Climate Change and Sustainable Energy Policies in Europe and the United States

IEEP and its partner, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) have published a report on “Climate Change and Sustainable Energy Policies in Europe and the United States”. This report includes the main conclusions of our joint project - Transatlantic Platform for Action on the Global Environment (T-PAGE). T-PAGE has provided a platform for debate to stimulate dialogue and exchange of experiences between environmental NGOs, academia and other interested civil society organisations in the U.S. and EU. The project has been co-funded by the European Commission within the framework of its programme to promote transatlantic dialogues at the non-governmental level.

This report includes the series of research papers produced during the course of the project. The papers include summaries of European and U.S policies on climate change and energy; an analysis of the EU Emission Trading Scheme (ETS); a summary of the current state of U.S. policy on cap and trade; a summary of policy approaches to promoting biofuels on both sides of the Atlantic; and an analysis of EU and U.S. public perceptions of the environment and climate change.

The project culminated in a final conference held in Washington DC in April 2008. At this conference, participants agreed that greenhouse gas emissions from the transport sector should be addressed as a priority in overall climate policy through a broad mix of policy tools; while on the issue of biofuels, participants recommended a common strategy based on a combination of perspectives and called for a critical evaluation of the impact of biofuel production methods and outputs on the environment.

The report is available from: http://www.ieep.eu/publications/pdfs/tpageccfinalreport.pdf