RISULTATI RICERCA

Germany is struggling to meet its 2020 greenhouse gas (GHG) emission and climate goals. Against this background, we analyze the current draft National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP) that sets out how Germany aims to achieve its national and European climate goals by 2030. We introduce the current stage of the country’s climate policy and, by looking at the different emission reduction measures under discussion, examine why Germany will probably miss its CO2 emissions reduction goals. We conclude that, based on the climate package announced in September 2019, Germany will get closer to the achievement of its 2030 targets than was anticipated in the NECP draft; nevertheless, the new climate package leaves a significant gap between the new measures and the 2030 climate goals.

Since the French NECP is "embedded" in a now long period of energy transformations, the credibility of this plan must be confronted with the recurring difficulties observed in the implementation of the French energy transition strategy. On one side, this whole process is very ambitious, in line with the French commitment during the COP 21, and accelerates the implementation of the commitment under the Paris Agreement (OECD, 2016). But on the other side, much uncertainty persists. Those uncertainties include: the way and time horizon for reduction of nuclear power; the development of potential substitutes for fossil fuels; the effectiveness of demand side measures. All things considered, while the French commitment to an energy transition is credible, the implementation of a coherent governance system remains challenging in France.

The EU energy & climate policy requests from all Member States to submit a National Energy & Climate Plan (NECP) over the year 2019, to reach the aggregate goals of energy efficiency, renewable energy supplies and greenhouse gas emissions reductions by 2030. The complicated Belgian context is briefly described. Then the many comments on Belgium’s draft NECP are summarized and annotated. Commentators are the European Commission, various statutory advisory councils on energy and climate policies, NGOs, consultants, etc. The draft plan requires significant improvement for meeting the formal standards imposed by the EU framework. More problematic however are the doubts about the actual capability of Belgium to realize the paper & ink commitments. Delving into the draft NECP and the abundant comments created a growing insight that the bureaucratic NECP approach of the European Commission is obsolete and dysfunctional. For addressing the energy & climate challenges, urgent & drastic, i.e. disruptive transformation is requested. Hence, disruptive thinking, novel frameworks and approaches should prevail.

The Austrian National Energy and Climate Plan is based on five so-called target dimensions which are: (i) decarbonization, (ii) energy efficiency, (iii) supply security, (iv) market integration and (v) Research and development. In this article the major measures and policies in these target dimensions of the NECP are described. These are considered by the Austrian government to be necessary to achieve the objectives of the Energy Union. These measures are all planned to be taken between now and 2030. Similar measures already implemented in many areas of action, which need to be adapted or further strengthened. Other action lines include entirely new measures, particularly in those areas where the use of new technologies and solutions requires adapted instruments. However, in the public, the EU and Austrian NGOs the draft of the NECP has been heavily criticized and more ambitious actions have been requested.

This paper is an introduction to the EPEE’s special issue, which examines nine draft National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs). Firstly, we will briefly review the EU’s energy-climate goals for 2020 and 2030 and we will look at its long-term "climate neutral" vision for 2050. We will then assess how successful or not individual member states were in achieving the EU’s 2020 targets and how they can best achieve 2030 goals. In the third section, we will look at the overall achievement objectives for 2030 based on draft NECPs assessed by the European Commission in June 2019. However, we will express some criticism of the planning process required by the Regulation on the Governance of the Energy Union. Finally, we will present the findings of expert contributors from nine EU countries - Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom - who have assessed their respective countries’ energy-climate plans

This article is aimed at checking the degree of contestability of the tenders to allocate the right to deliver the natural gas distribution service in Italy. This check is based on the analysis of the general rules provided by the D.M. 12 novembre 2011, n. 226 and subsequent modification. The degree of contestability is evaluated by estimating the presumable number of ‘noncaptive’ points (out of 100) related to the different criteria. For this purpose, two representative scenarios of the possible calls for tenders are simulated. The paper concludes that this number is relatively limited. Around 15% only (or just above) of the total score would be really "non-captive".

The value creation through production is currently shaped by Industry 4.0, whose paradigm aims at improving industry management and business processes. Through a case study, this research describes the renovation steps, in a manufac-turing environment. The research aims to study how the introduction of digital in-novation helps in making more efficient and time saving production (RQ1), as well as in increasing product quality, enabling on time detection of non-conformity (RQ2). At theoretical level, the research aims to close the gap between the Internet of Things (IoT) application and real-word aspects, analyzing how an industry 4.0 transformation could be modelled and implemented. At managerial level, the study shows how IoT technologies and process digitalization should provide ad-vantages in terms of cost reduction, product quality control, allowing continuous collection of heterogeneous data useful to optimize the production further.

