The COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating impact on our health, social and economic well-being. To avert future crises from spiralling out of control, strategies to prevent pandemics need to be in place before the next outbreak occurs. Until now, this has not been the case.
The COVID-19 crisis has led to major changes in Europeans’ consumption habits, but our planet’s resources are not infinite, and the way we consume them today is not sustainable.
IEEP has submitted feedback to the European Commission’s public consultation on the EU trade policy review, providing pathways on how to green trade, while supporting the EU’s recovery and delivering the EU’s commitment to the SDGs.
IEEP has submitted feedback to the European Commission’s public consultation, calling for a circular economy-compatible carbon border adjustment mechanism with the aim of delivering the EU’s climate objectives in a synergetic manner.
This briefing paper provides an overview of the current technical and scientific knowledge and additional research needs for the achievement of pesticides and fertiliser reduction objectives under the Green Deal.
A recent online event moderated by IEEP’s Marianne Kettunen and hosted by the EU office of the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung Foundation discussed the role of trade policy in the EU Green Deal in the post-COVID-19 context. The event provided insights from experts from the European Commission, the European Parliament, and the European Climate Foundation.
The revised multiannual financial framework (MFF) and the recovery package announced by the European Commission include €55 billion of new funding for the cohesion policy, sending an important signal when the entire EU project is at risk due to clashing visions of what European solidarity means in the post-COVID-19 context.
The COVID crisis has been a concrete lesson on the interdependency between the different elements of sustainability. The response needs to be equally all-inclusive, with Sustainable Development Goals providing a suitable framework.
The EU's new biodiversity strategy is an ambitious, constructive and coherent strategy that delivers on the commitment from the EU and its Member States to protect the living world and implement national strategies and action plans to achieve it.
This policy brief reflects on the challenges of a carbon border adjustment mechanism in the post-COVID-19 economy and explores the role environmental product standards can play to complement the mechanism.
This graph, put together by IEEP, shows that not only has humanity not succeed in reducing emissions following warnings on climate change, the emissions have, in fact, also grown substantially, and we have now emitted as much since 1990 as in all of history before that time.
The following analysis assesses to what extent actions included in the new EU Circular Economy Action Plan that relate to demand may help reduce environmental pressures and contribute to a more circular European economy within the boundaries of the planet.
Ursula von der Leyen and her Commission have taken important steps to green the European economy and simultaneously promote competitiveness as part of the European Green Deal. The communication on a new industrial strategy is one more significant policy initiative.
The shift to a circular economy in the EU will not be sustainable by default. It will only be so if it reflects the implications both within and outside the EU.
Ahead of the publication of this year's country recommendations for the European Semester, this paper identifies priorities and modalities for the reform of the Semester so that it becomes a key instrument for operationalising the SDGs and implementing the European Green Deal at Member State level.
The EU has been actively promoting trade as a tool that fosters sustainability, both globally and within partner countries. The European Green Deal, forming the blueprint for EU policy- and decision making for the upcoming five years, univocally reconfirms this role and objective of the EU trade policy.