MEPs have voiced concern over the definition of "fossil fuel sectors" used by the European Supervisory Authorities (ESA) in their consultation paper on technical standards for environmental, social and governance disclosure for financial market participants. "ESA's definition is in striking contradiction with the disclosure and taxonomy regulations, climate science and commonly used definitions," MEPs said in a letter. ESA's paper defines "fossil fuels" as solid fossil fuels only.

Oxford University study says fiscal stimulus for green projects offer higher returns on government spending in the short and long term than traditional incentives on fossil fuels.

Debt levels around Europe, especially in southern states, forecast to rise alarmingly, but EU commission remained confident countries can manage, despite fears of a second viral wave.

The app would need to be paired with more than 100,000 daily tests in order to have effect. And far more than 60 percent of the population will need to use the app in order for it to be effective.

Doctors and nurses around the world are asking tech giants to correct the record on health misinformation and tweak their algorithms which decide what people get to see on social media platforms.

Poland is now aiming to hold its presidential election on 12 July instead of 10 May, ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party spokesman Radosław Fogiel said Thursday. The 10 May vote was to take place by post amid the coronavirus emergency. It also favoured PiS-loyalist and incumbent Andrzej Duda, the EU, civil society, and Polish opposition politicians feared. Polish MPs, also on Thursday, passed a new law allowing postal voting.

The Bank of England on Thursday warned that the UK economy is heading towards its deepest recession on record, as the British economy will shrink by 14 percent this year. The Covid-19 pandemic was "dramatically reducing jobs and incomes in the UK", it said. Bank governor Andrew Bailey told the BBC there would be no quick return to normality. The EU has forecast an eight-percent contraction for the UK.

EU home affairs commissioner Ylva Johansson told MEPs that "the demand for child sexual abuse material has increased by up to 30 percent in some member states." Her comments were among a number of examples of criminal behavoir that has erupted since the pandemic outbreak. She said criminals also tried to cheat authorities out of €50m by selling them non-existent face masks.

"The coronavirus has ending blowing up the model of global multilateral governance that has been functioning over the past few years," EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell told a group of reporters on Thursday.

The EU's foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell called agreeing to Chinese censorship on the origins of coronavirus "misguided". Nevertheless, he said diplomacy works like that in China.

Support services for victims and witnesses, the police and other relevant authorities are stretched to the limits because of staff shortages, travel restrictions or other demands related to Covid-19.

A plan to relocate, from Greece, 1,600 unaccompanied minors seeking asylum to other member states have so far netted 59 transfers. Twelve minors have been sent to Luxembourg and 47 to Germany. The European Commission says Portugal and Slovenia are next to take some in. They hope to relocate the remaining minors over the next few months.

Estonia is marking 75 years since the end of WW2 on European soil on Friday at a vide-meeting of the UN Security Council, which it currently chairs. The event, which is public and live-streamed, will discuss "lessons learned to prevent future atrocities" and "the responsibility of the Security Council", which has failed to stop egregious war crimes in Syria in recent times. US historian Timothy Snyder will also take part.

70 years later, after decades of comparative peace, todays European Union - perhaps the world's greatest experiment in state integration - finds itself at a crossroads.

Russia wants more respect for its role in defeating the Nazis in World War 2, its EU ambassador, Vladimir Chizhov, says in an op-ed.

It’s easy to get caught up in the holiday bustle: shopping, decorating, parties, and preparation. Our to-do lists can seem endless, but we carry on because it is that special time of year, a season of giving.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said it has invalidated 33.5 million renewable-fuel credits sold by an Indiana company for biofuel it didn’t produce, the fourth time the agency has alleged fraud in the program.

Alaska’s 720,000 people live in over 200 “energy islands” with no electricity grid connection to each other nor to North America. Smaller communities have no road connection to each other, the rest of Alaska, or the continent. Most energy is imported: diesel for electricity generation and heat; gasoline for transportation. All Alaskans might obtain an annually-firm supply of most of their energy, for all purposes, by converting Alaska’s diverse, stranded, renewable energy (RE) resources to liquid anhydrous ammonia (NH3) fuel, transporting and storing it at low cost in common steel propane tanks, recovering the RE via stationary combined-heat-and-power (CHP) plants, in internal combustion engine (ICE) and combustion turbine (CT) gensets, and via fuel cells, and as transportation fuel. Alaskans could achieve a significant degree of community energy independence, and perhaps export their abundant, stranded renewables as “green” liquid NH3 fuel. Solid state ammonia synthesis (SSAS) appears promising.

A Louisiana lumber town has become the crossroads for an unusual buyer and seller in the U.S. municipal market: private-equity firm KKR & Co. and the world’s biggest manufacturer of wood pellets.

University of Georgia researchers are working to produce faster-growing sweetgum trees by growing embryogenic sweetgum cultures in bioreactors, computer-operated systems used for growing cells under controlled conditions.

