Spain has been urged to “follow the example” set by Croatia in honouring its commitment to international treaties. The demand comes amid a long-running legal battle between Spain and renewable developers who are fighting Madrid over retroactive cuts to feed-in tariffs for renewable projects. Spain is accused of resisting payment of the compensation or attempting…
Environment
Civil Society Calls for Urgent Climate Action
Businesses, investor groups, local and regional authorities, trade unions and civil society groups come together to demand urgent and bold climate action from the European Union. A huge range of influential signatories, including big businesses like Amazon, EDF, Ikea, Microsoft, Unilever (signed as part of CLG Europe) plus mayors from Amsterdam, Athens, Lisbon, Paris, Warsaw (signed…
Europe Guilty of Severe Deforestation in West Africa for Commercial Rubber Plantations
A new report says that industrial rubber plantations in West and Central Africa have been linked to an area of tropical deforestation 16 times the size of Brussels since 2000. This, it is claimed, establishes it as the leading European driver of deforestation in the region – despite being left out of proposed rules to…
Towards an Effective Climate Policy
MEPs from the Greens/EFA Group along with a progressive majority have successfully voted down a “considerably weakened position” on the EU Emissions Trading System, following efforts of the EPP Group and industry lobbies. The ETS file will now go back to the Environment Committee. As a consequence, the votes on the Social Climate Fund and…
EU Climate Spending Targets
The EU has missed its self-imposed target of spending at least 20% of its 2014-2020 budget on climate action, according to a special report published on Monday by the European Court of Auditors (ECA). The European Commission had announced that the EU had met the 20% target, reporting that it had spent €216 billion on…
Reform of Emission Trading Scheme
The European Parliament’s environment committee (ENVI) has voted on the reports for the reform of the Emission Trading Scheme and the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, two of the most important files in the Fit-for-55 package. The ETS covers more than 11.000 industrial installations in the EU, and with this reform it will expand its scope…
Fossil Fuels Companies Lobbying EU
Lobby watchdog Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) says it has obtained recent meeting documents from the European Commission (EC) that reveal that major fossil fuel companies are influencing the EU’s response to the energy crisis. Minutes allegedly reveal that CEOs of six big energy companies – Shell, BP, Total, ENI, E.ON and Vattenfall – met President…
Ready to Switch to an Electric Car?
Plug-in car sales exceeded 2.27 million in 2021, showing that more and more are choosing to go electric. With the rise in petrol costs and ever-growing concerns of car emissions, how much would be making the switch to an electric vehicle save you in emissions and money? Interested in finding out, money.co.uk considered the cost…
Destination Earth
The Commission has launched together with partnering organisations the Destination Earth initiative to help tackling climate change. Supported with an initial €150 million from the Digital Europe Programme until mid-2024, the goal is to develop a highly accurate digital model of the Earth. It will help monitor, model and predict natural and human activity, and…
Corporate Environmental and Social Reporting
Large companies will soon need to publicly disclose detailed information on the way they operate and manage social and environmental risks. On Tuesday, the Legal Affairs Committee adopted its position on the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) with 22 votes in favour and one against. If agreed with EU governments, the bill will make businesses…