climateemergency
The global transition from fossil to clean energy is well underway in Europe. Since 2012, coal-fired generation in the EU has dropped by almost a third while renewable power has increased from 14.2% to 23% of total generation. By 2021, Belgium, Austria, Sweden and Portugal had entirely stopped burning coal to generate electricity. This trend will only continue: by 2030, around half of European coal power plants are expected to be retired with most European countries planning to fully phase out coal before 2040. These legacy coal assets offer an opportunity. Instead of abandoning coal-generatin...
Euronews (English)
For decades, the tobacco industry misused science to hide the harms of its products and create confusion about the interventions needed to reduce that harm; it lobbied to avoid regulation and shape policies in its favour. Growing evidence shows that the fossil fuel industry not only uses exactly the same techniques but has also worked jointly with the tobacco industry to shape regulatory rules in their shared interest. Yet, the two industries are treated entirely differently when it comes to policy-making: while there are rules protecting policymaking from the tobacco industry — a firewall kno...
Euronews (English)
On 9 April, days after a dam burst caused disastrous flooding in southern Russia, Yulia Navalnya blasted the government’s handling of the crisis on X. “The authorities in our country never seem to be prepared for anything,” the widow of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny wrote in a damning thread. “In winter, they are unprepared for frost and snowstorms, in summer - for fires, and in spring - for floods.” Spring flooding is typical across the Ural region, as the Ural River - Europe’s third longest - fills with snowmelt from the Ural mountains. But the river hit record levels this April w...
Euronews (English)
As nations grapple with the monumental task of transitioning to renewable energy and building climate resilience, the need for equitable mechanisms to finance the transition has taken centre stage. At the upcoming G7 climate ministerial, France has a unique opportunity to demonstrate leadership on the climate action front. This year — dubbed the year for climate finance — France should lead the European bloc and fellow major economies with dollars and decisive action. The pressure is mounting to replace the expiring $100 billion (€93.3bn) per year target set in Copenhagen in 2009 with a New Co...
Euronews (English)
Earlier in April, almost all member states signed the declaration of La Hulpe, together with the EU institutions and the Belgian presidency, as a strong signal of the importance of social policy and the European Pillar of Social Rights. But just days ago, the European Parliament ratified a new set of fiscal rules that the Council agreed upon last December, which signals a troubling return toward austerity measures. If you remember when governments across Europe slashed budgets, cut services, and generally made life harder for everyone, then you know why many are alarmed by this change in polic...
Euronews (English)
In an unusual move, EU auditors have warned the EU’s industrial sovereignty is at risk if it sticks to a de facto 2035 ban on petrol and diesel cars without addressing its dependency on overseas suppliers for raw materials and batteries needed to produce electric vehicles. Recent revision of CO2 standards for cars and vans sets the tailpipe emissions limit to zero from 2035, the end point of 15 years to date of increasingly stringent emissions standards. “Has this contributed to reducing vehicles’ real world emissions in line with the EU’s green ambitions?” asked ECA member Nikolaos Milionis. ...
Euronews (English)
A predictable pile-on is occurring against the European Court of Human Rights. For some people, it can do no right. But its landmark ruling this week that weak climate policies in Switzerland put older women at greater risk of death from heatwaves is a precedent to welcome — and a warning to governments. To be clear, this is not some vexatious litigants’ charter. The court actually ruled out the right of any one individual to cite climate change — and inaction to remedy it — as a threat to their personal right to life. This week’s decision is about the right of groups of people to enjoy a “hea...
Euronews (English)
Ten years ago, I stood with then US Secretary of State John Kerry in the spectacular Sant Ocean Hall at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC to discuss an issue that we both hold dear: the state of the world’s oceans. Before that week in 2014, no one had gathered world leaders, funders, non-profits, and academics together under one roof to dedicate time to solving some of the greatest threats facing our oceans. That all changed when Secretary Kerry created Our Ocean – an annual international conference that will meet this week, for the ninth time, in Athens, Gre...
Euronews (English)
Given the press, you’d be forgiven for thinking that reducing cattle numbers and moving to a plant-based diet is a climate solution up there with electric vehicles and offshore wind. Billions of dollars and euros and celebrity endorsements have been invested in plant-based and alternative protein startups. “Cows create global warming” is a truism of our time, shared by almost all right-thinking people. The emerging truth appears different. Not only is the climate impact of cattle confused and overblown — properly managed, grazing cows and sheep can be a climate and biodiversity solution. Meanw...
Euronews (English)
A leaked intergovernmental priority list suggests environmental matters will be relegated below issues of defence, immigration and food security in the next legislative cycle, while Hungary has made it clear the Green Deal will not be a priority when it takes over the EU Council presidency in July, and Belgian premier Alexander De Croo has warned of the huge cost of implementation. An internal working draft of the EU’s Strategic Agenda for 2024 to 2029, widely circulated in Brussels earlier this week, sets out three priority areas, with the first being the promotion ‘strong and secure Europe’,...
Euronews (English)
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