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Chapter five - Hydroelectric coupling with floating photovoltaics
No full textThis chapter discusses the integration of floating photovoltaic (FPV) plants with hydroelectric power plants (HPPs) that use large dams. Several advantages arise from this hybridization, such as the possibility to install an FPV system with a capacity equal to that of the hydro turbines. This considerably increases energy production while covering only a small percentage of the reservoir’s surface area at the hydroelectric plants. Key points discussed in this chapter:•The concept of energy density per area is introduced and discussed for HPP and FPV systems.•The power potential of FPV systems is analyzed for the 20 largest HPPs in the world. It is shown that covering 10% of the HPP reservoir’s surface area with HPP systems can increase by up to 55%.•The Longyangxia Dam (China) and its connected PV power plant are examined.•The advantages of coupling HPP and FPV systems renewable are discussed, with particular emphasis on the reduction of evaporation.JRC.D.2 - Ocean and Wate
Plastics materials flows in the EU-27 and their environmental impacts
Get PDFIn this report, a Material Flow Analysis (MFA) model was developed for the 2022 EU-27 plastic value chain. The MFA boundaries included all the key steps of the value chain from production to end-of-life and recycling, covering 9 sectors and 15 polymers. Specific plastic flows typically less explored in literature were studied, including plastic imports and exports along the value chain, plastic losses into the environment as well as plastic waste mismanagement. Notably, the granular data collected enabled the modelling of bio-based plastic and biodegradable plastics flows, together with the exploration of plastic chemical recycling processes. The variety of collected data at the level of polymers and sectors were combined to generate product-specific results, thoroughly discussing the associated modelling challenges. Further, the interactions with stakeholders, improved and deepened the knowledge of the various interlinkages of the EU plastic value chain and enabled a finer modelling of polymers-specific and sectors-specific flows. Additionally, the MFA was combined with a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), unveiling the value chain impacts across 16 impact categories, including but not limited to Climate Change. On top, a flexible and replicable methodology combining sectors-specific and polymers-specific estimates to obtain products-specific results was discussed. Such approach could also potentially be applied to other product-specific MFAs even beyond plastics. The LCA followed the Environmental Footprint 3.1 method recommended by the European Commission. Results underlined that the EU-27 plastic production amounted to 57.9 Mt in 2022, with only 1.1% of the total needs being covered by bio-based plastics. The results highlighted the dominance of the Packaging sector, being 33.9% of total plastic consumption. Despite 36.6 Mt of waste being properly collected (86% of waste generated), significant quantities of plastics were either lost or mismanaged along the value chain, accounting to 6.6 Mt (11.4% of the total EU production). The average EU-27 end-of-life recycling rate was 19.6%, mostly due to mechanical recycling activities (and a negligible contribution of chemical recycling). The LCA study revealed that more than 252 MtCO2 eq. were emitted along the life cycle of the 2022 EU plastic value chain1, considering all flows connected to plastic consumption in the EU. The Packaging sector contributed to around 29% of the total impacts, with a striking importance attributable to the production and manufacturing stages (representing 79% of Climate Change impacts). This study represents a key milestone in improving granularity and details of complete overviews of plastic flows in the EU and the findings emphasizes the need for improved data generation, collection, harmonization, and the establishment of proper monitoring frameworks to assess the implementation of EU recycling targets and boost the circularity of the plastic value chain. The developed methodology offers a flexible tool potentially applicable to other value chains, even beyond plastics. This report provides insights for decision-makers, researchers, and other stakeholders to show areas for potential improvement and support the shift towards sustainable plastics.JRC.D.3 - Land Resources and Supply Chain Assessment
The role of banks in financing European fintechs: Bridging the gap or guarding the turf?
