A public hearing on ‘Creating the right incentives for the green economy’ was organised by the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) in Brussels on 29 October 2013. Sirini Withana, Senior Policy Analyst in IEEP’s Environmental Governance Programme gave a presentation at the hearing on ‘Obstacles to phasing out environmentally harmful subsidies and how they can be overcome’. Her presentation builds on a study carried out by IEEP in collaboration with IVM, Ecologic Institute and VITO for the European Commission in 2012 on phasing out environmentally harmful subsidies.

The hearing brought together experts from the European Commission, OECD, think tanks and NGOs to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of current financial and economic instruments including the use of environmental fiscal reform and efforts to phase out environmentally harmful subsidies. Discussions at the hearing will feed into the preparation of an own-initiative opinion being developed by the EESC on this topic.

For more information about the event, click here.