Global Challenges and Solutions

Our Work

The EU’s imprint on both the global environment and on environmental policy has been sizeable. It is expected to remain important in the years ahead, even as major economic players and new political dynamics emerge. How should Europe’s role evolve in a changing world? What has Europe got to offer and to learn? How can its own policies align better to global imperatives? We seek to explore these questions from nearly forty years of experience of policy making in the EU and its Member States.

EU policies have both global aspirations and implications. The EU aims to support sustainable development in third countries through its external policies and assistance programmes. At the same time a range of EU policies (trade, energy, agriculture and fisheries etc.) have direct and indirect impacts on land-use, natural resources and ecosystems as well as on the pattern of economic development at the global scale. While EU policies can – and indeed should - promote environmental and social good practice and avoid precipitating damage beyond its borders, the Union can also learn from other countries’ experiences and approaches to addressing environmental challenges.

IEEP’s work in this sphere focuses on the global dimension and external impacts of EU policies, both positive and negative alike. We aim to support the development of environmental and environment-related policies with global implications as well as feed into relevant international processes and discussions. These include follow up to the Rio+20 Conference and the development of Sustainable Development Goals for the post-2015 period. Our key areas of work include addressing the global challenge of biodiversity conservation, mobilising finance to support a shift towards a sustainable global green economy, addressing the global environmental impacts of EU policies, and enhancing environmental policy dialogues with Europe’s neighbours and partners.

 

More about our work in this area...

Latest in Global Challenges and Solutions

  • IEEP at CBD COP13: Europe’s experience with innovative financing mechanisms for biodiversity conservation

    IEEP’s work on innovative financing for EU biodiversity conservation was presented in Cancun, Mexico at the 13th Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity.

  • Greening taxes and subsidies in the Pacific

    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.

  • Looking beyond Paris

    The latest edition of IEEP's newsletter is now available. David Baldock argues that in the next six months the EU has a substantive role in contributing to agreement on an ambitious but credible set of SDGs and more stretching climate targets. Also: energy efficiency and security; bioeconomy; and circular economy.

  • Making green fiscal reform happen

    Overcoming obstacles to green fiscal reform is the subject of a new paper and blog by IEEP. The paper will be presented at the annual conference of the Green Growth Knowledge Platform in Venice next week.

  • Evaluating international experiences with environmental tax reform

    Today, there is close to 25 years of experience with environmental tax reforms (ETR), with a growing number of countries engaging in ETR for various reasons. International experiences provide important insights on the design and implementation of ETR to facilitate more effective use of such instruments in the wider policy mix.

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