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Climate Change & Energy
Mitigation
Our work on mitigation mainly focuses on the energy, transport and land use sectors. Determining the effectiveness of climate change mitigation policies requires the ability to think across sectors – climate change does not respect geographical or policy borders. IEEP’s multidisciplinary nature and range of policy expertise ensures our analysis and recommendations are realistic, sustainable and do not conflict with other environmental objectives.
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.
Implementation of mitigation legislation in EU Member States
IEEP undertook a review, commissioned by the European Climate Foundation, of the prospects for implementation of the 2009 EU climate and energy or CARE package in the 27 EU Member States. The study looked at the likely timing and form of transposition, as well as the likely effectiveness of the policies and the ability of Member States to reach the goals outlined in the package, such as non-ETS (EU Emissions Trading System) measures and progress on renewable energy.
The EU Emissions Trading System
The EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) is a cornerstone of EU climate change mitigation policy. We have reviewed its implementation in Member States and identified best practice. IEEP co-authored a report Business Action on Climate Change - Where Next after Emissions Trading? evaluating the policies to help business take action on climate change, specifying recommendations for simplifying and strengthening the policy framework. We have analysed the issues arising in linking the EU ETS to other emissions trading schemes. For VROM (the Dutch Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment) we addressed the key issues in the review of the EU ETS monitoring and reporting guidelines in preparation for the Commission review of the Directive in 2006.
Carbon capture and storage
‘Catching’ the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions produced by power plants and storing them deep underground has the potential to reduce the quantity of CO2 emitted in the production of energy-using fossil fuels. But carbon capture and storage (CCS) is still a very new technology, and its true effectiveness and safety are not yet proven. IEEP has a portfolio of past work examining the non-technical barriers to CCS development, and we are involved with work on the public acceptance of CCS. This includes evaluation of the strategies used to communicate the advantages and risks of CCS to stakeholders and the wider public, and effective ways to involve them in local decision-making.
Now that COP27 has come to a bitter end, the world’s attention has turned to Qatar for this year’s next big climate event. With the last eight years on track to be the warmest on record, we dig into the carbon footprint of this year’s FIFA World Cup and what the lack of accountability around it means for global efforts to fight climate change.
The proposed EU regulation for nature restoration offers a unique opportunity to tackle both biodiversity loss and climate change through an integrated approach. Restoring ecosystems is essential to safeguard their carbon storage and enhance their sequestration capacities as well as increasing resilience and adaptability to the impacts of climate change. This policy brief highlights the key contributions that the proposed regulation can make to mitigating and adapting to climate change.
We must invest in our environmental future, not only to heal our planet but heal our society. Our social and cultural wellbeing is intrinsically tied to the environment and climate we live in.
While world leaders are currently preparing themselves for yet another UN Climate Change Conference – COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, the Institute for European Environmental Policy calls for decision-makers to address the need for a paradigm shift in economic, social, and environmental policies.
In the last 30 years, the amounts of CO2 emissions have increased at a rate faster than ever before in history. IEEP has calculated that they would need to be reduced twice as fast in order to stay well below a 2°C increase.
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.
The 26th edition of the United Nations Climate Change Conference ended in Glasgow on 13 November. In the fallout of the negotiations, Michael Nicholson, Head of UK Environmental Policy at IEEP, gathered experts from two member organisations of IEEP’s Think Sustainable Europe network to try and give an overview of what COP26 meant for global action against climate change.
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.
The EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) proposal, as it currently stands, is legally sound but requires to be improved through a more rapid phase-out of free allowances and the mobilisation of revenues for climate justice.
Countries joining the Global Methane Pledge have committed to reducing global methane emissions by at least 30 percent from 2020 levels by 2030. But there is a lack of attention on emissions from the agriculture sector, although they account for most of the global methane emissions.
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).
EU Member States recently published their National Recovery and Resilience Plans. These plans will form the basis of the lion’s share of EU spending to implement the European Green Deal, but cities have barely been consulted in drafting these plans.
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.
The growing awareness among governments of the central role of climate change in public policy has led a number of administrations to develop mechanisms for a better understanding of how the public finance system prioritises climate policy outcomes.
This policy brief examines the way that soil is incorporated into the EU climate policy architecture and gives recommendations for enhancing its position in that architecture.
