European Union

Earth withered through a second straight day of record-breaking temperatures on 22 July, the EU’s climate monitor said Wednesday, as parts of the world suffer devastating heatwaves and wildfires. Preliminary data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) showed the daily global average temperature was 17.15 degrees Celsius on Monday, the warmest day in recorded history. This was 0.06 Celsius hotter than the day before on 21 July, which itself broke by a small margin the all-time average high temperature set only a year before. “This is exactly what climate science told us would happen if the world continued burning coal, oil and gas,” said Joyce Kimutai, a climate scientist from Imperial College London, on Wednesday. “And it will continue getting hotter until we stop burning fossil fuels and reach net zero emissions.” Copernicus, which uses satellite data to update global air and sea temperatures close to real time, s...

European Union countries approved a law on Monday (27 May) to impose methane emissions limits on Europe’s oil and gas imports from 2030, pressuring international suppliers to cut leaks of the potent greenhouse gas. Methane is the main component of the natural gas countries burn in power plants and to heat homes. It is also the second-biggest cause of climate change after carbon dioxide, and fuels global warming when it escapes into the atmosphere from leaky oil and gas pipelines and infrastructure. Ministers from EU countries gave their governments’ final approval to the policy at a meeting in Brussels, meaning it can now enter into force. Only Hungary voted against it. From 2030, the EU will impose “maximum methane intensity values” on fossil fuels placed on the European market. The European Commission will design the exact methane limits by that date. Importers of oil and gas that flout the limit could face financial penalties....

As reported by Lusa, the environmental association released the results of the new report prepared within the scope of the European project “LIFE Together 1.5” in partnership with Zero. The study showed that adopting a new trajectory compatible with the Paris Agreement, which includes not allowing global warming to exceed 1.5ºC, could save the European Union approximately €1 billion by 2030, the equivalent of around four times the Portuguese GDP (Gross Domestic Product). The same study referred to “a dangerous gap between this initiative and the trajectory in which public policies are placing the EU”, stressing this should be at the center of the political debate in this year’s European elections. Zero and its partner organisations consider protecting “citizens and the planet from the devastating impacts of climate change is not just a moral duty, but a pragmatic choice”. The report quantified th...