Breathe in, breathe out. How could a simple and indispensable routine become a major problem?Air pollution is old, it has accompanied civilizations since humans created the first fires. Once local, it has now incrementally become a global challenge. When cities grow and get crowded, they must face significant air pollution issues and must organise themselves to contain them.
Breathe in, breathe out. How could a simple and indispensable routine become a major problem?Air pollution is old, it has accompanied civilizations since humans created the first fires. Once local, it has now incrementally become a global challenge. When cities grow and get crowded, they must face significant air pollution issues and must organise themselves to contain them.
2,300,000,000 €. That is the estimated amount of traffic-congestion costs for Belgium in 2018. It might not come as a surprise: Belgium and mobility have never been a match made in heaven. With Brussels being the capital of Europe, in addition to ill-conceived roadways and financially attractive company car policies, the amount of traffic jams has only been increasing over recent years.
On May 29th, the Dutch Council of State ruled that the active Dutch nitrogen policy, “Programma Aanpak Stikstof” (PAS) (active since July 1st, 2015), conflicted with the European Habitat Directive (directive 92/43/EEG), and could no longer be used to grant permits. Since then, many construction projects have been put on hold.
Research carried out by our team in the Netherlands has uncovered that the Dutch craft beer sector is struggling with becoming more sustainable. The main difficulties that are being faced by the brewers are the small-scale nature of the breweries and the uncertainty regarding the willingness to pay for sustainable beer by Dutch consumers…
High Voltage Grid Cooperation in Europe is one of the main components of the up-and-coming EU internal electricity market, developed under the previous Commission with the noteworthy collaboration of the Council and the Parliament. In practice, High Voltage Grid Cooperation occurs through cross-border interconnection cables that allow countries to trade electricity through basic supply and demand principles. Strategically, high voltage integration and flow management requires strong and arduous cooperation between the national Transmission System Operators (TSOs) in order to reach commercial and operational harmonization. However, the result is worth the trouble of adapting the electricity market to all the ways in which it has and need to evolve.
To limit global warming as much as possible, organisations and governments are committed to various CO2 reduction objectives. These objectives are to be reached through different levers: new regulations and carbon taxation systems, energy efficiency technologies, consumption reduction targets, and the use of more sustainable energy sources. However, due to the high carbon concentrations level already reached (414 ppm in May 2019), these measures will not be enough to stay under a maximum of +2°C increase target. Carbon will also need to be removed from the atmosphere…
When you think about wind energy, you might think of those large wind farms you’ve passed while driving along highways, on your train rides, or perhaps you think about those huge offshore installations near the coast. Large scale wind turbines are skyrocketing, becoming more and more efficient with today’s ever-evolving technology. The current tallest wind turbine is only a few dozens of meters short of being the same size as the Eiffel Tower…
After being used, some nuclear substances remain highly radioactive for thousands of years and their management and disposal is therefore essential for our safety. Among nuclear waste producers, the power industry is one of the main contributors as it generates around 1/3 of total nuclear waste. Reducing radioactive waste implies quitting nuclear power. As part of a series of articles about nuclear power [2], this one will seek to draw a clear picture of nuclear waste production and management, and enlighten the reader about the main challenges at stake with this sector.
In 2006, only 0.03% of the worldwide CO2 emissions were compensated for. But since then, the number of companies adopting offsetting practices has been growing. Accordingly, offsetting has also been criticized quite a bit, being called an excuse for avoiding changing a company’s polluting processes and practices that would be compensated through an investment elsewhere. This Whitepaper sheds light on the ways in which companies offset today and how they can take advantages of this practice. It ultimately gives food for thought to companies about taking part in a recent type of offsetting called insetting, which could be an answer to the potential abuses of offsetting.