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Ecology


Social Europe is an award-winning digital media publisher. We use the values of freedom, sustainability and equality as the foundation on which we examine society’s most pressing challenges. We are committed to publishing cutting-edge thinking and new ideas from the most thought-provoking people. This archive page brings together Social Europe articles on ecology.

COP15: negotiations must come out of the shadows

Sandrine Maljean-Dubois 18th May 2022

Biodiversity receives less attention than climate, although the collapse of the planet’s biomass is as worrying as climate change.

Ukraine is no reason to invest in gas

Xavier Sol 17th May 2022

The EIB must resist pressure to finance liquefied-natural-gas projects and champion zero-carbon public transport instead.

Access to justice in the ‘Fit for 55’ package

Frederik Hafen 16th May 2022

Implementing the ‘Fit for 55’ package depends on citizens and NGOs being able to hold governments to account.

No time for silos amid global heating

Kristina Persson 4th May 2022

Sweden needs a ‘joined-up’ approach to climate change or it will fall well short of its responsibilities.

The too-invisible hand of the EU emissions market

Riccardo Nigro 27th April 2022

Europe has lost almost two precious decades to decarbonise industry due to one of the worst designed EU policy instruments.

Climate leadership needs more women

Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr 26th April 2022

Women face the greatest risks from environmental crises and have been shown to deliver better environmental policy results.

What we need for long-term peace and prosperity

Margaret Kuhlow 21st April 2022

Recent crises have exposed the shortcomings of our international institutions and growth-obsessed economic models.

Why Europe can’t break free from the gas lobby

Pascoe Sabido 13th April 2022

Europe’s problem isn’t just dependence on Russian oil and gas. It’s dependence on fossil fuels, period.

Climate justice requires women’s leadership

Laura Chinchilla and María Fernanda Espinosa 28th March 2022

Without active participation of women, a carbon-neutral future will remain out of reach.

To quit Russian gas and oil, a green-transition jubilee

Rasmus Øjvind Nielsen 23rd March 2022

Europe must exit from its dependence on Russian fossil fuel by designating the next year as one of state-financed domestic conversions.

Europe’s solution to its energy dependence

Michael Davies-Venn 23rd March 2022

Europe could simply buy fewer fossil fuels from Russia, maybe more from elsewhere—but there is a more fundamental answer.

Who should be responsible for emissions reductions?

Jayati Ghosh 21st March 2022

The wealthy are the biggest greenhouse-gas emitters, Jayati Ghosh writes, yet carbon taxes hit the poor hardest.

Ukraine underlines urgency of EU green food goals

Isabel Paliotta and Célia Nyssens 17th March 2022

Powerful industrial-agriculture lobbies are seeking to take advantage of the crisis to undermine EU commitments.

Europe needs drastic pesticide reduction

Martin Dermine 10th March 2022

A leaked proposal from the European Commission would favour the agrochemical industry, not the citizenry.

Climate accountability now

Mary Robinson 15th February 2022

Major emitters must deliver on critical ‘climate justice’ issues, such as financing for vulnerable countries.

Europe’s utilities: net zero or not zero?

Sarah Brown 10th February 2022

Europe’s largest energy companies are failing on their net-zero pledges.

Green taxonomy: traffic-light coalition flashes amber

Isabel Schatzschneider 26th January 2022

The EU’s controversial proposal to label nuclear energy ‘green’ could jeopardise the future of the German coalition.

Building back greener?

Michaela Holl and Claudio Baccianti 26th January 2022

The Recovery and Resilience Facility is important but will not mobilise sufficient green investment by itself.

EU cash floodgates open for nuclear and gas

Barbara Mariani 25th January 2022

There is no environmental, climate or economic reason to include nuclear and fossil gas in the EU investment taxonomy.

Social-ecological policy options: free green services

Milena Büchs 17th January 2022

How to avoid ecological policies having adverse social effects? Make the associated services (partly) free.

‘Leaving no one behind’: putting words into actions

Mehtap Akgüç, Kalina Arabadjieva, Béla Galgóczi and 2 more 13th January 2022

The climate transition and its social dimension demand more powerful instruments than the European Commission proposes.

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Bilan social / Social policy in the EU: state of play 2021 and perspectives

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EU Care Atlas: a new interactive data map showing how care deficits affect the gender earnings gap in the EU

Browse through the EU Care Atlas, a new interactive data map to help uncover what the statistics are often hiding: how care deficits directly feed into the gender earnings gap.

While attention is often focused on the gender pay gap (13%), the EU Care Atlas brings to light the more worrisome and complex picture of women’s economic inequalities. The pay gap is just one of three main elements that explain the overall earnings gap, which is estimated at 36.7%. The EU Care Atlas illustrates the urgent need to look beyond the pay gap and understand the interplay between the overall earnings gap and care imbalances.


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Towards a new Minimum Wage Policy in Germany and Europe: WSI minimum wage report 2022

The past year has seen a much higher political profile for the issue of minimum wages, not only in Germany, which has seen fresh initiatives to tackle low pay, but also in those many other countries in Europe that have embarked on substantial and sustained increases in statutory minimum wages. One key benchmark in determining what should count as an adequate minimum wage is the threshold of 60 per cent of the median wage, a ratio that has also played a role in the European Commission's proposals for an EU-level policy on minimum wages. This year's WSI Minimum Wage Report highlights the feasibility of achieving minimum wages that meet this criterion, given the political will. And with an increase to 12 euro per hour planned for autumn 2022, Germany might now find itself promoted from laggard to minimum-wage trailblazer.


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