The new accounting standard IFRS 16 Leases is the result of a long process of review of the criteria for recognizing and evaluating the lease on the financial statements. The need to promote a revision of the accounting criteria on leasing has been felt by many players of the financial system. IASB, FASB, EFRAG, financial institutions, auditors and preparers have supported a debate on leasing over the years, which has underlined the im-portance of representing and assessing the operating leases in the financial statements with criteria similar to the criteria utilised for the financial leasing in order to improve the quality and comparability of the financial information. The new standard IFRS 16 Leases will be effective for annual reporting periods begin-ning on or after 1 January 2019 and it will bring significant changes in accounting require-ments for lease accounting, primarily for lessees, replacing the existing suite of standards and interpretations on leases as per follows: - IAS 17 Leases (IAS 17) - IFRIC 4 Determining whether an Arrangement contains a Lease (IFRIC 4) - SIC 15 Operating Leases - Incentives (SIC 15) - SIC 27 Evaluating the Substance of Transactions Involving the Legal Form of a Lease (SIC 27). The purpose of the following review is to analyse some of the main issues arising from the adoption of IFRS 16 Leases supported by the results of a recent effect analysis.

Nowadays we are facing a new phase of capitalism. Information that is beyond financial capital and able to provide a more comprehensive picture of the path towards better transparency and accountability is increasingly needed and requested. A remarkable body of evidence already exists on how large, listed companies are facing this change, but very little is known about the not-for-profit sector. This work aims to analyse if and how new forms of reporting, such as integrat-ed reporting, can be adopted by not-for-profit organisations to illustrate their ef-forts towards an improvement in their accountability processes. To this end, through an interventionist approach, the case of an Italian not-for-profit organisa-tion operating in the collection and redistribution of food is examined. It emerges that, integrated reporting can represent a valuable device that can be adopted also by the not-for-profit sector to improve its accountability. However, in order to be successfully implemented, some modifications have to be made in order to better encounter the specificities of these organisational settings.

A Over the past decade, we have been witnessing an exponential growth in the number of publications on Integrated Reporting, with the aim of exploring challenges, opportunities and implications of its adoption. Given the abundance of studies, which are often characterized by conflicting evidences, it can be complex to pinpoint all the seminal works already published: it raises the need to develop methodologies which can help to screen the existing literature and to detect the articles which contribute the most to the scientific research. However, little is known about structured approaches in accounting studies: thus, in order to extract the backbones of the research tradition on Integrated Reporting, in this paper we apply the dynamic literature review method called "Systematic Literature Network Analysis", which combines systematic literature review and bibliographic network analysis. Furthermore, our findings confirm how this methodology may be exploited as a research tool to support dynamic analyses for drawing agendas for future research in the accounting fields of study.

Integrated reporting (IR), which aims to overcome the limitations of both tradi-tional financial and stand-alone non-financial reports, has gained momentum as a single comprehensive tool merging financial and non-financial information. Initially conceived for private sector entities, IR is also establishing itself in the public sector context as a vehicle for transparency and accountability. This research offers an empirical investigation of IR practices in the State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) context. More specifically, the paper investigates the levels of disclosure provided through IR by a sample of 34 European SOEs and explores the effects of potential explanatory factors. The results indicate a fair level of IR disclosure and a trend of reporting information already requested under international accounting standards. The findings also highlight that industry (basic materials and financials) and size positively influence the level of IR disclosure in a particularly strong way, while governance features (board size and board gender diversity) and the provision of external assurance do not exert any impact.

Purpose Risk-related information is prevalently used in the decision-making process by various counterparties. Therefore, this study investigates how compa-nies conduct their risk-disclosure practice after the new Italian Legislative Decree No. 254 of December 30, 2016. In particular, we draw attention to three aspects: (1) the interaction relationship among risk or risk management (RRM), industry, type of risk, and level of specific disclosure; (2) the variation of specific level of disclosing risk-related information across the industries and types of risk; and (3) the different behavior between risk and risk-management disclosure in the after-math of the regulation’s issuance. Design/methodology/approach The study is based on a sample of large un-dertakings and groups that are subject to the Legislative Decree. Two phases of content analysis were executed to analyze the risk and risk-management disclosure. The research questions were investigated with the row effects loglinear model. Findings Our result shows that there are interaction relationships among RRM, type of risk, industry, and level of specific disclosure. Companies provide risk-related information at different levels of specificity depending on whether the information is risk description or risk management, the firms are operating in manu-facturing or nonmanufacturing, and the type of risk that the firms disclosed in their reports. Practical implications The paper provides evidence of inconsistent company behavior in disclosing company-specific information in favor of internal and ex-ternal stakeholders, particularly by balancing company-specific disclosure be-tween risk descriptions and risk-management policies. Policymakers might also consider this current phenomenon to decide to what extent disclosure requirements should be detailed and, instead, what room should be left for management discre-tion with respect to users’ needs. Originality/value This paper is an up-to-date assessment of Italian firms’ compliance with Legislative Decree No. 254 of December 30, 2016.