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

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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The good climate finance guide for investing in locally led adaptation

This report from UK think tank the IIED highlights different ways that Locally Led Adaptation can be financed and delivered. Locally led adaptation (LLA) is an approach which seeks to ensure that local people have individual and collective agency over defining, prioritising, designing, implementing, monitoring and evaluating adaptation actions. LLA is grounded in the belief...

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After the Paris Agreement, the debt deluge

This report from UK think tank IIED looks at why lending for climate drives debt distress. Developing countries — especially least developed countries (LDCs) and Small Island Developing States (SIDS) — face huge challenges in financing their current climate and nature needs. The borrowing space of LDCs and SIDS is already significantly constrained by debt,...

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Practical action to tackle loss and damage risks: ten guiding principles

This report from UK think tank IIED looks at the urgent need for practical action to address loss and damage caused by the climate crisis.  The need for practical action to address loss and damage caused by the climate crisis is now urgent. Climate change impacts not only occur over a wide range of time...

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Social protection and informal job market reform for tackling climate migration nexus

This report from UK think tank IIED looks at two diverse communities in India and how crises push them towards distress migration. By 2050, water stress, sea-level rise and crop failure from climate change may displace 31–72 million people across sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Latin America. Distress migration generates grave socioeconomic consequences — both...

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Taking stock of smallholder inclusion in modern value chains

This report from UK think tank IIED looks at the promise and reality of including smallholders from developing countries in modern value chains. This report examines the promise and reality of including smallholders from developing countries in modern value chains as a path to sustainable development. Drawing on an extensive literature review and interviews with...

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