Monday
24th Feb 2020
Individual contributions of member states to the next EU budget could soon depend on the amount of plastic not recycled. There could also be revenues from a possible carbon border tax on imports into the EU.
The UK is leaving the EU after playing a key role in climate action - just as COP26 comes to Glasgow. With so many policy negotiations ahead, a split between London and Brussels post-Brexit could undermine the 2050 emissions-neutrality goal.
The first EU-wide climate law will be a "disciplining" exercise to implement the Green Deal - although the Polish climate minister Michal Kurtyka warned the EU Commission about the social cost of delivering the green transition.
Croatia's national oil company has become the EU council presidency's "official gasoline supplier" - in a move that appears to clash with aspirations of the European Green Deal. Critics say such sponsorships pose a reputational risk with the wider public.
Despite Warsaw's refusal to commit to the 2050 emissions-neutrality goal, Poland will receive the upper limit of €2bn from the Just Transition Fund - while Germany is set to enjoy €877m.
The European Commission unveiled on Tuesday its sustainable investment plan to put Europe on track to reach the 2050 emissions-neutrality goal - while helping coal-producing regions to move away from fossil fuels.
Europe is on the verge of allowing centralisation and concentration of farming data at an unprecedented scale, with the absence of any regulation, NGO Friends of the Earth have warned.
EU budget commissioner Johannes Hahn owns 2,200 shares in Austria's largest electricity provider. Those shares have tripled in value since he first declared them in 2014. In January, the firm met his head of cabinet to discuss climate policy.
Most EU member states are likely to miss the 2020 target on energy efficiency, since they were not legally-binding targets. "Transformative" measures are needed to reduce energy consumption while boosting efficiency, experts say.
The EU Commission is pushing a wave of controversial gas infrastructure projects, in parallel to its much-touted Green Deal. One of those a flagship project of the Republic of Croatia, who currently chairs the EU presidency.
"Improving the statistics and data available will help the commission to know where we are and where we want to be," the European Court of Auditors said on Wednesday.
Some steps have been taken but there is so much more we can still do for the sake of our planet and our own continued existence.
A new report warns companies that their future investments in oil and gas projects, based on 'business as usual' government policies, are likely to be in danger as tougher policies enter into force.
Despite its historic connotation with windmills and dams, the Netherlands is in fact far behind most EU countries in the production of energy from renewable sources - alongside stragglers such as Malta, Luxembourg and Belgium.
The moment Europe revels in its carbon-free transport system, most of the cars that emitted too much for EU standards will still be driving around for years somewhere else in the world.
The EU commissioner for the Green Deal, Frans Timmermans, said on Thursday that member states have a responsibility to implement taxes on carbon to show that emissions have a cost.
MEPs and once all-powerful eurocrat Martin Selmayr just rode the first night train from Vienna to Brussels in support of the green deal, but train ticket prices remain too high.
MEPs have called on the EU commission to move away from voluntary commitments on biodiversity protection and propose a more "ambitious" strategy for 2030.
We have invested €200bn in research and innovation since 1984, but have we achieved any leadership in quantum, semiconductors, storage, artificial intelligence? The simple answer is no.
Two-thirds of people in Europe, the US and China think their individual behaviour can help tackle climate change - but Europeans and Chinese are more willing to change their living standards to limit global warming than Americans.
Environmentalists denounce that the EU failed to comply with the legal obligation to end overfishing by 2020, putting at risk the sustainability of fish stocks by putting the interests of the fishing industry ahead of the health of its waters.
Methane, a potent greenhouse gas, is one area where the EU has a major opportunity to apply its market power to drive down global emissions, both through methane legislation and diplomacy.
Legal action related to climate change is set to grow considerably in the next few years - especially after a largely-overlooked ruling over Christmas by a Dutch court forced the government to reduce its emission by 25 percent by 2020.
The outgoing head of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, warns companies and financial institutions that fossil fuel assets will potentially be "worthless".
The agreement is the first step to set a framework for sustainable finance, that will help investors and consumers to identify economic activities that can unambiguously be considered environmentally green.
We need to take into account the different state of economic and social development of each country, not to mention their varying energy systems. We cannot put a climate muzzle on economic growth.
The outcome of the UN climate conference in Madrid (COP25) has been described as a "catastrophe" by environmental groups, since countries failed to agree on article six of the Paris Agreement, referring to the carbon markets system.
EU leaders agreed on setting a climate-neutrality by 2050 target early on Friday morning - although Poland refused to endorse the target, leaving the crucial summit without unanimity.
The European Commission presented the widely-trailed new Green Deal to MEPs on Wednesday, vowing to "leave no-one behind" to achieve climate neutrality by 2050.
As the EU launches its flagship Green Deal, the Greens call for shipping emissions to be included in carbon targets. Ships carrying goods to and from the UK emitted more CO2 than all the cars in Britain's 15-largest cities.
The Green Deal is expected to increase the current EU goal on emissions cuts, from 40 to 50 percent by 2030. However, most MEPs believe that this will not be enough to achieve climate neutrality by 2050.
EU member states have voted to ban from the market chlorpyrifos, a pesticide which is toxic to the brain in both its forms, and has been the subject of a long-running Le Monde and EUobserver investigation.
Two Danish ministers - for environment, and for food and fisheries - call on the EU to reconsider the unintended consequences of zoning rules and income support in the Common Agricultural Policy.
