Sustainability: EU

Showing posts with label EU. Show all posts

How to tackle homelessness? Homelessness in Europe - a hidden figure. Six steps that can help us to tackle the problem.

Kamel is one of the beneficiaries of the "400Rooftops" campaign, which aims to find stable houses for 400 homeless people by 2020.

The government of the Brussels Capital Region and seven non-governmental organizations (NGO) are part of a international project promoting housing as a first tool for social reintegration.

"I have the allowance of the CPAS, the rent is 610 euros, plus the charges for the energy. Calculate, there is 700 euros per month. I thought: "Kamel is expensive". But as I lived in the street, I said, "Kamel, that's it or to go back to the street." In the morning, I get up and if I have to go to eat in a social canteen or to look for places where I can eat for free, I move and I go there", he explains.

Rising housing costs are a growing problem in Europe. According to a 2019 report about housing insecurity presented by FEANTSA (European Federation of National Organisations working with the Homeless), in Brussels, on the 22nd march, the so called overburden is one of the major challenges.

"East Meets West: Innovation and Discovery"

From natural phenomena and the results of climate change to pollution and societal traumas, migrations and war, the enormous challenges that face humankind and our environment are frequently daunting and difficult to comprehend. However, with every new challenge or disruption comes the opportunity for innovation and discovery. Whether inventing new technologies, implementing innovative systems, enacting better policies, legislation, or governance, or ensuring greater cooperation and information sharing, responses are many and varied.

EU to pursue the most ambitious sustainable development, labour and environment provisions in TTIP

The European Commission published its proposal for a chapter on trade and sustainable development, including labour and the environment, in the ongoing EU-US trade talks.

The proposed chapter on sustainable development in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) offers the most ambitious provisions ever put forward on these issues to any trading partner. This approach follows the new EU trade strategy, ‘Trade for all‘, which aims at more responsible trade policies both at home and globally.

The European Commission has today announced a new programme which will help cities in the EU’s Eastern and Southern Neighbourhood to address local sustainable development challenges such as energy efficiency, security of energy supply and sustainable economic growth.

This programme is part of the EU’s efforts to encourage municipalities to sign up for the Covenant of Mayors (a voluntary initiative to reduce CO2 emissions) and boost local economies in the region in a more sustainable way.

The International Conference on “Micro Perspectives for Decentralized Energy Supply” (MES) ( was established as an international forum to discuss the micro perspective of the technical, economic, social, and environmental aspects of microenergy systems. 27th February to 1st March 2013 , Berlin, Germany

ENERGY and SUSTAINABILITY SUMMIT at the EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, 30th January 2013, Brussels, Belgium

Major utility companies around the world have diversified their energy production across a wide variety of sources consisting primarily of gas, carbon, and nuclear, but also supplementing renewable sources.

The Symposium aims to address the causes and reasons of the actual economic crisis from the economic, financial, managerial and entrepreneurial perspectives.

In particular the symposium will focus on the epistemological, theoretical, methodological, technical and practical, contributions of the systemic approach from a disciplinary or interdisciplinary perspective (finance, management, engineering, economics, etc.) to shape an agenda to address the present global economic and social crisis.

V International Seminar Tourism and Spatial Planning, Centre for Geographical Studies, University of Lisbon, Portugal, 24-25 January 2013

This conference intends to meet and discuss new research ideas on the tourism impacts in the Global South, focusing namely on the construction and transformation of landscapes through tourism, on issues of identity friction and cultural change, and on the responsibility of tourism on poverty reduction and sustainable development.

European Commission states that to fully meet their social responsibility, enterprises “should have in place a process to integrate social, environmental, ethical and human rights concerns into their business operations and core strategy in close collaboration with their stakeholders”.

22 November 2012, the commitment of €800m for education, sustainable development and renewable energy was announced by the Aquitaine Region and the European Investment Bank (EIB), following a signing ceremony held at the Aquitaine Regional Council presided over by Alain Rousset, President of the Aquitaine Regional Council, and Philippe de Fontaine Vive, EIB Vice-President.

The Global Sustainable Cities Network ( GSCN ) will provide a platform for pioneering sustainable city initiatives throughout the world; enabling knowledge sharing of city development best practices. It will publish a set of recommendations for driving the commercialization, scalability and cost reduction beginning with focus areas such as waste-to-energy and demand-side management within cities. The Network will also provide a platform to encourage collaboration between cities and drive public private partnerships

European Union (EU) Financial Transactions Tax (FTT) - the future of sustainability in financial markets?

