For more than half a century, the European Union's agricultural policy has focussed primarily on increasing agricultural productivity and the cost-effective production of food. This policy paper provides recommendations for action that are largely possible without amending the EU treaties.
As the European Green Deal enters its delivery phase, a fair, participatory energy transition is vital. This report explores tools to ensure that EU policies balance environmental sustainability with social equity, fostering resilience and inclusion.
The Soil Atlas 2024 not only highlights the consequences of the global loss of fertile soil, but also shows the potential of sustainable and fair land use for climate protection and biodiversity.
Europe has set out on the path to achieve climate neutrality by 2050, and all countries must identify how to deliver this objective. While various technology options are available, the need for vast amounts of cheap renewable energy is certain. The shallow, windy northern seas have long been recognised as a key opportunity to deliver renewable electricity at scale and recent reductions in the costs of offshore wind have led countries to set ambitious targets for deployment.
The EU faces critical decisions on energy infrastructure planning and deployment to meet its climate goals, aiming for a 55% emissions reduction by 2030 and net-zero by 2050. A 100% renewable energy system, eliminating fossil fuels and nuclear energy is seen as the most viable solution. However, current EU energy infrastructure policy and planning are insufficient, risking lock-in to outdated technologies.
In order to advance the European energy transition and distribute the costs and benefits more fairly, the EU must find better steering instruments. This policy paper provides recommendations for the necessary acceleration of the European energy transition.
The European Green Deal has successfully guided the EU through a pandemic and a historic energy price crisis. But will the new European Commission keep course and continue it? How will the new European Parliament, which saw a shift to the populist right, position itself? Will opponents delay crucial files or water down its level of ambition, as suggested during the election campaign? Or will inaction by EU Member States lead to a failure of implementation?
What will happen with key European Green Deal key files in the new EU legislative cycle? We take a closer look at legislation on CO₂ emission performance standards for cars.
What will happen with key European Green Deal key files in the new EU legislative cycle? We take a closer look at the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS).
What will happen with key European Green Deal key files in the new EU legislative cycle? We take a closer look at the EU Emissions Trading System 2 (ETS2) covering fuels used in buildings and road transport.
Critical raw materials and rare earths are of great economic importance for the European Union. This publication reflects the raw materials situation in four neighboring European countries: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Georgia, and Armenia.
The European Union faces the enormous challenge of having to achieve the necessary climate targets it has set itself, while at the same time increasing industrial competitiveness and ensuring public services of general interest. A sustainable European financial architecture based on three pillars is needed to finance these green-social investments at EU level. It is presented in this policy paper.
The fourth edition of the European Green Deal Barometer, the annual survey by the Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP), gathers sustainability experts’ views on the progress of the European Green Deal’s implementation. The 2024 EU elections are considered by sustainability experts to negatively impact the European Green Deal implementation. However, these experts believe the agenda will be maintained by the new European Commission.
Core services, including energy, food, water, housing and healthcare, are essential for a decent standard of living. The economic dynamics of these services in Europe, however, vary greatly, particularly in the extent of commercialisation. Essential healthcare stands out as a service delivered largely outside of the market; by contrast, food and energy are commercialised in most
European countries. The commercialised status of energy in Europe can have an impact on living standards, particularly when accompanied by inadequate regulation.
The climate crisis and energy price explosion have made it clear: the EU cannot afford its dependency on fossil fuels anymore. How to deal with these enormous challenges? Our 100% Renewable Action Plan for the next European Commission describes what needs to happen after the 2024 European elections to harvest the benefits of renewables.
It is very clear that if the EU wants to make a fair contribution to the effort to limit temperature rise to 1.5°C, it will need to follow the recommendation of UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and aim for achieving net-zero GHG emissions by 2040 rather than by 2050. This means the new EU 2040 target should become a net-zero target. It makes sense for the EU to set a very ambitious 2035 target of around 95% net GHG emission reductions at the same time.
The Europe Sustainable Development Report 2023/24 (5th edition) provides an independent quantitative assessment of the progress by the European Union, its member states and partner countries towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
This study shows that climate change requires central bank intervention and that – in anticipation of climate risks – the ECB can and should double down on its pledges to green central bank activities. Against this background, the report identifies numerous concrete policy options, from enhancing green tilting approaches in asset purchasing programmes to offering favourable refinancing terms to banks engaged in green lending.
The project CAP Strategic Plans co-organised by ARC2020 with the Good Food Good Farming network is now completing its fourth year since its launch in 2020. 2023 can be seen as the end of a policy reform cycle and beginning of a new one for the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
The World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2023 (WNISR2023) provides a comprehensive overview of nuclear power plant data, including information on age, operation, production, and construction of reactors. It also includes a special focus chapter assessing Nuclear Economics and Finance.
