growth performances in some EU new member states. Thus, we hope to identify and discuss some conceptual and methodological challenges of grounding policies of development for various types of infrastructure. For Romania, we estimate the correlation between water supply and sewerage infrastructure and economic development indicator GDP per capita, at the regional county level