The European Commission last week published an updated methodology to assess which gas infrastructure projects will be eligible to receive EU funding, triggering warnings by environmental groups and a senior member of the European Parliament.
A leak of the European Commission’s planned revision of the renewable energy directive has given further indication to the direction that the legislation could take, but it has been criticised by the renewables industry and NGOs for lacking ambition.
Projects to create a full hydrogen value chain combining production, infrastructure and use all in one region are sprouting up across Europe, but more needs to be done to accelerate their development, according to supporters.
As world leaders prepare for the COP26 climate summit hosted by the UK in November, international finance to help poorer countries tackle climate change remains a key barrier – and the recent summit between the world's seven richest nations did not bring a solution.
After a flurry of summits, little has actually been achieved in increasing climate ambition. But the conversations behind closed doors will be the clincher as the world looks ahead to COP 26 and beyond.
Europe’s 27 energy ministers on Friday (11 June) backed calls to double Europe’s building renovation rates by 2030 in order to repair their crisis-hit economies, tackle energy poverty and “create green buildings for the future”.
The EU's 27 energy ministers on Friday (11 June) came to an uneasy compromise on the revision of EU rules covering investments in cross-border energy infrastructure, the so-called TEN-E regulation. The fraught debate sets an unwelcome precedent for future debates over gas.
Differing views within the European Commission on how the EU's unprecedented recovery fund can be spent, and a rush to translate national spending plans from their original language, risk slowing down the EU's building renovation wave, experts say.
The EU's carbon border adjustment mechanism – or CBAM – entered with a bang last week when a draft of the EU’s upcoming new regulation was leaked to the press. The document raised as many questions as it answered, however.
Public consultation is inadequate in the creation of pathways to transition out of coal-burning in Central and Eastern European (CEE) regions, despite being a requirement for the plans that will unlock the €17.5 billion just transition fund, civil society has warned.
Romania will exit coal by 2032 at the latest and pass a law by mid-2022 to address the closure of mines and adopt socio-economic measures to support coal communities and reskilling of worers, according to the country's official recovery plan.
The European Union plans to impose carbon emission costs on imports of goods, including steel, cement and electricity, according to leaked documents obtained by EURACTIV.
Eleven countries, including Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands, were set to reject a plan to prolong EU support for cross-border natural gas projects, and instead push for rules to exclude fossil fuels, according to a document seen by Reuters.
There is a growing disparity in the progress central and eastern Europe's regions have made to transition away from coal, often influenced by how willing the state is to rescue increasingly unviable companies. Some regions are beginning to close polluting mines while others plan to keep them open for decades.
The European Commission is planning to adopt a combination of mandatory and voluntary due diligence rules later this year to prevent global deforestation in its supply chains, marking a sharp turn away from its reliance on voluntary schemes.
The European Commission should make sure its decisions remain in line with its climate targets and keep an eye on the social acceptance of the coal transition, stakeholders in Central and Eastern Europe say.
Last week’s court ruling that saw Shell ordered to reduce its CO2 emissions was enough to put the oil sector on the back foot. And further setbacks are expected when the European Commission tables new climate policy proposals in July.
Domestic politics, bureaucratic turf wars, and prosperous regions resistant to quitting coal remain a serious obstacle to meaningful progress on designing just transition plans, despite the involvement of European Commission-funded consultants, and pressing deadlines.
More needs to be done by legislators and industry to reach Europe’s ambition of safe and sustainable chemicals, laid out in the chemicals strategy in October, according to the head of the European Chemical Agency (ECHA).
Building renovation is a good way to spend the EU’s recovery fund and help Europe build a sustainable economy after the COVID-19 pandemic, but it must be done sustainably, industry representatives say.
The world has made good progress on targets to reach net zero emissions, but now it must match those goals with policies, a senior EU official has said.
A leak of the planned revision for Europe’s key renewable energy legislation bodes well for geothermal energy, but it still does not go far enough to support a full rollout of the technology, according to the industry.
The European Union has never had a coordinated strategy to ditch coal – and that shows in the mismatch between regions and countries, as illustrated this week with the dispute between Poland and Czechia over the Turów coal mine.
The leaders of Poland and the Czech Republic met on Monday (24 May) to discuss solutions to the dispute around the Turów open-pit mine in Poland, which could see the Czechs drop the ongoing lawsuit in the EU's Court of Justice.
