Europe’s rural land faces many competing demands for the provision of food, energy and timber, as well as environmental and cultural services.
There is scarcely any true wilderness left in the EU, so the ways in which land is managed affects the quality of the environment as well as the character and social fabric of much of rural Europe.
The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) continues to be a major driver of land use and management decisions. Other sectoral policies, such as those promoting renewable energy, protecting biodiversity and regulating water quality and usage have an important influence too.
IEEP seeks to inform and influence the development of the key EU policies that affect the sustainable use of rural land and to encourage the integration of environmental priorities into these policies.
We provide independent policy research, analysis and advice focussing on ways in which farming and forestry can help to protect Europe’s natural resources and the wide range of environmental goods and services which they support.
Highlights
On 29 and 30 June 2022, IEEP and IDDRI welcomed members of the Think2030 platform at Sciences Po, Paris to discuss the implementation status of the European Green Deal. This report is a summary of a two-day discussion among national and EU-level policymakers, experts, representatives of civil society and the private sector on how to make the Green Deal a reality.
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.
Picking up on the numerous ongoing negotiations on Green Deal files in the legislative procedure, as well as the impact of the war in Ukraine and the energy price hike, the Barometer paints a picture of the Green Deal as it currently stands.
Next week, join 200+ experts for the third edition of the Think2030 conference, co-organised by IEEP and IDDRI at Sciences Po in Paris.
Organised during the EU Green Week, this event will look at the impact of the war in Ukraine on the implementation of the Green Deal.
This brief reviews how far EU Member States’ CAP Strategic Plans address dependence on fertilisers and animal feed, and how action in this area could be stepped up before the Plans are approved by the European Commission.
The Think2030 conference is back for its third edition! This in-person event, co-organised by IEEP and IDDRI, will centre the discussion on European Green Deal implementation by 2024 and beyond.
What’s next for the Green Deal? Contribute to the second edition of the European Green Deal Barometer, IEEP’s annual consultation on the implementation status of the Green Deal.
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.
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.
In 2021, the European Commission committed to ending the use of cages for farmed animals within the EU before the end of 2023, but no estimate of the costs of compliance with the proposed legislation has been published as yet. This report considers the question of which sources of public funding, EU and national, could be used to aid the transition, alongside the contributions of producers themselves and others in the food chain.
This event co-organised by IBMA Global, IBMA France and IEEP will highlight the opportunities that biocontrol can offer in order to reach the objectives of the European Green Deal and the Farm to Fork Strategy.
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.
Carbon farming refers to sequestering and storing carbon and/or reducing greenhouse gas emissions at farm level. It offers significant but uncertain mitigation potential in the EU, can deliver co-benefits to farmers and society, but also carries risks that need to be managed.
The UK is developing an ambitious agri-food strategy based on a liberalised approach to trade policy tempered with safeguarding important standards. This Think Piece commissioned by WWF UK examines the potential for designing Core Environmental Standards (CES) to agri-food products, including those imported to the UK, and aims to offer new impetus and some practical ideas to bring environmental standards into UK trade policy.
IEEP is looking for a contractor to develop and carry out a stakeholder consultation survey on the implementation of the European Green Deal. More information can be found in the download document.
A just transition urgently needs to be planned and enacted for European agriculture. A new paper by IEEP looks into how, at a critical moment in decisions over how CAP subsidies are spent.
A just transition urgently needs to be planned and enacted for European agriculture. This new paper by IEEP looks into how, at a critical moment in decisions over how CAP subsidies are spent.
The European Commission recently announced aiming at banning cages for farmed animals. This IEEP report commissioned by CIWF assesses the feasibility of transitioning towards cage-free farming in France, considering the costs which are associated with the transition and the opportunity for the French market.
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.
