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...
International credits in the ETS: the Commission moves forward, the Parliament is divided
This article is part of the thematic channel The Carbon Observer: subscribe to the newsletter On 17 July 2026, the European Commission issued a legislative proposal to overhaul the EU ETS...
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...
Can Ghana save its forests without abandoning cocoa farmers?
“We earn around $200 [€175, ed] a month, and every expense has to come out of that,” says Francis Tenor, president of the Boase Sibi cocoa cooperative in Ghana’s Eastern ...
Europe moves to secure gallium supply as METLEN signs US deal
On July 29, METLEN Energy & Metals announced a long-term deal to supply approximately 25% of the annual gallium output expected from its planned production facility in Greece. The agreement was ...
Circularity in models for assessing the construction sector’s emissions impacts
The starting point, as Pierluigi Zerbino explained to an audience of businesses and academics, is disarmingly simple: “We asked ourselves: can the circular economy help to decarbonise the cons...
ETS reform: the EU is going along with the most polluting industries
On Friday 17 July, the European Commission presented its proposal to revise the Emissions Trading System (ETS), the EU’s carbon market, which since 2005 has helped halve emissions from th...
Critical raw materials, Luca Meini: “It’s urgent to move from strategy to execution”
In just a few years, critical raw materials (CRMs) have become the true bottleneck for Europe’s green and digital transition. Lithium, cobalt, rare earths, gallium, germanium – without t...
Underused power plants, high costs: EU pays the price for its dependence on gas
The Hormuz Strait energy crisis has reignited the debate over fossil fuel subsidies: should governments pitch in to limit the cost of fuel – and risk reinforcing their countries’ depende...
EurEau presents the state-of-the-art of european water services in 2026
This article is part of the thematic channel The Water Observer: subscribe to our newsletter and receive exclusive contents from the world of water One year after the presentation of the Europ...
Why restoring soil health is a win-win for farmers and the environment
Soils feed us, filter our water and support most of the food chain on Earth. But they are also among Europe’s most neglected resources –quietly degrading beneath our feet while we look e...
Europe's waste could supply more than half of its CRMs by 2050
Building an onshore wind farm requires nearly nine times more mineral resources than a gas-fired power station. And as the energy transition accelerates, driven by electrification, the spread of ren...
Fabrizio Penna: “The PNRR transformed the Ministry and our relationship with Brussels”
MASE is the beneficiary of a substantial portion of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan: €33.7 billion spread across 49 measures, with 119 milestones and targets to be achieved. The ninth...
Electric Vehicles: how the Hormuz crisis changes the European market
Faced with the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, car electrification in Europe no longer appears to be merely a matter of climate policy or industrial innovation. After all, even now that the fragile...
Up to 500,000 heat pumps per year: this is how Vaillant is investing in Europe
Bratislava – Visiting the Vaillant Group’s new mega-factory in Senica, Slovakia, one figure stands out above all others: a potential capacity of 500,000 electric heat pumps per year. A p...
The future of grid intelligence
Helsinki – European utilities are facing a historic turning point: increasingly complex grids, extreme weather events and customers demanding reliable and sustainable electricity are exerting ...
CBAM: the challenges of international accreditation
This article is part of the thematic channel The Carbon Observer: subscribe to the newsletter Who monitors emissions from a steel mill in Wuhan on behalf of Europe when we import material...
Getting the best out of the ETS/MSR reform and flexibilities
This article is part of the thematic channel The Carbon Observer: subscribe to the newsletter Twenty years since its launch, the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) has become the w...
ECESP 2026: Circularity as the foundation of European security
Brussels – “In times of instability, circular economy is not a choice, it’s a necessity.” With these words, European Commissioner for the Environment Jessika Roswall kic...