September 30, 2024
Brussels Airport and air traffic controller Skeyes are starting demonstration flights with landings at a steeper angle on Tuesday. This test aims to analyze whether there is a positive impact on noise pollution, CO2 emissions, and fuel consumption. The tests are part of the HERON (Highly Efficient Green Operations) project, a broad international consortium of […]
September 30, 2024
The new Flemish government has decided that the Flemish public transport company De Lijn will receive additional funds to green its fleet and will also be allowed to decide in the future to raise fares. However, it is not clear exactly how much extra money is going to De Lijn. In addition to substantial investments […]
September 27, 2024
British chemical giant Ineos inaugurated the largest solar park in Wallonia on Thursday in Jemeppe-sur-Sambre, in the province of Namur. Over 100 guests, including Sophie Wilmès, Vice-President of the European Parliament, and Cécile Neven, Walloon Minister for Energy and the Air-Climate Plan, attended the inauguration. The Ineos Park will cover a 30-hectare zone—the equivalent of […]
September 27, 2024
Belgium’s automotive market outperforms most European markets in reducing CO₂ emissions from new cars. According to Febiac and the European Environment Agency data, Newspaper De Tijd reports that the average emissions from new cars in Belgium decreased by over 40% between 2019 and 2023. This is significantly better than the EU average reduction of 27%, […]
September 26, 2024
The tightening of the low-emission zone (LEZ) in Brussels will most likely be postponed from 2025 to 2027. The proposal of an ordinance to this effect by MR, PS, Les Engagés, and Open Vld was approved on Wednesday in the Environment Committee of the Brussels Parliament. The Brussels Parliament’s plenary session on October 4th must […]
September 26, 2024
Absenteeism is peaking at the Tesla factory in Grünheide, near Berlin. Management has, therefore, decided to visit employees on sick leave at home to check whether their absence is legal. In August, the sick leave rate among the 12,000 employees in Grünheide had risen to 17 percent; at the beginning of September, it was still […]
September 25, 2024
Starting December 16th, a high-speed train will run daily between Paris and Berlin. French railroad company SNCF Voyageurs and German operator Deutsche Bahn will operate the line. The journey will take about eight hours in total. A stopover in Brussels or Belgium is not planned because the train will enter France or Germany via Strasbourg. […]
September 24, 2024
The Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, wants to introduce a speed limit of 50 km/hour on the Paris Ring Road from October 1st. Whether it will come to that remains to be seen because brand-new Transport Minister François Durovray says he is unconvinced about the project. “I think this is not a decision that the […]
September 23, 2024
According to the BeMob survey of the FPS Mobility and Transport, thanks to teleworking, 34 million kilometers are avoided daily, including 16 million by car. The survey, carried out between August 2023 and July 2024, questioned more than 4,000 Belgian workers. Almost one-third of Belgian employees (31%) work from home at least one day a […]
September 20, 2024
On Friday, the Belgian Innoptus Solar Team, the KU Leuven University engineering student team, won the Sasol Solar Challenge. For several days in a row, the competition was neck and neck with the competing team from Twente. The Belgians braved steep slopes and heavy traffic in their final sprint and crossed the finish line with […]
September 20, 2024
Last year, Febelauto, the management body for waste vehicles and industrial batteries, collected almost 150 tons of high-voltage batteries from electric and hybrid cars—or 10% more than in 2022. That number will continue to rise because the number of electrified vehicles brought to market will increase exponentially. All European vehicle manufacturers are legally obligated to […]
September 19, 2024
Some 36 action groups and citizens’ initiatives, united as the Modal Shift Coalition (MSC), want politicians to work harder on the modal shift for Flemish cities with higher quality of life. In other words, there should be more space for pedestrians and cyclists, fewer cars, and more public transport and shared mobility. The call comes […]
September 18, 2024
On Wednesday, the Environment Committee of the Brussels parliament is considering several proposals to postpone the planned tightening of the Low-Emission Zone (LEZ). The proposal that stands the best chance is that of MR, Les Engagés, PS, and Open Vld to postpone stricter LEZ standards by two years. According to the Brussels administration, a postponement […]
September 18, 2024
On Sunday, Mobility Week concludes in Brussels with Car-Free Sunday. From 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m., the entire Brussels Region will be closed to unlicensed cars, making the Region once again the largest car-free zone in Europe for one day. The Brussels Region covers 162 square kilometers and comprises 19 municipalities, including the City of […]
September 18, 2024
The Belgian postal company Bpost recently ordered 168 new bike trailers, bringing the total to more than 600 vehicles. Postmen can use them to deliver parcels. The new e-bike trailers, which can accommodate up to fifty parcels and letters and a maximum weight of 150 kilograms, will be delivered in 2025. By 2030, all deliveries […]
September 17, 2024
