- Environmental misgivings: why Parliament should reject the Juncker Commission, by Tony Long | Euractiv (29 September 2014) “The mandates in the mission letters are frequently far from bold, and in some cases are actually regressive. In the case of the Environment and Marine and Fisheries Commissioner, there is a pronounced deregulatory emphasis with the habitats and birds directives, the air quality legislation and the circular economy agend...

A sustainable economy can bring 'massive co-benefits', by Sebastien Godinot | The Parliament Magazine (28 May 2014) “The crisis that Europe has been suffering over the last years is systemic: it is financial, budgetary, environmental, social and political. Going back to business as usual is not an option. Europe is over-consuming resources and destroying its natural capital. With over 27 million people unemployed in the EU and a growth of...

- Why Economists Can No Longer Ignore Environmental Issues | Economy Watch (29 April 2014). “How many Superstorm Sandys will it take? By how much does the sea level have to rise? How many severe droughts and floods (and where) will it take before we come to the realisation that ignoring natural capital and its many externalities is simply bad economics? The difference between the financial and environmental crisis is that we actually do hav...

How Germany's development bank will fund a giant lignite plant in Greece | Energy Desk - Greenpeace UK (24 March 2014). "KfW is one of the few Western development banks left that has no policy phasing out new coal investments. ¶ In October last year US president Obama pushed through new guidance from the US Treasury that it wouldn’t finance coal plants abroad - through the World Bank and other international development institutions - unl...

EU warned ‘do not play with fire’ over energy rebates for German industry | Euractiv (27 February 2014) "During a recent visit to Brussels, German energy minister Sigmar Gabriel praised EU efforts for re-industrialisation. But he also fiercely defended industrial exemptions from his country's renewable energy surcharge, warning the European Commission not to "play with fire" ahead of the EU elections, EurActiv Germany reports." In Europe, D...

2013: a year of missed opportunities for sustainability in Europe | New Europe (12 January 2013)“Can we hope for some light in the horizon, or is the deepening recession shifting attention away from the real causes of the crisis and sending governments on-board the tumbling boat of short-sighted development at any cost?Although there is no easy answer, the overall trend is clear: the environment and clean energy policies are being side-lined by...

Greeks line up to unregister their cars to save money | Deutsche Welle (23 December 2013) “Thousands more Greeks have unregistered their cars as the new year draws nearer. They said they could no longer afford to pay a motor vehicle tax with their real earnings having shrunk tangibly amid austerity.  Long lines of people were forming again on Monday in front of local tax offices across Greece as many car owners in the debt-stricken euroz...

Transylvania revolts: Farmers against fracking |(27 November 2013) “But Ponta's government is facing an unexpectedly uphill battle in meeting their resource ambitions. In recent weeks the controversial Canadian-owned gold mine in Rosia Montana has been put on hold, forced into submission by waves of protests in city streets numbering tens of thousands. And in the latest public showdown, a fracking rig operated by Chevron further south, ha...

MEPs call for stricter enforcement of EU environmental law | New Europe (24 October 2013) “MEPs have called on EU Member States to support the stricter enforcement of EU environmental law and endorsed the seventh EU environmental action programme. This programme that will run until 2020, will structure the EU's entire environmental policy, from water management to climate change....

Debt, underpricing of finite assets are shaky foundations of cracking growth | The Economic Times (24 August 2013) “Driven by massive monetary stimulus, the performance of financial markets, especially stocks, has decoupled from a moribund real economy. Financers assume the rise in equity markets anticipates an economic recovery. But there are reasons why the world may be entering a period of low or no growth. Growth is a relatively recent...