Fight against organised environmental crime

Topic description

ExpectedOutcome:

Projects’ results are expected to contribute to some or all of the following outcomes:

• Improved intelligence picture of organised environmental crime in Europe, modus operandi of such criminal organisations, both offline and online;
• Improved tools and innovative training curricula for European Police Authorities and Border Guards Authorities, validated against practitioners' needs and requirements, to help them tackle criminal activities related to environmental crime, supported by advanced digital technologies and including the lawful court-proof collection of crime evidence as well as environmental crime statistics;
• Improved cooperation between European Police Authorities, Border Guards Authorities and other national Authorities involved in tackling this form of crime, including on goods not released for free circulation (e.g. in transit, warehousing etc.);
• Improved cooperation with third countries and international actors involved in the fight against environmental crime;
• Enhanced ability of security practitioners to identify and prevent emergent and existing organised crime networks involved in environmental crime;
• Increased ability of public services to detect places of illegal waste storage;
• Improved shaping and tuning of regulation related to the fight against environmental crime by security policy.

Environmental crime breaches environmental legislation and causes significant harm or risk to the environment, climate and/or human health. Environmental crime is highly lucrative, but the sanctions are low, and it is often harder to detect than more traditional forms of organised crime. These factors also make it highly attractive for organised crime groups. These crimes present a high risk for the environment, climate and health, and are very harmful to society as a whole. The extent of the problem is clearly demonstrated by waste trafficking, which is characterised by the clear interconnection between criminal actors and legal businesses.

Nowadays waste traffickers operate along the entire waste-processing chain, rely on the use of fraudulent documents and group with other types of organised criminal activities. Police Authorities and other relevant security practitioners need new means, both technological and intelligence-based, to prevent and combat illegal environment-related activities, such as illegal waste dumping, waste trafficking and the illegal trade of refrigerants including ozone depleting gases and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). Innovative solutions are needed to support Police Authorities and other relevant security practitioners in finding polluting substances intentionally dumped in land and water (by, e.g., developing or improving existing technologies able to differentiate such substances from non-pollutant components, possibly involving remote sensing approaches), in detecting hazardous waste (e.g., fuel or electronic equipment), and in having a complete intelligence picture of this type of crime (such as modus operandi of the crime organisations involved in this type of crime, both offline and online).

The illegal trade of ozone depleting gases and HFCs also remains a significant obstacle to international efforts seeking to limit the worst impacts of climate change. Here, smuggling activities using in particular the custom transit procedures need to be addressed. Furthermore, one of the main issues with understanding the scale and specific issues are problems in developing comparable EU crime statistics. Therefore, activities proposed within this topic should address both the technological and societal dimensions of environmental crime in a balanced way, as well as the needs of Police Authorities and other relevant security practitioners. Connections with other forms of crime should be tackled too, as well as with other forms of environmental crime, which, similarly to illegal waste, pose a risk to health and society and are also reflected in Commission regulations – illicit wildlife trafficking, forest fires, illegal timber trade etc.

The international dimension, a crucial element in certain environmental crimes, should be analysed as well, including but not limited to the smuggling processes of illegal waste and refrigerants. Thus, both Police and Border Guards Authorities should be involved in the consortia, in order to tackle effectively all aspects of this crime. A particularity with environmental crime is the variety of actors involved at national level (inspection authorities, sanitary bodies etc.), so their participation would be welcome in the consortia.

Coordination with successful proposals under topic HORIZON-CL3-2021-FCT-01-08, HORIZON-CL3-2021-FCT-01-10, HORIZON-CL3-2022-FCT-01-05, HORIZON-CL3-2022-FCT-01-06 and HORIZON-CL3-2022-FCT-01-07 should be envisaged so as to avoid duplication and to exploit complementarities as well as opportunities for increased impact. Proposed activities that could also link with security research for border management (e.g., border checks) would be an asset. If relevant, the proposed activities should attempt to complement the objectives and activities of the EU Policy Cycle (EMPACT). If applicable and relevant, coordination with related activities in the Digital Europe Programme should be exploited too. Due to the specific scope of this topic, in order to achieve the expected outcomes, international cooperation is encouraged. The testing and/or piloting of the tools and solutions developed in a real setting with one or more Police Authorities and other relevant authorities is an asset; regardless, applicants should plan to facilitate the uptake, replication across setting and up-scaling of the capabilities - i.e. solutions, tools, processes et al. – to be developed by the project.

In this topic the integration of the gender dimension (sex and gender analysis) in research and innovation content is not a mandatory requirement.

Activities are expected to achieve TRL 6-7 by the end of the project – see General Annex B.

International Cooperation