Science for Environment Policy (SfEP) is a free news and information service published by the Directorate-General for Environment (DG ENV) of the European Commission. It is designed to help busy policymakers keep up-to-date with the latest environmental research findings needed to design, implement and regulate effective policies.
The News Alerts are a cornerstone of the SfEP service. Presented in concise and easy-to-understand newsletter articles, SfEP offers quick access to scientific research on environmental issues.
SfEP also releases regular Future Briefs on the latest environmental topics. Future Briefs are a series of horizon-scanning policy briefs, which explore the evidence around emerging environmental issues.
Our News alert articles and Future Briefs are freely accessible through this site. To access SfEP content published between 2005 and June 2022, please consult the dedicated archive.
News Alerts
How to increase the use of nature-based solutions in urban areas?
Issue 591: Nature-based solutions (NBS) offer multiple benefits to address urban sustainable-development problems, especially related to climate change and biodiversity loss. However, NBS implementation in cities still faces barriers.
Green turtles in remote Azores feeding grounds are ingesting plastic, reveals new study
Issue 591: Analysing two decades of data on stranded turtles in the North East Atlantic, researchers have found that 14% of turtles were entangled in litter and 86% of those examined after death had ingested plastic.
Improved WEEE data give a better picture of collection and recycling rates
Issue 591: Nearly half of all discarded waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) in Europe is not properly collected and recycled, suggests a new study.
Large-scale study indicates wild bees are just as effective as honey bees for commercial apple pollination
Issue 591: New research suggests that the standard practice of using managed honey bees to pollinate commercial apple orchards may in fact be unnecessary – wild bees may be just as effective, and produce better quality fruit.
Future Briefs
FUTURE BRIEF: COVID-19 and the environment: links, impacts and lessons learned – Issue 26
This brief looks at environmental factors that potentially contribute to the emergence of disease and the effects of COVID-19, and environmental impacts that have arisen from COVID-19.
FUTURE BRIEF: European Forests for biodiversity, climate change mitigation and adaptation – Issue 25
Forests are under pressure by inadequate management practices and climate changes. This research is based on the latest scientific evidence to show how biodiversity, the bioeconomy and climate change mitigation are underpinned by Europe's forests.
FUTURE BRIEF: The solution is in nature – Issue 24
The research collated in this brief confirms that Nature-based Solutions (NbS) deliver simultaneously multiple benefits and shows the wide-ranging beneficial impacts of scaling up their implementation across Europe.
Contact Us
Science for Environment Policy (SfEP) is a European Commission initiative. The secretariat is currently run by Ecorys.
For comments on this service, please contact Ecorys at sfep@ecorys.com.
If you would like to contact the editors of SfEP, the Science Communication Unit at UWE, email us at sfep.editorial@uwe.ac.uk. You can use this email to:
- obtain permission to reproduce material from the service in another publication
- suggest a study to be considered for inclusion in the News Alert. Criteria for inclusion are listed in our archive section.
To get in touch with the researchers, please refer to the Source section indicated under each News Alert article.