Serban Scrieciu
Şerban is an honorary senior research fellow (Bartlett School of Environment, Energy, and Resources) and a teaching fellow (UCL Summer School) at University College London, where he leads the summer module "Economics for Sustainability: Climate Change and Social Inequalities". He is also employed with the European Commission in Brussels (currently on personal leave), where he works on the economics underpinning EU climate, energy, social and industrial policy proposals and assessments. Şerban is the founder and director of the freshly established Interdisciplinary Climate Economics for Nature and Society (ICENS) lab, which encourages pluralism in economic thinking and interactions between economics and the arts and humanities.
Şerban’s background is in the economics of sustainability, particularly on the economics of climate change mitigation action. He has worked not only in academia (e.g. University College London, University of Cambridge, the University of Manchester), but also in the international policy environment (e.g. European Commission, the United Nations Environment Programme). His most recent policy work was on drafting EU legislation on supporting the manufacturing of low-carbon technologies in Europe (the Net Zero Industry Act - NZIA). Şerban is natively from Romania, with an MA degree from the University of Sussex and a PhD from The University of Manchester in UK. When time permits, he also enjoys urban photography, and discovering places and cultures.
Şerban’s background is in the economics of sustainability, particularly on the economics of climate change mitigation action. He has worked not only in academia (e.g. University College London, University of Cambridge, the University of Manchester), but also in the international policy environment (e.g. European Commission, the United Nations Environment Programme). His most recent policy work was on drafting EU legislation on supporting the manufacturing of low-carbon technologies in Europe (the Net Zero Industry Act - NZIA). Şerban is natively from Romania, with an MA degree from the University of Sussex and a PhD from The University of Manchester in UK. When time permits, he also enjoys urban photography, and discovering places and cultures.
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In many cases, during communism, agriculture was not considered a strategic branch for a nation's development. An ecological consciousness did not figure high on the agendas of authoritarian regimes. After 1990, some post-communist farm economies progressed slower than others, and environmental pressures mostly diminished with agricultural restructuring. In parts of CEE, increases in numbers of low-input small farms have resulted in some, though largely unintended, ecological benefits. A dual environmental challenge has nevertheless surfaced. On one hand, environmentally unsustainable practices have been attributed to some low-input farming. On the other hand, risks of farm over-intensification and resource overexploitation are on the rise. Also, environmental regulatory and institutional frameworks are not always effectively in place.
EU membership is not creating the anticipated benefits for farm growth. There are a number of systemic structural barriers preventing many farmers from drawing on Common Agricultural Policy incentives and support. The presence of many vulnerable poor farms is clearly problematic, particularly economically. However, small-scale farms could be made more acceptable and profitable by ensuring EU policies acknowledge their value and by building institutions to support alternative farm growth strategies, aside from the traditional European model of individual corporate farm expansion. The voluntary uptake of grassroots rural cooperation and farm associations may represent such an alternative. Future European farm policy reforms need to reach the small and vulnerable, and better tackle issues of farm equity, poverty, and agricultural sustainability in the new Europe. This is a timely contribution as this type of "transition" has just begun. This book should be of use to students and researchers looking at agricultural and environmental economics, post-communist rural societal change, European integration and the Common Agricultural Policy. It may be also useful and of high relevance to policy analysts and those involved in agricultural and rural development policy-making in the region or in other countries facing similar problems.