Environmental reporting has a key role in the environmental policy cycle. Although the costs of reporting are well recognised and studied, the benefits are challenging to account for, and there exists little consideration of reporting specific benefits. Hence, it is essential to better inform the European public about these upsides while simplifying the reporting burden for national administrations and businesses.  

Trinomics, in cooperation with WSP and Ricardo, are currently conducting a study on behalf of DG Environment to review options for simplification of reporting requirements, notably from a business perspective. The study scope covers all environmental legislation under the control of DG Environment, including the legislation related to air, industrial emissions, nature, noise, products, waste, water and governance, and with a specific emphasis on accounting for business reporting obligations.  

For this purpose, the study team is undertaking a comprehensive review of all legislative instruments under the control of DG Environment (task 1), identifying related business reporting obligations (task 2) and assessing their costs and benefits (task 3). The study team will then review progress under the existing reporting action plan resulting from the previous Fitness Check on Reporting and Monitoring (task 4) and review concrete options for simplification for a select number of legislative acts (task 5). The study will furthermore, and for a limited number of cases, identify other legal obligations of an administrative nature where these exist, for a review of their scope and dimensions, and any administrative burden associated with them (task 6).  

In order to be able to take account of stakeholder views and experience of these reporting and administrative obligations (task 7), we foresee several steps during the study when the views and inputs of stakeholders will be sought. The first consultation is taking place in the form of an online workshop on 13 February 2025 from 09:00 – 13:00, to which you are cordially invited. The main purposes of the workshop will be three-fold: 

  1. Share and validate our first findings of the study in relation to business reporting obligations to ensure that the database is complete. 
  2. Review any information available on costs and benefits of both, a qualitative and quantitative nature, and identify further sources 
  3. Exchange views on any other obligations of an administrative nature with a view to supporting the study team with the selection of a representative sample.  

A more detailed agenda, information material and an online link will be shared at a later stage. If you would like to join the first workshop, please register via the following link: https://ec.europa.eu/eusurvey/runner/env-reporting-workshop1   

If you are not able to attend the workshop but would be interested in being kept informed about other consultation activities during the course of the study, please let us know by registering on the same link.   

If you have any questions, please contact us on env-reporting@trinomics.eu.  

The study will run from July 2024 to September 2025. 

Categories: Environment, Environment Policy, Environmental Economics and Policies