A Sustainable Intergalactic Civilisation
Throughout the history of human civilisation, discovery through exploration has been a fundamental element of its cultural, economic, technical and spiritual evolution. From the brave Polynesian exp...
The ETS review and carbon credits: how many tonnes, how many credits?
This article is part of the thematic channel The Carbon Observer: subscribe to the newsletter The EU's renewed opening to international carbon credits has moved, within four months, from ...
Europe’s 250 Million-Tonne CDR Market Will Not Be for Everyone
This article is part of the thematic channel The Carbon Observer: subscribe to the newsletter The European Commission has proposed auctioning 250 million additional EU Emissions Trad...
What if perfect circularity came from space
In orbit, nothing is wasted. Every gram of material loaded before launch has a weight, a cost and an already planned second life. On the International Space Station, most of the water – includ...
From aid to compensation: Nepal is changing the language of the climate crisis
There is one word that Nepal’s Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal has stopped using, replaced by a different one. The first is aid. The second is compensation. The speech refers to the disast...
Warm homes, lower bills, stronger EU: the power of citizen-led energy networks
How can we all enjoy comfortable temperatures in our homes at a fair, affordable price? Locally produced renewable heating and cooling networks fight energy poverty, increase comfort, make our citie...
Too Hot to Cope: Why Cooling Must Become Europe’s Next Social Right
Marine Cornelis is Digital Ambassador of the European Sustainable Energy Week (EUSEW), Executive Director and founder of Next Energy Consumer, an organisation dedicated to putting citizens at the he...
Energy Communities Need You(th): bridging Italy's youth and Renewable Energy Communities
Renewable Energy Communities (RECs) are multiplying across Europe, yet most are still highly dependent on volunteer-based work. One way to support the spreading and development of the energy communi...
The last ownerless territory: Antarctica and the 2048 window
In Argentine school maps, coloured in the national colours, Antarctica appears marked by a white triangle stretching from Ushuaia to the South Pole. Chilean maps show another triangle, overlapping t...
The effects of Human error on the health of the planet
As predicted since the 19th century, the planet is undergoing a dramatic rise in global temperature. The last 10 years have been the hottest ever recorded in history. However, the term “global...
The world reorganises without the US: the new geography of sustainability
At the end of November 2025, as the COP30 UN climate negotiations closed in Belém, the most notable absentee was the delegation of the United States – about to formally withdraw from th...
Richard Heinberg, the mentor who taught us to face up to planetary boundaries
Richard Heinberg, one of the most important American environmental thinkers of this century, died on Sunday, July 19, at the age of 75, from pancreatic cancer diagnosed just two weeks earlier. It wa...
Every sip is a system
Water is the invisible infrastructure behind all beverages. We hardly ever see it, as we prefer to look at the colour of a wine, the foam on a beer, the design of a label, the transparency of a bott...
Nunc est Bibendum
In contemporary Western society, the ritual and spiritual dimension of the act of drinking is often reduced to mere material consumption or, at best, hedonism. And yet, our human history is peppered...
The role of women in Latin America and the Caribbean in facing the climate crisis
In recent years, the effects of weather and climate phenomena in Latin America and the Caribbean have rippled across the region—from the Andes to Patagonia, from cities to coastal towns—...
New ESRS standards: European sustainability towards simplification
The process of structuring European sustainability reporting has recently taken a decisive step forward: on June 3, the public consultation phase on the simplified version of the ESRS reporting stan...
Artificial Intelligence: unveiling the real environmental impacts
“One of the most consequential dimensions of AI that remains comparatively under-examined is its environmental footprint and the justice implications that follow.” This is how the latest...
Could Iron Man Save the Carbon Market?
This article is part of the thematic channel The Carbon Observer: subscribe to the newsletter During the week of May 18 to May 23, I was in Singapore for two of the most important carbon ...
Transition credits: waiting for Godot?
This article is part of the thematic channel The Carbon Observer: subscribe to the newsletter The question of whether transition credits constitute a viable tool for accelerating coal pha...
Serfs: the hidden cost of food in global supply chains
In the European Middle Ages, the term “serfdom” referred to a legally defined status that fell somewhere between slavery (servus) and free man, in that the individual was not considered ...