New facts are busting energy myths
July 18, 2013 | Read more
Adequate decision making on energy policies must be based on accurate information and cannot rely on outdated knowledge and misconceptions. A new series of fact sheets explores the myths and facts of Europe’s energy sector.
A thorough check of the European Investment Bank’s energy lending data shows that not all is as rosy as the EIB would like to see it. We’ve paired up with Open Spending to provide an introduction into how to interpret and scrutinise the numbers.
The current review of the European Investment Bank’s mandate for lending outside of the EU brings some of the pitfalls of the bank’s development lending to the fore and offers a chance for improvements.
With today’s approval of the watered down proposals to reform EU Structural Funds in the European Parliament’s committee for regional development (see our press release), EU decision makers have taken a step away from ambitious environmental spending in the future Cohesion Policy. At the same time also national level allocation of the 2014-2020 funds is starting to take shape. But efforts to get the funds working sustainably for, and on behalf of, needy local communities are being thwarted in Slovakia – for a range of all too familiar reasons.
So far the planning for Latvia’s use of the EU funds for the 2014-2020 period has been a reasonably positive experience from a partnership perspective. Yet the process that has, until recently, been notable for its transparency and high level of public participation is now in danger of being derailed.
It may have been easy in the past for Europeans to bash the US for being retrograde when it comes to climate policies, but after last week it will get more difficult to do that.
