Environment and
Climate Change
Climate change is a threat to all life, and it is clear that work is needed to combat the negative effects. Thankfully, the development of environmental legislation and international accords like the Paris Agreement are evidence that policymakers are starting to take notice of our warming planet. To understand climate change is to understand the environment around us, and how we as humans affect it through our daily activities. In support of the global fight against climate change, IDRN explores the changing nature of pollution, where environmental responsibility should lie, and how governments and international actors can coordinate to find solutions.
PEF Methodology: Game-changing authentication for green product claims
In the current landscape of emerging green claims, consumer trust in environmental claims is eroded due to the unreliability of such assertions. However, the PEF methodology could serve as an excellent means of conveying information about the environmental performance of products.
Negative Emissions Technologies: Europe’s hope to reach Net Zero?
Negative emissions technologies (NETs) could be a key player in the EU reaching climate neutrality by 2050. However, they also face substantial challenges, such as cost-effectiveness, sustainability, and regulatory frameworks.
Germany’s Energy Taboo: Nuclear and the energy crisis
Germany, for decades, has been opposed to using nuclear energy. As energy prices soar, the Germans need to revisit their energy taboo.
Transparency in Action: The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive explained
The European Commission’s introduction of the CSRD is a major step towards promoting sustainable finance and responsible corporate behaviour in the global challenges of climate change and other sustainability issues.
Washing out the stains: The new regulatory environment
As of 01 January 2023, both France and Germany ushered in new policies impacting fashion and textile firms aimed at curbing misleading labelling practices, bolstering environmental standards, and encouraging transparency along an opaque globalised supply chain.
Illuminating the Climate-Conflict Nexus
As the interlinkages between climate change and conflict are highly contextual, the pursuits for generalisations and one-size-fits-all approaches to climate security are doomed to fail.
Beyond a Cold Winter: Assessing transport’s energy efficiency
The transportation sector accounts for a third of Europe’s energy use. With an energy crisis looming ahead, a re-evaluation of the systems that flow through our urban environments is central to transforming energy efficiency.
The Soil Crisis: The EU soil strategy explained
Around 60-70% of current European soils are not healthy, and so the European Commission acknowledging the severity of the soil crisis has certainly been a positive development.
Towards a Green Europe: Trends, challenges, and the power of cities
While higher-level governments may have more extensive resources, it is cities that are best positioned to ensure that the mobility ecosystem maximises value for its citizens – emphasising principles like sustainability, equity, and accessibility.
Weaning Europe off fossil fuels: Decarbonisation and the Global South
The European Union has emerged and asserted itself as a global leader within the climate discourse. It is essential that its current plans for actions at the transnational level avoid retracing history and instead provide a model of stewardship that will set a precedent for other nations to follow.
The Green Economy: Barriers to Entry
Since the OECD formally launched its Green Growth initiative in 2011, policy makers and business leaders alike have demonstrated significant interest in what has been presented as a new growth paradigm. Rather than placing emphasis on economic growth for its own sake, the Green Growth model prioritises purposeful, sustainable, and inclusive growth.
Refining Strategies for Raw Materials: The EU’s CRMs
For the EU to succeed in an increasingly resource-scarce world, greater self-sufficiency and defence of robust supply chains will be of paramount importance.
Making the EU Go Round with Circularity
The circular economy enables EU citizens to participate in, and benefit from, positive aspects from tackling the environmental problems by changing consumption and production and favouring the sustainable counterpart.
‘Plan on the Ban’: The EU’s Plastic Strategy
The European Parliament must prioritise the restriction of SUP waste by limiting its use and informing the consumers of its effects on the environment in order to prevent it from entering and polluting the ecosystem and to protect our environment.
On the Way to Fit-for-55: The Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism
The European Commission will present a mammoth policy package to reach its emissions reduction targets. The proposal of a carbon border adjustment mechanism has been given particular attention given its ambition and complexity.
Polluting at a Premium: The EU’s emissions trading system
With increasing mainstream financial appeal and other international trading systems being developed, the EU’s ETS will be a useful tool in the fight against climate change. Policymakers will need to remain vigilant to keep it working effectively.
The EU’s Biodiversity Strategy
If the EU truly aims to tackle biodiversity loss and to lead the way in facing the global biodiversity crisis, then it must learn from previous failures and follow through on the ambitious targets laid out in the new strategy.
From Trade Deals to Trawlers: How Brexit rocked the CFP boat
The uncertainty of Brexit provided an excuse for EU policymakers to delay reaching their sustainability targets, but it also shone a light on the outdated inadequacies of the current EU fisheries policy.
Protecting Europe’s Green Deal
The European Green Deal was meant to be the beacon of hope for Europe. However, the repercussions of Covid-19 on the economy might make the EU’s Green Deal impossible to achieve. IDRN explores how it can be saved.
The Inconvenient Truth of Covid-19
The unprecedented economic measures that governments have taken to help deal with Covid-19 makes you wonder about another global emergency that needs the same response – climate change.