November 12, 2021
Ghent will install 800 new charging stations for electric cars in the coming four years. TotalEnergies will be responsible for the installation, like in Antwerp. Next year, the city will already provide 244 additional charging stations in semi-public places, like parking lots or sports facilities. These are accessible for everybody, but they’re not located in […]
November 10, 2021
Daimler Truck and French oil giant TotalEnergies have signed an agreement to jointly kick start the rollout of hydrogen infrastructure and heavy-duty trucks in Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxemburg, and France. Daimler wants its hydrogen trucks deployed fully on the road at customers by 2025, and TotalEnergies has the ambition by 2030 to operate directly […]
November 10, 2021
Belgium sits in 49th place in the Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI) 2022, far below the European average and upcoming nations like India (10th place) and China (37th place). According to the latest ranking published on Tuesday, the country loses nine places in the annual international climate ranking of 60 countries and the European Union. […]
November 10, 2021
EDUCAM, a sectorial organization for the training of the workforce in the automotive branch, had yesterday opened its first training facility for future garages repairing hydrogen cars. The center, located in Lokeren, wants to prepare professionals for this new challenge that it believes will arrive alongside the massive switch to battery-electric cars. Highly explosive The […]
November 09, 2021
The Greek government has finally thought its climate plans through and is joining the leading group of European countries to ban the sales of new ICE cars already in 2030, five years ahead of what is currently on the EU Commission’s table. Second-hand cars are not affected. In 2025 Greece wants all new taxis in […]
November 08, 2021
Flemish Mobility Minister, Lydia Peeters (Open Vld), wants to accelerate the greening of public transport. She will reserve 65 million euros a year for it as of 2023. The decision was taken following the recent climate conference. Before the end of this year, public transport company De Lijn will order 60 fully electric buses, and […]
November 08, 2021
Thursday night, the Flemish government has finally reached an agreement on its updated climate plan. The general aim is to reduce CO2 emissions by 40% in 2030. The major contribution of the car sector will be the obligation to go electric for 2029 in new car sales. As an update, we added some more reactions. […]
November 08, 2021
Antwerp Port and Zeebrugge Port will set up a hydrogen import logistic chain with Chile. Belgium’s major ports who decided earlier this year to merge into Port Antwerp-Bruges signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for this in Glasgow. Belgium will also import green hydrogen from Oman and Namibia. At the COP26 in Glasgow, Belgian Federal […]
November 05, 2021
From 2023, there will be an obligation to renovate for those who buy a home that wastes energy. For agriculture and industry, the bar is set 10% higher than initially anticipated. These are some of the notable measures in the climate agreement, apart from the ban on the sale of new passenger cars or vans […]
November 04, 2021
Environment organization Greenpeace has compiled and compared the world’s top ten carmakers’ decarbonization efforts. It concentrated on battery electric vehicles (BEV) and fuel-cell vehicles (FCEV) sales, as well as engagements to phase out internal combustion engines (ICE) earlier than 2035. The ranking from worst to best is as follows: Toyota, Stellantis, Ford, Daimler, Honda, Nissan, […]
November 04, 2021
Last quarter, BMW registered more benefits despite lower sales due to the worldwide chip shortage. Turnover rose because BMW sold many more electric cars and also more luxurious cars with a higher price tag. “The Group’s strong performance during this period was driven in particular by favorable product mix factors and positive pricing effects for […]
November 03, 2021
Between 2021 and 2025, the Walloon Transport Operator (OTW), the parent company that oversees the TEC public transport service, will invest over 1,1 billion euros in Walloon public transport. A large part of the budget, 400 million euro, is planned for the greening of the fleet. That is what L’Echo reports. TEC has a fleet […]
November 03, 2021
The possible plan of the Flemish government to force all new cars sold by 2027 to be electric is provoking many reactions. Although we’re still talking about propositions, these reactions are numerous and vehement. Because of the COP26 climate gathering in Glasgow, the Flemish government is brooding on possible green measures to have something to […]
November 03, 2021
More than a hundred countries have associated with an initiative of the European Union and the United States to reduce methane emissions by 30% by 2030. The Global Methane Pledge should keep global warming at least 0,2 degrees Celsius lower than expected. “Methane is an extremely harmful greenhouse gas, responsible for 30% of global warming […]
November 02, 2021
The die is cast: electricity provider Engie Electrabel got the green light to build two new gas power plants. The question now is: will their capacity be sufficient to close the last nuclear power plants in Belgium? On Sunday, grid manager Elia revealed the results of the so-called CRM auction, which has to guarantee the […]
