Energy & Environment Archives

The German auto manufacturing industry is at a perilous moment in its long and illustrious history and it needs the help of the country’s policymakers to ensure its long-term success, writes Nigel Topping.

The farming sector is often blasted for its contribution to climate change. But it also has unique potential to capture and store carbon, write Imke Lübbeke and Andreas Baumüller.

Climate change requires urgent action and the ultimate challenge is to carry out the required transition towards a greener future at affordable cost for EU citizens and in line with EU energy security perspectives.

The heads of political groups in the European Parliament have failed to reach a decision on whether to strip ExxonMobil lobbyists from their EU access badges, leaving some activists bitterly disappointed and others reflecting about future engagement with the oil and gas industry.

European refiners are paying the price for US oil sanctions on Venezuela and Iran as they scramble to replace the sour crude Washington has blocked from the global market with increasingly expensive Russian oil, trading sources said and data showed.

Europe is set to start trade talks with the US after ambassadors gave their green light on Thursday (11 April) to a proposed mandate for the European Commission to conduct the negotiations on behalf of the 28 EU member countries.

In Germany, calls for introducing a CO2 emission tax are getting louder. Yet, the German government continues to be divided on the matter with the French ‘gilet jaunes’ appearing to be quite the deterrent. What would a socially acceptable price of CO2 look like? EURACTIV Germany reports.

Whilst the energy sector is key to the European economy, it also represents two thirds of the EU’s greenhouse gas emissions. It therefore plays a central role in the implementation of the Paris Agreement.

The social policy dimension was largely overlooked when the European Union decided energy and climate change objectives for 2030, Poles have warned, calling on policymakers to endorse a “just transition fund” to support the country's coal phase-out.

Norway now has approximately 200,000 electric cars, which constitute around 7% of the passenger car fleet. The exemption of purchase tax and VAT are among the financial incentives that made this possible, writes Jon Georg Dale.

As EU leaders convene today to discuss the way forward for Britain’s departure from the European Union, they shouldn’t forget about the future ahead of them – including the all-important question of climate change objectives for 2050, writes Brook Riley.

As Germany is gradually phasing out nuclear and coal energy, Berlin is increasingly considering gas as key in bridging the gap between a fossil-fuels based and a low carbon economy.

EU officials are satisfied with how the bloc’s internal energy market has taken shape over the last five years, but will acknowledge in a final stocktake due later on Tuesday (9 April) that energy efficiency and renewables targets still need work.

Google’s global chief for Energy Market Development will on Tuesday (9 April) meet with senior European Commission officials to stress the importance of data access in the digital transformation of the energy sector, as stricter EU rules entered into force last December.

As electric vehicles begin to soar in popularity, one of the key members of the European Commission's in-house think-tank, Sami Andoura, asks: does Europe want to take the lead on electro-mobility or not?

Four years into the Energy Union project, it is worth taking stock of one of the flagship policies of the Juncker Commission and look into future challenges, writes Piotr Arak.

The European Commission will make the case later on Tuesday (9 April) for scrapping national vetoes on environmental tax changes and for finally updating the bloc’s venerable nuclear treaty, last amended in 1957.

Last month, US oil giant ExxonMobil was invited by the European Parliament to testify publicly about the history of climate change denial. But instead of responding transparently, they tried behind the scenes to discredit the peer-reviewed research conducted by Harvard University researchers, writes Geoffrey Supran.

The European Parliament research service recently listed aquaponics – the symbiotic cultivation of fish and plants – as one of the ten technologies that could change our lives, producing local food without any chemical fertilisers, writes Robert Woods.

The French and Dutch governments have both penned national pacts that go beyond what EU rules on plastic waste stipulate. On Friday (5 April), they kicked off a process they hope will culminate in a European Plastics Summit in 2020.

Norway’s $1tn oil fund, the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, is to plunge billions of dollars into wind and solar power projects. The decision follows Saudi Arabia’s oil fund selling off its last oil and gas assets. EURACTIV's media partner, The Guardian, reports.

Fiat Chrysler (FCA) confirmed Sunday (7 April) that it is to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to Tesla, the zero-emissions electric carmakers, to avoid getting hit by European Commission fines.

BMW and Volkswagen face possible hefty fines after EU antitrust regulators on Friday (5 April) charged the German carmakers and whistleblower Daimler with colluding to block the rollout of clean emissions technology.