To achieve the objectives of the 2000 Water Framework Directive, it is generally recognized by the EU and member state governments as well as the broader stakeholder community that a more comprehensive policy response will be needed in general, with particular attention to water management.  Such a comprehensive approach is currently being discussed within the context of the ‘Blueprint to safeguard Europe’s Water’ that is currently being prepared by the European Commission to be ready by November 2012.  While the ‘Blueprint’ is an initiative in its ow

In his assessment of the recent agreements struck during the COP 17 negotiations in Durban, November 29th to December 9th, Andrei Marcu concludes in this new CEPS Commentary that global climate change is approaching a new crossroads.

The transition to a competitive low carbon economy is a prime objective of EU energy policy. Increasing the share of electricity generated from RES is essential for reaching this target. Indeed, significant RES-E generation capacity additions are planned all across Europe. In Northern Europe (including the Nordic and Baltic States, Germany, the UK, Poland, the Netherlands and Belgium) a large part of this new capacity will be variable wind energy.

CEPS was a member of a consortium led by the Center for Clean Air Policy (CCAP) with partner organizations including Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftforschung (ZEW) in Mannheim, Germany, Institut du développement durable et des relations internationals (IDDRI) in Paris, Climate Change Capital (CCC) in London. This sectoral study was a proof of concept project that analyses the potential of sectoral approaches to address climate change.

The aim of the APRAISE project (FP7) is to improve the decision basis for EU and national policy makers for selecting an efficient environmental policy mix leading to the transition towards a sustainable European society. APRAISE aims to provide policy makers with an improved understanding of the efficiency, effectiveness and efficacy of existing and potential environmental policies impacts and their interactions at both the European and Member State level.

As part of a framework contract to provide external expertise on energy and climate change policy, this study provided background information and advice for the European Parliament ITRE Committee on measures and actions to be undertaken in the field of new renewable technologies. It assessed the ripeness of new renewable technologies and their deployment potentials, moreover markets and industry structures as well as barriers were analysed.

The project identifies how the existing and forthcoming technologies and service managed and provided by the ESA relate, assist and if possible enhance EU climate change policy objectives in general and in relationship to the 2020 strategy in particular.

This project has three main objectives: 1. Analyse EU and US energy technology road maps, the potential for synergies and opportunities for harmonisation, with the focus on energy R&D aimed at enhanced energy efficiency; 2. Identify joint EU‐US approaches to supporting emerging economies’ own efforts to embrace energy efficient and low carbon technologies; 3. Set the above in the context of the current global economic climate, and the respective EU, US and emerging countries’ actions for economic revival.

This project aims to i) assess the merits and shortcomings of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) according to a set of criteria, ii) inform action at both UN and EU levels to improve the current CDM system and explore a transition from the CDM to sectoral mechanisms, iii) to address these issues particularly in large hydro and energy intensive sectors. This project is led by AEA in collaboration with CEPS, the Stockholm Environment Institute, and CO2logic.

CEPS participates in a consortium under this large-scale integrated projected funded by the EU under the 7th Framework Programme for a period of 48 months. 33 partners, from 17 different countries, from 4 continents will study the interactions between land-use and land-cover changes, socioeconomic changes and climate change. The objectives will be, first, to understand how these factors interacted in the past to produce forest fires and, second, to model future changes in all these components to produce the best available projections on how forest fires might change in the coming decades.

This Policy Brief summarises the emerging regulations at the national level in the US, and offers an assessment of potential emissions reductions under the Clean Air Act. It also describes the efforts at the subnational level, and the interaction of these policies with the Clean Air Act under the particular structure of so-called ‘environmental federalism’. This structure places central responsibility for implementation of regulations at the state level, making the architecture of existing state-level policies increasingly relevant and influential.

According to the EU ETS Directive (Art. 1), the objective of the ETS is to “promote GHG reductions in a cost-effective and economically efficient manner”. Hence, the over-arching objective is cost-effective achievement of a politically given target. By some, including most conventional economists this is construed as a call for the lowest possible EU allowance price, for example allowing the use of as many offsets as possible – provided they reflect real reductions to reach a given objective.

Webpages covering specific topics:

With the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) now entering in its seventh year of operation, this report takes stock of the largest multi-sector greenhouse gas trading scheme in the world. It reviews the experiences of the pilot phase from 2005-07, assesses the adjustments introduced in the second phase (2008-12) and looks ahead to the radical changes that will come into effect in the third phase starting in 2013. The assessment is based on a literature review of recently published ex-post analyses and ex-ante studies and draws as well on our own calculations.