November 02, 2021
In its frantic search to have something to show at the COP26 climate gathering in Glasgow, the Flemish government is thinking of an obligation to buy electric cars by 2027. Second-hand ICE cars would then be forbidden to be sold by 2030. Inside the Flemish government, there is an ongoing search to see what trophies […]
October 29, 2021
The Belgian Petroleum Federation is changing its name to Energia. It announced this in a press release on Thursday evening. The new name is intended to express the ambition and role of the sector in the energy transition. “To help achieve the climate goals and the energy transition to a low-carbon society, the federation’s members […]
October 27, 2021
Just a few days before the start of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Australia has (finally) announced more ambitious climate targets. On Tuesday, the Australian government communicated that it wants to reduce CO2 emissions to zero by 2050. One of the promises agreed on during the Paris Climate Agreement. It sounds […]
October 27, 2021
The low-emission zone (LEZ) is not missing its effect in Brussels. Since June 2018, the disappearance of the oldest diesel vehicles has reduced emissions of black carbon, a measure of soot concentration, by more than a third. The 2020 monitoring of Brussels Environment shows this. The LEZ was introduced in Brussels to improve air quality, […]
October 27, 2021
French-Belgian high-speed train company Thalys commissioned its first renovated carriages at Brussels-Midi station on Tuesday. Spaces inside the train are reconfigured, increasing capacity by 28 seats without compromising on comfort. The ecological impact of the renewed trains has also been reduced, and there is even room for no less than two bicycles without having to […]
October 26, 2021
Despite the paralyzing effects of the corona lockdowns, greenhouse gas emissions broke all records in 2020. That is the conclusion of the latest WMO (World Meteorological Organization) report, the Greenhouse Gas Bulletin, published on Monday. Corona turned the world upside down. People were forced to stay and work from home, airplanes were grounded, and factories […]
October 26, 2021
On Monday, October 25th, the city of London has expanded its ultra-low emission zone (ULEZ). The ULEZ, introduced in 2019, was initially limited to the inner city but now is operative in a significantly expanded area. The new ULEZ now covers a quarter of London or eighteen times the size of the central London zone, […]
October 25, 2021
Saudi Arabia’s ambition is to be carbon neutral by 2060. The world’s largest oil exporter pledged this on Saturday during a Saudi Green Initiative forum in the capital Riyadh, just a few days before the start of COP26 in Glasgow. The Saudi kingdom, one of the world’s biggest polluters, also said it would participate in […]
October 25, 2021
China is planning to reduce the use of fossil fuels drastically and have non-fossil energy consumption exceed 80% of its total mix by 2060. So, the use of fossil fuels should decline to less than 20% of the actual level. These intentions, announced on Sunday by the official Xinhua News Agency, are part of China’s […]
October 22, 2021
Paris’ Mayor and presidential candidate Anne Hidalgo has presented on Thursday the 2021-2026 bicycle plan. With the construction of 130 km of new bicycle lanes, 100 000 secure parking spaces, and a limited traffic zone in the center of Paris, it should make the French capital a “100% cycle-friendly city”. The plan, endowed with 150 […]
October 21, 2021
On Wednesday afternoon, the Parliamentary Finance Committee approved the bill to speed up the greening of the company car fleet. The company car is still prevalent in Belgium, with nearly a quarter (23%) of all employees in Belgium benefiting from such an advantage. At the same time, amendments were also made to the mobility budget, which […]
October 21, 2021
French energy giant Total wasn’t different from its competitors in denying climate change and fiercely lobbying against policy adaptation. That’s the conclusion of a study published in the scientific magazine Global Environmental Change. The study has been led by Christophe Bonneuil, research director at the Center for Historical Research (CNRS). He got help from Pierre-Louis […]
October 19, 2021
The Flemish government is going to invest 106,3 million euros in five large hydrogen projects. Flemish Minister for Innovation and Economy, Hilde Crevits (CD&V), announced this on Monday. The projects include constructing hydrogen plants to produce sustainable hydrogen, using hydrogen to make sustainable steel, or converting CO2 back into sustainable fuels. Ports manifest themselves Some […]
October 18, 2021
The council of the Eurometropolis of Strasbourg (EMS) has voted to set up a low-emission zone (LEZ) with an expected timetable for the gradual banning of the most polluting vehicles for the Alsatian capital and the 32 surrounding communes. The LEZ is scheduled to come into force on 1 January 2022, with a so-called ‘training […]
October 18, 2021
The Princess Elisabeth zone, the second zone in the Belgian North Sea where wind farms will be installed, will be expanded. As a result, the capacity of offshore turbines will be almost tripled. On top of that, there are plans for an artificial energy island in the North Sea. That is what the federal government […]
