The United States recently announced an immediate ban on imports of Russian oil and gas, while the United Kingdom and the European Union pledged to curb them more gradually. The rationale is clear: punish Russia, reduce its leverage, and restore peace to Ukraine. But wrong choices now – specifically, continuing to favor fossil fuels over […]
The latest Assessment Report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) goes beyond the headlines about rising temperatures and sea levels to reveal the full extent of the threat to human life in a warming world. It explains how extreme weather, droughts, habitat and species loss, urban heat islands, and the destruction of food […]
The protection and conservation of biomes, especially tropical rainforests, is critical to achieve climate goals, especially in countries with abundant forest cover. Nevertheless, the latest monitoring data show significant deforestation in many of these areas, including the world’s most extensive.In October 2021, Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research reported the highest level of forest loss […]
Rising energy prices have become one of the European citizens’ most urgent concerns. In another week of record-breaking energy prices, the 27 EU energy ministers meet today in Brussels to discuss measures and policies that will be crucial to push our energy system towards a cleaner and more resilient model. Over 50 million Europeans currently live in energy […]
Combined door-to-door transport via rail, road and waterways is the future of sustainable commercial transport in Europe. This intelligent and seamless linking of the three classic modes of transport can reduce greenhouse gas emissions – compared to full long-distance transport by truck – by up to 90 percent and increase energy efficiency by up to […]
It is one of the most important initiatives in the EU Commission’s new circular economy package, which is planned for the first quarter of 2022. In theory, the idea of the Digital Product Passport (DPP) is a good one: In the future, companies will document all the substances used in their products. They name spare […]
Ecocide is broadly defined as massive damage to and destruction of ecosystems – that is, widespread or long-term serious damage to nature.“When I came to the European Parliament in 2019, the concept was completely unknown to the European institutions,” says French MEP Marie Toussaint, who is taking the ecocide fight to Brussels. In the meantime, […]
As the European Union is looking to Ukraine, Iran is also pushing its way onto the political stage. Reza Pahlavi, son of Iran’s last Shah, is visiting Brussels after 6,000 people from the Iranian diaspora and their allies marched through the city on 20 February calling for democratic rights and more freedom for women in […]
So here we go with the acronyms:In the coming plenary week in Strasbourg, the first topic will be the ESR. This stands for Effort Sharing Regulation, i.e. the sharing of efforts between member states to reduce their emissions.Next is the MSR, which stands for Market Stability Reserve. This instrument aims to create price stability for […]
Luc Rémont, the new CEO of French energy group EDF, was prepared – and yet it was a difficult exercise. On Feb. 17, he had to announce a historic loss of €17.9 billion in 2022 and a debt of €64.5 billion that has doubled since 2018.So is EDF a financial drag on the government in […]