Natural Resources & Waste
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Latest in Resource Use
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Marine microplastics: IEEP contributes to report leading to UN Environment Assembly resolution
IEEP contributed to a major international report leading to a UN Environment Assembly Resolution calling for global action on marine plastic litter and microplastics.
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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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Biofrontiers – sustainability critical to the development of advanced biofuels
Adherence to effective and workable sustainability criteria is an essential requirement when using public support to incentivise advanced alternative fuels.
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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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Reaching for the blue gold: interdisciplinary approaches to support water management
A new report by the European Policy Centre (EPC) summarises the existing evidence on the role of water in supporting human wellbeing. IEEP contributed to insights on the policy instruments available for sustainable water management.
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Assessing sustainable biomass availability
Dr. Ben Allen presented IEEP’s views on the sustainable use of biomass at an international conference in Brussels. Understanding the scale of the resource is a key part of determining appropriate policy intervention and ensuring commercial viability.
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How to stimulate a bio-economy based on waste? – A study for the UK Government
Waste resources have the potential to provide a core component of developing bio-economies across the globe. A new IEEP report reviews how waste has been incorporated into existing bio-economy strategies, and the conditions that have enabled this.
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Building a high value bioeconomy in the UK: opportunities from waste
The UK is exploring opportunities to develop a high value bioeconomy based initially on waste. IEEP is helping to identify international best practice examples in order to maximise the environmental and economic benefits of this new Government initiative.
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The Manual: Chapter 7 - Resource use
This is a chapter of IEEP’s Manual of European Environmental Policy. This is a chapter of IEEP’s Manual of European Environmental Policy. This chapter illustrates the variety of EU laws, policies and guidance documents that have been adopted to improve the efficiency of our use of natural resources and to reduce environmental impacts throughout a product's life cycle.
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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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Environmental policy and the UK’s review of the EU Balance of Competences
The UK Government’s Balance of Competences review has now taken evidence on 25 subject areas, including the 6 with the most relevance for the Environment. We take stock of the IEEP’s contributions, and consider what a possible UK renegotiation might mean for the environment.
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Steps towards greening in the EU
Despite some positive steps, further efforts are needed to achieve the transition to a low-carbon, resource efficient Europe.
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Recycling wastes and residues for sustainable bioenergy and biomaterials
What should be Europe’s role in feeding the world in 2050, considering competing demands for land? This IEEP report for the European Parliament describes options for reusing food wastes and agricultural and forestry residues for biomaterials and bioenergy.
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
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Reaching for the blue gold: interdisciplinary approaches to support water management
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How to stimulate a bio-economy based on waste? – A study for the UK Government
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EU Natural Resources policy: Signposts on the roadmap to sustainability