Material consumption in the European Union is high and rising, creating significant environmental and social impacts along the value chain from raw material extraction to treatment of waste both inside and outside the EU. Several circular economy initiatives have been put forward or are expected to be implemented to slow and reduce this material throughput and therefore to mitigate its environmental and social consequences. However, all circular economy policies can have positive as well as negative environmental and social spillovers, which should be carefully assessed in policy design.
In her plans for 2023 addressed to the EU Parliament, President of the EU Commission von der Leyen did not mention the proposal for a Sustainable Food System legislative framework (SFSF). This created speculation about the timeframe of this key proposal which has been put forward as a cornerstone of the EU Green Deal for the agri-food sector. This blogpost, co-signed by members of the Think Sustainable Europe network, underlines the importance of the SFSF to be proposed next year in order to drive a sustainable transition of the EU food system, given the urgency of such a transition.
Eero Yrjö-Koskinen, currently Director of the Finnish Institute in Hungary (FinnAgora), has been appointed IEEP's new Executive Director. He will join the Institute on 2 November succeeding Ben Allen who has been acting as Executive Director ad interim, since the departure of Céline Charveriat.
In early 2022, IEEP created the Green Trade Network, a group of experts from over 20 European research organisations working on the trade and environment nexus. You will find here information on the network's activities as well as the editorial from its latest newsletter. Don't hesitate to subscribe!
For many foreign observers, and not a few UK citizens, the peculiarity of the British political system, where approximately 0.3% of the population gets to elect the leader of the political party in power (and thus indirectly elect the new Prime Minister) has been a source of puzzlement. Not surprisingly, the rights and wrongs of this have absorbed copious newspaper columns and articles and the debate feels far from settled.
To date, the EU has agreed a set of non-binding biodiversity objectives and actions in its Biodiversity Strategy for 2030. Central to this is a new nature restoration Regulation (Restoration Law) proposed by the European Commission with legally binding restoration targets for ecosystems habitats and species.
In May 2022, IEEP announced an enhanced focus on UK environmental policy and the appointment of a new Director. The Institute hopes to play an increased role in the analysis, reflection and debate that will accompany the changes induced by Brexit.
IEEP is a partner in the new SHARED GREEN DEAL project that will use innovative social experiments to support the objectives of the European Green Deal, involving local communities across Europe. The project has received five million euros from the European Union's Innovation Programme Horizon 2020.
On 29 and 30 June 2022, IEEP and IDDRI welcomed members of the Think2030 platform at Sciences Po, Paris to discuss the implementation status of the European Green Deal. This report is a summary of a two-day discussion among national and EU-level policymakers, experts, representatives of civil society and the private sector on how to make the Green Deal a reality.
When Ursula von der Leyen presented one of the most ambitious political projects to date in EU history, aiming at making Europe the first climate-neutral continent, nobody could imagine that just a few months later, an unprecedented pandemic would lock down the whole EU. Yet, and despite strong pushes to derail the European Green Deal agenda as an immediate reply to the crisis, the Green Deal stayed afloat and was even slightly boosted through the national recovery and resilient plans.
An often-repeated slogan holds that the fight against climate change will be won or lost in cities. Cities drive many pioneering solutions at the local level; however, they face a number of challenges in advancing the progress on climate. The new EU mission Net Zero Cities has the potential to advance their role in the ecological transition but does not come without its challenges.
The European Commission has put forward a highly ambitious new Trade and Sustainable Development Action Plan, but how far does it go to deliver sustainability in free trade agreements?
Improving circular material use by industry is key in delivering Europe's circular economy. The main regulatory instrument, the Industrial Emissions Directive, supports this to some extent and the recent proposal by the Commission to amend this will provide further impetus. However, there are limits to what regulation can achieve.
The circular economy involves a major paradigm shift, with economies transitioning away from a take-make-waste model to a sustainable model. In order to facilitate a just transition to a global circular economy the EU must seek to cooperate with its trade partners.
The European Commission held a public consultation to collect views on the implementation of the EU Pollinators Initiative and gather suggestions on how to strengthen the current framework on wild pollinators to meet its long-term objective to reverse the decline of pollinators by 2030.
Co-organised by IEEP and IDDRI and hosted in Sciences Po in Paris, the Think2030 conference is back for its third edition with a special focus on the priorities for the implementation of the European Green Deal.
Two years after publication of the EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2030, we take stock of the implementation of its targets and commitments, and of the progress that has been made since.
The circular economy involves a major paradigm shift, with economies transitioning away from a take-make-waste model to a sustainable model. The EU is a global leader and adopted its ambitious Circular Economy Action Plan under the Green Deal in 2020.
