In recent years, climate change has begun to put pressure on humanity and affect natural and human systems. The aim of this paper is to provide an improved understanding of the state of the literature on the impacts of climate change that can be addressed through measures related to disaster risk reduction, sustainable agricultural practices, and the circular economy. This review also represents a valuable and fundamental reference for both researchers and practitioners in these fields. A total of 74,703 articles (climate change adaptation, 45,030; disaster risk reduction, 5920; sustainable agricultural practices, 7940; circular economy, 15,813) published between 1990 and 2022 were extracted from the Web of Science Core Collection, and the links between these areas were mapped using VOSviewer. There has been an increase in the amount of published research on these four topics since 2007, indicating the increasing involvement of researchers to address these topics, influenced by the concerns of national and international bodies to address these changes.

Sugar is an important food in the diet, and ensuring a sufficient production of sugar beet is important for food safety. At the level of the European Union, the sugar industry is a strategic sector, having economic, social and environmental importance being part of the CMO (common organization of the markets) with a safe role for agricultural markets. At the same time, the sugar market in the European Union is one of the best regulated markets and was based on the existence of well-established market shares, pricing and export regulation until 2017. Market shares were eliminated on October 1, 2017, this measure influencing both the situation of production and processing of sugar beet. In this paper we aim to analyze how the elimination of quotas in 2017 has led to changes at EU level in terms of sugar beet production, but also in terms of raw material and product prices finished, starting from statistical data provided by Eurostat, ITC and the National Institute of Statistics, data that were collected, pre elaborated and analyzed and which were the basis of the study. The conclusions were formulated based on the analysis performed and highlighted the fact that in the European Union the largest producers of sugar beet are countries such as France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Poland. At the same time, in the European Union there is a strong refining sector that processes both sugar beet produced within the union, but also sugar cane that comes from imports.

The transition to a circular economy is a strategic direction of the European Union, and the agri-food sector is essential in this transformation through resource consumption, climate impact and an economic role in the food chain. This study analyses the relationship between the circularity of the economy and the sustainable performance of agri-food systems in the EU-27, using Eurostat data for the period of 2014–2023. Circularity is operationalised through a composite index built from the circularity of materials and resource productivity, aggregated through principal component analysis and complemented by an alternative measure based on the average of the standardised components. Sustainable performance is assessed through economic indicators (value added and output in agriculture, value added in the food industry), environmental indicators (greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture) and, complementary, energy indicators (energy intensity in the food industry), the latter being analysed separately on the available observations. The results do not indicate clear aggregate differences in sustainable performance associated with circularity measured at the macro level over the analysed period, underlining the importance of connecting circularity objectives with interventions and indications specific to the agri-food chain for monitoring and policy design at the EU level.

Food security is one of the main problems that humanity has faced throughout its existence, it is generally analyzed globally, although it is rather a major problem in national security, along with economic, financial or demographic security. It is defined as the ability of the state and society to ensure the availability of food for its entire population in sufficient quantity and quality to ensure an active and healthy life. On the other hand, food security, as defined by the FAO it refers to the access of people from all times to nutritious and safe foods, which should meet both their needs and food preferences in order to ensure an active and healthy life. In this paper we aim to analyze how the COVID-19 crisis has influenced food security and safety, but also to justify the need to ensure their local and regional level. The data underlying the study are part of statistics from FAO, Eurostat and the National Institute of Statistics. The indicators used were the self-sufficiency rate, for the main food categories, both for Romania and for the E.U. and share of non-regular and employed farm labor. Based on the study, conclusions were drawn regarding the risk due to of COVID-19 on food safety and security.

The transition to renewable energy is a central objective of the European Union’s energy and climate policies, yet adoption rates differ significantly across Member States. This study analyses the economic, structural, and energy determinants of renewable energy adoption in the EU-27 over the period 2008–2023, using panel data models with country and year fixed effects and clustered standard errors. The results indicate that the relationship between renewable energy and its main determinants is limited and heterogeneous across countries. Most explanatory variables do not exhibit consistent and statistically significant effects across model specifications. In particular, research and development expenditure does not show a robust impact, while GDP per capita is associated with negative coefficients in several specifications, suggesting the presence of structural constraints and path dependency. Energy-related variables also display weak and unstable relationships. The findings suggest that renewable energy adoption is shaped by context-specific and heterogeneous dynamics rather than by uniform drivers. The study contributes by highlighting the limited explanatory power of standard macroeconomic indicators and supports the need for differentiated policy approaches across Member States.

Sustainable development has become a strategic priority for the European Union in response to climate change, resource constraints and environmental degradation. Despite common policy objectives, Member States exhibit substantial differences in sustainability performance and transition capacities. This study investigates sustainable development pathways in the European Union using an integrated framework combining cluster analysis, transition analysis, panel econometrics and a conceptual Petri Net model. The empirical analysis is based on a balanced panel dataset covering the 27 EU Member States during the period 2015–2024. K-means clustering was employed to identify sustainable development regimes, transition matrices were used to evaluate regime persistence, and panel data models were estimated to examine the determinants of environmental performance measured through greenhouse gas emissions per capita. The results confirm the existence of four distinct sustainable development regimes characterized by different combinations of economic performance, environmental pressure and resource efficiency. Transition analysis confirms heterogeneous transition dynamics characterized by a generally high degree of regime persistence, while only a limited number of countries experienced regime changes during the study period. The econometric findings confirm that renewable energy deployment and resource productivity are the principal determinants associated with lower greenhouse gas emissions. Based on these results, a Petri Net framework was developed to represent alternative sustainability pathways and transition mechanisms. The integrated analytical framework confirms that combining sustainability regime identification, transition dynamics, panel econometric modelling and conceptual Petri Net representation provides a more comprehensive understanding of sustainable development pathways in the European Union. The findings provide relevant insights for policymakers seeking to support the transition towards more sustainable development trajectories in the European Union.