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The City of Bilbao is initiating a new project, which will expand the electrification of the public transit network in the city by allowing electricity to be transferred from the local metro to the lo..
Buildings are accountable for 53% of carbon emissions in the city of Rome, and this is the main issue that needs to be addressed in order to achieve climate neutrality, Rome mayor Roberto Gualtieri told EURACTIV in an interview.
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.
Hamburg was the first major German city to launch a comprehensive Green Roof Strategy. Its goal is to green at least 70 per cent of both new buildings and suitable flat or gently pitched roofs that are being renovated. The Ministry for Environment, Climate, Energy, and Agriculture supports the project with three million euros until the end of 2024. In 2014 the goal was set to
The share of journeys made by car in the city has fallen by nearly half, and the trend is only accelerating. Peter Yeung discusses the trend in Paris in an article on the Reasons to be Cheerful website. Cars Are Vanishing from Paris Bright parasols, wooden sun loungers and expanses of golden sand suddenly…
La ministre de la Transition énergétique, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, esquisse les premiers contours du plan pour réduire de 10 % notre consommation d’énergie d’ici deux ans.
n Dornbirn, citizens bought up all the municipally-issued shares in a photovoltaic project in just 10 days
Today, local authorities in Dornbirn, Austria, announced that all the shares in the city’s new photovoltaic project were sold in just 10 days. The project will involve setting up solar panels on municipal buildings like fire stations, schools and kindergartens, which will be financed through small scale citizen-driven investment.
The project also aims at helping people who lack the means to set up a solar farm themselves get in on the green energy transition. The new solar energy system should work to reach the city’s 2030 climate goals to triple sustainable energy production.
This week, the Buildings Performance Institute Europe (BPIE) published a new report on nearly zero energy building standards in six member states that show decarbonisation of new buildings in is not happening fast enough. A failure to decarbonise newly constructed buildings could prevent the EU from achieving its climate targets for 2030 and 2050, according…
Scotland's new National Planning Framework has good climate policies but also backs a polluting Peterhead power station
We have reusable cups, bags and bottles: so why are our buildings still single use?
While some other sectors are gradually reducing their consumption and waste generation to meet carbon emissions targets, the construction industry seems to be lagging behind. This is particularly concerning considering that it’s responsible for 38% of global greenhouse gas emissions and 62% of the UK’s waste.
Ljubomir Jankovic, Professor of Advanced Building Design at the University of Hertfordshire, in an article on The Conversation website, discusses the importance of accounting for embodied carbon in buildings if we are to fully come to grips with net zero emissions. Embodied carbon: why truly net zero buildings could still be decades away Carbon dioxide…
Our recent study, which examined whether building denser and taller is the right path to sustainability, busts this myth: we found that densely built, low-rise environments are more space and carbon efficient, while high-rise buildings have a drastically higher carbon impact.
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The Municipality of Uppsala is further investing in the promotion of circularity concepts within the local construction industry. For this purpose, a new recycling service for used building materials ..
In an interview with Audrey Garric on the Le Monde website, the president of the High Council on Climate, Corinne Le Quéré , observes that while the French response to global warming isn't bad, there is no guarantee that the country will be able to meet its climate targets. Corinne Le Quéré is the president of the…
Ghent is continuing to install solar panels on municipal buildings as part of broader environmental efforts.
City authorities headed by Mayor of Ghent Mathias De Clercq pointed out that municipal buildings will cover more than 40% of their energy needs with renewables by the end of the year.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan has confirmed the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) will be expanded to cover all of the capital city to tackle air pollution and congestion.
It will come into effect on 29th August 2023 and will operate across all London boroughs up to the existing Low Emission Zone boundary.
Estimates from Transport for London (TfL) suggests around 160,000 cars and 42,000 vans will be liable for a daily fee of £12.50 on a typical day.
Across Europe, rising temperatures, combined with an ageing population and urbanisation, mean that the population is becoming more vulnerable to heat and that demand for cooling in buildings is rising rapidly. Buildings, as long-lasting structures, can offer protection from heatwaves and high temperatures if appropriately designed, constructed, renovated and maintained. The summer of 2022, with its successive long heatwaves and high energy prices, may have raised the sense of urgency given to the alleviation of heat stress. But there is a gap in knowledge on the extent of overheating in buildings and data and information is scarce regarding the share of EU citizens unable to keep their homes comfortably cool during the summer. This briefing examines key elements of sustainable cooling policy, and its potential impacts on vulnerable groups, by reducing health risks, inequalities and summer energy poverty.
New public buildings in Finland have to incorporate more wood, which is leading builders to innovate.
Shetland, a group of islands off the coast of Scotland, is doing what we should all be doing: working with not against nature. It is making the most of being the windiest place in the UK by using this natural resource to create energy.
The archipelago will soon have the most productive onshore wind farm in the country. Despite the Islands’ gusty credentials - racking up 14.6 knots on average - they currently rely on a diesel power station.
Europe’s energy crisis has driven home a number of geographic ironies for Shetlanders. Their fortunes have been boosted by the discovery of oil-rich seabeds in the surrounding North Sea and Atlantic since the 1970s, yet the population has one of the highest fuel poverty rates in Britain.
Md Sazan Rahman, PhD Candidate, Bioresource Engineering at McGill University in Canada writes on The Conversation website about the multiple benefits of green buildings. Green buildings can boost productivity, well-being and health of workers Most people now recognize the energy savings benefits of green buildings. These buildings use less water, energy and other natural resources.…
One of the biggest challenges for any city seeking to reach net zero is knowing exactly where its emissions are coming from. CO₂ is not routinely measured in real time by city authorities anywhere in the world; however, a pilot project in Glasgow shows it is achievable. Craig Michie, Professor of Electrical Engineering, at University…
Come 2030, the UK wants to extract some five million tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere, using all available greenhouse gas removal methods, from peatland management to direct air capture, and bets heavily on carbon sequestration under the sea floor.
Both engineered and land-based solutions will be part of the effort, according to the government’s new October 2021 net-zero strategy, which follows a decision in May to invest some 100 million British pounds in pilot schemes that are testing the viability of a variety of greenhouse gas removal methods.
The fundamental assumption underlying these beliefs is that economic growth can be “decoupled” from resource and ecological demands and impacts. That is, it is claimed that the rate of production and consumption can continue to increase while the resources needed to do this can be reduced to sustainable levels, along with the environmental damage it causes. This comforting faith is widely held, including by major global institutions.
Jean-Pascal Tricoire, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Schneider Electric makes a strong case for improving energy efficiency in our drive to address climate change in an article for the World Economic Forum on the European Sting website. Do you agree? Why energy efficiency is the unsung hero of the fight against climate change…
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