Pollution

The Covid-19 crisis brought about unprecedented reductions in CO2 emissions and energy consumption, benefiting renewables. This effect may be temporary however – but it could also mark the beginning of an ecological transition compatible with safeguarding the planet.

Key climate hazards are already affecting Europe and will increasingly do so, a series of maps published by the European Environment Agency (EEA) reveals.

While the Commission is unveiling its Green Deal on 11 December, the European Environmental Agency’s latest report says that Europe as a while will not achieve its 2030 climate and energy targets if no urgent action is taken in the 10 coming years.

The debate surrounding climate change mitigation runs according to a simple principle: unwanted technologies are being ruled out. Nuclear energy has served its use, demonstration projects for carbon capture and storage are practically dead in the water, while energy from biomass is set to remain very limited.

To popularize science, students at the Franco-German high school in Freiburg im Breisgau launched the "DupleX evenings". In this article, they invite fellow students from all over Europe to tackle the issue of climate change the same way, in order to "become climate actors".

As Europe is facing 2019’s largest heat wave, an update on the temperature data from 558 cities and their surroundings in Europe shows that 2018 was the warmest year since 1900 in 203 cities. Local response to the climate breakdown varies widely, according to a survey of a 61 local authorities in six countries by the European Data Journalism Network.