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Climate Change & Energy
Energy
Energy use, including that of the transport sector, is the main contributor to EU carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. We support the development of policies for innovation and improvement in these sectors, striving for sustainable and appropriate solutions to the challenges facing society.
We work to ensure support is properly tailored to deliver the best climate and environmental outcomes from energy policies. We have experience in a wide range of energy policy issues; the examples below give a flavour of our work in this area.
Reducing energy use
According to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), approximately 80% of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions can be attributed to the production and consumption of energy. The decarbonisation of the both the global and EU economies can only be reached with the reduction of energy use and the extensive deployment of renewable energy sources.
Energy use can be reduced through:
Increased energy efficiency, of buildings, appliance and resource use; and
Demand management, including better consumer information and awareness.
Renewable energy technologies and planning
Size matters when it comes to renewable energy technologies, as does the underlying planning process. An IEEP report for the RSPB, Positive planning for offshore wind, highlights the need for sensitive planning for renewable energy installations. Such installations are not a magic solution and care is needed to ensure they benefit rather than harm the environment.
Bioenergy and biofuels
Bioenergy in general, and biofuels in particular, have gained increasing momentum both politically and commercially over recent years. If it is to form a sustainable part of the energy mix of the future, the use of bioenergy must, like any fuel or technology, take account of potential environmental, social and economic side-effects. Currently our work focuses on:
The sustainability of bioenergy policy;
The development of sustainability criteria for biofuels; and
Land use issues.
Carbon capture and storage: public perceptions and appropriate siting of plants
IEEP’s recent work on carbon capture and storage (CCS) has focused on the non-technical barriers to CCS development. In large part this has centred on public perceptions and acceptance of CCS plants, including evaluation of the communication strategies used to inform stakeholders and the wider public of the advantages and risks of CCS, and effective ways to involve them in local decision-making. More on this initiative: www.communicationnearco2.eu
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.
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.
The EU should do far more to reduce its dependence on imports of energy and critical raw materials. This would help the union preserve its independence in an increasingly dangerous world.
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.
This blog was written by Michael Nicholson, Head of UK Environmental Policy at the Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP), who attended COP26 as an IEEP delegate. The statements expressed in this blog do not necessarily represent the views of IEEP.
EU bioenergy and its use of biomass have several impacts on the biophysical system. This report provides a meta-review of the use of biomass within biophysical limits in the context of the EU Green Deal.
The European Commission’s ‘Fit for 55’ package of proposals would extend EU-wide carbon pricing from around 22 percent of EU greenhouse gas emissions today to over two thirds of EU emissions by 2030, according to an initial analysis by the Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP).
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.
The final report of an IEEP-led study for the Pacific Community entitled ‘Towards greener taxes and subsidies in Pacific Island Countries and Territories’.
The European Parliament’s first reading opinion on the recast of the Renewable Energy Directive, moves some steps forward in the debate on sustainable use of biomass for energy in Europe. However, the devil is in the (considerable) detail set out in the adopted text.
There is mounting interest in biomass to provide heat, power and, transport fuels but also as a basis for alternative products for replacing plastics, and other fossil fuel derived commodities. How can the bioeconomy and the bioenergy sector evolve to deliver sustainable, coordinated and efficient use of resources?
Circular economy policies are proliferating and increasingly linked with other policy areas, including climate change. As seen at COP23, the circular economy can be better exploited to decarbonise the economy.
In November, IEEP will lead three workshops in French Polynesia, Vanuatu and Fiji, looking at how to green taxes and subsidies in various economic sectors.
On 30th November, the European Commission published a “Winter package” of policy proposals, including for bioenergy in the form of a revised Renewable Energy Directive. Although encouraging to answer the many requests for policy certainty, a number of key questions about the right and most appropriate approach to deliver sustainable bioenergy still remain and need further scrutiny.
IEEP will share its expertise on environmental taxation and the reform of environmentally harmful subsidies at a forum event on greening taxation and subsidies in the Pacific region during the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Hawaii.
Claude Turmes MEP hosted an event launching both IEEP’s report and a debate on the future of renewable energy in Europe. In the our report IEEP present how a resource efficient energy system might be delivered in a way that minimises impact on biodiversity and the wider environment.
IEEP, with Danish consultancy Ramboll, has evaluated the contributions of the 2007-2013 Cohesion Policy programmes to energy efficiency in public and residential buildings.
