The Seville Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4) in July 2025 takes place in a context of major shifts in US policy, financial difficulties among the majority of donors, and rising international tensions that are undermining cooperation. The ETTG network, of which IDDRI is a member, organized four high-level meetings that brought together political decision-makers from Europe, Africa, Latin America and Asia. These discussions aimed to better understand the perspectives of countries in the Global South. A key moment was an informal dialogue held in January 2025 with European ministries of economy and finance, which sought to identify European “champions” willing to support ambitious reforms of the financial system. The Ukama platform is also contributing to the analysis of country needs (Senegal, Kenya, Namibia, Nigeria and South Africa) in support of their plans for economic transformation.

In 2024, the debate on reforming international financial institutions continued within the G20, as well as in more sector-specific forums, with progress made in early 2025. On biodiversity, discussions at COP16 in Cali stalled on this issue. However, three months later in Rome, a structural compromise was reached. IDDRI's work helped ensure that the COP16 decision included a section on the institutional architecture for financing–going beyond the simple mobilization of funds. Several recommendations from our Policy Brief on the functions and principles of multilateral funds were included in the decision, particularly those relating to the key criteria to be defined by COP17: governance, equity, access, and responsiveness to the COP.

In 2024, IDDRI co-chaired Task Force 2 of the T(hink)20 with the Brazilian think tank CIPO. The task force focused on climate and energy (“Sustainable Climate Action and Inclusive Just Energy Transitions”). More than 70 policy briefs on climate change were selected, and recommendations were submitted to the G20. IDDRI also produced analyses tracking negotiations as progress was made within the International Maritime Organization on decarbonizing maritime freight transport.

In early 2025, work began on a critical analysis of the Paris Agreement, marking the tenth anniversary of its adoption. The first step was a public conference at Sciences Po with Todd Stern and Laurence Tubiana, two key figures at COP21. An assessment of the process and sectoral transformations in key countries will complete this ten-year review.

In collaboration with several partners, IDDRI has launched the Blue Tourism Initiative to support the development of sustainable blue tourism across three marine regions: the Mediterranean, the Western Indian Ocean and the Caribbean. The initiative seeks to assess current trends, opportunities and barriers to sustainability, implement pilot projects at nine selected sites, and integrate sustainable tourism into the strategic agendas of these marine regions.

This important work has helped persuade the French authorities of the value of including a tourism-focused segment at UNOC-3 in Nice. Held on the eve of the main conference, the Monaco Forum on Blue Economy and Finance featured a dedicated session on sustainable tourism. This led to the signing of an Ocean Tourism Plan by various stakeholders, including States, private companies, intergovernmental organizations and civil society actors.

Following the June 2024 elections, the new European political cycle began, bringing renewed focus to important questions that have often been neglected, including how to reconcile the low-carbon transition with economic competitiveness. Building on the spring 2024 editorial project European States of Mind-Reinventing the Deal, which brought together authors from across Europe in the lead-up to the June 2024 elections, IDDRI is shaping its new programme around new industrial policies. This work is set within a European context where the concepts of competitiveness and sovereignty increasingly appear to be taking precedence over the low-carbon transition. Through analysis of the proposals set out in the Draghi report, the Clean Industrial Deal and the first Omnibus Simplification Package, the programme aims to identify policy directions that are both coherent and aligned with sustainable development objectives.

The Mobility in Transition Institute (Institut Mobilités en Transition, IMT) is engaged in both French and European regulatory efforts to green the vehicle fleet and restructure the European automotive industry. In a market dominated by large SUVs, many of them hybrids, and in a political context where opposition to regulation is strong but often poorly supported by evidence, IMT demonstrates the relevance of producing small vehicles in France. It also supports a standardized methodology for calculating the carbon footprint of batteries, as well as a tool for assessing the carbon footprint of vehicle production (Ecoscore), which has now been clearly recognized by the European Commission. IMT’s recent work focuses on the circularity of steel use in the automotive sector, a key lever for industrial sovereignty. It also promotes high-service bus systems and supports the electrification of heavy goods vehicles, a transition that is only just beginning to take off.

One year on from the crisis that shook France and parts of Europe, agricultural issues are still sometimes presented in overly simplistic terms–or even disconnected from real challenges and possible solutions. It remains essential to support other influential voices–including those with less expertise but broad reach–in building their arguments on scientific and verifiable data. IDDRI and its partners are examining how negotiations on the European Union’s next multiannual financial framework could affect the CAP. The current positions of EU agricultural policy leaders favour maintaining the status quo, a stance that risks weakening the CAP’s environmental ambition. In addition, a study of the Ukrainian agricultural sector provides an objective assessment of the challenges it would face in the event of accession to the European Union.

Work on the price competitiveness of livestock farming has produced a baseline scenario which was presented and discussed with professional agricultural organizations at a public conference. The scenario shows that continuing with “business as usual” is problematic not only for the environment, but also economically, which highlights the need to consider alternative pathways.

Research into the household food transition by 2035 outlines scenarios for 12 social groups, each with distinct eating habits and drivers of change. One scenario suggests that meat consumption could fall by 15% by 2035. Understanding of the concept of food environments is advancing, and the role of mid-chain actors (distribution, catering, etc.) is now more clearly identified.

As France prepared to publish its third national climate change adaptation plan, IDDRI put forward proposals to strengthen its governance. The French case illustrates the importance of national strategies that can be effectively implemented across relevant regions and economic sectors, such as housing, transport and food. New work on regional COPs highlights the need to integrate biodiversity into future COPs, but also into national strategies such as the adaptation plan. IDDRI recommends that public authorities further strengthen the integration of biodiversity in the follow-up to the COP outcomes and in the coordination of the National Biodiversity Strategy at regional level.

IDDRI works to connect French and European debates on electricity market reform. In 2024, its French expert task force on electricity held three workshops and took part in the European network Beyond Fossil Fuels. French announcements on the evolution of its electricity mix by 2030 now combine the aim of maintaining decarbonized production capacity with the development of renewable energy sources, an approach supported by IDDRI.

For biogas, an initial analysis and a series of expert workshops were carried out in 2024, with a dedicated study to be published in 2025. The aim is to highlight the limits of the current political consensus in favour of the development of biomethane. Balancing biomass supply and demand is identified as a key issue in both the multi-year energy plan and the national low-carbon strategy.