The UN Climate Action Summit was intended to galvanise increased ambition from Member States and non-state actors. Unfortunately, despite some unusually bold diplomatic moves on the part of the UN, the world's large emitters have not met that challenge.
Following the impressive demonstrations by young people around the world, the issue of intergenerational equity will be at the centre of the UN climate summit in New York.
Europe’s 2020 strategy and the 7th Environmental Action Plan were conceived before the SDGs, the Paris agreement and before some of the recent advances in scientific understanding of planetary boundaries, and of the scale of interconnected challenges to come. In light of the severity and urgency of risk identified by experts around the world, a new approach is now needed.
Never has a research and innovation framework design exercise been so important to the future of Europe. With a headline budget of €100bn, the Commission is currently engaging with citizens, researchers, policymakers, innovators and others to debate and shape the strategic priorities for Horizon Europe - EU’s future research and innovation framework programme.
Open letter after open letter, scientists are warning us that we are running out of time: the more we wait, the more likely it is that damage will become irreversible. The more we procrastinate, the more painful the decisions we'll have to make.
As we enter a new political cycle for the EU, it is worth pondering whether environmental risks and scarcities feature high enough on Europe’s security agenda.
Keeping increases of global temperature to the Paris target levels could require a land area the size of the EU to change from agriculture to forest says a report published today by IPCC.
One-third of the chemical substances present on the European market today do not fit the EU’s REACH regulation on chemicals. To protect citizens’ health and the environment, significant measures against these substances are therefore of paramount importance.
Building on the evidence collected by the Think 2030 platform and our analysis of the European parties’ manifestos, we recently conducted an informal survey on the achievements of the outgoing Commission vis-à-vis the environment and sustainability, and on what should be the political priorities of its successor.
This analysis by the Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP) compares President-elect of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen’s proposed political guidelines to the latest evidence on the state of Europe’s environment.
The newly elected European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen has pledged a Green Deal for Europe in her first 100 days in office. Last year, we asked sustainability experts from all over Europe for policy recommendations. Here is what a Green Deal that's aligned with SDGs should look like.
IEEP and the European Biogas Association hosted a session at the EU Sustainable Energy Week 2019. The following reflections recollect discussions on the governance of sustainable bioenergy and biogas in the EU.
A new IEEP briefing provides a timely review of the EU’s progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), ahead of the July UN High-level Political Forum (HLPF) and the September SDG Summit. It assesses the progress made, highlights some shortcomings of the EU SDG reporting and provides recommendations for future action.
IEEP's Martin Nesbit was interviewed for the latest episode of France24's Down to Earth programme looking at the impact of Brexit on the environmental regulation in the UK.
Eurostat has just published its annual report on EU progress towards the SDGs. While the report paints a rather positive picture of progress, this should be put into perspective due to some gaps in the methodology.
Despite the alarming scale of biodiversity loss, the EU has not yet fully recognised the disastrous consequences that the scenario would have in the functioning of our ecosystems – not when it comes to political action, at least.
