europe

Extreme Heat Stress in Europe Hit Record Levels in 2023, Report Finds

Extreme Heat Stress in Europe Hit Record Levels in 2023, Report Finds

Extreme heat stress is affecting much of Europe at record rates, according to a new report from the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). According to the European State of the Climate 2023 report, temperatures in Europe were consistently high, with higher than average temperatures for 11 months last year. […]

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    European Court of Human Rights to Rule on Whether Governments Must Protect People From Climate Change

    European Court of Human Rights to Rule on Whether Governments Must Protect People From Climate Change

    This week, the European Court of Human Rights could make a landmark ruling that governments have an obligation to protect people from the adverse impacts of climate change. Judges will rule on three distinct cases concerning whether people’s human rights were breached when governments failed to protect them from the ravages of a warming planet. […]

    More Than 80% of EU’s Agricultural Subsidies Goes to Animal Farming That Is ‘Driving Us to the Brink’

    More Than 80% of EU’s Agricultural Subsidies Goes to Animal Farming That Is ‘Driving Us to the Brink’

    The European Union has been investing four times the amount of money into animal agriculture — which makes “artificially cheap” diets that heavily pollute the planet —  than it has into plant-based farming, according to a new study. The European Union spends almost one-third of its budget on subsidizing its common agricultural policy (CAP), reported […]

    EU Nature Restoration Plan Postponed Indefinitely

    EU Nature Restoration Plan Postponed Indefinitely

    The European Union’s nature restoration law, which had set out to restore 20% of land and sea areas in the EU by 2030, has now been postponed indefinitely after a vote to pass the bill on Monday was canceled. The nature restoration law was initially proposed in June 2022 and has spent the last several […]

    Summer Solstice Triggers Mass, Synchronized European Beech Tree Reproduction, Study Finds

    Summer Solstice Triggers Mass, Synchronized European Beech Tree Reproduction, Study Finds

    A common “old world” tree, European beech can be found across Europe — from southern Scandinavia and Spain to Sicily and northwest Turkey. A new study by an international team of researchers has found that the summer solstice triggers synchronized beech tree reproduction all over the continent, influencing ecosystem functions. “We got inspired by a […]

    Some EU Countries Are Reaching 2030 Sustainability Targets Early

    Some EU Countries Are Reaching 2030 Sustainability Targets Early

    Multiple countries in the EU are already hitting their sustainability goals set for 2030, according to a new study. Researchers analyzed EU countries’ progress on certain goals laid out by the “Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” resolution adopted in 2015 by the UN. The resolution set 17 Sustainable Development Goals, including […]

    EU Approves Law to Ban Greenwashing on Product Labels

    EU Approves Law to Ban Greenwashing on Product Labels

    The European Parliament has voted to adopt a law regulating sustainability claims on product labels. The law will prohibit retailers from making general environmental claims and sustainability claims without evidence. The law bans the use of terms including “eco,” “biodegradable,” “environmentally friendly,” “natural” and “climate neutral” without evidence. The EU will now require sustainability labels […]