When I began to think about a suitable article to pen as my last contribution to this newsletter, the obvious choice was low carbon agriculture. This is of personal interest to me as I switch my focus to sustainable agriculture at my organic farm just outside Salzburg, Austria. We are in the process of transforming…
While the EU carbon market is helping to clean up Europe’s power sector, industrial CO2 pollution remained stubbornly high, and that from aviation kept growing in 2019. This is partly due to overly generous handouts of pollution permits. These subsidies must be phased out to incentivise cleaner production and more sustainable transport as the scheme…
We joined the World Press Clubs Alliance for Climate launch event on Friday 23 October. Watch the interview with Sabine Frank here. Companies and governments are announcing “climate-neutrality” targets, and consumers are being offered ways to offset their carbon footprint. What does this mean in practice? How can we distinguish between real climate action and…
4 key takeaways from MEP Guteland’s draft EU Climate Law report The lawmaker in charge of the EU Climate Law at the European Parliament proposes that the EU adopts a 65% emission target for 2030 and carbon budgets in line with the latest scientific data. She also calls on all EU governments to endorse the…
This opinion article was first published in Carbon Pulse on March 30, 2020 As part of the work to establish an international carbon market for aviation, CORSIA, a group of experts recently recommended restrictions for the types of carbon offsets that can and cannot be used by airlines. These restrictions were adopted by the UN aviation…
Governments do not deploy energy and carbon taxes to their full proposal, the latest “Taxing Energy Use” report by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) finds, urging for higher pollution prices to effectively address the climate crisis. Pricing high-carbon activities is an effective tool for making polluters pay while encouraging them to switch…
18 Jul 2017 Climate negotiations, both at the EU and at the international level, have come at a crucial point regarding the role of the land sector to global emission reductions, which could “make or break” the Paris Agreement objective. An effective accounting system for land use emissions is crucial. Now is the time for…
This article was first published on Green Air Online on 11 July 2017 Wed 12 July 2017 – Yesterday, the European Parliament’s environment committee (ENVI) voted on how the aviation sector should be treated under the EU’s Emissions Trading System (EU ETS), in response to a decision by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to set…
A discussion is picking up steam in Europe about ambition in addressing aviation emissions after the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) created a global offsetting scheme last fall. Citing the ICAO measure, airlines have now set about trying to weaken the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS). Though still oversupplied, the EU ETS goes further…
The EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has contributed to this broken food and farming system through the promotion of agro-industrial farming methods and global commodity chains. In order to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and its obligations under the Paris Climate Agreement, the EU must carry out a radical reform of the CAP and…
Kaisa Amaral, Communications Director
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