Energy transition Archives

EU nations that missed an end-of-2018 deadline to submit their draft energy and climate plans to the European Commission have started to offer up their excuses for their lateness.

Berlin lacks the political will to bring the energy transition forward, said Hans Josef Fell, the initiator of Germany's world-renowned 2000 renewable energy feed-in tariff legislation, in an interview with EURACTIV.com.

While there is a growing recognition of the need for climate action, last year taught us that for a sustainable long-term energy transition to be effective, the roadmap to get there needs to be inclusive and citizen-driven, writes Imke Lübbeke.

The United Kingdom spends the most in the EU on subsidising fossil fuels, according to a new report by the European Commission, which also found that EU-wide payments have failed to decrease despite the bloc’s commitment to the Paris Agreement on climate change.

The transformation brought by renewable energies will alter the global distribution of power, relations between states, and the environmental drivers of geopolitical instability, according to a major international study published on Friday (11 January).

With the European Parliament backing a net zero emissions target for 2050, EU member states will need to further develop their biogas markets to continue to reduce emissions from waste, energy, and transport, write Benjamin Budde and David Newman.

A recent agreement to reform Europe’s electricity market has enshrined into EU law the unprecedented right of consumers to produce, sell and share their own electricity in newly-defined “citizen energy communities”.

Germany will close its last black coal mine on Friday (21 December), a milestone marking the end of a 200-year-old industry that once fuelled the country's economic growth but lost the battle against cheaper foreign competitors.

A European Commission proposal to phase-out regulated prices of electricity looked set to win approval from EU member states until the 'yellow vest' movement swept across France and nipped it in the bud.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has urged governments to pay attention to the consequences of their policies and compensate vulnerable groups that could be hit by new taxes.

European Union legislators reached agreement in the early hours of Wednesday (19 December) over a proposed reform of electricity market rules that includes a 2025 cut-off date for coal subsidies, and a special clause for Poland.

The just transition declaration adopted at the COP24 in Poland sounds good but it is not connected to any kind of climate ambition or specific energy projects involving local communities, Alexandru Mustata told EURACTIV Slovakia.

Norway is getting closer to building the world’s first carbon-free cement plant, a move that could reverberate across the globe as 197 countries meet for the UN's annual climate conference in Katowice, Poland.

Green steel, green ammonium, green plastics, green aluminium and green shipping can be within reach in a world with renewables at 3$ct/kilowatt hour and a carbon price of $50+/ton CO2, with limited costs to the global economy, argue Auke Lont …

The violent response to the French carbon tax in Paris demonstrates good climate policy is dependent on a fair, just and managed transition writes Sanjeev Kumar. Far from stalling, climate change action is becoming a major issue in elections globally, he says.

Portugal will use both electromobility and biofuels to decarbonise its transport sector by 2050, José Mendes, Portuguese First Secretary of State for Mobility - Environment and Energy Transition, told EURACTIV.com in an interview.

Risks lurk along the whole pathway of low-carbon transitions, writes Stefan Bößner. Things might get worse before they get better. But, given the climate urgency, there is no time to wait, he argues.

Innovation will be required across all sectors of the economy in order to steer Europe towards climate neutrality. This will also be good for the EU’s competitiveness, write Jakop Dalunde and Peter Sweatman.

As the United Nations COP24 gets underway in Poland, leading oil and gas players – countries and companies – are confronted with the challenge of mapping out their share of the new energy economy, writes Robin Mills.

In the run-up to the UN climate conference, which began in Katowice in Poland on 2 December, many thousands of people demonstrated to support accelerating the phasing out of the coal industry. EURACTIV Germany reports.

When adopting new rules for Europe’s electricity market, EU policymakers shouldn’t lose sight of the bigger picture which involves an increasingly integrated energy system with multiple links between electricity, heat and gas, writes Hans Korteweg.

A proposal to limit cross-border electricity flows is one of the last sticking points in the EU’s proposed power market reform, as Berlin pursues a 75% limit on interconnector capacity made available for trading, lawmakers have said.

In the fight against climate change, the EU must tackle two gigantic tasks: slash its own emissions, and help China do the same, writes Bernard Durand.

Miguel Arias Cañete, the EU Commissioner for climate action and energy, had an unpleasant message for the gas industry when he presented the European Commission’s 2050 vision for a “climate neutral” economy earlier this week.