EiD has always promoted low/no carbon mobility, but Slovakia, it seems, not so much. The Guardian this week headlined “Slow-vakia” its report on a new law setting a 6km/h speed limit for cyclists, skaters, scooter and e-scooter riders on pavements in Slovakia that has prompted mockery, criticism and a rash of online memes. “At such a low speed, it’s hard to maintain balance and even three- to four-year-old children (on bikes) routinely exceed it,” said Dan Kollar, the president of the Cyklokoalicia group that advocates walking and cycling. The new law comes into effect on January 1st, 2026.
The Guardian also reported that at the climate summit in Belém, Brazil, fossil fuel lobbyists outnumber all COP30 delegations except Brazil. One in every 25 participants at the climate summit is a fossil fuel lobbyist. This year’s tally represents a 12% rise from last year’s climate talks in Baku, Azerbaijan. “The latest findings will pile further pressure on the UN to ban the fossil fuel industry from the annual climate action summits, where world leaders are supposed to negotiate in good faith and agree on ambitious plans to curtail climate catastrophe.” Somehow it doesn’t seem likely.
In a Financial Times article, one fossil fuel executive, TotalEnergies CEO, Patrick Pouyanné (the only high level oil and gas executive in attendance in Belém), “cast doubt on the progress of global efforts to reach “net zero” emissions, which scientists have said is needed to keep global warming to within 1.5C since pre-industrial times.” Pouyanne said, “I think the world today, not just for tech and investment reasons but geopolitically, to be at net zero, we would need a sacred union of all countries, which is not really what we observe. . . . ! am not a scientist, so I can’t judge,” Pouyanné said. But the world was “capable” of keeping global warming within 2.4C or 2.5C above pre-industrial levels, he added. Well, possibly, but is that the world we want to live in?
An FT newsletter notes that at Dubai’s COP28, two years ago, an agreement was finally reached on the need for a global transition away from fossil fuels. Now, at COP30 in Belém, Brazil’s president has catalysed a drive to turn that high-level pledge into meaningful action. “We need road maps that will enable humankind, in a fair and planned manner, to overcome its dependence on fossil fuels” as well as to end deforestation, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva told the conference this week. Countries including Germany, the UK, Kenya, Colombia and Denmark are now among those pushing at COP30 for an agreement on such a “road map”, through which countries would decide how the shift from fossil fuels will actually be achieved. We have one week to see if this comes true.
Politico reported that lawmakers in the European Parliament on Thursday agreed to exempt more companies from green reporting rules after the center-right, right-wing and far-right groups allied to pass the EU’s first omnibus simplification package. Ahead of the vote, chair Manfred Weber of the center-right European People’s Party told Politico: “We promised to the voters to cut unnecessary red tape, and we will do so. The vote is about nothing else than that.” Really?
In planning travel over the upcoming weeks, here are some useful ideas to help you along:
- Country Living Magazine provides 3 European train routes set to transform travel in 2025.
- Check out the Good Night Train website for the unique way to travel through Europe while you sleep. Note, however, EiD post on latest cancellation.
- World Walks provides us with walking holidays in Europe.
- For those who want to combine hiking with food and wine in Europe and Australia, check out the Hedonistic Hiking website.
- Cycling for Softies provides us with the 15 Best Cycling Holidays in Europe 2025.
Claude Monet (1840-1926), a French painter and one of the founders of Impressionism painting, gives us a valuable message about art: “Everyone discusses my art and pretends to understand, as if it were necessary to understand, when it is simply necessary to love.”
EiD welcomes your views about this week’s selection of posts on the zero-carbon energy transition:
- New EEA briefing shows that environmental policies can protect millions of Europeans from heart disease
- IEA’s World Energy Outlook published after US pressure
- New study on possible energy savings in German industry
- From Warm Front to cold comfort: the decline of Britain’s insulation efforts
- Blog by Rose Morrison: The role of smart home technology in achieving Europe’s energy efficiency targets
- US carbon emissions are down about 15% over the past 10 years
- Blog by Ellie Gabel: The Growing Challenge of Maintaining and Diagnosing a Hypercomplex, Digitized Grid
- Humans have known about, thought about and worried about climate change for millennia: just ask the Greeks and Romans
- Pacific Island leaders have a bold plan to become the world’s first region powered entirely by renewables and energy storage
Please send your comments on any of the posts. Please recommend EiD to your friends and colleagues.
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Energy in Demand - Sustainable Energy - Rod Janssen 