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

  • New IEEP Programme on the Green Economy

    IEEP strengthens its focus on the Green Economy with a new dedicated programme, coming on stream as from May 1st.

  • Nature and the green economy – IEEP contributing to China’s eco-civilisation drive

    IEEP’s Patrick ten Brink presented on Nature and its Role in the Transition to a Green Economy at the TEEB Multi-stakeholder International Workshop held on 21-22 January in Beijing, China. The talk contributed to current discussions in China on how decision-makers can better consider the multiple values of nature and ecosystems, with a focus on protected areas.

  • 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.

  • Sectoral resource mobilisation to implement global biodiversity targets

    There is an urgent need to find sufficient resources to enable developing countries to implement the global targets for biodiversity by 2020. Financing the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity from different sectoral funding flows can complement global biodiversity financing.

Related

Highlights

  • Sectoral resource mobilisation to implement global biodiversity targets

    There is an urgent need to find sufficient resources to enable developing countries to implement the global targets for biodiversity by 2020. Financing the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity from different sectoral funding flows can complement global biodiversity financing.