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Helsinki continues to invest in energy efficiency of municipal buildings as part of efforts to reach carbon neutrality by 2030.
Under Mayor of Helsinki Juhana Vartiainen, city authorities noted that the move will help to reduce energy consumption and cut greenhouse gas emissions.
Boosting the EU’s ambition on renewable energy could halve gas imports and save billions of euros.
A “small step up” in ambition for renewables would make a massive difference, according to energy think tank Ember.
Adopting a target for renewables to make up 45 per cent - instead of 40 per cent - of Europe’s energy mix by the end of the decade would save €43 billion in 2030, it calculated.
In total, €200 billion of gas costs could be avoided between 2025 and 2030. Between these dates, Germany alone would save €49.7 billion, Italy €29.9 billion and the Netherlands €20.2 billion.
Buildings are in the spotlight as the EU contemplates a long, hard winter on the back of an energy price crisis intensified by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Already the EU’s ‘Fit for 55’ climate package aimed to double renovation rates by 2030 and pioneer minimum energy performance standards for buildings. The REPowerEU proposals – issued in response to the Russian invasion – complement this with a solar rooftop plan and raise the EU’s overall energy efficiency goal for 2030 from 9% to 13%.
Global progress on energy efficiency has recovered this year to its pre-pandemic pace, but that was already well short of what would be needed to help put the world on track to reach net zero emissions by mid-century, according to the IEA’s annual market report on the topic. Total annual investment in efficient energy worldwide needs to triple by 2030 to be consistent with a path towards reaching net zero emissions by 2050, as set out in the IEA’s Roadmap to Net Zero by 2050.
Integrated Low- Carbon Strategies: A Policy Brief from the Policy Learning Platform on Low-carbon economy - IINTERREG EUROPE
Public authorities across Europe have an important role to play in the development of a sustainable and low-carbon economy, with transformations needed in every sector and area of public life. As such, multiple actors are involved in setting up strategies to direct public policy, across multiple departments and levels of governance – covering areas such as housing,
building codes, land-use, transport, energy, climate change mitigation and environmental policy. These strategies, often developed in silos, need to be harmonised and integrated to ensure that all are pulling in the same direction, and to make optimal use of limited resources. As well as cross-departmental (horizontal) co-operation, vertical co-operation between levels
of government also needs to be enabled. A number of projects and regions have already investigated the integration process and their results and guidelines can provide a number of lessons for others on how to optimally use resources, share data, engage with stakeholders and work across boundaries to develop and achieve regional aims. Download
Spain’s parliament voted in favour of the long-awaited climate law, which commits the country to cut emissions 23% by 2030, compared with 1990 levels.
The law bans all new coal, gas and oil exploration and production permits with immediate effect, prohibits the sale of fossil fuel vehicles by 2040 and enshrines a goal to generate 74% of the country’s electricity with renewable sources by 2030.
La métropole de Lille a adopté son plan climat air énergie territorial (PCAET) mi-février. Ambitieux, le document vise une baisse des émissions de gaz à effet de serre de 45% d’ici 203
The Law on Climate Change, approved by the Albanian Parliament last December, envisages, among other things, submitting the country’s Nationally Determined Contribution on reducing GHG emissions to the UNFCCC; integrating mitigation and adaptation issues into legislation, strategies, and programmes; and creating a comprehensive legal and inter-institutional framework for climate action at the national level.
A strengthened emissions trading scheme (ETS) will be vital to drive further CO2 reductions in the European Union as the bloc discusses an increase of its 2030 climate target, policymakers say.
EU leaders on Thursday (15 October) said they will decide on a more stringent climate target for 2030 at a summit in December, leaving more time to forge a united European response to climate change.
Ursula von der Leyen and Frans Timmermans have pledged to kick-start a Renovation Wave across Europe. This is a management challenge with three aspects that have to be met, write building industry CEOs.
Mario Rajn, the mayor of Križevci, a medieval city of 20,000 people northeast of Croatia's capital is pushing for his city to become energy independent by 2030. He explains what actions have been taken so far.
EU climate chief Frans Timmermans insists including carbon sinks in a proposed new 2030 emissions target does not weaken it, rejecting campaigner concerns
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The European Commission defended its proposal to source 45% of the EU’s energy from renewable sources by 2030 as EU countries look to lower ambition, EU climate chief Frans Timmermans told EURACTIV in an exclusive interview.
The EU as a whole is aiming for 82 per cent clean power by the end of the decade but some member states are looking to go one step further.
However, the full phase-out will not be over for a long time, as the post-operational phase and the gradual dismantling of the plants, under the responsibility of operators, is expected to take many more years.
Spain is on track to phase out nuclear power and coal power and to decommission several oil-fired plants between 2025 and 2035, and replace them with renewables. However, the country will need to invest in energy storage technologies to strengthen the security of supply.
The EEA report ‘Trends and Projections in Europe 2021’ estimates that the EU achieved its three 2020 climate and energy targets of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 20% compared to 1990 levels, increasing the share of renewable energy use to 20%, and improving energy efficiency by 20 %.
An early draft of the EU’s upcoming renewable energy directive confirms the bloc’s objective of sourcing 38-40% of its energy from renewables by 2030, roughly doubling the share of solar, wind and other renewables in Europe’s energy mix by the end of the decade. The new law also sets an objective of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels, although that goal will also take into account carbon removals from forestry and land use, making the gross target look more like a 52 or 53% reduction.
There are still many outstanding issues, particularly on climate ambition, after the fourth round of negotiations on Europe’s climate law closed on Friday (12 March), according to Jytte Guteland, the lead negotiator from the European Parliament.
The European Union has drafted a deal aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030, against 1990 levels, a target it hopes its 27 members will endorse at a summit next month.
If the 10-11 December EU leaders’ meeting approves the draft conclusions seen by Reuters, it could make the EU the first major economy to submit a new climate pledge under the 2015 United Nations Paris climate agreement, before a year-end deadline to do so.
The European Parliament voted on Tuesday (6 October) to update the EU’s climate target for 2030, backing a 60% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by the end of the decade, up from 40% currently.
Stepping up the 2030 EU climate target to an emission reduction of at least 55 percent as proposed by the European Commission would very likely require the bloc to phase out coal almost entirely by that date, according to experts. The move, which is backed by current EU Council presidency Germany, would also have far-reaching consequences for Germany's coal exit plans, the experts told Clean Energy Wire. The country would have to effectively bring forward its phaseout of the climate-damaging fossil fuel, currently scheduled for 2038 at the latest.
The decision follows the university's commitment to have net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2038
A new report from Energy Transitions Commission highlights the actions needed by 2030 to achieve a zero carbon economy by mid-century.
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