
Gas and oil spent €250m lobbying EU
BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell, Total, and their lobby firms have spent over €250m in lobbying the EU to water down climate goals since 2010, a new study shows.
Monday
28th Oct 2019

BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell, Total, and their lobby firms have spent over €250m in lobbying the EU to water down climate goals since 2010, a new study shows.

The Nordic region will become the most sustainable and integrated region in the world.

Following an investigation into the Dieselgate scandal, the European Parliament recommended a single commissioner should be responsible for both air quality and setting industrial standards. But only the Greens want to commit to carry out that advice.
The European parliament debates on Tuesday the fires in the Amazon region. "It goes without saying that, in light of the gravity of the situation, Europe will need to renegotiate the Mercosur agreement", writes MEP Kathleen Van Brempt.
EU Commission president-elect Ursula von der Leyen announced that Frans Timmermans will coordinate the European 'Green Deal' and climate action policies.
The French president has repeatedly said an EU border tax on carbon emissions is 'crucial'. However, his civil servants have yet to send Brussels a single proposal on how such a levy would work.

The EU parliament knocked back "weak" pesticide rules proposed by EU commission and member states over concerns to pollinator health and food security.

Climate change was part of the agenda of the EU leaders for Friday's summit. However, the council decided to finalise the EUʼs long-term strategy on climate change at its next meeting in December.

The site contains Europe's second largest natural pasture and hundreds of local families depend on it, but part of it has been slated to become a military training ground.

Time is running out for chlorpyrifos, the pesticide which is a cause of brain damage to human fetuses and newly-born children. The EU Commission and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) have both stated approval should not be renewed.
Fossil fuel subsidies should end and there is "no future in coal", the EU's would-be green commissioner, Frans Timmermans, has said in his pledge to make the EU carob neutral.
Environmental activists of the group 'Extinction Rebellion' and NGOs on Monday demanded government action in support of the climate emergency, and a commitment to reducing the impact of climate change.
Lithuania's commissioner-designate, Virginijus Sinkevičius, unveiled during his three-hour hearing on Thursday a package of proposals to protect the environment - from the bottom of the oceans to the top of the sky.
Estonia's European commissioner-designate for the energy portfolio, Kadri Simson, did not manage to fully convince MEPs during her grilling. She avoided questions on concrete actions for the energy transition in Europe.
An inaugural EU-Arctic forum is heralding a new impetus in EU efforts in the Arctic. This coincides with increased focus on the Arctic from China, Russia and the US.
A report presented to the UN climate action summit on Monday shows the gap between targets set up to tackle climate change, and the actual reality - as an urgent call to action for the politicians attending the summit.
National governments have a "crucial role" to prioritise low-carbon cities to tackle climate challenges and secure economic prosperity since high-carbon systems are expected to become unprofitable or inoperable in the near future.
Deutsche Bank, BNP Paribas, Blackrock, and Vanguard collectively own more than $1.1bn in debt in the three largest soy, and the three largest cattle companies, and own $6bn worth of shares in these companies.
The European Investment Bank's Board on Tuesday should back its proposal to become the EU's 'Climate Bank' and phase out fossil fuels from its portfolio.

Experts from several organisations say that reform of the Energy Charter Treaty, proposed by the EU Commission, will make it difficult to meet the targets agreed in the Paris Agreement - making it an obstacle to the clean-energy transition.

The EU has little to lose and much to gain from such a move, not least to demonstrate moral leadership on an issue of global concern.
The EU ought to consider banning Brazilian beef unless it takes action on forest fires, the Finnish EU presidency has said. A wider free trade deal is also at risk.
French and Brazilian presidents have clashed on Twitter over the Amazon fires, as G7 and other states plan treaty to protect biodiversity.

Nordic countries and Germany have joined up on climate change, as Trump and Brexit push northern European countries closer together.

Denmark is preparing an urgent national ban on food treated with the pesticide chlorpyrifos after an EU health warning, but European law could block the initiative.
"We don't want to tell people what to eat," said UN climate panelist Hans-Otto Portner. But the impact of humans' carnivorous diet on the climate is substantial.
In EU law, it is often left to national governments to set the maximum level of fines. This leads to a patchwork situation which could be exploited by companies concentrating only on profits.

There are no safe levels for exposure to the pesticides chlorpyrifos and chlorpyrifos-methyl, EU experts have said in a preliminary-finding into the pesticide - suggesting an EU-wide ban is a step closer.

One-in-five cars equipped with Audi's emissions cheating technology is still on the road, mostly in eastern Europe.
Spain was supposed to have limited nitrogen dioxide levels some nine years ago - but continues to fail to do so. It is one of 20 EU member states breaking EU air quality rules.
EU commissioners defended a far-reaching free trade agreement between the EU and four Latin American countries, against critics who fear it will damage European farmers' livelihoods and the global environment.

As climate protests grow, Brazil's forests disappear at the rate of two football pitches a minute, and a summer of European heat raises the temperature, will new pledges from the EU on deforestation make the cut?

Volkswagen Group duped the European Investment Bank, from which it borrowed €400m, by not disclosing it was cheating on emissions tests. Requests by EUobserver to see the anti-fraud report however have been consistently rejected.