Europe is still an economic train wreck in the making. But it's happening in slow motion. The big crashes and explosions are missing. For now.

One spark to light things up may be the Financial Transactions Tax (FTT) that French President Nicholas Sarkozy is pushing. Sarkozy is pushing for the tax because he's up for re-election this year. He needs to look like he's on the side of the people and not working for the banks.

The tax would only raise about $70 billion, according to Bob Adelman at The American Statesman. Adelman writes:

The tax would be levied, initially at least, on every financial transaction taking place by any entity with a connection to the Eurozone, and would be levied at the rate of 0.1 percent on shares of stock and bonds, and 0.01 percent on all derivatives transactions. It is estimated that the FTT would cover about 85 percent of all transactions between financial institutions such as banks, investment firms, insurance companies, pension funds and hedge funds. It is expected to raise, in the beginning, about $70 billion annually to help fund the EU.

European leaders finally agreed on a trio of measures to try to bring the eurozone crisis to an end last night.

Investors around the world gave a nod of assent, buying shares and pushing up markets. In the US the Dow gained 162 points, or 1.39%, to 11,869, while the S&P 500 Index rose 13 points, or 1.05%. European and Asian markets made similar gains, with the FTSE 100 up 1.82% or 101 points at 5,654.

The euro summit produced a 15-page document including a raft of measures, with the final details hammered out in the early hours of this morning, but the triple resolution forms the core of the deal.

"A large number of corporate pension funds are still lagging behind the leading schemes in their approach to responsible ownership and investment." -- UKSIF chief executive Penny Shepherd[1]

The cost of paying for future pensions in the United Kingdom has inflated due to a reduction in the yield of government bonds, according to figures released last month by the Pension Protection Fund (PPF), a statutory fund that protects members in case of employer insolvency.

Image by infomatique via Flickr

Bondholders will need to take deeper losses on Greek holdings to make the country’s debt sustainable, according to a report on the country’s finances by international creditors.

The financial situation in Greece “has taken a turn for the worse” since the last review in June, said the report of the so-called troika dated today. The previous assessment led to a July agreement that called for investors to take a 21 percent reduction in their holdings’ net present value.

Palm oil from Ghana with its natural dark colo...

Image via Wikipedia

Mission NewEnergy Limited MNEL +1.50% (asx:MBT), a global provider of environmentally sustainable biofuels, has announced the in-house development of an improved palm oil supply chain process called "Mission g-Palm" that maximizes green house gas savings when producing g-Palm Biodiesel. Mission has petitioned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for approval to sell the enhanced g-Palm oil based biodiesel into the USA. Whilst the EPA continues to study and consider generic palm oil for approval, Mission has proceeded with this petition since the "Mission g-Palm" process yields better GHG emissions results.

The use of Mission's g-Palm biodiesel has already been welcomed in major European markets after demonstrating to regulatory authorities that it meets EU sustainability requirements.

Kraków - Wawel, Kościół św. Katarzyny, Kościół...

Image via Wikipedia

Radisson Blu hotel in Krakow has won the "Leaders of Sustainable Development" contest that was organized by Forbes Magazine in Poland. Fulfilling the criteria of eco-certification BS8901 has been revealed as one of the seven most important initiatives in Poland.

Located in the heart of the city, the Radisson Blu hotel Krakow was appreciated by the Forbes magazine for being the world's first hotel with prestigious BS 8901 Certification.

The economic crisis has taken a heavy toll on EU Member States’ public finances, making debt sustainability a major challenge across the Union. At the same time, a major overhaul of EU fiscal surveillance is underway. The 2011 Report on the Public Finances in EMU takes a look at the recent developments in public finances, analyses new ways of assessing debt sustainability and describes the changes to budgetary surveillance in the EU. These reforms put prevention and debt reduction at the centre of EU budgetary surveillance, reflecting on the lessons of the crisis.

The European Parliament has approved a report - Europe, The World's No. 1 Tourist Destination: A New

Political Framework for Tourism in Europe - that commends the Travelife Sustainability System as part of a series of proposals which aims to improve tourism across the EU.