Tag: climate change

The floods that engulfed central Europe last month are expected to cost insurers about €3 billion and could be Germany's costliest natural disaster on record, reinsurer Munich Re said.

The European Parliament backed a plan on Wednesday (3 July) to support carbon prices by withdrawing part of the emission permits traded on the EU's carbon market. Prices jumped up after the vote but remained low as national parliaments still have to ratify the proposal.

Norway overtook Russia as the main supplier of the EU’s natural gas in 2012, a first for the Scandinavian country, the chief economist for the British Petroleum Group chief said in unveiling a new energy report in Brussels.

Former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, a film star who is also an environmentalist, stole the show at a gathering of mayors committed to climate and energy objectives held in the European Parliament yesterday (24 June).

The European Parliament's Environment Committee has given its support to a compromise plan to boost the price of allowances on the EU's carbon market.

Europe needs to maintain an ambitious policy on climate change but abandon its approach which gives renewable energies a de facto monopoly over the decarbonisation of the energy system, argues André Ferron and Claude Fischer in an interview with EurActiv.

While rescue teams scrambled this week to protect cities in Central Europe from some of the worst flooding in years, farm organisations are concerned about damage that could devastate crops for the entire growing season.

The EU risks more than discrediting its public image if it doesn’t follow up on its commitments on the overarching objective of limiting the global temperature increase to 2º Celsius in order to avoid crossing the threshold into “dangerous climate change,” writes Oliver Geden.

Eighty-two MEPs who have signed a declaration calling on member states to protect the EU's development and humanitarian aid spending in the 2014-2020 budget have broad support, German MEP Ska Keller (Greens) told EurActiv in an interview.

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.