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Ecology


Social Europe is an award-winning digital media publisher. We use the values of freedom, sustainability and equality as the foundation on which we examine society’s most pressing challenges. We are committed to publishing cutting-edge thinking and new ideas from the most thought-provoking people. This archive page brings together Social Europe articles on ecology.

Europe’s industry and the ecological transition

Charlotte Bez and Lorenzo Feltrin 2nd February 2023

Tackling deindustrialisation and degradation requires not a technological fix but a political alternative.

Europe’s energy transition starts to speed up

Dave Jones 31st January 2023

When Russia invaded Ukraine, many feared Europe’s green-energy transition would be collateral damage. Far from it.

Flooded Pakistan, symbol of climate injustice

Zareen Zahid Qureshi 30th January 2023

The $9 billion promised to Pakistan is only a sticking plaster until the west acknowledges the dire climate legacy in south Asia.

Towards a permanent EU investment fund

Philipp Heimberger and Andreas Lichtenberger 25th January 2023

Meeting the EU’s climate and energy goals will mean ramping up public investment via a permanent fund.

Embedding sustainability in a government programme

Johanna Juselius 25th January 2023

Sustainable development is a global task largely to be delivered by national governments. What can they learn from the leader—Finland?

An annual check-up for the climate movement

May Boeve 5th January 2023

The world made some progress in 2022 on climate change and protecting nature but entrenched interests remain to be overcome.

‘Gaslighting’ Europe on fossil fuels

Faye Holder 22nd December 2022

Documents from the International Gas Union have revealed the strategy of disinformation pursued by the powerful lobby.

Legal challenges by NGOs, citizens key to climate battle

Frederik Hafen and Romain Didi 22nd December 2022

Strong climate governance means holding governments to account. The EU institutions have shied away from doing so.

Biodiversity: the EU and the race against time

Laura Hildt and Ioannis Agapakis 21st December 2022

The EU’s Nature Restoration Law must implement key COP15 outcomes on biodiversity—in very short order.

Avoiding ‘carbon leakage’—adjustments needed

Werner Raza, Bernhard Tröster, Verena Madner and 2 more 14th December 2022

The EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism is ecologically justified but difficult to implement.

Exclusion of women could end up costing our planet 

Camilla Barungi 8th December 2022

COP27 in Egypt was massively dominated by male leaders. Yet African women are key agents in battling climate change.

Injustice is fuelling Europe’s energy crisis

Nick Meynen 1st December 2022

Europe needs to shift from a system locked into climate-wrecking fuels, extractivism and autocracies—towards ‘energy justice’.

Europe’s 2050 mission to a future-fit economy

Lydia Korinek and Jakob Hafele 1st December 2022

The step up to a sustainable economy is steep, but it is achievable with political leadership and unshackled public investment.

Progress and setbacks from COP27

Patrick ten Brink, Luke Haywood, Katy Wiese and 1 more 23rd November 2022

The European Union cannot rely on the United Nations process to deliver and must reinforce its own climate efforts.

The entrepreneurial state must lead on climate change

Mariana Mazzucato 7th November 2022

As a much-touted green alliance of financial institutions crumbles, the private sector has once again proved unequal to the task of climate leadership.

A European initiative for a global green deal

Guido Montani 7th November 2022

COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh is now open but the European Union does not seem to have the will to achieve serious goals.

Global environmental governance: reform urgent

Michael Davies-Venn 6th November 2022

As COP27 opens in Egypt while famine sweeps Somalia, an outcome-based approach to climate change must replace the appearance of action.

Shrink finance, save the planet

Magdalena Senn and Jorim Gerrard 4th November 2022

It will take more than sustainable-finance rules to summon the investment required for the socio-ecological transformation.

Getting out of the coal black hole

Alexandru Mustață 2nd November 2022

Europe can replace all Russian fossil-fuel imports with clean solutions by 2025—but only if it avoids the coal trap.

From ‘green growth’ to a ‘good life’

Nora Räthzel and Valeria Pulignano 31st October 2022

The Green Deal assumes economic growth can be ‘decoupled’ from ecological damage. That’s wishful thinking.

A green growth and innovation paradigm

Jon Bloomfield 31st October 2022

Meeting the challenge of climate change requires social democracy to come up with a new social paradigm.

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