Europe

You could mistakenly believe, judging by all the press about US cleantech, renewable energy, and green business ventures, that the hub for all things green and innovative is the US. Far from it. Across Europe, innovation is everywhere, reaching globally.

The European Parliament has set a target of having 25% of their energy come from renewable energy by 2020. Of that 25%, half is planned to come from wind energy.

Europe is already well on their way to making this happen as well, with 5 countries (Denmark, Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Germany) having more than 5% of their energy provided by wind farms. Currently there exists 80 GW of installed wind capacity in the EU, though only 3.5 GW of that is derived from wind farms built off-shore.

When the British Government announced their most recent budget earlier this year, there was much applause from green groups after chancellor Alistair Darling announced almost draconian increases in taxation on gas guzzling cars.

But how effective are these taxes?

The recent spike in electricity supply on the European grid illuminated the problem of storing wind energy, which reamins one of the biggest obstacles to large scale adoption.

Today the European Environment Agency’s (EEA) Scientific Committee recommended suspending the EUs target for 10% biofuel usage by 2020, due to concerns that first-generation biofuels (those made from food crops) are environmentally unsound.

Europe's biotechnology news

European Environment Commission recognizes it has underestimated the environmental and social impact of biofuels.

Volvo Car Corporation will develop a completely new racing car in 2008 and continue its work with bioethanol (E85) and Green Racing in the STCC (Swedish Touring Car Championship).

Proving that industry still comes first, despite the fact that Europe prides itself on its leadership in environmental issues, European governments have sought to botch the implementation of the scheme in favour of national industries.

An informative article introducing seed laws in UK and Europe and how they are used to restrict the geographic movement and range of crop varieties.

After years of banning imports of Genetically Modified Foods, the European Union is poised to finally remove their import van.  Analysts cite cost factors.

This is a list with ingredients found in hair dye on the US market, but banned in Europe because of health risk association.

Just think about the excess body heat of a crowd of commuters. A turn-off, or turn on? A quarter of a million people a day pass through Stockholm Central station, but it’s not a problem – they’re seizing this opportunity to heat an adjoining office, hotel and shopping mall.

The hearing examines the role of auction or allocation systems for global warming emissions credits in a cap-and-trade climate bill. Along with several prominent witnesses from the United States, Zapfel covers these new developments in the E.U.

Where the EU once rushed-in to embrace biofuel as the answer to CO2 emmissions, they are now stopping in their tracks and rethinking the situation.

Biofuel was once seen as an easy alternative to producing greener vehicles, it was thought that simply fuelling the same old vehicles with “greener” fuel would be the answer...