TAG: Pollution
A warning for 2024: The losers of the green revolution won’t go quietly
After pioneering the green revolution, Europe is now living under its shadow: the counterrevolution....
8 months ago
Dutch farmers back Wilders as centrist nightmares come true
Geert Wilders is everything European centrists loathe. Now, the far-right Dutch firebrand is winning over the farmers Brussels has spent decades trying to placate. Wilders — who stood on an anti-migrant, Euroskeptic platform and has previously called for...
6 months ago
The EU compromise machine is breaking — and everyone’s blaming Germany
EU policymaking is going off the rails as the election nears.The main culprit? Germany’s partisan feuds.From the outside, Brussels’ lawmaking can seem overly procedural and institutionalized. But in recent weeks, drama has riven the EU institutions, with...
6 months ago
How the EU’s flagship nature law became an electoral punching bag
BRUSSELS — Election fever is slowly killing an embattled law seeking to rehabilitate the European Union’s ailing rivers, forests and seas. The Nature Restoration Law, once billed as a pillar of the European Green Deal, is a shadow of its former self after...
6 months ago
Europe must quicken green efforts after election, EU climate chief says
STRASBOURG — The next crop of European Union officials must accelerate the push to slash planet-warming pollution and prepare for an extreme weather surge. That’s EU climate chief Wopke Hoekstra's message after scientists’ latest warning that the Continen...
6 months ago
UK hints at green taxes for frequent fliers
LONDON — The U.K. government has opened the door to new green taxes on airline passengers, just five months after playing down the idea.If the aviation sector “is not meeting the emissions reductions trajectory” required to bring down pollution, ministers...
6 months ago
Anne Hidalgo’s vision of a greener Paris faces political reckoning
PARIS — Nearly 10 years ago, newly minted Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo made “a genuine energy and environmental transition” a cornerstone of her plans for the city.The Socialist politician stayed true to that platform — in the process becoming one of the most...
6 months ago
Intensive pig farming hogs scarce water in drought-hit Catalonia
BARCELONA — In the region of Osona, to the north of Barcelona, there are seven times as many pigs as people.Hectares of pig farms — long, barrack-like brick buildings with half-closed windows — stretch from the roadside into the distance. Metal cylinders...
6 months ago
Revealed — the next Brexit headache on the Irish border
LONDON — In 2019, Boris Johnson promised his Brexit deal would do away with checks on the Northern Irish border. Five years later, the region is about to be whacked with yet another trade headache.The latest tension comes from net zero rules, with the U.K...
6 months ago
EU and US push China to help them write big new climate check
Western diplomats are preparing for a showdown with China over its reluctance to commit to funding for poorer countries struggling to cope with climate change.Governments are trying to source hundreds of billions of dollars of public money annually for th...
6 months ago
No more ‘business as usual’ in climate fight, UN boss warns ‘slipping’ politicians
LONDON — The world’s richest countries must end their “business as usual” approach to climate change or risk worsening global inequality, a leading United Nations diplomat warned Wednesday.Simon Stiell, executive secretary for U.N. Climate Change, told an...
6 months ago
Italy can do without Russian gas, says energy minister
ROME — Italy has emancipated itself from Russian natural gas and would have no problem with a proposed package of EU sanctions on liquified natural gas (LNG) that the European Commission is considering, Italian Energy Minister Gilberto Pichetto Fratin sai...
5 months ago
5 problems facing hydrogen-powered airplanes
BRUSSELS — The best way to cut greenhouse gas emissions from flying is to fly less — but that's a non-starter for the industry and millions of passengers.Instead, the sector is hunting for a tech fix that would allow airplanes to keep flying while polluti...
5 months ago
Contaminated food and resurrected bacteria: EU agency sounds alarm over health risks of warming waters
Serious food poisoning from contaminated fish, drug-resistant bacteria emerging from melting permafrost and reindeer populations decimated by anthrax — these are just some of the looming threats to Europe as the Continent's waters warm, the European Envir...
4 months ago