European Union

The European Union has now adopted the Ambient Air Quality Directive, which is a move closer to the WHO standards. Though some steps remain before it is fully aligned.

Over the next months, the EU will negotiate a pathway and set a 2040 target outlining the steps required to meet the 1.5°C target of the Paris Agreement.

The CLEVER scenario, a Collaborative Low Energy Vision for the European Region, is an energy transition scenario that follows a “sufficiency – efficiency – renewables” approach.

MEPs agreed to improve emission reporting, but sided with the industry and farm lobby instead of taking action to protect citizens’ health and the environment.

Buildings account for as much as 40 per cent of the EU’s overall energy consumption, with 75 per cent of these structures classified as inefficient.

Paris Agreement compatible scenarios need the EU to do much more to reduce emissions and increase renewables and energy savings.

With the sustained heat, drought and forest fires that are wreaking havoc across Europe, one would think European countries would be incentivised to increase action to tackle climate change.

In September, the European Parliament voted on several proposals to address the energy crisis. Meanwhile the EU Commission proposed a new law to manage energy prices. 

In 2020, less than half of member states met all their national emission reduction commitments. Only two of them are already in line with their 2030 commitments. 

More than half of Europeans do not feel well informed about their local air quality, according to a 2019 EU Commission survey.

The European Union is unlikely to deliver on its pledge to cut methane emissions by 30% by 2030 without cutting livestock numbers, reveals a report released in June. 

“The less fossil-fuel-based fertilisers we use, the less dependent we are on fossil fuel imports, ”Ursula von der Leyen stated in a response to one of the group leaders’ interventions just after her “State of the European Union” speech in the European Parliament on 14 September 2022.¹

A Clean Cities Campaign analysis of the most comprehensive database..

Satellite observations show that global ammonia emissions are higher than reported by bottom-up inventories.

The European Commission recently announced decisions it had made in its July Infringements package.

Climate Action Tracker said in a mid-year report for 2022 that climate action has stalled.