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Ecology


Social Europe is an award-winning digital media publisher driven by the core values of freedom, sustainability, and equality. These principles guide our exploration of society’s most pressing challenges. This archive page curates Social Europe articles focused on ecological issues, offering a rich resource for innovative thinking and informed debate.

Reaching Net Zero Might Fail—And It’s Not Because Renewables Are Too Expensive

Jayati Ghosh 27th January 2025

Solar and wind are now cheaper than fossil fuels, but…

How Trump’s energy policies could set America back decades

Joseph Stiglitz 1st October 2024

Just as Donald Trump’s overall economic strategy is based on nostalgia for a bygone era, his fossil-fuel-centered energy policies would represent a quixotic attempt to reverse history.

Renewables and agriculture—friends, not foes

Hannah O'Sullivan and Cosimo Tansini 26th September 2024

There is enough land in Europe for wholly renewable energy without compromising nature protection or food production.

The case for a global climate assembly

Laurence Tubiana and Ana Toni 25th September 2024

Only a minority of respondents in recent surveys trust their governments to achieve a just transition.

Criminalising climate protest while ignoring the crisis

Lotte Leicht and Trevor Stankiewicz 21st September 2024

The scales of justice are tilted against peaceful protesters—while those responsible for the crisis act with impunity.

Saving the planet from plastics

Jayati Ghosh 18th September 2024

If corporate interests undermine efforts to reduce plastic manufacturing, they will derail the fight against climate change.

Reclaiming time from its tyranny

Aïsha MacDougall 9th September 2024

We are running out of time on the climate crisis—yet ‘slow living’ is a key to its solution.

Adapting workplaces to climate change

Nadja Dörflinger and Adrien Thomas 5th September 2024

To sustain healthy and safe conditions at work, unprecedented action is urgently needed.

EU climate ambition: ensuring it is lawful 

Romain Didi 3rd September 2024

NGOs have increasingly looked to the courts for action on climate change. Now the Court of Justice of the EU is the focus.

Fossil-fuel power in Europe: the only way is down

Euan Graham 1st August 2024

For the first time, in the first half of this year wind and solar generated more electricity in the European Union.

The invisible victims of the climate crisis

Theodota Nantsou and Konstantinos Vlachopoulos 30th July 2024

It is time to open a discussion on Europe’s role in the protection of climate refugees.

Neoliberalism is blocking green growth

Laura Carvalho 24th July 2024

Climate change is a global challenge, yet trade rules do not allow developing countries to break with neoliberal orthodoxy.

How Big Oil gaslights Europe on climate policy

Tom Holen 22nd July 2024

In the race against climate catastrophe, decades-old fossil-fuel-industry narratives retard the green transition.

Climate capabilities: realising the green transition

Lisa Pelling 8th July 2024

People are not unaware of climate change, Lisa Pelling writes. But they find it difficult to imagine the green transition.

Agriculture emissions: Danes not following the herd

Mathieu Mal 3rd July 2024

Denmark’s tax on greenhouse-gas emissions from agriculture is a reason for hope—but not complacency.

Leaving the Energy Charter Treaty—it’s not so easy

Rachel Thrasher and Kyla Tienhaara 27th June 2024

The European Union has given notice of its withdrawal from the Energy Charter Treaty. There is still much to do.

Fossil-fuel subsidies: a litany of broken promises

Olivier Vardakoulias and Giulia Nardi 11th June 2024

While pledged to phase out fossil-fuel subsidies by 2025, EU member states are spending more than at any point since 2015.

Heat stress at work—a political emergency

Aude Cefaliello 11th June 2024

Climate change is creating new risks, requiring a minimum protective threshold for all workers in Europe. 

The 1.5C target for global heating must prevail

Joeri Rogelj 6th June 2024

Even if we overshoot the 1.5C limit set by the Paris Agreement, we must return to it as quickly as possible.

Sustainable Development Goals: time for a rethink

Michael Davies-Venn 31st May 2024

A political reconceptualisation is critical if humanity’s hope for a sustainable global future is to be rescued.

Sufficiency: towards an eco-social economy

Richard Bärnthaler and Ian Gough 28th May 2024

The only exit from the ‘polycrisis’ is a corridor of sufficiency between meeting need and avoiding excess.

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