October 15, 2021
VMM, the Flemish institute for the environment, reports that the air quality in Flanders improves year after year. The health impact of polluted air, however, is still a factor that cannot be neglected. According to a new VMM report, traffic is still one of the main culprits. The positive news is that emissions in Flanders […]
October 15, 2021
British rock band Coldplay wants its Music of the Spheres world tour to be as sustainable as possible and got the backup of BMW, providing a power source of forty partly recycled i3 batteries to store the show’s green electricity. In August 2022, they will be playing in Brussels. Solar tiles will be installed on […]
October 14, 2021
Two weeks before the start of the UN Climate Conference in Glasgow (COP26), the International Energy Agency (IEA) warns that the energy transition is not happening fast enough. The agency sees a new energy economy emerging, but the clean energy progress is still far too slow to reach net-zero by 2050. “If we don’t invest […]
October 14, 2021
At the budget conclave finalized on Tuesday morning, the Belgian government decided to invest an additional 250 million euros in NMBS/SNCB. This makes the Belgian railways one of the big winners in the De Croo government’s plan to invest an extra billion euros over the next three years. “This climate government invests in sustainable mobility […]
October 12, 2021
Brussels Mobility is seizing the planting season to soften further and green the public space in the capital. It wants to transform in one year 10 000 square meters of dolomite and asphalt into green spaces with better soil permeability. Between 2020 and 2022, 20 000 square meters, the equivalent of two football pitches, will […]
October 11, 2021
The Belgian federal government has confirmed its previously announced climate ambition to reduce CO2 emissions by -55% by 2030. All ministers of the De Croo government got specific climate roadmaps for their departments and every six months progress will be evaluated. The ministers gathered on Friday, it was the first time they saw each other […]
October 08, 2021
According to a new report by the Federal Plan Bureau (FPB), greenhouse gas emissions in Belgium were 2% higher in 2019 than in 2014. Carbon dioxide (CO2) represented 86% of total greenhouse gas emissions in 2019. Greenhouse gas emissions decreased by 16% between 2008 and 2019. But, after a gradual decline until their lowest level […]
October 08, 2021
Finish biofuel supplier Neste Oy announced on Thursday HVO 100% fossil-free diesel can be found in three new Q8 gas stations in Belgium. Later this month, four more Q8 stations will be supplied with the fossil-free diesel HVO100 that emits up to 90% less CO2 than an ordinary diesel engine. The fossil-free diesel was already […]
October 07, 2021
French Prime Minister Jean Castex has announced on Wednesday the tramway and high service bus projects that will benefit from a 900 million euros budget released as part of the recovery plan. Declaring the list of selected projects supported by 95 local authorities as part of the call for projects launched in the spring, Castex […]
October 05, 2021
The International Air Transport Association (IATA), grouping 290 airlines worldwide, has agreed on its yearly congress in Boston (US) to make aviation CO2-free by 2050. Experts fear it will be a gigantic task, as IATA targeted the last twelve years only to halve its CO2 emissions by that date, compared to 2005. The objectives are […]
October 05, 2021
Soon, the EU Commission will have to decide about the technical details of the future Euro 7 emission standard for 2025. “There is a huge fight going on behind the scene,” says EMP Karima Delli (Green fraction), the president of the Transports commission in the EU Parliament. The entire car industry and some EU member […]
September 30, 2021
Eric-Mark Huitema, Director General at the European car manufacturers association ACEA, rings the alarm bell. He warns that the ambitious ‘Fit for 55’ emission reduction program of the European Commission is doomed to fail. The lack of charging infrastructure necessary to implement the energy transition will be a stumbling stone. “A badly managed transition will […]
September 29, 2021
ArcelorMittal, the multinational steel manufacturing corporation, is planning to invest 1,1 billion euros in its production unit in Ghent to reduce CO2 emissions drastically. “The initiative may be one of the largest climate investments in Belgium,” says Energy Minister Tinne Van der Straeten (Groen). “It shows the industry is a crucial partner.” The company that […]
September 27, 2021
PS Chairman Paul Magnette pleads to make public transport “completely free”. This also applies to national railway company NMBS/SNCB. He said this on Saturday in an interview with Le Soir. According to Magnette, the climate crisis requires an “electroshock”. That goes hand in hand with large-scale investments and free public transport. Making traveling by national […]
September 27, 2021
The Belgian government has approved Be Cyclist, an action plan to promote cycling. The plan contains 52 mensurable measures and will be coordinated by Minister of Mobility Georges Gilkinet (Ecolo). This is the first time that the federal government has made cycling promotion a common and coordinated objective. It is in line with the ambition […]
September 24, 2021