The Hague will be the first city in the world to ban street advertising for fossil fuel products. The Netherlands’ third-largest city will no longer allow outdoor publicity for products or services contributing to the climate crisis. The ban will take effect on January 1st, 2025. The Hague defines “fossil advertising” as advertising by or […]
September 17, 2024
According to an NGO Transport & Environment (T&E) analysis, electric cars are expected to reach a 24% European market share as carmakers grow EV sales to meet the EU CO2 targets. “Car manufacturers have clear pathways to meet their EU climate targets next year due to the expected rapid growth in electric car sales,” says […]
September 16, 2024
The European Commission has approved Belgium’s state aid mechanism of 682 million euros, paving the way for auctioning the first wind farm in the Princess Elisabeth zone in the North Sea. This auction, planned on October 28th, marks a crucial step toward the country’s energy independence and climate neutrality. Wind farm developers will be invited […]
September 16, 2024
In response to the (unofficial) ACEA proposal to the European Commission to delay the 2025 emission targets for two years, Stellantis boss Carlos Tavares said, “It would be surreal to change the rules now.” “Everyone has known about the rules for a long time and has had time to prepare, and so now it’s time […]
September 11, 2024
The European Space Agency (ESA) warns in a report published on Tuesday that global methane emissions, a powerful greenhouse gas, continue to rise. The report reveals that human activities are responsible for at least two-thirds of global methane emissions.“The trends are going in exactly the opposite direction of what is needed to maintain a habitable […]
September 11, 2024
Denmark’s subsea CO2 storage facility is ready to receive high volumes of CO2. So reports British chemical company Ineos after receiving a positive final report for the pilot project. Ineos said Denmark now has “a safe and functioning underground storage facility in the North Sea, where CO2 can be permanently stored to combat climate change.” […]
September 10, 2024
From October 1st, only 50 km/hour may be driven on the Paris Ring Road. The news was already announced last year, but Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo has officially confirmed the speed limit. Remarkably, for the measure intended to reduce pollution for more than half a million inhabitants, Hidalgo is not awaiting the advice of the […]
September 09, 2024
During the upcoming Matexpo-powered Demo Days, a two-day event with over 100 building construction machines (6-8 September 2024), Fimatec will install a state-of-the-art ‘mobile’ charging park to offer visitors and participants a unique charging experience. This charging park, equipped with ten Emoss site charging poles and 40 charging points, is powered by the Atlas Copco […]
September 09, 2024
According to Copernicus Climate Change Service’s latest publication, the summer of 2024 was the warmest ever recorded worldwide and for Europe. August 2024 was the second warmest August globally (along with August 2023), with an average surface air temperature of 16.82°C, or 0.71°C above the August average from 1991-2020. August 2024 was 1.51°C above pre-industrial […]
September 05, 2024
It must be no coincidence: just when three French-speaking parties involved in the formation of the Brussels government decided on their own to present a proposal in parliament to postpone the tightening of the emission standard for the low-emission zone (LEZ) in Brussels from the beginning of 2025 to 2027, the non-profit organization Chercheurs d’Air […]
September 04, 2024
The new Swedish government, a right-wing minority government with tacit support from the radical-right Sweden Democrats, will abolish the ‘flyswatter’, or flight tax, introduced by the previous red-green government on July 1st next year. “Sweden depends on competition in the airline industry,” says Sweden Democrats group chairman Linda Lindberg. “Companies and individuals need air travel, […]
September 03, 2024
Cyclis Bike Lease, the Belgian bicycle leasing company, has decided to partner with the German JobRad Group. The Hasselt-based company was founded in 2014. Ten years ago, the company was one of Belgium’s first bicycle leasing companies. Cyclis has been the market leader Belgium for years, with 37,000 bicycles under contract. Among them are all […]
September 02, 2024
MR, Les Engagés, and the PS, the parties negotiating a new Brussels government on the French-speaking side, want to present a proposal in the Brussels Parliament that would postpone the introduction of the stricter low-emission zone (LEZ) emissions standards from early 2025 to early 2027. The parties report this in a joint press release. Groen, […]
August 30, 2024
Europe’s largest battery park, which the Giga Storage company plans to set up in Rotem/Dilsen-Stokkem (Belgium), will have a capacity of 700 megawatts, 100 megawatts more than initially planned. The battery park’s name is Green Turtle. In the meantime, the construction team has been assembled. Giga Storage agreed with Tractebel for technical support, and Stadsbader […]
August 30, 2024
If anyone hoped the zero tax policy for EVs the Flemish government is offering to lure more people into electric driving was a never-ending story, it is time to wake up. Around the negotiating table for the next government, all parties – N-VA, Vooruit, and CD&V – agree that the ‘zero tariff’ will no longer […]
