The EU is one of the world’s leading producers and net exporters of agriculture, making it unsurprising that agriculture makes up approximately 10% of the EU’s greenhouse gas emissions. The EU traditionally exports more agricultural products than it imports; in 2020, agriculture comprised 9.5% of the EU’s total exports while it comprised 7.1% of the...
Looking Back 2022: The Introduction of the REPowerEU Plan/ Looking Forward 2023: Increasing investment in Existing Climate Mitigation Funds Russia’s war on Ukraine created significant uncertainty within the EU regarding how it is going to produce enough energy to power itself through winter while still maintaining its ambitious climate goals. The EU’s previous reliance on...
In October 2022, the EU introduced its “Digitalising the Energy System-EU Action Plan”, which will revolutionize the EU’s current power grid. The plan aims to contribute to EU energy policy objectives by creating a sustainable, secure, transparent, and competitive market for digital energy services. It also aims to facilitate the integration of renewable resources into...
The proxy measure I have decided to use is air emissions from greenhouse gases due to economic activity in the EU. This information is updated quarterly. Economic activity is defined as the total greenhouse gas emissions that are produced in the EU due to agriculture, forestry, and fishing; mining and quarrying; manufacturing; electricity, gas, steam...
Transportation is one of the major sectors that contribute to climate change, as it accounts for 25% of the EU’s greenhouse gas emissions, making it a necessary area to regulate in order for the EU to reach its 2030 and 2050 emissions goals. Lessening emissions of passenger cars in particular will be pivotal, and both...
The consequences that climate change is expected to have on EU countries between now and 2050 are grim. While the impact of climate change is predicted to vary among regions and between seasons, the European Commission, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and other institutions posit that no country in the EU will be...
On June 29, 2022, the European Council came together to discuss the EU’s “Fit for 55” package, which is a set of climate and energy legislation proposed by the European Commission that has the purpose of providing a concrete pathway for the EU to reach its goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 55% when...
Increase in amount of air emissions between Q3 and Q4 of 2021; lack of data for changes in installed wind and solar power. While new data is not yet available for the total amount of installed wind power capacity in the EU or for the EU’s total solar power capacity, new data is available...
Between #FridaysForFuture and other distinct calls across the EU for climate action, the youth of the EU have demonstrated that they are willing to be agents of change. The youth climate movement in the EU is one of the reasons that the European Green Deal was made a priority in the EU’s 2019-2024 Political Guidelines...
Each year, the EU uses significantly more natural gas than it produces, which has become especially problematic given the current Russia-Ukraine crisis and the EU’s dependency on Russia for natural gas. In 2020, which is the most recent year with data on EU natural gas usage, according to Eurostat, the EU used 15,182 thousand terajoules...
