Europe is already building or planning to build €87 billion worth of fossil gas infrastructure in a continued expansion of pipelines and LNG terminals, despite the need to halve its emissions by 2030, according to a new report published on Thursday (8 April).
Europe should support high sustainability standards for clean hydrogen in its green finance rules, argue a group of 24 renewable energy companies and industry bodies in a letter sent to the European Commission on Wednesday (31 March).
Greetings and welcome to EURACTIV’s Green Brief. Below you’ll find the latest roundup of news covering energy & environment from across Europe. You can subscribe to the weekly newsletter here. It’s been three years now at least since discussions on...
Little progress was made in the fifth round of negotiations on the European Climate Law last Friday (26 March), despite growing time pressure to have the bill agreed by mid-April, according to people involved in the talks, which are being held behind closed doors.
The European Commission's upcoming June package of energy and climate laws will “propose the extension of the emission trading scheme to sectors such as building and road transport,” the EU's energy commissioner Kadri Simson said on Thursday (25 March).
Europe has the opportunity to lead the global shift towards net-zero emissions and reap the rewards of the green transformation, said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at an event on Wednesday (24 March).
The renewed focus on the COVID-19 crisis and delays with the European vaccination campaign are set to overshadow talks on how to align industrial policy with the EU's climate goals at an EU summit meeting on Thursday (25 March).
The European Regional Development and Cohesion funds, the classical tools of the EU’s cohesion policy, will disburse €242.9 billion euros during the 2021-2027 period, 30% of which will go to greening. In this episode we discuss how the cohesion...
The environment ministers of Poland, Bulgaria, and the Czech Republic have criticised the constraints imposed by the "do no significant harm" principle when it comes to EU funding. Others like Denmark, meanwhile, defend strict limits on fossil fuel spending in the EU's recovery plan.
Greetings and welcome to EURACTIV’s Green Brief. Below you’ll find the latest roundup of news covering energy & environment from across Europe. You can subscribe to the weekly newsletter here. The media are often criticised for being overly cynical...
Half of Europe's 324 coal-fuelled power plants have either closed or announced a retirement date before 2030, it emerged on Monday (22 March) when French power utility EDF announced the 162nd plant will close in 2022.
The European Parliament's industry and energy committee passed a resolution on Monday (22 March) supporting hydrogen produced from "low-carbon" energy sources, including fossil gas with carbon sequestration. The motion stopped short, however, of mentioning nuclear as a potential energy source.
Environment ministers from the 27 EU member states confirmed they would continue to push for a 55% net greenhouse gas reduction target by 2030 during a meeting of the environment council on Thursday (18 March), despite calls from Parliament to increase the EU's ambition.
The European Commission will force companies to "get serious" about due diligence and non-financial reporting as it prepares to table key legislation in the coming months.
The European Commission must ensure that plans to price carbon emissions in the building sector does not lead to growing rates of homelessness, campaigners said on Wednesday (17 March).
Like other European countries, the Czech Republic’s buildings are in need of renovation. Unlike others, it partly funds renovation programmes with revenues generated from the emission trading scheme (ETS), an experiment that could be replicated across the EU.
There are still many outstanding issues, particularly on climate ambition, after the fourth round of negotiations on Europe’s climate law closed on Friday (12 March), according to Jytte Guteland, the lead negotiator from the European Parliament.
China approved its five-year goals on Thursday (11 March), but the world’s biggest polluter shows little ambition of moving away from fossil fuels, leaving much to be decided.
The European Commission is reconsidering the position of gas in its sustainable finance taxonomy by recognising the fossil fuel’s role in keeping the lights on during peak electricity demand, according to a leaked document seen by EURACTIV.
Lawmakers in the European Parliament passed a resolution to tackle environmental and human rights issues in the supply chains of EU businesses by 504 votes to 79 on Wednesday (10 March) ahead of the Commission’s proposal on corporate due diligence later this year.
Two climate activists from Greenpeace paraglided onto the roof of the European Central Bank (ECB) headquarters on Wednesday (10 March) and hung a banner accusing the bank of funding polluters on the eve of its governing board meeting.
The EU and Washington need to align to tackle climate change, US envoy John Kerry said in Brussels on Tuesday (9 March), confirming the new US administration's policy shift away from Donald Trump's roll back of environmental protections.
The long-term renovations strategies that EU countries submitted last year to the European Commission are not in line with the bloc's objective of reaching climate-neutrality by 2050, according to fresh analysis due to be published this week.
Lawmakers have denounced a “loophole” in the European Commission's proposed climate target for 2030 and pointed the finger at the EU executive for its hard negotiation style over the EU climate law.
