IIED Europe

IIED Europe was created to contribute to efforts to achieve major progress towards the goals of sustainable development. Registered in the Netherlands as a not-for-profit foundation in late 2020, its focus is global environmental and social change, including the impacts of European actors.

View of a picturesque outside area in front of buildings

IIED Europe is based next to the Hortus Botanicus, a botanical garden in the Plantage district of Amsterdam (Photo: sharyn morrow, via FlickrCC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

IIED Europe logo

IIED Europe collaborates closely with partners in Europe and the global South, and brings the realities facing people in Asia, Africa and Latin America to European policymakers and wider audiences. We generate and share evidence of what’s happening, and how positive change can be better supported and enabled around the world.

Over the past three years we have established IIED Europe with a small core staff capacity located in Amsterdam (hosted by IUCN Netherlands). Our priority for the coming year is to grow IIED Europe so that its operations and its strategy are well-founded and clearly communicated with a broad range of audiences in the European Union (EU) and globally.

In February 2023 Alexandre Fernandes was appointed as IIED Europe's development director (now director), and over the course of the rest of the year we will develop a number of focused workstreams and increased staff capacity, so that we can contribute substantively to efforts by a broad range of governments and organisations to address the challenges of climate change, threats to natural systems, the impacts of urbanisation around the world and the roles of private sector actors.

IIED Europe aims to maximise the impact of its work by delivering through partnership. As a small and newly established organisation coming into a crowded space, where many older research institutes exist that work on parallel and complementary issues, we need to partner with others to achieve the impact we’re seeking. 

Particular selling points for IIED Europe are: IIED’s high reputation and track record, the focus on the relationship between developing countries and the EU with a developing country perspective, the bottom up co-creation approach, the core values and the attention to a just transition for all.

This makes it an attractive partner for other organisations that share these core values but focus on complementary issues. It will allow us to build a series of strategic partnerships, which will in turn enable us to maximise the impact of IIED Europe’s outputs and outcomes on EU policymaking processes by operating through coalitions of organisations. 

If you want to work with us, please get in touch at [email protected] 

IIED Europe aims to collaborate closely with IIED in the UK, though they are fully independent organisations with distinct governance and decision-making structures.

Organisation details

Statutory name: Stichting International Institute for Environment and Development Europe
Public name: IIED Europe
RSIN/fiscal number: 862003234
Kvk number: 81230710
Address: Plantage Middenlaan 2K, 1018 DD, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Email: [email protected] 

Governance

IIED Europe has a supervisory board and management board. The supervisory board is the highest body of the foundation and oversees the management’s policy and general affairs of the foundation.

Supervisory board

Head and shoulders photos of Mette Gervin

Mette Gervin has worked for 17 years in sustainable development, specialising in biodiversity and climate action at the United Nations, European Union (EU), Nordic, and national levels. She served as the EU representative in the UN COP bureau, is vice-chair at MiCuerpo and currently leads sustainability efforts at the Nordic Council.

Head and shoulders photos of Eliot Taylor

Eliot Taylor is a senior associate ecologist at Mott MacDonald in Cork, Ireland. With over 30 years of senior management experience, he has worked as a director at APEM Ireland and Mott MacDonald Blantyre Ltd. Eliot excels in project management and team leadership, specialising in environmental assessments, climate change adaptation, water resources management and ecological impact assessments. Additionally, he is a trustee of Wetlands International and a member of the SADC Water Strategy Reference Group.

Head and shoulders photos of Rick Pleij

Rick Pleij has worked as account manager for Dutch non-profit organisations with a major Dutch private bank since 2018, having worked in banking since 2013. His network covers policymakers, directors, board members within the NGO sector, and trade unions and philanthropic organisations.

Head and shoulders photos of Maarten van Aalst

Maarten van Aalst is a professor in climate and disaster resilience at University of Twente, and was formerly director of the international Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre. He has over 20 years of experience bridging climate science, policy and practice, from local to global and across timescales, shaping humanitarian operations, development investments and international policy.

Head and shoulders photos of Silvia Charpentier

Silvia Charpentier is a member of the board of directors of the Central Bank of Costa Rica, and represents the bank in the Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS). Previously, she was member of the Legislative Assembly of Costa Rica and alternate executive director at the World Bank.

Head and shoulders photos of Alicia Pérez-Porro

Alicia Pérez-Porro is a marine biologist connecting the environment, gender equality and environmental diplomacy for a more just and sustainable future for all. She is the deputy director of CREAF, a Spanish ecology research centre focused on global change and biodiversity.

The management board is responsible for managing day-to-day operations and meets monthly. Management board members retire in accordance with a schedule of retirement drawn up by the supervisory board, with an initial period of office of four years but can be reappointed without limit.

Management board

Financial arrangements

IIED Europe is a non-profit making organisation, and its income will be used solely to achieve its objectives.

The members of the supervisory board receive no financial reward but may claim reasonable expenses incurred while carrying out their duties as part of the supervisory board.

Further details of the remuneration policy, spending policy, recruitment of funds and other financial matters can be found in the IIED Europe policy plan (PDF).

ANBI

IIED Europe has charitable foundation status in the Netherlands – Algemeen Nut beogende instelling (ANBI).

IIED Europe is committed to gender justice and diversity. Read about our gender equity plan (PDF).