EU nations have lined up for and against any form of Eurobonds, including Coronabonds, that would mutualise vast amounts of debt across all the member states. Yet vast amounts are needed to recover from this unexpected and unprecedented global slump caused by the Coronavirus pandemic. Where will it come from? Luca Bonaccorsi at Transport & Environment explains EC president Ursula von der Leyen’s proposal for how the EU budget (on its own, … [Read more...]
EU needs clear European Green and Solidarity Pact by September
Stark predictions around the unprecedented economic challenges facing Europe (and the world) are starting to take shape. The possible solutions must keep pace with them. Here, Marc-Antoine Eyl-Mazzega at the IFRI Centre for Energy & Climate lays out those challenges and robust policy answers that can keep us on a net-zero emissions track while stimulating economies, creating jobs, and maintaining social justice. It’s no surprise that there is … [Read more...]
How do we accelerate EU decarbonisation now?
The economic stimulus needed to overcome the current pandemic requires significant resources. But it comes at a time when we need to accelerate the energy transition, which is currently part of the European Green Deal and will also require an increase in resources. Andrei Marcu at ERCST examines how the transition will be funded, what are the sources of funding and how they relate to and will be impacted by the current health situation. A range … [Read more...]
New EU Industrial Strategy focuses on emissions, but is it enough?
This month the European Commission released its new EU Industrial Strategy to set the direction of travel for the EU economy in the context of the European Green Deal. Energy-intensive industries - like steel, cement, aluminium, paper and chemicals - account for roughly 17% of EU emissions and have struggled to reduce them in recent years. But Johanna Lehne at E3G doubts the strategy is enough to meet the ambition of becoming the first … [Read more...]
EU Green Deal: meeting targets by lowering non-EU neighbour emissions too
The EU‘s Green Deal and its increasingly ambitious transition policies cannot be limited to its member states, writes Marc-Antoine Eyl-Mazzega at the IFRI Centre for Energy & Climate. For its emissions targets to be met in a meaningful way the EU needs to ensure its neighbours to the east and in North Africa follow. The danger is that carbon intensive industries simply shift to those neighbours, and their products get imported back in. … [Read more...]
The EU can support Central and East Europe’s transition
Six Central and East European nations, heavily dependent on coal, have been very cautious about the pace of the EU’s transition. For them - Bulgaria, Czechia, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia - the political and economic disruption looks far harder to bear. E3G has just released a report that suggests this picture can change. The report’s authors – Felix Heilmann, Rebekka Popp and Ada Ámon – explain that coal is becoming less profitable, … [Read more...]
No Energiewende without Wärmewende: making Germany’s Heating emissions climate neutral (…nearly)
In Germany, space and water heating in buildings accounts for almost a third of total final energy consumption. Because over 90% of its 22m buildings are fuelled by oil and gas, that makes the sector emissions very intensive. The government’s ambition is to have a "nearly climate neutral building stock" by 2050. But although those emissions have fallen by 44% since 1990, progress has largely stagnated since 2011. Freja Eriksen at Clean Energy … [Read more...]
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