August 30, 2024
Several environmental organizations are suing the European Commission for not imposing sufficiently strict CO2 standards on member states under the 2015 Paris Agreement on global warming. First and foremost, they are calling for fossil-fuel-powered planes and ships to be removed from the EU’s list of sustainable investments, which they say is an example of greenwashing. […]
August 29, 2024
The ministerial instruction of outgoing Mobility Minister Georges Gilkinet (Ecolo) preventing the use of Boeing 777 aircraft at Brussels Airport at night has been suspended. The Minister said this in the Parliamentary Committee on Mobility. If consultations with the Flemish government come to nothing, it will be up to the next federal government to resolve […]
August 29, 2024
Record wildfires in 2023 pushed Canada into the world’s top four greenhouse gas-emitting countries that year. This is evident from a study published in the journal Nature on Wednesday. In 2023, wildfires burned about 15 million hectares – about four percent of Canada’s total forest area – and more than 200,000 people had to be […]
August 29, 2024
Driveco, a French operator of charging stations for electric vehicles, wants to install 1,500 charging stations in Belgium by 2030 and will allocate 15 million euros for this purpose. The company is already present in Belgium, with 70 charging stations in fifteen different stations, but the goal is to increase that number considerably in the […]
August 28, 2024
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres issued a ‘global SOS’ on climate change and sea level rise on Tuesday while visiting Tonga (Polynesia) for a meeting of the Pacific Islands Forum, where the leaders of a group of 18 countries are meeting, including Australia and New Zealand. Guterres’ trip coincided with a new report from the […]
August 27, 2024
After thirteen weeks of hard work, the Belgian Solar Team has arrived in South Africa to participate in the world’s most extreme Solar Challenge. In October 2023, they became world champions with their solar car, the Infinite, in the World Solar Challenge in Australia. Now, they’re ambitious to win the world’s most extreme challenge. The […]
August 26, 2024
The planned connection between the Belgian and Danish energy islands will be postponed or canceled. The Danish Minister of Energy, Lars Aagaard, thinks the prestigious project to bring power from Danish offshore wind farms to our country via a submarine cable is too expensive. Denmark plans to create two ‘energy islands’, one in the North […]
August 23, 2024
Brian Niccol, Starbucks’ new top executive, will be provided a jet by the American coffeehouse chain group to fly from his home in California to its headquarters in Seattle. That’s about 1,600 km. Niccol takes office on Monday, September 9th, but so is already under fire, while others accuse the firm of hypocrisy, with some […]
August 20, 2024
The Belgian government introduced a flight tax of two to ten euros for short flights under 500 km two years ago, and that tax raised more than 40 million euros last year, according to the newspaper Le Soir. Last year, more than 800 passenger flights by private jets were conducted over less than 500 kilometers. […]
August 20, 2024
According to a recent survey by Belgian HR service provider SD Worx, in the provinces of Limburg and Antwerp, almost one in five employees already have a company bicycle, and these SMEs also intend to expand their company bicycle fleet by 9% and 8% in 2024 or 2025, respectively. West Flanders currently ranks third, but […]
August 20, 2024
Most airlines still have a long way to go in using sustainable jet fuel, despite their promise to get at least 10% of their fuel from sustainable aviation fuel, or SAF, by the decade’s end. That’s according to an analysis by Bloomberg Green. American Airlines does not excel in the use of SAFs, while airlines […]
August 16, 2024
A fire incident with an EV caused the South Korean Ministry of Transport to ask carmakers to disclose the names of their battery suppliers. Earlier this month, a fire broke out in the underground car park of an apartment complex in Incheon, South Korea. The fire was apparently caused by a Mercedes EQE. While the […]
August 14, 2024
Parkwind, a Belgian offshore wind energy company, has installed the first electric ship-charging station at sea. The station runs on wind power and aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from maintenance and transport vessels. The charging system was installed in Parkwind’s third offshore wind energy project, Nobelwind, which is 29 miles (47 kilometers) offshore in […]
August 13, 2024
In an interview with the German newspaper Der Welt, Volkswagen Group CEO Oliver Blume has strongly supported the European Union’s planned ban on combustion engines by 2035. Blume affirmed that electric mobility is the clear path forward for the automotive industry and emphasized a niche role for e-fuels. In the interview, Blume aligned himself with […]
August 12, 2024
On Saturday, thousands of people demonstrated in Belgrade against Rio Tinto’s controversial mining project to extract lithium in western Serbia. Serbia has massive lithium deposits near Loznica, in the country’s west. Still, the controversial mining project, developed by British-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto, has been causing a political rift for several years. The demonstrators fear […]
August 09, 2024
