Portugal has activated the EU Civil Protection Mechanism to request emergency assistance for the current wildfires in the central part of the country. In an immediate response, the European Commission has mobilised this morning 2 Canadair firefighting airplanes from its rescEU fleet positioned in Spain. The planes are supporting Portuguese first responders in the affected […]
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Fit for 55: Parliament pushes for greener aviation fuels
Used cooking oil, synthetic fuel or even hydrogen should gradually become the norm as aviation fuel to help EU become climate neutral by 2050, said MEPs on Thursday. Parliament adopted its position on new draft EU rules to increase the uptake of sustainable fuels by EU planes and airports, in order to cut emissions from […]
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State aid: Commission proposes rules to simplify procedures for State aid to green transport
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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