The European Commission has proposed a Council Regulation enabling the Commission to exempt from prior notification under EU State aid rules certain types of aid for rail, inland waterway and multimodal transport, with the objective of promoting green transport. Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager, in charge of competition policy, said: “The Commission’s proposal adopted today will enable us to […]
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The European Parliament agrees to include gas and nuclear energy as environmentally sustainable economic activities.
Parliament has rejected a motion to oppose the inclusion of nuclear and gas as environmentally sustainable economic activities. The European Parliament did not object to the Commission’s Taxonomy Delegated Act to include specific nuclear and gas energy activities, under certain conditions, in the list of environmentally sustainable economic activities covered by the so-called EU Taxonomy. As the Commission […]
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The EU’s ecological transition must be grounded on a strong social acceptability
At the request of the Council of the European Union, the EU’s assembly of cities and regions has adopted an opinion on the environmental imperatives and social acceptability of the ecological transition. The European Committee of the Regions has greenlighted the proposals of the rapporteur Hanna Zdanowska (PL/EPP), Mayor of Lodz, which puts forward a series of […]
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Machine learning unlocks ice core climate clues
A new technique based on machine learning can help scientists to more efficiently analyse ice cores. This could unlock new clues about our climatic past. Ice cores – long cylinders of ice drilled and extracted from polar ice sheets or alpine glaciers – provide pristine records of past climates. Layers of deposit create a succession […]
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How to protect vulnerable groups from climate change?
Climate change affects all Europeans but vulnerable groups, such as the elderly, children, low-income groups and people with health problems or disabilities, are the most affected. One in ten European schools and hospitals may also be at flood risk and about half of those facilities in cities are within intense urban heat islands. A European […]
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Start of electricity trade between Ukraine and the EU
The European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity announced that electricity trade between Ukraine and the EU will start this week, on 30 June. I welcome this development that follows the successful emergency synchronisation of the Ukrainian and Moldovan grids with the European Continental Grid in March. This is the next step in integrating […]
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Exposure to pollution causes 10% of all cancer cases in Europe
Pollutants in the environment and at the workplace, as well as some natural risks, have a huge impact on our health, and in some cases lead to cancer, according to the EEA web report’. With nearly 3 million new patients and 1.3 million deaths each year across the European Union, cancer takes a huge toll on our society. The economic costs […]
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Council agrees on higher targets for renewables and energy efficiency
The Council has adopted its negotiating positions (general approaches) on two legislative proposals that tackle the energy aspects of the EU’s climate transition under the ‘Fit for 55’ package: the renewable energies directive and the energy efficiency directive. The agreements pave the way for the Council to start negotiations with the European Parliament. Energy production […]
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Council adopts regulation on gas storage
The Council has definitively adopted a regulation aiming to ensure that gas storage capacities in the EU are filled before the winter season and can be shared between member states in a spirit of solidarity, despite the disruptions in the gas market. This is an important step in strengthening the security of the EU’s energy […]
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