CEP to support the EEA in understanding drivers of urban sustainability

CEP has been awarded a new project to analyse drivers of environmental transitions in European cities

Collingwood Environmental Planning (CEP) (in partnership with Eunomia Research & Consulting), LSE Cities at the London School of Economics and Milieu has been commissioned by the European Environment Agency (EEA) to support the delivery of the EEA’s project aiming to better understand what enables or hinders environmental sustainability transitions in European cities, and how these factors may have changed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. 

This project follows a previous project delivered by a CEP-led team (2019-2020) which piloted a survey of the drivers and enablers of urban sustainability in European cities.  The results of this previous work were published in the EEA’s report Urban sustainability in Europe – What is driving cities’ environmental change?.  Using the method developed in this previous project, the new project involves a survey targeting 100 European cities followed up by 25 interviews.  The results of this project will directly inform the EEA’s ongoing work on urban sustainability, including the next European State and Outlook on the Environment Report (SOER) in 2025. 

This exciting new project builds on our long track-record of supporting the EEA in developing a knowledge base, conceptual understanding and assessments in the field of urban environmental sustainability.  More information on our wider work on urban environmental sustainability can be found here. 

For more information please contact CEP’s Owen White (Managing Director) or Špela Kolarič (Senior Consultant) for more information. 

CEP running a webinar on the creation and use of foresight information for national State of Environment (SoE) reporting

CEP to deliver a webinar for Western Balkan countries to build interest and facilitate discussion on the use of foresight information in their SOE reporting

CEP is part of a team commissioned by the European Environment Agency (EEA) to design and lead a webinar for national experts from Western Balkan countries on 28th October 2021, as part of the project ’Strengthening the participation of the Western Balkans in the work of the European Environment Agency 2020-2021. Actions for Water and Foresight assessments’. The project is being led by the European Topic Center on Inland, Coastal and Marine Waters (ETC/ICM).

CEP is responsible for the development of a checklist document for the assessment of the implications of Global Megatrends at the national level.  This checklist is intended to guide WB countries through the process of developing foresight content for national State of the Environment (SOE) reporting.

This checklist document represents a simplified version of the approach described in a methodological toolkit Mapping Europe's environmental future: understanding the impacts of global megatrends at the national level (Eionet report No 1/2017) also developed by CEP and published by EEA in 2017.  The streamlined process sets out clearly the steps that countries can take to complete a ’light-touch’ study suitable for preparing outlook information for SoE.

The webinar will present the checklist to national experts and elaborate how its implementation can help Western Balkan countries develop foresight content for national SoE reporting. The webinar will also provide an opportunity for participants to discuss and explore the proposed process and share expectations, and concerns for completing it.

Please contact Rolands Sadauskis (Project Manager) for further information on the project.

CEP's EU FORENV work enters its third annual cycle

CEP is supporting the characterisation of priority emerging issues as part of the third annual cycle of the EU foresight system to detect emerging environmental issues

CEP is continuing in our role of providing the secretariat for the EU Commission’s Foresight System for the detection of emerging environmental issues (FORENV).  Now in its third annual cycle, FORENV is focussing on identifying and characterising emerging issues and benefits related to the Zero Pollution ambition for a toxic free environment.  

This topic relates to the overall green transformation for the EU towards becoming a climate-neutral, circular, clean and biodiverse region, as reflected in the European Green Deal.  It was selected by the European Commission as the focus of FORENV due to ongoing work at the Commission on a new EU Zero Pollution Action Plan for air, water and soil to be developed in 2021.  Once complete the outputs of this cycle of FORENV will feed into the first Zero Pollution Monitoring and Outlook report to be published in 2022.

To deliver FORENV, CEP is working with colleagues from Milieu (Belgium), Cranfield University (UK), the German Federal Environment Agency and Vision Communication (Spain).  The work to deliver each annual cycle includes:

• A broad scanning to compile and characterise at least 100 weak signals of emerging issues for Europe’s environment.

• The organisation and facilitation of four participatory sense-making workshops, to identify and select ten priority emerging environmental issues related to the topic (i.e. zero pollution).  Due to Covid-19 in this cycle we will are redesigning and running these workshops online.

• The characterisation of the ten priority emerging issues to define related risks and opportunities for the environment, through an evidence review and expert discussions.

• Preparation of a final report including infographic presentation of each emerging issue.  A short video is also prepared for each cycle.  The Cycle 1 video can be viewed here.

More information on FORENV can be found on the European Commission website.  The final report for the first annual cycle was published in December 2019, and the final report for the second annual cycle will be published early in 2021.  The methodology used for FORENV, which was developed for the European Commission through a previous project led by CEP, has also been published.

For further information please contact Owen White (Technical Director), Spela Kolaric (Senior Consultant) or Rolands Sadauskis (Senior Consultant).

CEP and Brussels-based MILIEU renew their commitment to collaborate

CEP AND MILIEU RENEW THEIR COMMITMENT TO COLLABORATE THROUGH SIGNING A MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING

CEP and Milieu - a multi-disciplinary consultancy based in Brussels specialising in providing high quality legal and policy services primarily for public sector clients - have been collaborating for more than 14 years.  In acknowledgement of our longstanding working relationship and successful collaborations, we are delighted to announce that we have renewed our Memorandum of Understanding which covers our mutual commitment to collaborate where appropriate in the provision of environmental consultancy services and to share expertise, knowledge and resources.

CEP and Milieu have been working together since 2005.  During this period we have jointly delivered some exciting, innovative and influential projects for both the European Commission and the European Environment Agency (EEA).  This work includes projects related to: policy evaluation and impact assessment; SEA; state of the environment reporting; environmental futures assessment; climate proofing policy; water management; science-policy interface; and environmental governance.

Ric Eales, CEP’s Managing Director, commented:

“We enjoy excellent relationships with many partners in the UK and across Europe, but our relationship with Milieu has been particularly rewarding and successful over the last 14 years.  Over this time we have worked together on numerous projects particularly for European institutions and the success of these collaborations is to a great extent down to our shared culture and commitment to delivering quality services to our clients.  We look forward to our relationship with Milieu continuing to grow and strengthen in the years to come”.

This agreement highlights CEP’s continuing commitment to service our European institution clients, such as the European Commission and European Environment Agency (EEA).  Our ongoing work for European institutions includes projects on important topics, such as urban sustainability, emerging environmental risks and foresight, improving access to environmental information and justice, and the effectiveness and implementation of environmental regulations.

For more information contacts Ric Eales (Managing Director) r.eales@cep.co.uk

CEP-led consortium to deliver new EEA project on transitions governance

CEP-led consortium has been awarded a new EEA project to develop a report on governance and policy for sustainability transitions

A new project has been awarded under the CEP-led framework service contract for the European Environment Agency (EEA) which provides assistance on forward looking analysis, sustainability assessments and systemic transitions.

This project, led by the Sustainable Consumption Institute at the University of Manchester, will further develop and finalise a report on the implications of research into sustainability transitions and transformations for European policy and governance. This project continues work previously completed under an earlier project. CEP has a role in this project to review the report for quality purposes, overall coherence, and to ensure accessibility for the target audience.

For more information please contact CEP’s Owen White, the overall Framework Contract Manager, or Dr Bill Sheate, the Framework Contract Director.