Achieving sustainable development in the low-carbon transition requires securing critical raw materials (CRMs) while reducing environmental burdens and strengthening industrial resilience (SDGs 7, 9, 12, 13). This review synthesizes 2016–2025 evidence on how the European Union’s policy package—the Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA), the Batteries Regulation, the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) with Digital Product Passports (DPPs), and the recast Waste Shipments Regulation (WSR)—shapes markets for secondary supply in battery-relevant metals such as lithium, cobalt, nickel, copper, aluminum, and rare earths. We apply a structured scoping review protocol to map the state of the art across policy instruments (EPR, ecodesign/DPP, recycled content mandates, recovery targets, shipment controls) and value chain stages (collection, preprocessing, refining, manufacturing). The analysis highlights benefits, including clearer investment signals, improved traceability, and emerging opportunities for industrial symbiosis, but also identifies drawbacks such as heterogeneous standards, compliance costs, and trade frictions. Evidence gaps remain, especially in causal ex post assessments, price pass-through, and interoperability of MRV/DPP systems. The paper contributes by (i) providing an integrative framework linking policy instruments, value chain stages, and investment signals for secondary CRM supply, and (ii) outlining a research agenda for rigorous ex post evaluation, improved MRV/DPP data architectures, and better alignment between EU trade rules, circularity, and a just energy transition.

Profitability is a complex notion, intertwined with theoretical, socio-economic, and modern economic considerations. While traditionally linked to monopoly advantages, contemporary views broaden this to include shareholder value creation. In agriculture, profitability faces impediments such as rising input costs, market volatility, and economic disparities, emphasizing technological innovation, market conditions, and policy as crucial determinants. This study presents an econometric simulation model to analyze and forecast wheat production profitability in Poland from 2023 to 2027, providing insights into production efficiencies, market dynamics, and policy impacts. Using a system of recursive equations, the model forecasts profitability, integrating econometric techniques with expert insights. It examines variables like resource use, production levels, and price changes, validated through FADN data. The findings reveal that price relations and production efficiencies are the key to profitability. The model highlights market volatility, particularly through “price scissors”, as the main factor influencing profitability. Favorable price conditions significantly boost profitability and incentivize production. The model is a critical tool for analyzing wheat profitability, highlighting the influence of market and policy changes. Future work could extend the model’s use to other regions or crops, incorporating advanced technologies to improve accuracy. This study offers valuable insights for agricultural economics, aiding stakeholders in strategic decision-making.

The article examines trends in changes in relations among three production factors (land, labor, and capital) in agriculture in the selected European Union countries. For the purpose, the assumptions regarding the direction and the mechanism of changes in the relations were verified empirically....

Głównym celem pracy było pokazanie konieczności wkomponowania aspektów środowiskowych do teorii produkcji w rolnictwie i pomiaru produktywności. Opracowanie ma charakter metodyczny i przeglądowy. Odnosi się do jednego z problemów współczesnej ekonomii – dylematu pomiędzy skalą gospodarowania zasobami środowiska a efektywnością alokacyjną w gospodarowaniu środowiskiem. W trosce o stan dóbr publicznych konieczny staje się wybór między industrialnym modelem rolnictwa a modelem rolnictwa społecznie zrównoważonego, przy czym ten ostatni staje się modelem wzorcowym. Autorzy przybliżyli zagadnienie produkcji integrowanej oraz zrównoważonej intensyfikacji. W pracy omówiono też nowsze podejście do dotychczasowych miar produktywności gospodarstw rolnych. Przedstawiono indeks produktywności uwzględniający aspekty środowiskowe (tzw. Environmentally Adjusted Total Factor Productivity). Obecnie rolnictwo europejskie kształtowane przez wspólną politykę rolną najpełniej w skali globalnej realizuje koncepcję intensyfikacji i zrównoważonego rozwoju. Jednocześnie znajduje się na ścieżce rozwojowej pozwalającej na konwergencję obu tych koncepcji. Pożądane jest, aby na tę samą ścieżkę wkroczyło również rolnictwo USA i Chin.

In the recent years, volatility of farmers’ income in European Union dramatically increases due to CAP changes, market and climatic circumstances. To address this problem some new instruments which can help in risk management are included in new CAP for the period 2014 to 2020. Authors of the paper try to evaluate usefulness of one of these new instruments – income stabilisation tool. Data from FADN about agricultural income of 5364 Polish farmers was used. It was proved that income stabilisation tool can be financially stable even when the premium is relatively low (0.5% of last year’s production value) and provide much better cover than traditional agricultural production insurance does. W ostatnich latach wskutek zmian WPR , uwarunkowań rynkowych i klimatycznych wzrasta zmienność dochodów producentów rolnych w Unii Europejskiej. Znajduje to odbicie w zmianach WPR , jakie zostały wdrożone w ramach perspektywy finansowej 2014-2020, a które mają na celu wsparcie zarządzania ryzykiem w rolnictwie. W pracy dokonano oceny przydatności jednego z instrumentów finansowanego w ramach WPR – narzędzia stabilizacji dochodów. Wykorzystano w tym celu dane dotyczące dochodów uzyskiwanych przez 5364 gospodarstwa rolne prowadzące rachunkowość FADN. Wykazano, że ten typ ubezpieczeń funkcjonowałby nawet przy niewielkiej wartości składki (0,5% wartości zeszłorocznej produkcji) i stanowił znacząco lepszą ochronę dochodów rolników niż tradycyjne ubezpieczenia produkcji rolnej.

Pig production is subject to fluctuations due to the pig cycle. These fluctuations cause that the supply of pork is either excessively high or too low in relation to a given demand assumed on the ceteris paribus principle. In the former case, the prices of pork, especially livestock, are high, and in the latter, they are low. As a result, the revenue of agricultural producers changes accordingly. It can be assumed that the negative revenue effects of the decrease in purchase prices are compensated by the positive effects of higher sales of porkers. Therefore, it is assumed that the volatility of revenues should be lower than that of both components. The purpose of this article is to verify this view, which can be regarded as a hypothesis. To be more exact, the paper attempts to answer the question whether there is volatility or relative stability of revenues in the pig market. This issue is important not only for the producers, but also for the agricultural policy. Using simple statistical methods, the authors evaluate the variability of revenues between 2005 and 2020, i.e. after Poland's accession to the European Union. Recognizing that this was not a homogeneous period, the research also involved the revenues in two sub-periods, i.e. 2005-2012 and 2013-2020. The adopted assumption and the research hypothesis about the relative stability of revenue due to a certain interchangeability of the price level and the purchase volume were only quite incomplete for the period 2005-2012. For period 2013-2020, the analysis of charts, coefficients of variation and correlation gave different results that did not allow for confirming the assumption and hypothesis.