Renovating buildings while leaving no one behind
Europe has a leaky buildings stock but the revised directive on their energy performance will still leave some in the cold.
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 has a leaky buildings stock but the revised directive on their energy performance will still leave some in the cold.
Europe’s re-engagement with industrial policy needs to address its social as well as environmental dimensions.
The decarbonisation of Europe must be accelerated—which requires a new European social model.
Europe must invest heavily in its decarbonisation. Yet the expenditures are manageable, the alternatives unconscionable.
The EU must stop giving ground on its climate vows—unless it wants to help the far right ride to victory.
Anna-Sophie Hobi, Lara Santos Ayllón and Håkon da Silva Hyldmo
Strategic autonomy meets local democracy at the resource frontier while Europe pushes ahead with the green transition.
The EU’s power sector is in the middle of a monumental shift from fossil-fuel to renewable generation.
Women, though disproportionately affected by climate change, are an afterthought when it comes to climate action.
Mutually-reinforcing measures, plus finance and labour, are needed to bend a linear economy into a circle.
Many voters regard investment in decarbonisation and socially and environmentally beneficial outcomes as economically harmful.
To ensure broad-based support for wholesale change, policy-makers will need to pursue an equitable transformation.
The European Commission’s plan to extend the Emissions Trading Scheme to the sector falls short in driving decarbonisation.
Patrick ten Brink, Faustine Bas-Defossez and Christian Skrivervik
The European Green Deal faces a fork in the road—between the politics of hope and the politics of fear—as the June elections loom.
Pursuing energy efficiency will generate more construction jobs—but that requires tackling labour shortages and skills mismatches.
Fossil-energy prices have played a big role in the cost-of-living crisis—and renewables are a big part of the solution.
The climate blueprints from EU member states are inadequate—and would forgo major socio-economic benefits.
The richest 10 per cent of Europeans are responsible for the same carbon emissions as the poorer half of the population.
Greening our economies offers a unique opportunity to improve job quality in Europe. Justice for workers should be at the core.
The Council of the EU’s position would continue to expose the poorest to toxic air for years to come.
The data show we are heading toward catastrophe, yet world leaders refuse to recognise the urgency of phasing out fossil fuels.
A year on from the breakthrough on climate-change funding, poor countries eye disappointment at the Dubai summit.