Cruise ships are getting bigger and bigger. According to environmental organization T&E’s latest report, today’s biggest ships are more than twice as big as in 2000. At the current growth rate, the organization predicts that the biggest cruise ships in 2050 could amount to a staggering 345,000 gross tonnage, making them almost eight times bigger […]
August 08, 2024
New technology at the NASA space organization allows us to see in great detail where in the world CO2 is released and how the substance moves across the Earth. NASA’s animation lets us watch how carbon dioxide moves through the Earth’s atmosphere, driven by wind patterns and atmospheric circulation. Because of the model’s high resolution, […]
August 08, 2024
German car rental company Sixt is going to rent out fewer electric cars. It is a remarkable reversal for Europe’s largest car rental company, which has always prided itself on significantly reducing the carbon footprint of its rental fleet by achieving a 70-90% share of EVs in Europe by 2030. According to the listed company, […]
August 05, 2024
The Ghent start-up and non-profit organization Straal refurbishes neglected boats to give them a second life. Straal’s initiators want to do something with the many neglected boats left along the banks of the Ghent and European waterways. They focus on the numerous polyester pleasure boats because polyester creates a lot of waste. Refurbishing those boats […]
July 30, 2024
German meal delivery company HelloFresh wants to make the middle mile, the transport between the central distribution center and the hubs, even more sustainable with a pilot project in the Benelux. To do so, it will deploy a refrigerated electric truck, the company’s first. With the initiative, the meal box supplier will save some 191,000 […]
July 25, 2024
The average car on the Belgian market is getting longer, wider, and heavier, reducing available space on roads and in cities. This trend has been going on for some time now. In 2023, the Belgian automobile fleet represented about 6 million vehicles, occupying a space corresponding to 9,787 football fields. Ten years ago, it would […]
July 25, 2024
The latest edition of Ayvens’ Mobility Guide 2024 provides a comprehensive country-by-country analysis of EV readiness and electrification pace. Belgium (4) and Luxembourg (5) are joining the top five countries despite a general negative feeling among mostly private buyers. Norway remains number one, with the Netherlands and Finland following close by. The annual guide draws […]
July 24, 2024
Despite nearly 6,000 submitted objections, the airport in Deurne, also known as Antwerp Airport, has been granted a new environmental permit by Flemish Environment Minister Zuhal Demir (N-VA). The open-ended permit does come with “strict conditions.” For example, there will be a ban on night flights, noise standards will be established, a noise wall must […]
July 24, 2024
The Californian Monarch Tractor wants to conquer the European market from Belgium and, therefore, intends to build a new head office there. The pioneer in self-driving electric tractors is counting on the financial support of Flemish government investor PMV. With the Welfare Fund established as a recovery vehicle, PMV invested substantially in the American company. […]
July 22, 2024
The European Union and Serbia have signed an agreement to cooperate on lithium extraction and the production of batteries for electric cars. On Friday, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic signed a partnership agreement with the EU to supply strategic raw materials. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was also present. Serbia wants to allow carmakers Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, and […]
July 19, 2024
As of October, the Ghent City Council will be able to collect traffic fines in 22 additional European countries, from Spain to Italy to Poland. Previously, this was limited to a few neighboring countries. A European cooperation and the involvement of two Dutch companies makes the fine policy possible. It involves violations of parking policies, […]
July 19, 2024
Ursula von der Leyen, reappointed on Thursday by the European Parliament as president of the European Commission, wants to make train travel more accessible by creating a standard reservation system at the EU level. She said this in the political guidelines for the next legislature for 2024-2029, just before the vote for her reappointment. “We […]
July 19, 2024
Serbia wants to allow carmakers Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, and Stellantis to buy lithium from the large lithium mine in the west of the country that mining group Rio Tinto is building there. Barely a week after a Serbian court decision allowed the resumption of the controversial lithium mining project, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic told the German […]
July 12, 2024
Serbia’s highest court opened the way on Thursday to authorize a lithium mining project by mining giant Rio Tinto after a government decision that suspended it while many activists remain firmly opposed. Rio Tinto welcomed the court’s decision. At the same time, project director Chad Blewitt wanted to be reassuring by telling AFP that the […]
July 12, 2024
On Thursday, the construction of the Pukkelpop festival village started in Hasselt. This year’s edition will be greener—or rather bluer—thanks to the use of so-called ‘blue diesel’. For the first time, all forklift trucks, off-road buggies, and generators used on the site – from now until the end of the festival = will run on […]
