IIED

The International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) is an independent research organisation that aims to deliver positive change on a global scale. Our mission is to build a fairer, more sustainable world, using evidence, action and influence, working in partnership with others.

We deliver original, rigorous research that helps to drive progress, support sustainable development and protect the environment. We work together to strengthen people’s voices in the decision-making arenas that affect them — from village councils to international conventions, identifying local solutions that can work at scale and introducing these to global forums.

IIED fights for a fairer future, working with established and new partners for the greatest impact:

  • Working to enhance sustainability and inclusion, in partnerships that mobilise action; we amplify marginalised voices and represent missing realities.
  • Shaping innovative ideas for tackling global challenges, alongside experts and influencers that bring diverse perspectives to policy debates.
  • Pursuing yet greater excellence in our research through enhanced collaboration with outstanding institutions in the countries where we work.

In a fractured world our network of partners brings together the missing voices and evidence that policymakers need to make the right decisions for people and planet. We are strategic collaborators, innovators, knowledge brokers and agents of change, positioned to ask and answer the most challenging questions and bring radical, locally tested solutions to the forefront of global policy.

Our publications library has more than 7,000 open access publications.


Latest reports

Building resilience for cotton farmers in India: evidence from Gujarat and Maharashtra

This report from UK think tank IIED explores the vulnerabilities of cotton farmers in the Indian states of Gujarat and Maharashtra. India is the world’s largest cotton producer, accounting for nearly a quarter of global production. The cotton sector is crucial for India’s economy and supports the livelihoods of approximately six million farmers. However, climate...

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Syrian refugees in Jordan: reevaluating responses to protracted displacement

This report from UK think tank IIED reevaluates responses to the protracted displacement of Syrian refugees in Jordan. An estimated one in 14 residents in Jordan is a refugee, making it the world’s second largest per capita refugee host. Almost 90% of the 727,715 people registered as refugees with UNHCR in Jordan are from Syria,...

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Comprehensive Climate Impact Quantification (C-CIQ): an approach to co-developing policy and programmatic responses for climate risk management

This report from UK think tank IIED offers a comprehensive step-by-step guide to quantifying and valuing economic and non-economic loss and damage. Across the world, climate impacts such as extreme heat and floods are destroying lives, livestock and property. Loss and damage occurs when the capacities of affected communities and countries are compromised to the...

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Manifesto for a thriving world: IIED’s connected ambition, 2024 and beyond

This report from UK think tank the International Institute for Environment and Development presents their refreshed approach to impact. Following a year of review and dialogue, this manifesto presents IIED's refreshed approach to impact. This new approach to working on problems, in equitable learning partnerships, focuses on specific propositions to progress towards a thriving world....

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What about seafood?

This report from UK think tank IIED argues that seafood should play a more prominent role in debates about food systems transformation in the UK. This paper argues that seafood should play a more prominent role in debates about food systems transformation in the UK. We discuss the connections between seafood and the broader food...

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Why the international community is failing urban refugees

This report from UK think tank IIED looks at four 'myths' about protracted displacement. This paper challenges decision makers’ and humanitarian practitioners’ reliance on stereotypes about protracted displacement. It questions received ideas about camps and about displaced people’s experiences in towns and cities. It is structured around four such ‘myths’, examining each in turn, before...

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Sinking islands, rising debts

This report from UK think tank IIED looks at the urgent need for comprehensive debt relief in Small Island Developing States. Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are getting entrapped in financial quagmire due to climate impacts. This paper delves into the urgent financial plight of SIDS, examining the multifaceted challenges they face across social, environmental...

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Shock-responsive social protection in fragile and conflict-affected states

This report from UK think tank IIED looks at fragile and conflict-affected states and shock-responsive social protection programmes in these states. Fragile and conflict-affected states (FCAS) are home to nearly 1 billion people, almost double the number from 20 years ago. Shock-responsive social protection programmes in these states can play a critical role in protecting...

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Centring local values in assessing and addressing climate-related losses and damages

This report from UK think tank the IIED looks at a loss and damage assessment methodology based on locally identified values. There is a limited understanding of the intangible and subjective losses and damages from climate change people experience and how to address them. Fortunately, the number of studies explicitly focusing on ‘non-economic’ losses and...

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Layering debt relief solutions to move countries from vicious to virtuous cycles of debt

This report from UK think tank the IIED looks at the need to break this cycle of severed climate impacts burdening countries worldwide through existing debt relief options. Severe climate impacts are burdening countries worldwide, particularly the least developed countries and Small Island Developing States. Each disaster adds to their existing debt, hindering recovery and...

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Sustainable seafood and small-scale fisheries: improving retail procurement

This report from UK think tank the IIED looks at how retailers can make positive contributions to healthier oceans and sustainable fisheries. Sustainable Development Goal 14.b calls for providing ‘access for small-scale fishers to marine resources and markets’ by 2030. Small-scale fisheries directly support approximately 7% of the global population and make up 47% of...

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Climate-induced migration and health issues: a toolkit for policymakers

This report from UK think tank IIED looks at how climate change-induced migration is creating physical health, mental health and wellbeing issues. Loss and damage is an urgent concern, driven by the increasingly harmful effects of climate change. Communities are experiencing new types and forms of climate impact, of higher frequency and intensity, which they are...

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Strengthening anticipatory risk response and financing mechanisms for social protection

This report from UK think tank IIED looks at a practical approach to tackling loss and damage. Climate change loss and damage is leading to increasingly devastating impacts on poor and vulnerable people. This paper explains how best to equip social protection programmes to help communities better absorb the effects of climate risks, adapt to...

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Biocredits to finance nature and people

This report from UK think tank IIED looks at biodiversity credits, or ‘biocredits’, are emerging as a tradeable unit of biodiversity. Biodiversity is degrading at alarming rates, and people living in biodiversity-rich areas often bear the heaviest costs of biodiversity loss and inequitable conservation efforts. Biodiversity credits, or ‘biocredits’, are emerging as a tradeable unit...

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Mapping COVID-19’s web of impact

This report from UK think tank IIED looks at COVID-19 as a pandemic of amplified inequality and highlight its cross-cutting lessons. COVID-19 produced winners and losers: in vaccine access, care burdens, disease outcomes, income, education, healthcare, and many more. Since disadvantages intersect and compound, communities in poorer nations fared worst. In October 2022, nearly three...

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