Tuesday
19th Jan 2021
The European Commission unveiled its plans for the 'New European Bauhaus' initiative - an environmental, economic and cultural project whose aim is to design "future ways of living" in a sustainable manner.
Although the Covid-19 pandemic has stalled climate negotiations, work has not stopped. The 'Choosing Green' debate will address some of the most important and most complex key areas relating to the global green transition. Live on EUobserver from 10:00 (CET).
For European Commission vice-president Frans Timmermans, the Common Agricultural Policy has to answer to "higher expectations" on climate action, protection of biodiversity and environmental sustainability, while ensuring a fair income for all farmers.
The European Court of Justice concluded Italy has been "systematically and persistently" exceeding daily and annual limits of particulate matter pollution permitted by EU rules on clean air.
Some 30 percent of the world's tourists go on holiday in and around the Mediterranean Sea. Good for the economy - but a disaster for ecosystems.
The Interreg Med, a cross-border initiative of 13 countries around the Mediterranean Sea, has made the fight against climate change the cornerstone of its strategy for the next years - since the region is facing irreversible environmental damage.
It is estimated that there are about 1.7 million undiscovered viruses circulating currently in mammals and birds - of which up to 850,000 could end up infecting people.
It's alarming that the EU is moving towards making development assistance conditional on the cooperation of third countries with its own migration objectives. This risks skewing priorities and undermining progress.
European seems to be most attached to their cars. Only 11 percent of citizens said that giving up their car would be the easiest choice to make to fight climate change.
The EU is still several months away from having enough vaccines to inoculate its 450 million people, with Pfizer and BioNTech, its principle suppliers, aiming for September for delivery targets.
The new, more contagious strain of Covid-19 is already in the EU, with Sweden closing its border to Denmark, on top of a UK cordon sanitaire.
EU minister for fisheries have agreed on fishing opportunities for 2021, with provisional quotas for the fish stocks shared with the UK. However, experts warned that some of these quotas will lead to overfishing "with detrimental effects on fish populations".
The European Commission will unveil a reform of EU criteria for picking energy infrastructure projects for financial support - with a particular focus on hydrogen. However, green groups have warned of the risks of not excluding fossil fuels.
After hours of negotiations, EU leaders agreed to increase the bloc's emission-reduction target to 55 percent by 2030. But Poland and Hungary made sure that member states give the final green light to future climate legislation by unanimity.
The EU's new mobility strategy aims to reduce transport's carbon footprint by 90 percent by 2050 - with the electrification of road transport, the use of biofuels and more high-speed rail traffic. But no ban on short-haul flights.
While some fear EU leaders are unlikely to strike a deal on the new climate target without first solving tensions over the rule of law and the seven-year budget, others remain optimistic.
A report found the wealthiest 10 percent of EU citizens emitted the same amount of carbon dioxide as the poorer half of the bloc from 1990 to 2015.
Denmark's decision to put a deadline on all oil and gas exploration in the North Sea, as part of the country's plan to phase out fossil fuels by 2050, is expected to put pressure on the UK and Norway.
Brussels is now considering withdrawal from the controversial Energy Charter Treaty, if negotiations to modernise it fail. A leaked European Commission proposal, dated October, revealed that loopholes remain regarding the protection of fossil-fuel investment.
Environmental organisations have brought the multinational Shell to court, arguing that their current policies violate human rights by knowingly undermining international climate goals.
Emissions regulated under the EU's carbon market fell by 9.1 percent in 2019, although aviation emissions continued to increased. Meanwhile, the Covid-19 pandemic is expected to lead to "an unprecedented fall in emissions" in 2020.
You are not likely to hear this story, because it does not fit into the environmental activist or media narrative about American clean energy and will come as a shock to the most enthusiastic boosters of the Paris agreement.
Italian multinational oil and gas company ENI has a board member advising the EU's foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell. The European Commission appears to have been kept in the dark over the affair until NGOs starting asking questions.
The European Ombudsman, Emily O'Reilly, concluded the European Commission did not adequately assess potential conflict of interests when it granted a contract to the US giant BlackRock, a global investment manager, to work on environmental rules for banks.
The last decade has seen air quality improvements across the continent, but many European citizens are still exposed to illegal and dangerous levels of pollution, according to a new report from the European Environment Agency.
The European Ombudsman said the climate risks from gas projects included on the EU Commission's list of priority energy projects were not properly assessed, urging the commission to address the "shortcomings" of its methodology.
The European Commission aims to increase the bloc's wind energy production at sea massively, reaching at least 300 GW by 2050 - a 25-fold increase from the bloc's current offshore wind capacity of 12 GW
Climate change is one of the most pressing issues in Europe. For that reason, it is the spotlight topic at the Prague European Summit 2020, which aims to provide a platform for discussion about current and future European challenges.
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen voiced concerns about the bloc's ongoing reform of farming policy, saying some of the aspects of the European Council and Parliament's negotiating position are not aligned with the flagship Green Deal.
A report of the European Parliament's environmental management unit proposes a treaty change to move the European Parliament's headquarters from Strasbourg to Brussels - in order for the institution to become climate-neutral by 2030.
A new report published on Monday by NGO watchdogs Counter Balance and CEE Bankwatch Network exposes serious failures of the European Investment Bank in the development field.
A group of 70 NGOs has urged the European Commission to ban the export to third countries of pesticides prohibited inside Europe - and stop the import of food produced with such pesticides from outside the bloc.
Today the temperature is rising 20 percent faster in the Mediterranean region than the rest of the world. This is one of challenges to be discussed by the Interreg MED conference on Friday (6 November).
