Financing the EU's Circular Transition
The transition to a Circular Economy is under way. It is just over 8 years now since the European Commission published its Circular Economy Action Plan. In that time, we have had a second Action Pla...
Nature Restoration Law stalled again: Italy among opponents
It appeared that the Nature Restoration Law, a key piece of the Green Deal, was a done deal. Yet a minority of EU members, including Italy and Hungary, once again prevented the adoption of legi...
Sustainability Report, the ESRS E5 Standard on resource use and circular economy explained
In the past few months, the European Union has made significant advancements towards transparency and comparability of sustainability data. Especially for what concerns the goal of standardising the...
CSDDD, agreement reached on the sustainability due diligence of businesses
On March 15, ambassadors from European Union member states gathered at the COREPER Permanent Representatives Committee voted in favor of the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD)....
Water Resilience Initiative, institutional letter against the EU Commission's suspension
After being postponed in February, the European Commission has suspended the Water Resilience Initiative. Its submission has, in fact, been withdrawn from the agenda of the upcoming College of Commi...
Is e-commerce really more sustainable than stores?
Useful? Yes. Convenient? Maybe too much so. But as sustainability goes, e-commerce has never had a good reputation. Now, however, research wants to overturn the environmental bad reputation of ...
Farmers explain the reasons behind their protest
We are nearly a month into the protests held by farmers all over Europe. Originating in Germany over a budget issue – the Scholz government, struggling with a 17 billion deficit, has cut fue...
European farmers’ protests show the need for a just transition to Net Zero
As many countries prepare to go to the polls in 2024, the need for a transition to Net Zero emissions has become a key political battleground. In Europe, the sustainability of farming practices is t...
EU: 90% emissions cut by 2040, with the help of nuclear power but without that of agriculture
Net greenhouse gas emissions in the European Union are to be reduced by 90 percent by 2040 (compared to 1990 levels). This is the new climate target announced today, Feb. 6, by the EU Commission. I...
Why are farmers protesting in Europe and the peculiarity of the Italian case
The images of a ravaged Place de Luxembourg, the elegant esplanade in front of the European Parliament building in Brussels, are already the symbol of the new wave of protests by the European f...
EPR for automotive? Design Them Better!
After months of debate and heated discussions on fuels – diesel, petrol and e-fuel – something new is emerging in the automotive sector. “Better designs” is the indicati...
Restoration Law: there is an agreement, but it is still far from what science requires
Late in the evening of Thursday, November 9, 2023, negotiators from the Parliament, Commission and Council reached a tentative political agreement on the European law on nature restoration. After a ...
Full steam ahead for the EU Blue Deal
*from Brussels The European proposal for an EU Blue Deal picks up speed. On October 26, 2023, the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), in a packed room at the Charlemagne Building in...
Artificial Intelligence to support European transition to healthy soils
Today, it is estimated that between 60 and 70% of the EU’s soils are unhealthy. Healthy soils capture carbon, improve yields, help reduce flooding and boosts biodiversity – but they are ...
Blue Economy in the Netherlands: A Sea of Potential
Working with the sea is part of the history, tradition, and culture of the Netherlands. For centuries, the Dutch have worked on the open sea, gaining a profound understanding of the specific co...
The Netherlands, Circular by Design
According to the Circularity Gap Report – The Netherlands, https://www.circularity-gap.world/netherlands the Dutch economy is 24.5% circular. Targeted strategies, especially in the key sectors...
Europe approves new rules for sustainable and circular batteries
Europe will be getting more sustainable and circular batteries. It has taken two and a half years, but the process for the new EU regulation on the design, manufacture, and management of both batter...
Hans Bruyninckx: beyond the green city, the future is in integrated cities
Innovation, creativity, cooperation, vision: cities have always been the place where change begins and future is built. The path mapped out by the European Green Deal, then, can only start in t...
The Circular Economy as a Pillar of the EU’s Development
Our world population consumes 110 billion tonnes of materials a year and wastes over 90 percent of them. Only 7.2 percent of those materials make it back into our economy and, according to the Circu...
Towards a Global Green Deal
The Ventotene Manifesto, penned by Altiero Spinelli and Ernesto Rossi, two of modern Europe’s founding fathers, and the Paneuropa document, written by Richard Nikolaus of Coudenhove-Kalergi, defin...