Tag: climate change

The EU’s climate policy has not vanished but the approach today is probably more balanced towards other aims like energy supply security and competitiveness, Friedbert Pflüger said in an interview with EurActiv Slovakia.

The European Parliament yesterday (21 May) approved a non-binding resolution calling for a mandatory EU-wide share for renewables for 2030, but failed to set the target in the 40-45% range.

Burning fossil fuels is warming the planet over centuries to an extent that previously only happened over millennia. Correspondingly, an inexorably rising price urgently needs to be put on carbon emissions, says James Hansen, a renowned climatologist, scientist, and environmental campaigner.

EXCLUSIVE / EU leaders will grapple with controversial issues including shale gas development and climate change mitigation at an energy summit on 22 May, documents obtained by EurActiv show.

Turbulence on transatlantic flights will become more frequent and severe by 2050 as carbon dioxide emissions rise, leading to longer journey times and increased fuel consumption, British scientists say in a new study.

Speakers at a conference held recently in Warsaw criticised EU energy policies especially those favouring expensive green energy, but also admitted that the country was not sure what kind of energy mix it wants. EurActiv Poland reports.

The European Commission's proposals for future global development goals, to be unveiled on Wednesday (27 February), risk running into opposition from emerging countries if they veer too broadly from fighting poverty.

One hundred million people in Bangladesh live and die by the great Brahmaputra river. For them each day is a struggle, writes the Guardian, content partner of EurActiv’s Development Policy section.

Fears are growing in Brussels that climate policy could become a political football in any referendum on EU membership, following British Prime Minister David Cameron’s declaration of intent yesterday (23 January) to hold an in/out poll.

The outcome of the Doha Climate Summit disappointed observers and activists alike, but it was in fact another step towards creating the enabling conditions for civilisational change and moves to addressing global injustice, argues Bo Kjellén.

An agreement by almost 200 nations to curb rising greenhouse gas emissions from 2020 will be far more costly than taking action now to tackle climate change, a new report says.

President Barack Obama signed a bill yesterday (27 November) shielding US airlines from paying for each tonne of carbon their planes emit flying into and out of Europe, despite a recent move by Europe to suspend its proposed measure for one year.

EXCLUSIVE / The US is considering a funnel of substantive elements of the Doha Climate Summit away from the UN framework and into the Major Economies Forum (MEF), a platform of the world’s largest CO2 emitters, EurActiv has learned.

EU Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard has heartily endorsed a decision by Australia to sign up to a second round of emissions reductions under the Kyoto Protocol, which expires at the end of this year.

EU environment ministers abandoned plans on Friday (26 October) to limit excess supply of Kyoto-era carbon credits on the world’s markets after seven eastern European states backed Poland’s opposition to the measure.

Brussels has placed itself on a collision course with Britain's ruling Conservative party by issuing a blunt warning on the dangers of stifling the green agenda.

Scientists have been warning us for years that a warmer planet would lead to more extreme weather, and now it's arrived, writes Connie Hedegaard.

Droughts in southern and eastern Europe are contributing to the global decline in grain production while also elevating concern about the long-term impact on freshwater supplies.

The European Union and small island states criticised the United States on Tuesday (7 August) for backing away from a U.N. goal of limiting global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius.

Fears about climate change are overblown and shifting weather patterns and rising sea levels should be considered an engineering problem, said the head of the world's largest oil refiner, ExxonMobil.

Biodiversity has decreased by an average of 28% globally since 1970 and the world would have to be 50% bigger to have enough land and forests to provide for current levels of consumption and carbon emissions, the conservation group WWF said today (15 May).

The EU cannot use the economic slowdown as an excuse to delay action on fighting climate change, the bloc's first-ever chief scientific advisor has warned.

Friday’s meeting of EU environment ministers is being pushed to the brink of crisis by a Polish rejection of any mention of the EU's Low Carbon Roadmap for 2050, which foresees up to 95% emissions cuts by mid-century.

EU Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard says global development challenges cannot be met if the world's economic powers do not rethink their growth model. In an exclusive interview with EurActiv, she also addresses controversial policies on emission charges for airlines and rejects calls for a price floor to sustain Europe's depressed carbon market.