Climate change Archives

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.

In its new Net Zero scenario, the International Energy Agency (IEA) maps a 60% increase in bioenergy by 2050. But Swapping burning wood for burning coal won’t save the climate, warns Peg Putt.

European Union leaders on Tuesday (25 May) shelved an attempt to direct how the bloc will set new national targets for emissions cuts, weeks before Brussels is due to propose a huge package of tougher climate change policies.

In what appears to have been a preview of his statement at the EU summit, Bulgarian President Rumen Radev told journalists in Brussels on Tuesday (25 May) that the EU's climate policy comported “dangers” for low-income countries like his.

European Union leaders meet to debate how to split the efforts and costs of the bloc's shift to a low-carbon future, at a summit that will set the tone for an upcoming revamp of EU climate change policies.

European Union member states have agreed to reach climate neutrality by 2050 and increase their level of ambition for 2030. This means Europe needs to amend all its climate policies, including its Emissions Trading Scheme, the EU's climate chief, Frans Timmermans, told EURACTIV in an exclusive interview.

Germany wants the European Union to create a "climate club" with other countries like the United States, Japan and possibly even China to avoid trade friction linked to green tariffs such as a planned carbon border levy.

Central and Eastern European countries need to set national coal phase-out dates by 2030 at the latest in order to fall in line with the climate goals of the Paris Agreement, environmental campaigners write.

EU countries are likely to reaffirm national emissions goals for sectors like buildings, transport, and agriculture, when EU leaders meet for a summit scheduled on 24-25 May.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) published a new energy scenario on Tuesday (18 May), modelling for the first time how the world can achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 and limit global warming to 1.5ºC.

Britain will start its own market for trading fossil fuel emission permits this week, but with no sign of a link to the European Union's market, prices could end up being more volatile than the EU's.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Saturday (15 May) rejected calls to bring forward the country's exit date for coal in power generation, currently set at 2038.

Spain’s 2030 emission reduction target lags other EU countries but the government won praise for committing to end coal, oil and gas production. EURACTIV's media partner, Climate Home News, reports. A decade after it was first called …

COVID has taken many casualties over the last 14 months, one of them being international summitry. Still, the groundwork for the COP26 climate summit is slowly grinding into motion ahead of November’s gathering in Glasgow.

The Spanish parliament approved a clean energy bill on Thursday (13 May), aiming to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 in line with EU-level ambition and banning the sale of fossil fuel vehicles by 2040.

The amount of permits in circulation in Europe's carbon market increased last year, as the COVID-19 pandemic caused emissions covered by the scheme to drop, the European Commission said on Wednesday (12 May).

Bulgaria could take advantage of financing available under the EU Green Deal to solve the most pressing challenge the country is currently faced with – the demographic crisis. But is it really that simple? EURACTIV Bulgaria discussed the issue with leading economist Krassen Stanchev.

Implementing a border levy to price carbon-intensive imports and protect European industries will be “extremely complicated,” warned Jonathan Pershing, a member of the US climate envoy’s team.

The European Commission was sent back to the drawing board on the EU's renewable energy directive overhaul after an internal assessment of its draft proposal concluded that it failed to analyse the potential environmental risks of increased bioenergy use.

Surely, natural gas, too, will have to be phased out over time, so why not skip this phase and move straight to wind and solar? The idea sounds enticing, but upon closer examination, it is counterproductive if not self-defeating, argues Olga Bielkova.

The Dutch government has granted a consortium that includes oil majors Royal Dutch Shell and ExxonMobil around €2 billion in subsidies for what is set to become one of the largest carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects in the world.

The 12th Petersberg Climate Dialogue, hosted in Berlin on Thursday (6 May), failed to deliver on expectations of increased financial support for poorer countries.

Politicians attending the Porto Social Summit this week must understand that social justice and climate action go hand in hand and are key to preventing the loss of a generation, writes Tea Jarc and Adélaïde Charlier.

The world must urgently cut its emissions of methane to rein in climate change, a UN report said Thursday (6 May) raising pressure on European Union policymakers who are drafting the bloc's first methane regulations targeting fossil fuels.