Huge dam projects built in Sweden, Austria and France decades ago might not be feasible today, but pumped storage hydropower at sites with existing infrastructure could have major potential to reduce the EU’s emissions.
Portuguese eucalyptus forests are helping to replace plastics, but as the country's climate warms up, this highly flammable tree is a growing threat to people and biodiversity.
In a final vote, the European Parliament has just adopted a new law updating the rules on the collection, treatment and discharge of urban wastewater. Europe's local authorities fear an explosion for the costs of its implementation.
With several EU member states facing the impacts of drought conditions and the bloc’s water ecosystems under pressure, experts have voiced the need for a “holistic approach” to increase Europe’s water resilience.
On Thursday (4 April), the French opposition party Les Écologistes pushed a proposal to reduce the use of the so-called "forever chemicals" through the National Assembly, but the government favours a European solution to this environmental and health problem.
Europe needs to take immediate action to address the rapidly increasing climate challenges, the EU's environment agency said in its first European Climate Risk Assessment (EUCRA), published on Monday (11 March), which identified 36 major risks.
As the European Parliament works on a revision of the regulation on microplastics, EU lawmakers and NGOs travelled outside Brussels to see for themselves the scale and impact of plastic pellet pollution on site.
The Catalonia region has decided to invest almost €500 million from EU funds to make its capital city more resilient to droughts, with two new desalination plants expected to come online by the end of the decade. But for the more than 500 Catalan towns that aren’t connected to the water grid, there is little prospect of improvement.
The withdrawal of the Water Resilience Initiative from the European Commission's agenda has raised fears among environmental NGOs that Europe's climate ambitions will be set back.
The EU Commission started legal proceedings against Portugal at the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) on Wednesday in two individual cases for its alleged failure to comply with a ruling on the conservation of sites considered Special Areas of Conservation and threatened sanctions.
Responding to the threat of water scarcity must include creating a plan to promote water availability in the European Union, namely through management technologies that reduce waste, said Portuguese Agriculture Minister Maria do Céu Antunes on Monday.
While only around a third of the world’s rivers “remain free flowing,” according to campaign group International Rivers, the situation is worse in Europe, where the number of ‘wild’ or free-flowing rivers can likely be counted on both hands.
The EU's biggest hydropower players have gathered to form an alliance and are asking for aid from Brussels as the industry suffers from slow growth due to green concerns and a challenging investment environment.
Existing tools to address water challenges remain fragmented across EU policies, despite the water stress that is intensifying across Europe because of climate change. Establishing water as a standalone strategic priority on a par with the EU Green Deal has now become a must, writes Pietro Francesco De Lotto.
The Spanish government has succeeded in blocking a regional law that would legalise further irrigation around the already-water-scarce Doñana National Park, instead aiming to support sustainable practices financially.
A cross-party group of lawmakers in the European Parliament have issued a joint call for the establishment of an ambitious "European Blue Deal" to protect water resources from climate stress and promote ocean energies.
Albania's controversial but yet-to-be-built Skavica mega-dam, which threatens some 41 villages in the north of the country, will be reviewed by the country's highest court following a constitutional complaint by a coalition of energy and environmental NGOs.
The Voivodship Administrative Court in Warsaw has suspended proceedings against the decision to extend the concession for the Turów mine until 2044, meaning that the mine, which has been the subject of a long-running dispute between Poland and the Czech Republic, can continue to operate unhindered for more than 20 years.
Serbia does not have enough water, so around one million citizens are struggling to get consistent access to safe drinking water, according to activists who spoke to EURACTIV.rs.
Droughts are emptying groundwater reserves, which are seriously under the usual monthly average, a trend that continues to lead to wildfires and shortages of freshwater for consumption, the French authority monitoring water resources has found. Winter and summer rainfalls in France …
Germany is now in compliance with EU nitrate pollution rules and equipped to further tackle high pollution levels in groundwater, the European Commission announced on Thursday (1 June), ending a decade-long back-and-forth with Brussels and the threat of hefty fines.
The climate crisis is real, and simply hoping that EU citizens will voluntarily change their ways enough to create the necessary change is idealistic at best. European politicians are coming around to the idea of a more rigorously planned approach, so-called state 'planification'.
Ahead of regional elections, the Spanish National Park of Doñana is at the epicentre of a clash between local fruit producers, environmentalists, and authorities after a controversial proposal to regularise illegal irrigation systems in the midst of a severe drought.
The Italian government has introduced a new drought decree to tackle the country's severe water crisis, including appointing an extraordinary national commissioner to oversee emergency interventions.
