News
Publish date: December 22, 2008
Written by: Eivind Hoff
News
The European Union (EU) has a seven-year budget that sets an overall cap on total expenditures over the period, with ‘sub-caps’ for the main budget chapters. Because food prices have been higher than expected in 2008, the payment of EU agricultural subsidies has been much lower than budgeted. “Underspent,” this money would normally return to the member states’ budgets, but European Commission president José Manuel Barroso has recently proposed that in 2008 and 2009, a total of €5bn would be reallocated from agriculture to energy projects in the following proportion:
The proposals have been framed as part of the effort to boost public spending in the EU to revive the economy, but member states that are net contributors to the EU budget first want a greater reassurance about the specifics of these projects in order to guarantee an added value of the money being spent by the EU instead of returning to national treasuries. For 2008 “underspending” to be reallocated, a deal must be reached by the end of the year.
The proposals testify to the increasing momentum for a general redirection of EU funds to projects of truly common European interests with future benefits, instead of backward-looking subsidies for big farms. For more details about this system, see the main European affairs newsweekly, the European Voice.
Recent attacks on Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant "mark the beginning of a new and gravely dangerous front of the war," the UN atomic agency's director general said last week.
After years of inaction, Germany is working on its Carbon Management Strategy to resolve how CCS can play a role in climate action in industry. At the end of February, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action published first key points and a proposal to amend the law Kohlenstoffdioxid Speicherungsgesetz (KSpG). Bellona Deutschland, who was actively involved in the previous stakeholder dialogue submitted a statement in the association hearing.
In the midst of a global discussion on whether natural gas should be used as a transitional fuel and whether emissions from its extraction, production, transport and use are significantly less than those from other fossil fuels, Russia has developed ambitious plans to increase its own production of liquified natural gas (LNG) in the Arctic – a region with 75% of proven gas reserves in Russia – to raise its share in the international gas trade.
In this news digest, we monitor events that impact the environment in the Russian Arctic. Our main focus lies in identifying the factors that contribute to pollution risks and climate change.