From risk to resilience: Rethinking Europe’s environmental leadership 

How can the EU sustain and strengthen its environmental leadership in a decade shaped by geopolitical instability, accelerating climate impacts and growing demands for competitiveness and resilience? This was at the centre of the Think2030 Conference in Brussels, marking 50 years of the Institute for Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP), where our Executive Director, Christoph Heinrich, joined a panel discussion on systemic risks and Europe’s environmental future. 

Interconnected risks demand systemic responses 

A central insight was that environmental risks increasingly interact and reinforce each other, creating cascading impacts on food security, the economy and ecosystems. While the European Union has made progress in identifying these risks through the EU Preparedness Union Strategy, the challenge now is to translate this knowledge into concrete action by institutionalising it. Rather than treating sustainability, resilience and security as separate policy areas, they need to be embedded into economic and sectoral strategies, particularly in areas such as the food, economy and finance systems . Stronger alignment between environmental and economic policy is essential to address systemic risks effectively. 

Towards more anticipatory policymaking

Christoph Heinrich emphasised the need for more forward-looking policymaking that can anticipate risks and translate complexity into actionable policy decisions. As the EU navigates increasing uncertainty, resilience will depend on connecting environmental, economic and governance agendas in a more coherent way.