“European Union leaders will set a tight timetable this week for adopting ambitious energy policy reforms and measures to fight climate change despite some sharp differences over how to achieve those goals.”

The European Commission believes that all major regions need to join forces in the fight against climate change. Officials from the European Union and Latin American met on Tuesday to discuss efforts in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

BusinessGreen

The row between the EU and the UK government over what to do with the revenue raised from the auctioning of carbon credits through Europe’s emissions trading scheme (ETS) looks set to intensify after an influential committee of MEPs proposed that a quarter of the money raised should be used to fund climate change adaptation projects in the developing world.

AFP

Most Europeans are very concerned about climate change, but a sizeable minority feel they don’t know enough to help counter it, a major EU opinion poll released Thursday suggested.

A majority of the 30,000-plus interviewed throughout the European Union and candidate countries thought that neither industry nor national governments nor the EU itself was doing enough to tackle the problem.

Planet Ark

European Union lawmakers have proposed cutting the share of traditional biofuels to less than 6 percent of EU road transport fuel by 2020, a document seen by Reuters on Wednesday showed.

The Guardian

The EU is studying plans for a transnational power grid in the North Sea that could provide electricity from renewable sources for 70m homes. It could cost up to €20bn (£16bn) to install.

The proposed 3,850 mile offshore grid would connect more than 100 wind farms, containing 10,000 turbines, to seven North Sea countries – Britain, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Norway.

The European Union is expected to approve climate change plans by December. However, some countries including Germany and France argue that more clarity is needed.

Planet Ark

European Union governments struck a provisional deal with lawmakers on Thursday to include aviation from 2012 in the Emission Trading Scheme (ETS), a key tool to fight climate change, sources said.

Planet Ark

The European Commission launched a plan to straighten out aviation routes on Wednesday to cut fuel costs and carbon dioxide emissions growth from increasing numbers of aircraft.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

In a bid to control greenhouse gas emissions linked to climate change, the European Union has been operating the world’s first system to limit and to trade carbon dioxide. Despite its hasty adoption and somewhat rocky beginning three years ago, the EU “cap-and-trade” system has operated well and has had little or no negative impact on the overall EU economy, according to an MIT analysis.