Get PDFIn this paper we investigate the role played by banks in financing European fintech startups. We postulate that this role may be influenced by two conflicting objectives. First, banks could be motivated by value considerations, in that the objective would be to help the fintech scale-up and reach a successful exit, so value can be captured from returns on equity or debt investments. Alternatively, given that fintechs can be viewed as substitutes to banks, investment in fintechs might be motivated by a desire to curb down competition (“buying out competitors”). We examine these conflicting objectives using data on investments made by EU and non-EU banks in fintech startups, and take advantage of an exogenous shock to fintech value provided by the EU’s PSD2 policy. Our results suggest that EU banks are driven by the motive of reducing competition. On the contrary, the behavior of non-EU banks seems to be driven by the value capturing motive, and this may have generated a substitution after PSD2 in non-EU bank financing of EU fintechs towards debt. Our findings suggest that EU fintechs may need to reduce their reliance on bank financing in order to close the financing gap and achieve successful scaling up.JRC.S.3 - Science for Modelling, Monitoring and Evaluatio
Mind the (narrowing) gender gap: implications of labour market changes for EU pension sustainability
No full textGender disparities in the labour market in terms of employment rates and wages are widespread in EU countries. Historically, these gender gaps have been narrowing, significantly influencing the macroeconomy. This study employs a dynamic general equilibrium model populated by overlapping generations of men and women to evaluate the economic consequences of these trends continuing over the coming decades. We conduct a cross-country analysis focused on the fiscal sustainability of public pension systems. Our findings suggest that a continued reduction in gender gaps in the labour market could significantly mitigate the fiscal impact of population ageing. Quantitatively, the effects are comparable to reforms that increase the retirement age.JRC.B.2 - Fiscal Policy Analysi
Global up-to date emissions using the EDGAR Fast-Track methodology
No full textOne of the goals of the Paris Agreement is to regularly collect knowledge on the collective effort of abating global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. However, national emission inventories submitted to the UNFCCC only partly provide this information, due to the limited time series completeness and time lag compared to the current year. Developing up-to date global GHG emission inventories is therefore essential to enable the assessment of global GHG emission trends and to contribute to the 5-years cycle of the global carbon stocktake as foreseen by the Paris Agreement. The Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research (EDGAR) fills this knowledge gap, providing on an annual basis reliable and up-to date independent estimates of global CO2 and non-CO2 GHG emissions with a minimum delay (t-1), for all countries and sectors. This work describes the approach developed and applied within EDGAR to compute emissions up to the most recent year, thus making EDGAR a reliable and timeliness source of information for assessing the collective effort towards climate targets.JRC.C.5 - Clean Air and Climat
Data Quality Rating rules and review requirements for Environmental Footprint datasets
Get PDFThis document provides the rules for evaluating the Data Quality Rating (DQR) of Environmental Footprint (EF) compliant datasets.
The document provides guidance to the dataset developer and reviewer on how to evaluate each data quality criterion. Additionally, the document includes indications on the use and interpretation of the DQR. It represents the basis for possible future adaptations of DQR rules in EF studies. Reviewer eligibility requirements for EF datasets, review types and review report are also defined in this document.
This report was prepared by JRC as a support in the context of the Administrative Arrangement with DG Environment to illustrate the DQR rules for the development of EF4.0 datasets. It has been developed through several interactions among the European Commission, EF Data Working Group and EF Technical Advisory Board.JRC.D.3 - Land Resources and Supply Chain Assessment
The innovation journey towards territorial preparedness
Get PDFThis brochure is one of the deliverables of the JRC Exploratory Research Activity, REGDUALOSA (Regions, Dual Use, Open Strategic Autonomy). Its purpose is to disseminate the recommendations gathered from the work with experts and territories, particularly from the three case studies developed in Podkarpackie (Poland), Andalusia (Spain) and Estonia.JRC.B.7 - Innovation Policies and Economic Impac
Assessing the Effectiveness of LLMs in Android Application Vulnerability Analysis
No full textThe increasing frequency of attacks on Android applications necessitates a comprehensive understanding of the capabilities of large language models (LLMs) in identifying potential vulnerabilities, which is key to mitigate the overall risk. To this end, the work at hand compares the ability of nine state-of-the-art LLMs to detect Android code vulnerabilities listed in the latest OWASP Mobile Top 10. Each LLM was evaluated against an open dataset of over 100 vulnerable code samples, including obfuscated ones, assessing each model’s ability to identify key vulnerabilities. Our analysis reveals the strengths and weaknesses of each LLM, identifying important factors that contribute to their performance. Additionally, we offer insights into context augmentation with retrievalaugmented generation (RAG) for detecting Android code vulnerabilities, which in turn may propel secure application development. Finally, while the reported findings regarding code vulnerability analysis show promise, they also reveal significant discrepancies among the different LLMs.JRC.T.2 - Cybersecurity and Digital Technologie
EUSO/ESDAC Newsletter No 178 - July 2025
No full textThe July edition of the EU Soil Observatory (EUSO) newsletter is now available, providing the latest highlights and insights on soil-related research and policy developments within the European Union.JRC.D.1 - Forests and Bio-Econom
A proposal for the re-organization of coupled and decoupled links and of the various force terms in EUROPLEXUS
Get PDFThis report presents a proposal for the re-organization of the implementation of coupled and decoupled links in the EUROPLEXUS code. In addition, the various force terms are better defined, especially in view of easier, clearer and more efficient post-processing.JRC.E.2 - Space, Connectivity and Economic Securit