Germany holds the Presidency of the Council of the EU and the Presidency of the North Seas Energy Cooperation for the remainder of 2020. It is using these platforms to promote the abundant potential of offshore wind energy in Europe. The next six months present an opportunity for Germany to steer the EU towards advancing the European Green Deal through the development of offshore technologies and the provision of finance opportunities for offshore wind projects.
On 27 April 2020, David Nabarro, Special Envoy of the WHO Director-General for COVID-19, gave an address to the IIEA. This briefing summarises the key points of this address and provides an overview of the steps taken by the WHO in response to the outbreak, how governments are responding to the crisis and what can be done to help the developing world.
This briefing examines the European Investment Bank’s recent activities in support of climate action and considers its capacity to finance the green transition in the EU.
Germany’s 2030 Climate Protection Programme was unveiled on 20 September 2019. This briefing outlines the context in which the programme was launched and how it fits into Angela Merkel’s legacy as the Climate Chancellor.
The EU is committed to becoming a global leader in green finance and taking steps to protect the financial system from climate risk. It is determined to export its regulatory approach across the globe but faces challenges and limitations in this pursuit. The European Commission established a Technical Expert Group on Sustainable Finance in 2018 to improve the flow of information among financial market actors. While, overall, the Expert Group has made a promising start in its approach to addressing climate risks and promoting green finance, its approach has been criticized for lacking nuance, particularly when it comes to its binary classification of assets and sectors of the economy as either ‘green’ or ‘brown’. These critiques are important to consider if the EU is to successfully export its approach globally.
Commission President-elect, Ursula von der Leyen, has argued that the question of climate action is a moral, human and political obligation. She has made climate action a core element of her ‘Agenda for Europe’.
This IIEA report reviews three decades of US Federal climate “gridlock” and estimates the damage caused to the global economy from “unnecessary” greenhouse gas emissions.
Brexit and climate change are like apples and tomatoes—there is no reason to mix them. To do so is to perpetuate the false dichotomy that we must choose between the economy and the environment when, in reality, there are no jobs on a dead planet.
Taking place in Dublin on Monday 5 November 2018, ‘Creative Responses to Climate Change: A Marketplace for Ideas’ will provide a space for dialogue, information-sharing and creativity
IIEA Senior Fellow, Joseph Curtin presented to the Joint Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment on May 16th.
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