Today IEEP launched its new, dedicated programme to tackle global policy challenges for the environment and SDGs. A year in the making, the programme is now fully established and ready to take IEEP’s globally oriented work forward, with a strategic vision and dedicated resources to support the EU to deliver its promise on the 2030 Agenda and SDGs. The core focus of the Programme will be to explore the role the EU and its Members States play in the global arena, looking not only at the externally oriented policies but also the impacts EU domestic policies can have on sustainability across the globe.

“IEEP has always been involved in supporting the advancement of the environmental agenda on the global level. However, with the global challenges snowballing rather than miraculously melting away there is a need to encourage and support the EU to take bigger, bolder and timelier action. Having a dedicated programme in place helps us at IEEP to do just that.” – Marianne Kettunen, Head of Programme

Key focal areas for the programme in 2019 include, for example, supporting the furthering of EU and global action on environmental and climate security, and exploring how to improve the coherence between EU’s external and internal policies with a view to deliver SDGs in the global context.

“The Think2030 platform launched in October helped the science-policy community to join forces for sustainability. IEEP is now looking forward to working together with partners old and new to ensure that the EU does not miss out on the opportunity to take a leadership role in the implementation of SDGs domestically and globally.” – Celine Chervariat , IEEP Executive Director

To mark this milestone, the first of IEEP’s globally oriented Think2030 papers will be launched today at the COP24 of the UNFCCC in Katowice. The paper “Sustainable Development Goals and the EU: uncovering the nexus between external and internal policies” seeks to provide insights in the interplay of EU internal and external policies for the promotion of the wider 2030 sustainability Agenda, including climate change.

The paper has been developed in cooperation with the Heinrich Böll Stiftung Brussels / European Union and it will be launched at the climate COP side event “Improving Policy Coherence for Climate and Sustainable Development” today.

To celebrate the occasion, please join us at COP24 in Katowice at 17.30 – 19.30 CET tonight, followed by a dinner reception!

IEEP already successfully convened a wide-ranging event on the future role of agriculture in delivering net zero emissions by 2030 at COP24; presentations and a summary of the outcomes will be available on the IEEP web soon.