In the Visegrad countries, decision makers prefer their historical favourites – coal and nuclear – to renewable sources and energy efficiency. As the Global Climate Action Summit resumes in San Francisco, it’s important to realise that corporate leadership can also shape the outlook for clean energy in Eastern Europe, writes Ada Ámon.
Unlocking far greater energy efficiency investment is the real test for whether InvestEU, and the wider EU budget, can deliver on clean growth and climate targets, write Pedro Guertler and Tom Jess.
The EU’s next Multi-Annual Financial Framework (MFF) must reflect the commitment the EU has made to decarbonise its economy, in line with the aims of the Paris Agreement. Strong overall coherence to ensure that funds are spent in targeted and intelligent ways is the key to its success, writes Jonathan Gaventa.
On Monday (18 December), the 28 European energy ministers will risk making the transition to a low carbon economy harder for themselves and more expensive for all of us, because of their self-sabotaging tendencies, warns Manon Dufour.
Italy just added its name to the list of country’s pledging to phase out coal. A fair energy transition requires significant efforts but there is experience to build on, writes Julian Schwartzkopff.
Brexit will have more immediate impact on the UK’s ability to manage growing stresses on the environment than any other single political development of the past 50 years, writes Tom Burke.
Eurostat last week revised its accounting rules, allowing local authorities to stop counting as public debt the building refurbishment work they undertake as part of energy performance contracts, writes Quentin Genard.
The pre-election politicking currently going on in Germany should ring alarm bells among climate policy advocates, warns Julian Schwartzkopff. If Angela Merkel does not take personal ownership of securing a climate-compatible coal phase-out, she could jeopardise her legacy as “climate chancellor”, he writes.
Does Trump speak for the American heartlands on climate change? Rosalind Cook spent two weeks travelling across the country meeting a range of people to ascertain what the thinking is at grassroots level. And it wasn’t what she expected.
A crash Brexit would wreak chaos in both the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) and the effort sharing regulation necessary to deliver the 2030 climate and energy package, warn Shane Tomlinson and Manon Dufour.
Westminster’s latest attempt to manage energy bills looks increasingly like an attempt to manage headlines about energy bills. Much more must be done to cut consumption, writes Tom Burke.
The European Commission's High Level Expert Group on Sustainable Finance delivered its interim report today (13 July). Ingrid Holmes, one of the members of the group, explains how the financial system can help address long-term challenges such as climate change.
Despite Donald Trump's decision to pull the United States out of the Paris Agreement, it is hard not to feel a sense of optimism on global climate politics as world leaders gather in Hamburg for the G20, writes Taylor Dimsdale.
The closure of the UK’s largest gas storage facility along with disruption to Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) supplies this month puts UK energy at a crossroads, writes Joseph Dutton. Rather than focus on imports or fracking, Britain should pay more attention to decreasing demand and renewable energy, he argues.
Donald Trump pulling out of the Paris Agreement is not the end of the world. Cities and towns are moving ahead in localising the energy transition but to fully harness their potential, local governments need to be empowered and equipped with the right tools, argues Philipp Thaler.
Transparency and long-term planning are the only ways to reduce the cost of the transition and align climate and energy policies, argues Quentin Genard of E3G. The EU’s Governance Regulation can do that.
This European Commission famously promised to focus on the big policy picture and avoid petty regulations. But small things can grow into something big, for example on energy efficiency and eco-design rules for electric appliances, writes Ingrid Holmes.
As the debate over priorities for EU reform post-Brexit ramps up, misguided attempts to avoid political tensions are undermining popular and necessary action on energy and climate change, writes Nick Mabey.
The European Commission’s vision of an Energy Union with citizens at its core, where consumers take ownership of the energy transition, is to be applauded but needs to be followed up with genuine policy change, writes Jonathan Gaventa.
The EU played a key role in making the unexpectedly strong Paris agreement on climate change happen. It must now walk the walk and deliver increased climate ambition through its own energy union, argue Nick Mabey and Sandrine Dixson-Declève.
The energy efficiency gap doesn’t exist because of a lack of effort or will, it exists because we have approached it from the wrong direction, write Ada Ámon and Ingrid Holmes.
The European Commission will need to work harder to ensure efforts manage climate and wider environmental, social and governance (ESG) risk do not inadvertently scupper the Capital Markets Union initiative, argues Ingrid Holmes.
If the EU is serious about an ambitious agreement at the UN talks in Paris, it must pritotise adaptation and resilience to climate risk in the negotiations, write Nick Mabey, Barbara Unmüßig and Ralf Fücks.
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