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.
Mitigating negative social impacts and maximising positive social impacts of climate and energy policies are central to building the political and social acceptability of the energy transition. If well-designed, the Fit for 55 package can lay the foundation for a just transition in Europe. Each of the files assessed in this briefing has the potential to deliver significant social benefits while accelerating the decarbonisation of the EU 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.
Modelling of the distributional impacts of the proposed Energy Taxation Directive reform and Emissions Trading Scheme extension shows these polluter pays policies can help fight inequality and the climate crisis.
Think Sustainable Europe, the network of sustainability think tanks coordinated by IEEP, welcomes four new members, expanding its membership to now 13 organisations across Europe.
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.
According to a new semi-systematic literature review conducted by IEEP, supported by five case studies, the single most important factor in unlocking local and regional socio-economic benefits of renewables is the degree of ownership of the resources within the region. This is a robust finding across many types of regions, technologies, and research methodologies.
This report examines the socio-economic effects of renewable energy deployment at the regional level in the EU and identifies on this basis factors that are conducive to an equitable energy transition.
On 16 September, several stakeholders came together at a workshop to discuss sustainable biomass supply and the role of bioenergy in the EU going forward. But how much agreement can be established?
Bioenergy and the reliance of biomass sources, is expected to play a crucial role in delivering the European Green Deal and in decarbonising the energy system to support achieving climate neutrality by 2050. But how sustainable is it, and what are the implications of revised Renewable Energy Directive (RED III)?
Agriculture is out of the green list for climate action, risking its access to much needed private capital to support the sector in both its sustainability transition and in responding to the adaptation needs in light of a changing climate.
European tax systems today are neither fair nor green. But a new political grand bargain on tax is now possible that can help boost jobs, fight inequalities and bring Europe’s economy back inside our planetary boundaries. Here’s how.
Batteries are one of the pillars of the low-carbon energy transition. IEEP has prepared a response to the Commission’s public consultation on batteries.
Bank deposits increased rapidly in the EU in 2020. This is linked with the uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. How can public institutions help align consumption decisions to the EU’s climate ambitions?
Pick just about any measure of climate policy, and the EU leads the US. It has a higher share of renewable energy in electricity generation, better energy efficiency, and per capita emissions less than half those of the US. But on cutting emissions from transport, Europe could soon find itself playing catch-up.
This IEEP-led study examines the EU policies and associated issues at EU level that play a role in driving or mitigating bioenergy impacts on biodiversity.
This report provides input to the ongoing development of the EU Sustainable Finance Taxonomy with a particular focus on the biodiversity and ecosystem objective.
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.
