Tag: energy

Europe is gearing up for the next phase of its controversial climate change programme while member states prepare to take key decisions on strategies that will define EU environmental policies for the years to come.

Top policy-makers and industry executives have handed over a ten-year roadmap to simplify EU automotive regulation, improve safety and reduce pollution. Concern over access to Chinese markets could lead to a new WTO dispute.

Russia is beginning the construction of the Baltic Sea natural gas pipeline. Germany applauds, Poland looks askance.

An agreement on energy savings at distribution and retail level requires member states to draw up national action plans on energy savings. However, the 1% annual savings target remains non-binding.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has struck a conciliatory note on her first visit to Poland, saying good relations with Poland and Russia were equally important for her new government.

The EU is promoting the marketing of greener cars via a combination of binding and non-binding measures. 'Clean vehicles' include low emission conventionally fuelled vehicles as well as those powered by alternative fuels. The production of such vehicles, generating less CO2 emissions, requires innovation in fuels, alternative powertrain technology, noise reduction and new materials.

Using hydrogen and fuel cells in transport and power generation could halve global carbon dioxide emissions by 2050 but major challenges need to be overcome, according to a new report by the International Energy Agency.

Supply threats, rising prices and global warming is putting energy policy around the world "back on the agenda with a vengeance," said Tony Blair who will announce next year whether the UK should re-invest in nuclear.

With REACH discussions making progress in Council and Parliament, the chemical industry sector has unveiled a new research agenda for innovation in the next 20 years.

A week ahead of the UN climate change conference in Montreal, Commissioner Dimas has backed a WWF campaign telling the stories of how climate change affects the daily lives and businesses of some EU citizens.

Early results of a Commission probe into the liberalised European gas and electricity markets have uncovered restrictive business practices and abuse of dominant positions. Remedies could be adopted as of mid 2006.

The Parliament's Greens/EFA group says that the current FP7 is biased towards the promotion of forms of energy that have no future and is calling for common sense and democratic debate on the allocation of the EU's energy research funds.

The Baltic states believe that the planned gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea would pose a grave environmental threat to the region. 

At an international ministerial conference on renewable energy in China, the Commission will support better international co-operation and technology transfer to developing countries. 

Moving away from the traditional British scepticism about a common EU energy policy, Tony Blair has called for better co-ordination to tackle climate change and improve security of supply at EU level.

Eight SE European countries will today sign an agreement with the EU to create a regional energy market in line with EU energy legislation. This is a first step towards integrating the sector into the internal energy market.

Two new reports highlight the urgent need for increased research spending on renewable energy if the EU is to achieve its green energy targets and maintain its industry leadership.

Environment ministers are meeting today (17 October) in Luxembourg to define an EU negotiation strategy for the COP-11 meeting in Montreal later this year. New targets for 2050 are on the agenda.

The WWF has published a study ranking the EU's 30 most polluting power stations. Twenty seven of them are coal-fired, many of which will soon be phased out.

Energy security issues will be very high up the agenda of the EU-Russia half-yearly summit in London on 4 October.

Parliament has called for ambitious mandatory targets to increase the share of alternative energy sources in the EU to 20% by 2020. The report outlines specific initiatives to do away with unfair distortions in the electricity market.

As prices of heating fuel hit a high, new research shows better housing insulation could save the EU's newest members billions and shelter them from a looming environmental and social crisis.

Several MEPs called on 12 September for a fundamental shift away from the oil era into the green hydrogen economy. But is their initiative based on science or inspired by political hype?

Although far behind the energy sector, agriculture - and livestock in particular - is the second single largest source of man-made greenhouse gas emissions in the EU-25.