A edição portuguesa do Atlas Europeu da Mobilidade 2021 da Fundação Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung, em cooperação com a European Green Foundation, analisa os principais factos e números sobre transportes e mobilidade na Europa, contribuindo para os esforços em prol de uma mobilidade sustentável e justa. Os seus capítulos são dedicados a diferentes dimensões e áreas políticas relacionadas com os transportes e a mobilidade: caminhos-de-ferro, ciclismo, digitalização, clima, Covid-19 e muito mais.
Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung European Union and Environmental Action Germany (Deutsche Umwelthilfe) have convened a group of over 20 experts from academia, industry, civil society and policy makers to discuss and identify several important policy gaps in the EU’s approach to renewable energy, which should be addressed to ensure that the EU’s new climate and industry agenda becomes as effective and globally equitable as it can be.
The European Commission has proposed a reform in the electricity market design. Both the technical implementation of the reform and the notion that marginal pricing is to blame are contested, and have significant implications with regard to investments in renewable energy sources (RES). This factsheet summarizes the key changes proposed in the reform, whilst focusing on their effects regarding the integration of RES into the European energy system and the flexibility potential required to achieve this integration.
To meet the EU climate targets, policymakers need to support both the rapid deployment and manufacturing of cleantech, while also strengthening the EU’s research and innovation ecosystem. Next to this, they need to consider a range of questions. How will their policy response deliver quality jobs for citizens? How will it bolster the EU’s resilience vis-à-vis Russia or China? And finally, how will it support the EU’s economic competitiveness in an era when large economies have entered a cleantech race? This factsheet reviews existing EU funding initiatives to accomplish this endeavour.
The Peatland Atlas 2023 highlights the consequences of the destruction of these unique habitats, but also the potential of wet peatlands for mitigating climate change.
In several countries in the EU, as well as in the Brussels corridors of the European Union institutions, a vehement debate is currently taking place regarding the demand for more nuclear power. Only five years ago, this attention hardly existed. This study looks at the sudden surge in attention for nuclear energy and tries to understand the role of different actors on the side of the nuclear lobby. It investigates the case of the Netherlands, which turned from a de facto nuclear phase-out country to one where expansion of nuclear energy is currently under preparation, as well as the European Union, where a large minority of Member States have brought nuclear back to the table in many climate-related legislative debates.
This collection of brief essays shows the diverse views on the European Single Market, whilst unveiling green visions for the next 30 years. What unifies these different takes — ranging from environmental and consumer standards, Brexit, lobbying and more — is the understanding that the European Single Market remains a cornerstone of European Integration.
As part of the “European Green Deal”, the European Commission committed to introducing a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) in late 2019. It tabled the legislative proposal in summer 2021. The measure is controversial, and many questions remain. What is the right timeframe for its implementation? How to use the generated revenues? What about climate justice considerations?
The Europe Sustainable Development Report 2022 is the fourth edition of our independent quantitative report on the progress of the European Union, its member states and partner countries towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This year's report is a special edition in support of the upcoming EU Voluntary Review and the next United Nations' Heads of State Summit on the SDGs. To that end, this year's edition also presents 10 contributions from scientists and practitioners on ways to strengthen the EU's SDG leadership at home and internationally.
As we write this in March of 2022, our review of the year 2021 is overshadowed by Russia’s brutal war of aggression against Ukraine. Because of this, not only foreign policy, but also domestic politics have now entered a new era.
The Pesticide Atlas raises awareness, provides comprehensive information and fosters nuanced debate around agrochemicals used for pest control. It sheds light on different aspects from scientific research, including the impact of pesticides on soils, waters, biodiversity and health, and highlights alternative models with a more stringent implementation of integrated pest management where synthetic substances are only a last resort option.
The World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2022 (WNISR2022) assesses the status and trends of the international nuclear industry. It provides a comprehensive overview of nuclear power plant data, including information on operation, production, construction, and decommissioning. It assesses the status of new-build programs in existing as well as in potential newcomer nuclear countries. The report also compares the development of nuclear power and renewable energy globally.
The EU must put an end to unabated fossil gas use by 2050 at the latest to comply with its climate neutrality objective. To stay within the Paris Agreement target of 1.5°C, the use of unabated fossil gas would have to end significantly earlier – by 2035. This report outlines the implications of this challenge for the management of the energy transition in a way that rapidly phases out Russian gas imports, protects security of supply and energy-poor consumers as well as the climate.
