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.
The consumption of plastic products in the EU creates significant environmental and social impacts along the whole value chain. Whilst the EU has in place a range of policies and legislation relevant to plastics, this briefing outlines some additional recommendations to address the potential negative spillovers from the pursuit of greater plastics circularity.
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.
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.
The 2010 EU Industrial Emissions Directive (IED) is one of the cornerstones of pollution control in the EU establishing a regulatory regime covering industrial activities that may cause pollution (to air, water and waste). The European Commission is proposing to amend the directive, which may cause legal divergence between the EU and UK. However, it is important to consider how industry is regulated in practice beyond the legal texts and compare this in the UK and in different EU member states.
The EU is moving ahead on its ambition to develop and implement a European circular economy, as ambitioned by the new Circular Economy Action Plan (CEAP) and its subsequent proposals. However, this objective is inherently intertwined with the rest of the global trading system, in addition to continuous geopolitical developments which risk complicating an already complex transition.
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.
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.
This event is organised for experts from civil society, academia, and government with knowledge of digitalisation, sustainability, and/or environmental justice. The results will be used to inform an analysis paper for the German Environment Agency.
This briefing reviews existing evidence on the impact of environmental degradation on European food availability in the long run, if food systems are to remain as they are. It focuses on climate change, biodiversity loss and soil degradation.
Building a more circular economy is key to sustainable growth and addressing challenges like climate change. The uptake of the circular economy is increasing worldwide, and cooperation on an international level is key to unlocking the benefits of scale tied to a global circular economy.
To reduce the impact of the war in Ukraine on global food security, many European actors propose to increase production in the EU, regardless of the associated environmental costs. This blog post intends to refocus the debate on more fundamental concerns highlighted by the food crisis.
As EU leaders meet in Versailles, energy is set to be a key topic. But leaders must ensure that the decisions they make to break away from Russian energy push the EU in the direction of sustainability, argue European sustainability think tanks.
This study analyses the water needs of the agricultural sector in France, Spain and Romania and the related public interventions planned in the national recovery plans. Based on the results obtained at the national level, it proposes a set of recommendations and changes needed on farms to adapt to current and future water availability.
EU Member States with greener tax systems tend to also have more progressive tax systems and lower inequality. Opportunities for fair, green tax reform are being missed in the recovery from COVID-19.
The new EU Soil strategy offers a policy framework to achieve good soil health in Europe by 2050. To reach this goal, there is a strong need to ensure an effective legal framework for soils coherent with other key EU policies such as the proposal for a nature restoration law, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), and the Land Use Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) regulation.
The European Commission proposes a complementary Delegated Act to the EU Taxonomy, which would see nuclear power and fossil gas eligible for sustainable finance. IEEP’s Ben Allen gives his account of the discussion.
This new report finds that EU polluters are not currently paying for most of the environmental damage they cause and explores how taxes and other economic instruments could help to better apply the polluter pays principle.
This new report explores challenges related to the future management of waste batteries from electric vehicles, focusing on the approaches taken by the European Union and the Republic of Korea.
