EU member states will need technical support to implement the newly agreed Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, but political will across the 27 capitals will be crucial to deliver on the new sustainable buildings law.
Success for the EU’s REPowerEU strategy will make Europe’s buildings more energy efficient and reduce Europe's reliance on Russian fossil fuels, but McKinsey says tech scale-up is needed to reach targets.
UEFA and the German Football Association (DFB) hope to deliver an environmentally conscious EURO 2024, amid concerns surrounding the continuation of major sporting events in the age of climate change.
France is aiming for gold in sustainability at this year’s Olympics, promising to host ‘the greenest’ Games in history this summer. But many hurdles remain.
Mass electrification of light transport, buildings, and support for electrification of industrial processes will be essential, according to a new 2050 scenario.
Europe has ample new technologies to improve energy efficiency and save CO2, but getting those technologies connected and used efficiently is problematic, said Milenko Tošić, director of innovation at VizLore Labs Foundation.
One of the biggest obstacles to deploying energy efficiency solutions is the part of it you can’t see – the lack of data interoperability between various components. Europe is struggling to ensure smart energy efficiency is truly interconnected.
The election of a new government in Poland has enabled this Central European country to revive its ambitions in terms of energy transition and to meet European targets.
In the space of just one month, the European Commission has approved more than €8 billion in French state aid to decarbonise industry and develop renewable energies, according to EU figures released this week.
China did the world “a big favour” by bringing down the cost of clean technologies like solar panels, said Fatih Birol, the chief of the International Energy Agency (IEA). But with increased economic clout also comes responsibility, he told Euractiv ahead of the COP28 international climate summit in Dubai.
Germany’s residential grid operators will be empowered to restrict the flow of power to heat pumps and electric vehicle (EV) chargers from 2024 in order to preserve the stability of the grid, which is suffering from chronic underinvestment.
Portugal must reduce energy support measures as soon as possible this year and next, according to a European Commission report published on Tuesday, highlighting Portugal’s limited progress in implementing the Commission’s budgetary recommendation.
Only 16 EU countries have met a June deadline to submit updated National Energy and Climate Plans to the European Commission for the period running up to 2030 – and none of them are fully compliant with the EU’s latest energy efficiency goals, according to a new report.
The European Commission is ramping up industry reporting obligations in order to ensure the EU meets its stated goal of making data centres climate neutral by 2030.
European companies are among world leaders in energy saving solutions and are ideally positioned to reap the benefits of climate action, but they feel ignored by Brussels, which left aside the EU’s multi-billion energy efficiency sector in its recent Net-Zero Industry Act.
To meet its EU targets, France will need to triple its use of renewable power and reduce its energy consumption by a third by 2035, France’s electricity grid operator RTE said in its 2030-2035 energy outlook.
The massive deployment of intermittent renewable energies is set to dramatically increase the need for flexibility in the electricity grid, and market players want increased focus on demand management as a source of grid optimisation.
A €6 billion tax break and relief package for companies was removed from a German government meeting agenda on Wednesday (16 August) after Family Minister Lisa Paus said she could not agree unless more money was earmarked for child benefits.
The energy crisis triggered by Russia's war in Ukraine is taking its toll on EU citizens, with 9.3% of the population unable to keep their homes adequately warm in 2022, a jump from 6.9% the year before, according to Eurostat.
While EU lawmaking progresses at a breakneck pace, government infighting in Germany has stalled a revised energy efficiency law for over a year, adding a failed parliament vote to its list of woes.
Central and Eastern European countries display low ambitions with their National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs), raising concerns about the region's ability to meet EU climate goals, campaigners warn.
The digitalisation of distribution grids is one of the main priorities of the German Federal Network Agency, which presented ambitious plans on Monday (26 June) for the expansion of the country's electricity grid.
France has made energy sufficiency – the deliberate reduction of energy consumption – one of the three pillars of its decarbonisation strategy, alongside nuclear and renewables. However, Brussels and other European capitals have yet to fully embrace the approach.
The energy crisis and pressure to reduce consumption following the invasion of Ukraine have driven further demand cuts as EU institutions join efforts to cut energy use and emissions.
