Publications Archive

The European Union wants to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 55 percent compared to 1990 by the end of this decade. Just one day before the EU climate package "Fit for 55" was published, France passed its own climate law. This also provides for a reduction of emissions, but only by 40 percent.

The European Union wants to significantly reduce the pollution of air, water, soil and consumer goods by 2050. Pollutants should then be able to endanger neither human health nor the environment. The Centrum für Europäische Politik (cep) has analysed the so-called zero-pollutant target.

The dramatic effects of climate change are forcing the EU to act. Heat waves, droughts, storms, heavy rain and floods lead to damages to the ecosystem and cause economic losses of around twelve billion euros annually in the EU alone. In line with the European Climate Change Act, the Commission has presented an adaptation strategy to make the EU resilient ("climate resilient") to the unavoidable impacts of climate change by 2050.

The "EU Plastic Tax" introduced in 2021 to finance the EU budget is neither an EU tax nor does it oblige member states to levy a national tax on plastic waste. This is the result of a cepInput of the Centres for European Policy Network.

By means of its “Farm To Fork" strategy, the EU Commission wants to create a “food environment” that makes it easier for consumers to choose healthy and sustainable diets. A cepPolicyBrief examines the consumer policy objectives and measures of the strategy.

The EU Commission lays out its programme of future legislative and non-legislative initiatives for the protection or restoration of biodiversity. A cepPolicyBrief takes account of the planned measures.

The Corona crisis is a stress test for the climate policy of the EU and its member states. The cep has examined the various instruments for reducing CO₂ emissions – prohibitions and bans, subsidies, CO₂ tax, emissions trading – with regard to their "crisis resistance".

With a new Circular Economy Action Plan, the EU Commission wants to create a "circular plastics economy" in the European Union. A cep study evaluates the requirements for implementing the action plan.

The EU Commission has announced numerous measures to create a circular economy, which should increase economic growth while simultaneously reducing the use of resources. We have evaluated these in a cepPolicyBrief.

Despite the Corona crisis, the EU Commission is sticking to its Green Deal, for which environmental taxes in Europe will also play a role, and perhaps even more so than before. In this background, cepFrance has prepared an overview and analysis of the system of French environmental taxes.