About five years ago, decentralized community energy, though etched in history books for having sparked Europe’s clean-energy revolution in the 1990s, was deemed outdated in the age of the ever-more dramatic climate crisis. Paul Hockenos explains the development.
Germany intends to invest €100 million annually into the research of hydrogen technologies. This could be the business of the future, as well as the country’s next top export. However, the future of green gas is still extremely shaky. Daniel Eck reports.
Recent months have brought a series of signs of change on the horizon of Polish climate politics – some clearer than others. It is negligible how much such change is being forced by external circumstances and how much stems from genuine reflection. The climate crisis and its consequences are now so clear that the most hardened climate sceptics have been silenced. It is too soon to speak of an environmental breakthrough in Poland, but one can no longer definitively say that the right-wing remains completely indifferent to the ubiquitous signs of crisis. Michał Olszewski summarises the development.
After twenty years of negotiations, the European Union is in the process of advancing one of the world’s largest free trade agreements with four states of Mercosur. The planned agreement suggests a political path that veers towards a worsening of the international climate crisis. Kathrin Meyer discusses the questionable contents of the political act, which will solidify inequality amongst the trade partners and enable the expansion of environmentally harmful methods.
Six are on the path to self-sufficiency, and 20 more will follow. Islands are an excellent fit for renewables for a number of reasons. Paul Hockenos takes a look
The European Commission registered an official petition on Wednesday (7 July) that calls on the EU executive to set up a minimum carbon price, “discourage the consumption of fossil fuels” and keep global warming to below 1.5 degrees. Sam Morgan reports
Attention energy wonks, the EU’s revised electricity regulation is going to change the electricity grid as we know it. Not just physically, but in terms of market policy: no forbearance with grid congestion and a clear commitment to cross-border trade. Justus Irmen takes an in-depth look.
A few days before the EU Summit, climate diplomats are gathering in Bonn to agree on rules for trading CO2 certificates and financial mechanisms designed to support developing countries, two agenda items from the Paris Agreement that remain unresolved. Florence Schulz, author from EURACTIV Germany reports.
The results of the European elections can be seen as a new green wave and as a response to concerns about climate change. The striking school children, a movement known as ‘Fridays For Future’, strongly influenced this development, Paul Hockenos takes a look.
Under pressure from Trump, just weeks ahead of the European Parliamentary elections, the EU Commission signed a long-term agreement locking in at least 20-years of imported fracked Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) shipments. Despite hundreds of international environmental groups warning this will torpedo the goals of the 2015 Paris Climate Accords and retard plans to decarbonize Europe, EU President Juncker and Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič are hailing the deal as part of the continent’s on-going clean energy transition. L. Michael Buchsbaum takes a look.
