Agriculture & Land Management

Latest in Agriculture & Land Management

• Natural resources policy – the next frontier?

  Improved resource efficiency is considered the core environmental challenge alongside climate change. A new IEEP paper reviews the mixed results of previous EU Natural Resources policy and suggests a number of ways forward.

• EU Natural Resources policy: Signposts on the roadmap to sustainability

  The EU is committed to building improved resource efficiency into its economic strategy, starting with a “roadmap” this year. A new paper from the Institute sets out the challenges, reviews the mixed results of previous EU policy in this area and suggests a number of ways forward. Both a broad vision and an array of practical policy initiatives are required.

• Taking into account opportunity costs when assessing costs of biodiversity and ecosystem action

  The study provides an estimate the costs of biodiversity action in the EU with special consideration of opportunity costs.

• Funding Natura 2000

  The study assesses the successes and shortcomings of the existing EU framework for funding Natura 2000 and identifies possibilities for improving these financing arrangements in the future.

• The Interactions between European Policy Drivers for Increasing the Use of Biofuels in Transport

  Ian Skinner and Bettina Kretschmer explain the complex interaction mechanisms between the EU’s Renewable Energy Directive and the Fuel Quality Directive.

• The Land-Use Implications of EU Bioenergy Policy: Going Beyond ILUC

  A new IEEP briefing discusses some of the modelling work that is undertaken in support of quantifying the land use change impact of biofuel use.

• Bioenergy in the National Renewable Energy Action Plans: Issues and Uncertainties

  Bogdan Atanasiu’s analysis of National Renewable Energy Action Plans reveals that more than half of the renewable energy which EU Member States expect to consume annually by 2020 will consist of bioenergy.

• Public Goods and Public Intervention in Agriculture

  What is the justification for spending a substantial sum on supporting agriculture in Europe? Is the principle public money for public goods? If so, what are the public goods, how ...

• Farmland Abandonment in the EU: an Assessment of Trends and Prospects

  Assessment of recent agricultural abandonment in the EU and its causes, and likely future abandonment according to expected trends in drivers

• Valuing and Conserving Ecosystem Services: a Scoping Case Study in the Danube Basin

  The report for WWF provides an assessment of the value and status of some key ecosystem services in the Danube Basin, and some policy instruments to support them.

• IEEP Comments on the Commission’s Blueprint for the CAP post 2013

  The European Commission has launched its outline proposals for a significant reform of the Common Agricultural Policy. Entitled ‘The CAP towards 2020: meeting the food, natural resources and territorial challenges of the future’, the Communication represents a potentially...

• The Indirect Land Use Change Impact of the Use of Biofuels in the EU

  A new IEEP report analyses the indirect land use change (ILUC) impact of the substantial additional biofuel usage that will be generated up to 2020 by the targets under the EU renewable energy Directive. The report has recently been updated to include all 27 NREAPs.

• IEEP Analyses the Impact of EU Biofuel Policy on Land Use Change

  A new IEEP report analyses the indirect land use change (ILUC) impact of the substantial additional biofuel usage that will be generated up to 2020 by the targets under the EU renewable energy Directive...

• Evaluation of Cross Compliance in the EU 25

  IEEP's two-part evaluation of Member State approaches to cross compliance implementation in the EU 25 is now available.Under Regulation 1782/2003 Cross Compliance was introduced as a compulsory measure ...

• EEA Report Highlights Abandonment and Intensification Threats to Mountain Areas

  IEEP Analysis Briefing: Agriculture and Rural Development

• Paper 1: Achieving a transition away from CAP direct payments – study published

  This IEEP paper ‘Achieving a transition away from CAP direct payments’ for the Land Use Policy Group (LUPG) examines a range of transitional arrangements that could facilitate a shift in the basis of CAP payments away from the current system of support, towards one based on a rationale more focused on the provision of environmental goods and services.

• Scoping the Development of the Environmentally Sustainable Production Agenda – paper published

  This IEEP paper ‘Scoping the Development of the Environmentally Sustainable Production Agenda’ for the Land Use Policy Group (LUPG) sets out the key issues and questions that need to be considered for the establishment of a Sustainable Production Agenda for Europe and explores the implications of these issues for the development of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) for the period 2013 – 2020...

• Paper 2: Scoping the Development of the Environmentally Sustainable Production Agenda

  This paper sets out the key issues and questions that need to be considered for the establishment of a Sustainable Production Agenda for Europe and explores the implications of these issues for the development ...

• Paper 3: Developing a More Comprehensive Rationale for EU Funding for the Environment

  This paper evaluates the case for using state intervention to reverse existing environmental degradation and deliver improvements, before focusing specifically on the rationale for intervening at the European ...

• Paper 1: Achieving a transition away from CAP direct payments

  This paper examines a range of transitional arrangements that could facilitate a shift in the basis of CAP payments away from the current system of support, towards one based on a rationale more focused ...