Nineteenth International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic & Social Sustainability

Abstract

Public attention emerged towards sustainability in 1987, when the World Commission on Environment and Development adopted a recommendation on environmental goals. In 2012 the UN conference participants in Rio decided to launch a process to develop a set of Sustainable Development Goals, which will build upon the Millennium Development Goals and converge with the post 2015 Development Agenda. The movement led to the adoption of Agenda 2030. As part of the legislative process, the EU adopted the Paris Agreement in 2016, the first universal, legally binding global agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The mentioned initiatives have put on economy and the financial sector an unprecedented attention and its role has been recalled as a key enabling factor for the attainment of the most ambitious sustainability-related objectives. The first phase of sustainability legislation focused on voluntary compliance based on soft law standards. International institutions intended the soft law norms to play a vital role and hoped that they would be spontaneously incorporated into national legislation. However, despite the undisputed achievements, they started to recognise the limitations of soft law enforcement. We should accept that achieving sustainability goals in the pinned time and manner is not possible under the current legislative system. The paper analyses and compares the existing regulative framework from a financial a tax law perspective. The research examines how do the EU member states implementing the idea of circular economy and what are the most common challenges and mistakes they should face with.