Ecology

As Germany moves away from Russian energy imports, new dependencies on fossil energies must be avoided. The potential alternative from energy-saving, renewables and European cooperation offers excellent opportunities in the short, medium and long terms. But this will require new, green energy partnerships built on a new foundation of values.

Changes in the CAP strategic Plan submitted by Ireland are “required”, as pointed out in the Observation Letter sent by the European Commission to Ireland. The overall green architecture itself, including eco-schemes especially, needs work, if Ireland is to achieve its environmental targets. There is a distinct lack of ambition, scoring, and incentives for stronger environmental practices. Increasing dairy herd numbers is named directly as making the necessary changes more difficult. That the letter’s language is strident in places is noteworthy. So what is the Commission asking for? And what comes next? Oliver Moore reports.    

On 31 March 2022, the 19 EU Member States that submitted their CAP Strategic Plans (CSPs) by the 1 January 2022 deadline received their awaited Observation Letters. In this article we discuss the implications of the European Commission backtracking on a transparent process and explore the content of Observation Letters that have been partially released.

By banning the work of German political foundations, the Russian leadership is purposefully trying to block an essential, independent channel of communication between our societies. We deeply regret this further escalation by the Russian authorities. We will maintain contact with all those who are working courageously, creatively, steadfastly and with conviction for a different, peaceful and democratic Russia.

The ongoing suffering of the civilian population in Ukraine has led to calls for the EU, or individual Member States, to stop imports of Russian gas. The economic consequences of such a step would be very severe in the short run. But there is another way, more gradual, which would minimise economic disruptions. The EU should simply impose a special import tariff on Russian gas. Repost courtesy of EUIdeas.

With the EU’s ongoing purchase of Russian energy resources, the regime that is responsible for the current barbaric war in Ukraine is guaranteed a constant cash flow.  Proponents of an embargo want to maximise the economic and financial pressure on Putin and withdraw financing from the Russian war machine.

The primary goal must be to stop the war of aggression on Ukraine launched by Russia on 24 February 2022. The sanctions of EU and NATO countries are currently in contrast to the dependence on Russian raw material and energy supplies. Hundreds of millions of euros flow from Germany to Russia every day, counteracting the effect of the sanctions. This should now be an incentive to reassess the costs of more radical fossil fuel exit scenarios in the shortest possible time under crisis conditions.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine in late February 2022 brought home what most of us knew already but had assigned secondary importance to: renewable energy properly deployed is not only good for the environment and human health, it is also good for people’s pockets and their freedom.

The inability to adequately sanction the criminal invasion of Ukraine by Russian President Putin painfully demonstrates Europe’s massive dependencies from fossil fuel imports. Phasing out fossil fuels is no longer “just” about fighting the climate crisis, but also a precondition for Europe’s energy sovereignty and price stability.

On February 24, Russia started the war in Ukraine. Nothing will be the same again. Russia's brutal attack made the ongoing conflict around energy resources all the more obvious. This article analyses what options Poland has to break its energy dependence on Russia.