This publication aims at contributing to the emergence of a transformative economic thinking, integrating environmental, social, and economic dimensions, after the wreckage of neoliberal economic thought that clearly has reached its date of expiry. It is the product of a collaboration of the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung, the ZOE Institute for Future-Fit Economies, and Finanzwende Recherche.
Current discussions about growing food on fallow land are missing the point: the price-reduction effect would be very low. This publication argues that it would be better to provide financial aid to the most vulnerable countries in the Global South.
Ukraine was among the first EU neighbours to announce their readiness to contribute to the European Green Deal and a high-level EU-Ukraine dialogue on this topic has already commenced. However, what are the contours of Ukraine’s engagement with the EGD and how will it move forward?
The analytical commentaries of this issue discuss the prospects for a just green transition in the Western Balkan countries and their particular contexts of structural injustices in the societies and transition legacies. The fundamental economic and technological changes for a decarbonisation of the widely coal dependent economies in the region need to be accompanied not only by another attitude to nature and biodiversity but also by a new set of social relationships and innovations in governance and civic participation.
Este documento es un complemento a la versión en español del “Atlas Europeo de la Movilidad 2021” de la Fundación Heinrich Böll y la Fundación Verde Europea, en cooperación con la Fundación Transición Verde y la Fundació Nous Horitzons.
El transporte y la movilidad sostenibles son fundamentales para hacer frente a la crisis climática y alcanzar los objetivos del Pacto Verde Europeo. Sin embargo, el transporte hoy representa casi el 30 por ciento de las emisiones de CO₂ dentro de la Unión Europea. ¿Cómo puede la UE reducir sus emisiones de transporte y movilidad al mismo tiempo que conecta a los ciudadanos, crea empleos verdes y lidera la innovación en el sector?
Il trasporto e la mobilità sostenibili sono fondamentali per affrontare la crisi climatica e raggiungere gli obiettivi del Green Deal europeo. Tuttavia, i trasporti oggi rappresentano quasi il 30% delle emissioni di CO₂ all'interno dell'Unione europea. In che modo l'UE può ridurre le emissioni dei trasporti e della mobilità mettendo in contatto i cittadini, creando posti di lavoro verdi e guidando l'innovazione nel settore?
The report covers a range of important aspects of Europe’s agri-food and rural policy, and includes some brand new content, while also bringing together the ARC2020's work during 2021. It includes an overview, an analysis of the initial European Commission recommendations, analyses of aspects of CAP in Germany (Green Architecture), Bulgaria (High Nature Value) Poland, Italy, precision farming, and finally CAP and EU relations to third countries.
The Europe Sustainable Development Report 2021 is the third edition of our independent quantitative report on the progress of the European Union and European countries towards Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The report was prepared by teams of independent experts at the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) and the Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP).
On the basis of experience from working closely together with communities living near mining sites, the authors have identified various ways how to implement environmental due diligence on the ground. This can be useful both in drafting legislation and considering its practical implementation.
A continuing insistence on nuclear will be detrimental to our ability to power a Just Transition: while the jobs it creates are few and primarily for the highly skilled, its enormous costs will likely result in austerity policies.
The notion of geoengineering includes a wide array of technologies that seek to intervene in and alter earth systems on a large scale – a “technofix” to climate change. There are many reasons to be wary of these technologies. They do not address the underlying causes of climate change themselves, anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, thereby delaying the implementation of a transition away from fossil fuels. Moreover, as they are very pricy, they redirect funding and investments away from real climate solutions.
The World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2021 (WNISR2021) assesses the status and trends of the international nuclear industry, and contains several focus chapters, including a first assessment of Nuclear Power and Climate Change Resilience. A special Fukushima Status Report – 10 Years After provides an overview of ongoing onsite/offsite challenges, health impacts, judicial decisions, and cost estimates of the disaster. Chernobyl – 35 Years After the Disaster Began looks at advances in the cleanup and remaining challenges. For the first time, WNISR dedicates a chapter to the problem of Nuclear Power and Criminal Energy.
There is hardly any other food that pollutes our environment and the climate as badly as meat. However, no government in the world currently has a concept of how meat consumption and production can be significantly reduced. But if the sector continues to grow as it has up to now, almost 360 million tons of meat will be produced and consumed worldwide in 2030. With ecological effects that are hard to imagine.
The findings of this joint policy brief challenge the flawed underlying assumptions of the original EU Joint Research Centre (JRC)’s assessment, published in April 2021, which concluded that nuclear energy is detrimental neither to people nor to the environment. These concern chiefly four aspects: the role of nuclear energy for power generation in the EU27; nuclear waste management; the risk assessment of nuclear technologies; and nuclear proliferation.
