Climate Change

As the different European Parties unveil their election manifestos, we can see real differences in the direction that each of them want to take Europe over the coming years. The voters will have a real choice in next month’s European Parliament election.

Greens are impatient people. The sentiment of urgency has been fuelling their calls for radical change over the past four decades.

An interview with Claude Turmes, Green MEP from Luxembourg (Die Greng).

One of the primary conclusions of the past five years is that the days of “easy politics” are gone, we have moved to an era of “hard politics.”

Over the past decades, markets have invested in damaging industries such as fossil fuels and financial speculation. This has contributed to unsustainable development, and may well be creating an enormous ‘carbon bubble’. However, there are steps we can take to stop this bubble turning into another subprime-style crisis.

The Warsaw climate conference (COP19) succeeded in setting a pathway towards the Paris COP21 in 2015, where states should strike a new global climate deal. Yet it showed how long and difficult the road will be and fundamental questions remain unanswered, requiring high level political engagement.

The ongoing Climate Summit in Warsaw has been relegated to the sidelines by the Polish media – the social and political debate in Poland definitely doesn’t tend to question a coal, shale gas and nuclear future for the country.

In Greece, probably one of the first victims of austerity has been environmental protection, just at the moment where there can be no response to the crisis without considering the environmental dimension. A recent article by the WWF takes issue with the EU response to the crisis which has seen environmental protection sidelined like never before.

The European Union (EU) is currently setting out its climate and energy policy framework for 2030.

A first analysis of the Greens’ campaign in the German Federal elections and of the role played by finance policy.