How much water does mining in Europe consume? How many dangerous emissions are coal mines responsible for? We did not know… until now. There is a lack of accessible and comparable information about coal mines in Europe. To fill in this gap, we introduce the EU Mine Data Viewer. This new platform provides data on size, water usage, carbon emissions and much more. Despite the room for improvement, the EU does not seem to want better rules for information, leaving this database and citizens’ knowledge incomplete.   Keeping tabs on the impacts of mining is vital in our battle a ..read more

The Industrial Emissions Directive is a key European Union law that aims to slash pollution through easy-to-achieve policy changes. But with multiple narratives and arguments swirling around, its benefits might be lost in translation. Ahead of the European Parliament decision, let us get a reality check. The Industrial Emissions Directive (IED) has the potential to achieve a high-level of protection for both human and environmental health. Instead, after mixed results from environmental decision-makers and Member States took a disappointing position, we are at a crossroads for taking action. I ..read more

A 2027 coal phaseout is needed if EU legal obligations on limits of toxic mercury in freshwater are to be met. The atmospheric deposition of mercury predominately emitted by coal combustion plants is contributing to the failure of good chemical status of freshwater bodies in the European Union. Member States have not taken sufficient action and risk breaching EU water law that necessitates the phaseout of mercury emissions, as explored in a new briefing from the European Environmental Bureau. A toxic heavy metal Mercury is a pollutant that is highly toxic to living organisms, including humans ..read more

Negotiations for Germany’s ‘traffic light’ coalition government have pointed to an accelerated coal phaseout by 2030. A fierce talking point at the COP26 summit, the pressure to kick coal mounts ever higher at both the EU and global level – could Germany represent a phaseout fable when it comes to a post-coal Europe? Ongoing negotiations to form a coalition government following the federal election in Germany have brought forward a potential aim for an accelerated and Paris Agreement compatible phaseout of coal by 2030, eight years earlier than originally planned.   Th ..read more

Updates to the Oder River Basin Management Plan could turn the tide against looming chemical and ecological crisis – or sell future hopes of citizens down the river. The Oder River is much like many rivers in Europe, with its waters stretching across several countries: its source rises in the Czech Republic, where it then flows through Poland and runs alongside the German-Polish border. The Oder River is also much like many European rivers in a more unfortunate regard: it faces chemical and ecological crisis. When set against the standards of the European Union’s Water Framework Directive (WFD ..read more

The German government plans to spend billions of taxpayers’ money to prop up an industry in its endgame. Here is why the European Commission should stop this artificial life support, writes Roberta Arbinolo. As part of its coal phase-out, Germany promised €4,35 billion payouts to compensate coal operators for closing their plants by 2039 – almost a decade later than what required to keep the global temperatures rise below 1,5°C. As the European Commission investigates the compatibility of such subsidies with EU competition laws, NGOs are calling on EU officials to reject a state aid plan that ..read more

Coal is inevitably on its way out of the EU energy mix, but the public is facing a double legacy of environmental damage and footing the bill for the remediation costs, as current EU liability rules for companies are not doing their job. Europe passed a milestone this spring when 50% of the coal power capacity either has closed or announced closure dates before 2030. Coal is not only incompatible with EU climate goals, but also increasingly unprofitable. It could not be clearer: we are in the end game for coal in Europe, and a phase-out is as inevitable as it is necessary. Five yea ..read more

At the crossroad of Poland, Germany and the Czech Republic, the controversial Turów mine has operated illegally for an entire year. To mark this unhappy anniversary, campaigners delivered a Turów-themed cake to the European Commission to highlight its inaction, Roberta Arbinolo reports. The cake delivery was staged by the European Environmental Bureau and German and Czech members of the European Parliament Anna Cavazzini and Mikuláš Peksa, who reminded the European Commission of its responsibility to enforce EU laws and put an end to illegal coal operations in Turów. On May 1st we 'celebrate ..read more

Bucharest is handing out a billionaire subsidy to the country’s most polluting company, but the plan contravenes EU state aid rules and climate goals. Campaigners are calling on the European Commission to reject it, Roberta Arbinolo reports. The Romanian government is planning a €1,3 billion subsidy to state-owned Oltenia Energy Complex to restructure the company, including extending the life of coal units and investing in fossil gas. The state aid has to be approved by the European Commission, which has opened an investigation on the case and may reject it as incompatible with EU competi ..read more

The EU’s excessive focus on carbon removal could harm efforts to combat global warming. Our primary focus must be on emissions reductions. Coralie Boulard examines the scientific evidence and explores the best path forward. Efforts to tackle climate change include a plethora of strategies to devise climate-neutral systems. These mostly focus on ways to reduce the amount of carbon emitted into the atmosphere. However, some policymakers and industry figures have turned their attention to carbon removal as a necessary means to reach climate neutrality. Their rationale revolves around the assumpti ..read more