This report maps the gender gaps and opportunities in the EU’s flagship European Green Deal. It explores how, though gender issues affect environmental policies and vice-versa, they are not integrated into the European Green Deal, and provides recommendations on how to move from gender-blind to gender-transformative environmental policies. These include intersectional and gender equal environmental objectives, moving towards a feminist economy of well-being and care and ensuring the use of gender mainstreaming methodologies in environmental policies.
The debate in France today on choosing the electricity mix is set against the backdrop of an ageing production infrastructure that is earmarked for replacement. So, what electricity mix is the answer? And does the country need to build new nuclear reactors in order to have decarbonised electricity?
Nuclear energy has been brought back into the European energy debate due to populist power. Currently, a complex debate is taking place within the EU about whether nuclear power should be part of the Taxonomy for Sustainable Activities. To determine whether nuclear energy can, or even should, play a role in future energy policy, it must fulfil basic criteria of sustainability.
Sustainable transport and mobility are key to tackle the climate crisis and to achieve the targets of the European Green Deal. However, transport today accounts for nearly 30 percent of the CO₂ emissions within the European Union. How can the EU reduce its transport and mobility emissions while connecting citizens, creating green jobs and leading the innovation in the sector?
Transport amounts for more than 30 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in Europe. Mobility is a key element of the interconnected European Union and its neighbours. Rail is and has been the way to connect Europe sustainably, by night trains and high-speed connections. The sustainable showcase projects have been chosen in order to raise the interest in ‘special’ new mobility projects.
Throughout 2020, ARC2020’s Matteo Metta, along with Hans Wetzels and Rosa Melina Armijo Campos have worked on the Common Agriculture Policy, CAP, specifically the unfolding of the CAP Strategic Plans process. This work has formed the content of their dedicated CAP Strategic Plans section, and the new report which has been compiled from these policy analysis pieces.
The Europe Sustainable Development Report 2020 is the second edition of an independent quantitative report on the progress of the European Union and its member states towards Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The report was prepared by teams of independent experts at the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) and the Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP).
With the increasing deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies across society, it is important to understand in which ways AI may accelerate or impede climate progress, and how various stakeholders can guide those developments.
The rate of deforestation in Amazonia during the Bolsonaro era has risen dramatically, now also spurred by the Covid-19 crisis. This publication takes closer look at the complex social, economic and political causes of deforestation and land degradation in the so-called "lungs of the planet".
The World Nuclear Industry Status Report (WNISR2020) assesses the status and trends of the international nuclear industry and analyzes the additional challenges nuclear power is facing in the age of COVID-19. For the first time the report includes as specific chapter analyzing nuclear programs in the Middle East as the first reactor started up in the Arab world.
Both in Germany and internationally, the debate on the pricing of greenhouse gas emissions is experiencing a renaissance. However, an enlightened and realistic discussion of ways and means is needed so that CO2 pricing instruments can play a stronger role in climate policy. In this study, climate and energy expert Felix Chr. Matthes of the Öko-Institut examines the relevant elements of a CO2 pricing strategy. He gives an overview of design criteria and mechanisms of action.
The World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2019 (WNISR2019) provides a comprehensive overview of nuclear power plant data, including information on age, operation, production and construction.
The EU is the world's largest trading bloc. It provides the biggest export market for around 80 countries; and EU Member States account for 16% of world imports and exports. Consequently, the EU has a considerable impact on third countries through trade, including the way in which international trade is conducted and how environmental and wider sustainability related aspects are addressed. This policy paper explores what a truly green EU trade policy under the EU Green Deal should look like.
This special edition of Perspectives was compiled with the Heinrich Böll Foundation’s North Africa offices and the Transform Africa project. It is dedicated to the emerging conversation of alternative approaches that challenge the historical bias towards the industrialisation of agriculture and the food system as the main strategy to address food insecurity while preparing for a +2°C world.
This briefing is an overview of the EU’s plans to fund and boost climate action. It also provides policy guidelines and recommendations to EU institutions and national governments as to how to finance a European Green Deal and ensure a smoother transition to a climate neutral economy. Furthermore, it advises civil society organisations on how to engage in the process and ensure a consistent and independent monitoring of progress that will be made in the coming years.
The 2019 Europe Sustainable Development Report compares the performance of the EU and its 28 member states on all 17 SDGs and provides detailed country profiles using a mix of data sources. As the new European Commission prepares the European Green Deal, the report sheds light on the key economic, social and environmental sustainability challenges faced by the member states and the European Union as a whole in their progress towards SDGs.
