Natural Resources & Waste
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Latest in Natural Resources & Waste
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Tackling marine litter with the circular economy and the EU Plastics Strategy
IEEP identifies how the EU Plastics Strategy and Circular Economy Action Plan provide a unique opportunity to address marine litter and its impacts.
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Plastics, Marine Litter and the Circular Economy
Briefing and three product fiches explore circular economy solutions for reducing the flow of plastic waste into the oceans.
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How can Planetary Boundaries guide environmental policy in Europe and globally?
Planetary Boundaries are a scientific approach to exploring critical thresholds to resource use. How can this concept become relevant for policymakers?
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The cascading use of woody biomass in the EU – challenges, opportunities and policy solutions
Improving the resource efficient use of wood through cascading the resource from one use to another, requires action throughout the wood flow. Current efforts focus on recovering and re-using waste wood but more could be done with the production and utilisation of wood processing residues and improving the balancing between the material and energy use of wood.
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IEEP sets out new sustainability criteria for biofuels post 2020
Defining effective and workable sustainability criteria for biofuels is one of the critical steps in decarbonising Europe’s energy sector. Such criteria must provide the necessary safeguards for the use of bioresources in Europe, as well as the policy and investment certainty required for sustainable deployment.
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Sustainability criteria for biofuels post 2020
Defining effective and workable sustainability criteria is one of the critical steps in decarbonising Europe’s energy sector. They must provide the necessary safeguards for the use of bioresources in Europe, as well as the policy and investment certainty required for sustainable deployment.
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Mapping study on the cascading use of wood products
Promoting the cascading use of wood through policy is one approach to improve resource efficiency and increase the overall availability of wood for use in a variety of sectors.
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A circular bio-economy in the European agriculture and forestry sectors
IEEP experts call for bridging the circular and bio-economy concepts, to support the transition of Europe’s land using sectors to a more resource efficient and sustainable future.
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New open access book on marine litter
A new book, 'Marine Anthropogenic Litter', has been published comprising 16 chapters on various aspects of the complex issue of litter in the world’s oceans. Researchers from IEEP contributed a chapter on the economics of marine litter. The whole book is free to view online.
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Priorities and policy options to support the circular economy
New report by PSI, IEEP, BIO and Ecologic provides an initial scoping assessment of priorities and policy options to support the transition to a circular economy in the EU.
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Policy mixes addressing natural resources: learning from real world experiences
This report synthesizes the assessment of policy-mixes in different sectors. It identifes the factors characterising effective policy-mixes and some of the most frequent shortcomings in policy-mix design.
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On the path to a circular economy
Read the lastest edition of our newsletter for our views on the circular economy package and much more.
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What do we mean by Green Economy?
What is the Green Economy? What policy actions can contribute to achieving it? And how have EU-funded research projects supported these actions?
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Green Economy in the European Union
Elements of the green economy concept are relatively well integrated in EU strategic documents - but the focus is on achieving green/sustainable growth, rather than achieving a ‘green economy’.
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EU waste law: the challenge of better compliance
Waste management in the EU is improving, but implementation by the Member States of EU waste legislation remains patchy. This paper makes suggestions on how better compliance could be achieved.
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Economic instruments to improve waste management
This report investigates a range of economic instruments in place in the EU Member States to improve waste management. It focuses on disposal taxes, pay-as-you-throw systems and producer responsibility schemes, and attempts to assess their contribution to waste management performance.
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Review of the Waste Thematic Strategy
This report supported the European Commission’s review of the Thematic Strategy on the Prevention and Recycling of Waste. It summarises available data on waste management in the EU, assesses progress towards the EU becoming a ‘recycling society’, outlines the achievements of the Waste Thematic Strategy, and makes recommendations for the development of future EU waste policies.
Highlights
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Plastics, Marine Litter and the Circular Economy
Briefing and three product fiches explore circular economy solutions for reducing the flow of plastic waste into the oceans.
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The cascading use of woody biomass in the EU – challenges, opportunities and policy solutions
Improving the resource efficient use of wood through cascading the resource from one use to another, requires action throughout the wood flow. Current efforts focus on recovering and re-using waste wood but more could be done with the production and utilisation of wood processing residues and improving the balancing between the material and energy use of wood.
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Sustainability criteria for biofuels post 2020