Europe needs drastic pesticide reduction
A leaked proposal from the European Commission would favour the agrochemical industry, not the citizenry.
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.
A leaked proposal from the European Commission would favour the agrochemical industry, not the citizenry.
Major emitters must deliver on critical ‘climate justice’ issues, such as financing for vulnerable countries.
Europe’s largest energy companies are failing on their net-zero pledges.
The EU’s controversial proposal to label nuclear energy ‘green’ could jeopardise the future of the German coalition.
The Recovery and Resilience Facility is important but will not mobilise sufficient green investment by itself.
There is no environmental, climate or economic reason to include nuclear and fossil gas in the EU investment taxonomy.
How to avoid ecological policies having adverse social effects? Make the associated services (partly) free.
The climate transition and its social dimension demand more powerful instruments than the European Commission proposes.
Public-private partnerships must be replaced by public-community collaborations for wellbeing and the climate.
The Recovery and Resilience Facility aims to finance national projects. Yet a pan-European rail network could yield big emissions cuts.
There are fears the revised directive on energy performance due from the European Commission will not be adequate to the task.
The European Commission initiative on ‘carbon farming’ due today is expected to rely on a market in sequestration.
Germany’s ‘traffic light’ coalition is sending strong green signals. But political roadblocks lie ahead.
Most livestock land will have to be repurposed as carbon sinks to remove the huge global emissions related to food production.
Global climate commitments will not amount to much without the institutional foundation the transition to a zero-carbon economy needs.
Finance was at the heart of the COP26 rupture between developed and developing countries—it’s time for a new approach.
After four decades, the pandemic and especially the climate crisis have silenced the exponents of fiscal orthodoxy. Keynes is back.
As COP26 continues, global social ambition will have to match that for the climate to secure a liveable world for all.
There is growing recognition in Europe of the need to steer an ecological industrial transition—just not enough.
Government leaders in Glasgow are still behind the climate curve but young activists might just drag the world ahead of it.
Alongside ambitious emissions-reductions targets, well-functioning carbon markets are key to success at COP26 and on today’s agenda.