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Bio-energy forest plantations will supplement woody biomass from other sources such as logging residues. In the southern U.S., projections are for an increase of up to 25 million “new” tons of woody biomass demand for bioenergy. To supply this woody biomass demand will require purpose grown plantations of various species including pine, eucalypts, sweetgum, hybrid poplar and cottonwood, amongst others. Forest plantation yields can be 8-15 green tons/acre/year on rotations of 5-12 years. Utilization of this renewable and sustainable biomass resource will be as feedstock “designed” for a large number of bio-energy applications.

After being shut out of previous renewable energy auctions, and delaying its own auction by two weeks, the state government of Pernambuco held the nation's first solar energy auction on December 27, registering 122.82 MW of energy, six times the country's current entire solar energy output (20 MW). The auction involved 34 bidders proposing roughly 1 GW of capacity; at the end it was narrowed to six companies from Brazil, Italy, Germany, China and Spain. Average price of power finished trading at 228.63 Brazilian reais/MWh (just under U.S. $97), about 9 percent lower than the starting price of R 250.

PensionDanmark A/S and other Danish pension investors backed a state fund to finance emission-reduction projects in developing countries as the Scandinavian nation seeks to export its climate know-how abroad.

Prime Minister David Cameron urged the European Commission to reject calls for a renewable energy target, saying such a plan may cost U.K. consumers 9 billion pounds ($14.8 billion) a year by 2030.

The European Union is poised to take its first formal steps to expand the world’s most ambitious limits on fossil fuel pollution. That may widen a rift in how it balances green policies with the need for cheaper power.

European Union governments and the bloc’s executive arm are splitting over how to guarantee electricity supply as the region builds more renewable power.

Renewable Energy Generation Ltd., a British low-carbon asset developer backed by BlackRock Inc., will build six waste-to-power plants with Caterpillar Inc. and Finning U.K. Ltd. in an expansion of plans published last month.

European Union leaders intend next month to agree on a timeline for developing energy and climate targets for 2030, delaying a final decision on the polices, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.

The European Union should ensure that future climate and energy policies do not undermine the competitiveness of its industry, already weakened by a price gap with the U.S., the bloc’s member states said.

The latest hydroelectric power news and information for March 2014

The U.K. risks power shortages because utilities may react to Europe’s toughest carbon emissions rules by closing plants without replacing them.

BP Plc, recovering from an oil spill that may cost it as much as $42 billion, said it hasn’t set a new target for investing in renewable energy after investing $8.3 billion in the business.

Suez Environnement, Europe’s second-biggest water company, and Chinese partners agreed to build an incinerator near Shanghai to treat hazardous and medical waste that will generate steam and supply energy.

Talks between Germany and Norway about how to boost the trading of electricity from renewable sources are being held up by concerns that the power cable running under the North Sea won’t ever make money.

U.K. renewable power generation rose 28 percent last year as more wind farms and solar plants came online, the Department of Energy and Climate Change said.

Royal DSM NV, the world’s largest vitamin manufacturer, expects to begin producing cellulosic ethanol in the U.S. by July as the government considers reducing the amount of renewable fuel that oil companies will be required to buy.

What’s a beleaguered utility to do when forced by the government to close its profitable nuclear power plants?

Collection of articles related to hydropower technology from April 2014

Drax Group Plc, Dong Energy A/S and SSE Plc will get guaranteed power prices for U.K. biomass and offshore wind plants, the first renewable energy projects to benefit from a new aid program.

Africa’s renewable energy capacity is expected to quadruple to about 120 gigawatts by 2030 if investors dedicate “substantial flows” of funds to the region, the InternationalRenewable Energy Agency said.

The Obama administration is considering cutting greenhouse-gas emissions from power plants by reaching beyond the plants themselves — an unusual approach that could run afoul of anti-pollution laws.

The U.K. Green Investment Bank aims to boost the capital it commits to carbon-cutting projects to 700 million pounds ($1.2 billion) this year as it chases deals in offshore wind, waste and energy efficiency.

Japan said the U.S.’s proposed cuts in greenhouse-gas emissions from its power plants is a bold step to tackle climate change.

Meeting the world’s energy supply needs by 2035 will require $40 trillion of investment, as demand grows and production and processing facilities have to be replaced, the International Energy Agency said.

A first-of-its-kind study of net evaporation at a hydroelectric facility reveals that the project has very little effect on the loss of water to the atmosphere as compared with pre-impoundment conditions.

The European Union needs an ambitious emissions-reduction goal, targets for energy- efficiency and renewables as well as tools to foster investment under its planned 2030 policies, an advisory panel to 14 ministers said.

Caisse des Depots et Consignations, a French state bank, is setting aside 5 billion euros ($6.8 billion) for green projects after the government proposed a law to spur use of renewable electricity and boost efficiency.

Billionaire Rubens Ometto’s Cosan SA has the potential to triple its power generation by burning sugar-cane leftovers if the government offers power-purchase contracts for biomass producers.

Renewable energy may reap as much as two-thirds of the $7.7 trillion in investment forecast for building new power plants by 2030 as declining costs make it more competitive with fossil fuels.