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Safeguarding critical infrastructure – a condition of Europe’s strategic autonomy in space
Europe is a major actor in outer space, possessing 12% of the satellite fleet. As the largest Earth observation service worldwide delivering high-level data information, Copernicus contributes to the emergence of a digital and green Europe: monitoring of climate systems, marine and terrestrial analysis for conservation and precision farming, security of trade routes. In an…
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Railway’s Essential Digitalisation
Demand for transport is set to double by 2050. Favouring high-speed rail over short-distance air or road travel is essential to alleviate the transport sector’s energy intensity and curb emissions increase. In France, transportation produces 30% of total emissions, but rail represents only a marginal 0.6%. Rail is already the most electrified mode of transport…
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Neighbourhood instability – a call for majority voting in EU foreign policy
Ever since her nomination, Ursula von der Leyen has highlighted strategic autonomy and enhanced leadership as her top foreign policy aspirations. On a stage where power politics are undermining multilateralism and the rule of law, High Representative Josep Borrell suggests that the EU can only achieve this by learning the ‘language of power’. Two crises…
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Covid-19 as the stimulus for geopolitical divergence
The virus will in more general terms uncover the socio-political deficiencies of our worn-out world order, as it creates leadership opportunity for some and exacerbates the governance challenges of others. […]
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Four FoodTech Champions
Environmental awareness has grown exponentially since the 2015 Paris Climate Agreements. Each year, we become increasingly aware of a particular pressing issue. 2018 was the year of plastics, as images of beaches inundated the web, demonstrating the extent of our societies’ waste disposal inefficacy. In 2019, we watched the Amazon burn. What we fail to…
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Is sustainability the right path for cultured meat?
Above are pictures taken from JUST Meat’s promotional video, displaying what CEO Joshua Tetrick calls an out of body experience. Happy friends sat outside eating nuggets are joined by an unlikely member – Ian the chicken. Running around, Ian is unaware that they are eating him, or at least part of him. Such a scene…
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Surveillance or Sustainability? A look into the use of Facial recognition for waste treatment in China
A new waste plan In July 2019, the Shanghai municipality introduced strict legislation making recycling mandatory for its 33 million inhabitants. Going against this system may result in fines. But how can such compliance be monitored? The Vanke Foundation, a Chinese urban services provider, concluded in a Shanghai survey that only a quarter of respondents…
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Lake Turkana wind farm – Kenya on a green road to 2022
President Kenyatta cuts the ribbon On 19th July, Kenya began full operation of its Lake Turkana wind farm in the arid Marsabit county, 545 kilometres north of Nairobi. Construction began in 2014, and since 2017 the plant had been operating at 64% of its capacity. 365 turbines and total power output of 310 megawatts make…
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Aviation’s carbon footprint – why Europe will push for a kerosene tax
An opportune moment – EU reconfiguration Environmental preoccupation is at the centre stage of European policy like never before. It fragmented the European Parliament on May 26th and has left unclear who will take on the presidency of the Commission. Many agree that Europe must sustain its global leadership on climate, while enhancing its action.…
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Combatting illegal fishing in West Africa – the potential of blockchain
Government ban on fishing On 1st April, a one-month ban on fishing and exportation by foreign fishing corporations came into effect in the small West African state of Sierra Leone. The aim is to prevent the exhaustion of fish stocks, caused by widespread Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing. Estimates by the Sea Around Us…
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