Tag: climate change

With Denmark appointing Climate and Energy Minister Connie Hedegaard as the country's next commissioner and the Dutch government confirming outgoing Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes for another five-year term, the number of women in the next EU executive increases to nine, matching the number of the outgoing college.

The US and China will have to put their cards on the table before the EU can increase its CO2 reduction target to 30%, Swedish Environment Minister Andreas Carlgren said yesterday (23 November), after EU environment ministers had met to clarify tactics for the UN climate conference in Copenhagen.

Russia set a new target for reducing its greenhouse gas emissions at a summit with the European Union yesterday (18 November), but failed to clear up confusion over its plans to join the World Trade Organisation.

A UN summit on combating hunger, which opened in Rome yesterday (16 November), underlined the divide between rich and poor countries as developed nations balked at concrete targets.

After the last round of climate talks ahead of the UN conference in Copenhagen ended with a sense of pessimism and pending defeat, the Danish Ambassador to the EU, Poul Skytte Christoffersen, warns in an interview with EurActiv against the danger of postponing a deal until next year

Global warming has brought an increase in heat-related deaths, food poisoning and tick-borne diseases, but flu pandemics may decline as temperatures rise, according to Jan Semenza, scientific advisor at the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).

The EU is simply not strong enough to push the world towards an ambitious agreement, writes Monica Frassoni, Spokesperson of the European Green Party, in a November post on Blogactiv.

Buildings have an enormous role to play in the EU's attempts to slash greenhouse gas emissions, as they represent around 40% of all energy use. The EU addressed the problem by introducing minimum requirements for the energy performance of buildings, but having acknowledged that more needs to be done, it is now in the course of revising the legislation.

The drive to 'green' the EU economy will only succeed if it provides real solutions for low income households and works towards a "renewed sense of shared prosperity," European Economic and Social Committee President Mario Sepi told EurActiv in an interview.

Pressure on the United States to define emission reduction goals and move on climate funding is mounting this week in Barcelona, where the UN climate negotiations are trying to make progress towards a post-Kyoto agreement.

Businesses are looking to a new climate deal in Copenhagen to ensure a level playing field for industry, but in the meantime they are pledging to continue improving their energy efficiency and boosting investment in low-carbon technologies.

EU leaders have agreed on the need to provide €100 billion a year to fund climate efforts in developing countries, but failed to commit the EU to any specific sums, delaying their decision until after December's UN conference in Copenhagen.

Europe will attempt to reassert its global leadership on climate change during a two-day summit kicking off today in Brussels (29-30 October), with EU leaders set to back emissions reductions "of at least 80-95%" for the developed world by 2050, according to a draft statement obtained by EurActiv.

Major institutional building will be necessary if a new climate treaty is to move from the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) to sectoral crediting as planned by the EU, a European Commission official said last week (22 October).

The European Union is wondering what to do with billions of unused pollution credits accumulated by Russia, Ukraine and other former communist states of Eastern Europe under the Kyoto Protocol as lawmakers worry about the continuity of the carbon market beyond 2012.

The climate change imperative has radically changed the energy regulation environment, shooting up the priority list alongside energy security and fuel poverty, EurActiv heard yesterday (19 October) at the fourth World Forum on Energy Regulation in Athens.

European countries are still undecided on how to handle the thorny issue of deforestation under a new international climate change agreement, with national interests coming into play as EU ministers gear up for a series of meetings next week.

As the latest round of UN climate talks in Bangkok ended with little progress, negotiators are preparing for the Copenhagen summit in December on the assumption that not every detail will be agreed this year.

Masdar, a 100% renewable energy and zero-carbon city to be built in the United Arab Emirates, could provide inspiration for European cities, according to mayors and industry representatives gathered for a conference on regional policy in Brussels (6 October).

Deferred investments in polluting technologies due to the recession are set to lead to the largest drop in greenhouse gas emissions in 40 years, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Tuesday (6 October).

With only 70-or so days to go before leaders meet to agree on a post-Kyoto climate deal in Copenhagen, there is a need to speed up negotiations and "make political choices,"  Danish Climate Change and Energy Minister Connie Hedegaard told EurActiv in an interview.

Europe will tomorrow (7 October) launch a campaign to triple funding for energy research to eight billion euros ($11.7 billion) a year in a technology race with Japan and the United States, a draft document shows.

Introducing more EU environmental regulation is often neither cost-effective nor democratically acceptable, UK Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Nick Herbert said yesterday (29 September).

President Barack Obama is drawing up a 'Plan B' to regulate greenhouse gases if the US Senate fails to pass legislation needed to mandate the new administration to negotiate an international climate treaty at crunch talks in December, a senior official said yesterday (24 September).