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
Field to fork: global food miles generate nearly 20% of all CO2 emissions from food
Issue 594: Food trade is key to achieving global food security, with internationally traded food making up 19% of consumed calories worldwide. But what is the environmental impact of this trade?
Restored floodplains could remove 38 000 tons of nitrate pollution in the Danube river basin
Issue 594: Reconnecting cut-off water bodies and floodplains with the Danube River and its tributaries could aid nitrate removal and contribute to water quality improvements, shows a new large-scale modelling study.
Will more frequent river floods cause widespread malfunction of European road networks?
Issue 594: More frequent river flooding is a climate hazard in Europe, threatening its road transport infrastructure.
Human demand for water-based ecosystems services in the Netherlands under COVID-19: what lessons for their management?
Issue 593: The COVID-19 pandemic led to an ‘anthropause’ – or an abrupt alteration in typical human activities – such as less travel and more recreation in natural spaces.
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.