Ecology

On 14 July 2021, the European Commission will present its proposals for implementing the EU Climate Law - the so-called “Fit-for-55” package. This will be the starting signal for one of the most important EU debates of the next years: how can the EU reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 55% by 2030 and how can it become climate neutral by 2050?

Night trains are on the rise again. This year, 2021, marks the European Year of Rail and the resurrection of important new night train connections, combined with fresh railway market entrants. Read on to learn more about this promising means of transportation.

In March 2021, the German Agriculture Ministers’ Conference and the Federal Ministry for Food and Agriculture agreed on important cornerstones for the country’s CAP Strategic Plan. While the resolutions have opened the door for a more ambitious CAP in Germany, it remains to be seen whether the federal and state governments will seize this opportunity when they decide on details still to be negotiated.

The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on Europe's economy, health systems and democracy is enormous. In terms of European policy, it will now be important to shape the economic construction in Europe in a socially and ecologically sustainable way. Municipalities are now seen as the new bearers of hope in this endeavour and initiatives at the local level are already making a difference in many areas and are seen as potential drivers of the socio-ecological transformation. The focus of this years’ Annual European Conference is thus put on the local dimension of the European Green Deal. 

Methane emissions from the oil and gas sector are a major contributing factor to climate change as the key component of fossil gas has a global warming potential 86 times higher than CO2. Regulating methane emissions in the oil and gas upstream supply chain as well as coal sector is therefore a powerful tool and urgent for mitigating GHG emissions and meeting climate targets. It is important that upcoming EU legislation be binding and apply to the entire supply chain of the oil, gas and coal industries, including domestic sources and gas imports from third countries. Only if all measures apply to EU imports, wholesale and retail, the impact of methane emissions on the global climate can truly be addressed.

35 years on from the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, our director Eva van de Rakt was in conversation with the Austrian Federal Minister for Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology, Leonore Gewessler, and former Member of the European Parliament Rebecca Harms on the role, risks and dangers of nuclear power in Europe.

New nuclear power costs about 5 times more than onshore wind power per kWh. Nuclear takes 5 to 17 years longer between planning and operation and produces on average 23 times the emissions per unit electricity generated. In addition, it creates risk and cost associated with weapons proliferation, meltdown, mining lung cancer, and waste risks. Clean, renewables avoid all such risks.

In Russia, atomic energy is completely state-owned and paid for out of taxpayers’ money. The state corporation “Rosatom” comprises civilian and military nuclear technology companies. It is the world’s largest producer of nuclear power plants (NPPs) and its activities extend more to projects in other countries than in Russia itself. Thanks to large capacities for uranium enrichment, which remained in Russian hands after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Rosatom currently controls 17% of world production of nuclear fuels.

Can nuclear energy help us meet climate goals? Mycle Schneider, editor of the annual World Nuclear Industry Status Report (WNISR), which assesses the status and trends of the global nuclear power industry, says no. Interview courtesy of DW.

The issue of nuclear power has been with the European Union since the very beginning of the nuclear age. Where are operating nuclear power plants in the world? Who is building new reactors? What happened in the European region after Chernobyl and the fall of the Berlin Wall?