IEEP is looking for an experienced policy analyst to join the Climate and Circular Economy team. We are looking for a candidate who likes to take initiative and feels comfortable working in a small and dynamic team.
Governments have shown less political will to support biodiversity conservation targets than for climate targets, but the two are actually interdependent and should be tackled together to reach our 1.5°C goal. COP15 is a crucial opportunity for them to adopt a bold Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework and achieve a nature-positive world by 2030.
Now that COP27 has come to a bitter end, the world’s attention has turned to Qatar for this year’s next big climate event. With the last eight years on track to be the warmest on record, we dig into the carbon footprint of this year’s FIFA World Cup and what the lack of accountability around it means for global efforts to fight climate change.
After experiencing the worst summer drought in 500 years and an unusually warm October, EU policymakers should be determined to make the Green Deal a success. The only way to make this happen is to tackle – once and for all – our food system, which is economically, socially and environmentally unsustainable, from the sowing of the plants we eat or feed, to the animals we farm, to our consumption patterns.
The UN Climate Change Champion for COP27, Dr Mohieldin, is right to make agriculture and food system transition the focus of the COP in Egypt this week. So far, the role of industrial agriculture systems in driving global warming has been ominously absent from international climate fora. Yet the issue of reducing industrial meat production – critical for achieving Paris goals – is the big cow in the room at COP27.
We must invest in our environmental future, not only to heal our planet but heal our society. Our social and cultural wellbeing is intrinsically tied to the environment and climate we live in.
While world leaders are currently preparing themselves for yet another UN Climate Change Conference – COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, the Institute for European Environmental Policy calls for decision-makers to address the need for a paradigm shift in economic, social, and environmental policies.
For the EU to maintain credibility as a climate leader at COP27, its upcoming Fertiliser Strategy must advance the sustainable farming agenda, not subsidise its fertiliser industry.
IEEP is looking for a contractor to develop and carry out a stakeholder consultation survey on the implementation of the European Green Deal. More information can be found in the download.
Environmental law is not untouchable and should be reviewed and amended where necessary, but the Retained EU Law (Reform & Revocation) Bill is based on a flawed approach unlikely to yield strengthened environmental legislation.
IEEP is recruiting a new Head of Programme for the Climate and Circular Economy team. The successful candidate will play a leading role in influencing the design and implementation of ambitious European zero carbon and climate economy legislation and policies.
In the last 30 years, the amounts of CO2 emissions have increased at a rate faster than ever before in history. IEEP has calculated that they would need to be reduced twice as fast in order to stay well below a 2°C increase.
Today, wildlife-rich habitats and key species group numbers are in decline, prompting governments to produce legislation to protect them and reverse downward trends. In order to do so, the EU has proposed targets for biodiversity and nature conservation, as well as the UK, and its four constituent nations. However, the extent and scope of these protections need to be properly assessed to ensure that targets are to be met in the future.
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.
