On 15 September 2021, the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, gave the annual State of the Union address to the European Parliament (EP) in Strasbourg, France. With Europe still battling through the pandemic, newer and more pressing concerns about climate change and defence policy made their way to the forefront of […]
The past couple of months have seen a flurry of enthusiastic articles on the green revolution in Europe’s cities. A somewhat idealized story of a change spearheaded by civil society, demanded by the people and implemented by local authorities as part of a larger European agenda. We have indeed witnessed pollution levels drop across the […]
As factories cease activity, supermarket shelves are emptied and populations around the world watch the spread of the novel Coronavirus with increasing alarm – could we be witnessing more than just a momentary blip in business as usual? Even without being infected, could COVID-19 be changing us (and potentially the future of the world)? On […]
2020 has only just begun, but it is already proving to be an interesting year. A new European Commission takes office and promises us a union that strives for more. Britain is finally going to Brexit. The USA are heading for an election. Tensions are growing between China and Hong Kong. Russia is remodelling its […]
Humanity is plagued by existential threats. Threats, it seems we cannot overcome. Whether it is an asteroid that could hit the Earth at any time, wiping out all life, supergerms for which there are no cure, space lightning that can incinerate a whole galaxy in an instant, or the ever advancing changes to our climate, […]
‘Together with a nuclear power share of ca. 15%, [renewable energy sources] will be the backbone of a carbon-free European power system.’ This sentence from the European Commission’s strategic vision for climate-neutrality by 2050, A Clean Planet for All (2018), concisely summarises the argument put forward in this article. Nuclear energy has a crucial role […]
The European Union wants to become climate-neutral by 2050. To this end, a vast variety of legislative goals from the European Green Deal to a “comprehensive plan” to cut EU emissions by at least 55% by 2030 have been proposed by the Commission’s President-elect Ursula von der Leyen, while some 25-30% of the EU’s 2021-2027 […]
It comes as no great shock that climate change deniers are often the same crowds who oppose migration. But what happens when the climate changes populists refuse to acknowledge actually fuel the fire they fear so much? The World Solidarity Forum (WSF) hosted a panel discussion at the Brussels Press Club last week where climate […]