The amount of nuclear waste is growing worldwide. But even 70 years after the beginning of the nuclear age, no country in the world has found a real solution for the radiating legacy of nuclear power.
The present study, authored by scientists from different backgrounds, makes the eloquent case for such a reflection, pause, and reassessment. The publication is recommended to any reader concerned about our oceans' future.
Plastic is ubiquitous: we use it for life-saving medical devices, clothing, toys and cosmetics; we use it in agriculture and industry. But we also know the growing risk of plastic waste in the environment, landfills and the oceans. We have only just begun to understand the huge dimensions of this crisis. A change of course requires in-depth knowledge of the causes, interests, responsibilities and effects of the plastics crisis. The Plastics Atlas 2019 wants to offer exactly that in 19 chapters.
The EU, its institutions and all Member States must prioritize urgent action in order to implement the Paris Agreement's goal to limit the increase in temperatures to 1.5°C. The MFF 2021-2027 is the last investment cycle to help change course, and a stronger climate performance is urgently needed to reach our 2030 climate targets.
In voter surveys, the German Greens regularly come out as the party deemed to have by far the greatest competency in this area and in energy policy as well. This study by Arne Jungjohann tries to answer if this image is justified, as it looks at the subnational level of the federal states.
Facts and Figures on EU Farming Policy: No other economic activity is so closely interwoven with the human and natural environment as is agriculture. If farming changes, so too the ecological and social systems that it hosts must change. The Agriculture Atlas shows how closely Europe’s agriculture is intertwined with our lives and our living space and pushes for a better, fundamentally different set of agricultural policies.
The World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2018 (WNISR2018) provides a comprehensive overview of nuclear power plant data, including information on age, operation, production and construction. WNISR2018 has put particular attention to seven Focus Countries representing about two thirds of the global fleet.
The paper outlines the environmental dimension of the European security policy and security-related foreign policy and discusses how the integration of environmental concerns into this policy framework could – and should – be improved to support the delivery of the 2030 Sustainability Agenda, both in the EU and globally.
Being one of the wealthiest regions in the world, the EU has a lot to give when it comes to the delivery of SDGs in the global context. However, as one of the world’s biggest consumers and trading blocs it also has a lot to answer.
The rapid development of Indonesia’s palm oil industry, particularly over the last four decades, which to some extent has been ‘development at all costs’, has generated significant revenues but has caused simultaneously massive environmental degradation. Human rights violations in palm oil plantations are also widely documented.
Limiting global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial is feasible. This publication is a civil society response to the challenge of limiting global warming to 1.5°C while also paving the way for climate justice.
For a long time, the issue of climate change has been approached primarily from an environmental rather than a social perspective. As climate effects on communities have been increasingly felt around the planet during the past decade, the perception of impacts on communities has increased around the globe.
The European Energy Atlas shows a clear alternative: It not only provides a compass on the different energy discussions in different Member States but also reveals how a Europeanization of the energy transition will be the more efficient and cost-effective option for all Europeans.
The study demonstrates the complexity of climate co-funding, the local obstacles in host countries, and the inadequacy of supervisory procedures. It also shows the importance of integrating climate change, human rights and gender equality policies into the development of geothermal projects and their enforcement at country level.
Indonesia is the world’s largest palm oil producer and exporter. Human rights are being violated in the plantations and the rising exploitation for renewable energy and biofuels brings further violence and criminalisation. How can the EU contribute to a sustainable palm oil production in Indonesia to best preserve nature and human rights?
How to plan and design renewable energy projects as a way to fulfill domestic climate commitments? A Mexican case study into wind farm projects in Oaxaca and infringements of the rights of indigenous peoples.
The EU is still getting to grips with the need to transition to a fully decarbonised economy, the political economy challenges of deep decarbonisation, the need to develop a regime to manage climate risk, and with aligning its own efforts with those of non-state actors such as cities and progressive businesses. How does climate governance fit within the ‘Future of Europe’ process led by the European Commission?
Without the ocean there would be no life on our planet. But the future of this unique ecosystem faces a grave threat today. The Ocean Atlas 2017 delivers with its 18 contributions and 50 graphics the relevant facts and figures about the ocean.
Linking human rights and a gender-responsive approach to climate actions, can avoid harmful unintended consequences and maximize social benefits of programmes and projects. This interim report provides a general assessment of how to effectively integrate human rights and gender equality as well as the broader SDG agenda into EU climate actions.