The Flemish Bikers’ Confederation (Fietsersbond) has awarded the pharmaceutical company Janssen the ‘Cycle Friendly Employer Certificate’. The site in Beerse is the first employer in Belgium to receive the golden reward. The Cycle Friendly Employer Certificate was developed to establish a European standard for cycle-friendly companies. Together, CFE and Fietsersbond want to stimulate a cycle-friendly […]
September 23, 2021
According to the World Health Organization, the recommended limiting values for six polluting substances in the air have to come down. The new WHO Global Air Quality Guidelines (AQG) are far more stringent than those of the EU and aim to save millions of lives from air pollution. Several recent studies have indicated that air […]
September 23, 2021
The Belgian retail chain Colruyt Group is going to plant more than 10 000 hectares of forest, good for more than 12 million trees, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Colruyt’s ambition is to capture 120 000 tonnes of CO2 in the newly planted forests by 2030. This way, the amount of captured CO2 […]
September 22, 2021
As we already mentioned in our IAA Mobility stories, two major NGOs, Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH) and Greenpeace, have started lawsuits against BMW, Daimler, and Volkswagen. They want to force manufacturers to accelerate their transition into a less polluting production model. The reasoning is that these manufacturers are violating the fundamental human right to climate protection, […]
September 21, 2021
Several American companies – American Airlines, Microsoft, Bank of America, and General Motors, among others – have donated a total of one billion dollars to support the Breakthrough Energy project. The project is Microsoft’s founders Bill Gates’ initiative and intended to stimulate the development of new technologies, leading to clean energy. The idea is to […]
September 17, 2021
The British-Dutch oil and gas company, Shell, plans to construct a large production unit for biofuels at the Shell Energy and Park Rotterdam (the Netherlands), formerly known as the Pernis refinery. The Rotterdam plant will produce 820 000 tons of biofuels a year. “A facility of this size could produce enough renewable diesel to avoid […]
September 17, 2021
Next Sunday, the car is taboo, and pedestrians and cyclists rule the Belgian roads. Car-Free Sunday, which traditionally is part of Mobility Week, is the opportunity to let people get to know sustainable solutions, says organizer Mobiel 21. Remarkable: in Wallonia, only two towns participate, compared to 19 in Brussels and 36 in Flanders. With […]
September 16, 2021
A British study by French energy provider EDF shows that SUV drivers in the UK could save up to almost 9 million tons of CO2 a year by switching from a combustion engine SUV to an electric SUV. EDF found that the 4.2million gasoline and diesel SUVs on UK roads will emit around 8.7 million […]
September 16, 2021
After discussions with leading investors and major oil and gas companies, the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC) has developed a standard for the sector’s climate transition. The aim is to create a level playing field between companies with clear and comprehensive emission reduction targets. But, unfortunately, there is no straightforward path to achieving […]
September 16, 2021
Energy supplier Brusol, an initiative of solar panel company EnergyVision, aims to install a thousand semi-public charging stations in the Brussels region in the coming months. The charging stations will be rolled out according to the same formula that Brusol uses to install solar panels. The installation itself is done entirely free of charge but […]
September 14, 2021
From 16 to 22 September, Belgium will host Mobility Week, organized for the 25th time this year. In Brussels, Flanders, and Wallonia, various initiatives and numerous actions will be organized to put sustainable mobility in the spotlight. In Brussels, for example, everyone is invited to discover the capital on foot. On Sunday, 19 September, the […]
September 13, 2021
The federal government has decided to ban palm and soybean oil for transport as of 2023. Basically, both products are biofuels, but they’re usually cultivated on deforested land, making them even more polluting. Biodiesel, based on palm and soybean oil, is increasingly popular in Belgium, despite the negative impact on the climate. The main reason […]
September 09, 2021
Only 4% of Belgian employees currently receive a mobility budget from their employer. These are the results of a survey held by HR service provider Securex among more than 1 500 employees in May. A quarter of the employees who have a company car say they are ready to exchange it for a mobility budget, […]
September 09, 2021
There is a serious lack of electric charging points all along the road networks in most EU member states. New data from the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) have been confirming this. The findings show that 10 countries do not even have one single charger for every 100 kilometers of key roads (includes motorways, state, […]
September 07, 2021
More and more Belgian companies are offering green mobility options in their pay packages. The newspaper De Tijd reports, based on a survey conducted by HR services company Acerta among more than 500 Belgian companies. The turnaround is coming through the announced reform of company car taxation and hybrid work. As of 2026, only company […]
