Sustainability in style: circular fashion in the European Green Deal

In this episode of "Green Deal – Big Deal?", we tackle the complex world of natural resources, a topic that underpins many aspects of Europe's ambition for a green future. In conversation with guests Janez Potočnik, Co-chair of the International Resources Panel, and Florika Fink-Hooijer, Director-General of European Commission’s DG Environment, hosts Aaron Best and Ewa Iwaszuk discuss how the use of natural resources is closely linked to the climate and biodiversity crises, highlighting the global nature of resource use and its impacts.

In this episode of "Green Deal – Big Deal?" we discuss what mud houses, 3D printers and beauty have to do with Europe’s journey to becoming a climate-neutral continent. Specifically, we speak with Alina Ujupan, part of the team behind the European Commission’s New European Bauhaus Initiative, and Edouard Cabay, winner of a recent New European Bauhaus prize for… Spain’s first 3D printed building using earth. The New European Bauhaus Initiative integrates science, technology, art, culture and community participation to propose a sustainable, beautiful, and inclusive future for the European Union. Our guests discuss with hosts Ewa Iwaszuk and Aaron Best the critical role of creativity and interdisciplinary collaboration in addressing environmental and social challenges, highlighting the initiative's impact on urban and community development, policy, and investment in sustainable projects.

In this episode, we dive into the multifaceted nature of Just Transition, covering its environmental, economic, social, and political aspects. Podcast hosts Ricarda Faber and Aaron Best of Ecologic Institute are joined by guests Frank Siebern-Thomas, Head of Fair Green and Digital Transitions, Research Unit in DG for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, European Commission; and Ludovic Voet, Confederal Secretary, European Trade Union Confederation. Our guests help us explore the concept of Just Transition, unpacking the concept itself and discussing the transition needs of workers and citizens across the EU. Listen in to hear about recent success stories, discover the key challenges, and learn more about the Just Transition policies taking shape in the EU and its Member States.

The renewables race is on! Utility-scale solar photovoltaics and onshore wind are now the cheapest sources of new power in most countries. A 2022 report from the IEA projects renewables to cover 90% of global electricity growth in 5 years. At the same time, the EU aims for 42.5% renewable energy by 2040, fueled by the Renewable Energy Directive. In this episode, Ricarda Faber and Aaron Best of Ecologic Institute, interview guests Professor Johan Lilliestam of the Research Institute for Sustainability Helmholtz Centre Potsdam (RIFS) and Dr. Andrzej Ancygier of Climate Analytics. They shed light on the past, present and future of renewables in the EU, describing the major market shifts, policy events and technological developments that have made renewable energy one of the most exciting facets of achieving sustainability in Europe.

Our planet is experiencing a biodiversity crisis. And the problem across the EU is also severe, with more than 80% of habitats in the EU now in a bad or poor conservation status. To reverse this alarming trend, the European Commission has proposed the Nature Restoration Law, which aims to restore at least 20% of EU land and sea by 2030, and all ecosystems in need of restoration by 2050.

Air pollution has been a long-standing environmental problem in Europe. Though significant progress has been made, over 90% of the EU’s urban population is still exposed to air pollution levels exceeding the science-based guidelines of the World Health Organization (WHO). The fight for better air quality in the EU is not over – and it’s a battle in which citizens can take an active part.

The journey to net-zero emissions requires thousands of different policy interventions at all sorts of different times and across all sectors. Similarly, an orchestra is made up of many different instruments - all of which have to play the same tune at the right time! The conductor makes sure that all these different instruments do exactly that. Likewise, a governance framework plays that role in climate policy: it makes sure that all the policies are playing the same tune, working together to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and protect and restore nature.

How do we classify which investments are the right ones to power the transition to a climate and nature-friendly economy? This is a pretty big question, and one that is crucial to a successful implementation of the European Green Deal. The EU taxonomy – the subject of our latest episode - specifies the various criteria that investments will need to fulfill to be considered sustainable. In practice, the taxonomy is a long list of economic activities with benchmark performance standards.

Since we learned how to produce plastic, humans have manufactured more than 8.3 billion tons of it – most of which ended up as a waste product, somewhere on the planet. This leads plastic waste to enter the landscape, rivers, beaches, and eventually ocean. We asked our listeners what, in their opinion, is the issue with plastic pollution. The answers ranged from negative impacts on human health and the environment to lack of recycling infrastructure and the global dimension of the plastics problem. So how can we possibly address a problem of this size? In the latest “Green Deal – Big Deal?” podcast episode, the host Ewa Iwaszuk and a guest co-host Linda Mederake from Ecologic Institute try to get to the bottom of the problem of plastic pollution, together with their interview guests Frieder Rubik (Institute for Ecological Economic Research) and Jean-Pierre Schweitzer (European Environmental Bureau) who share interesting information and perspectives regarding plastic pollution.

In Europe and beyond, the summer of 2022 is hot. Very hot. A runway at a London airport melted in the heat and from Paris to Warsaw the grass in parks turned dry and yellow. The Rhine – the river flowing through Rotterdam, Köln and Strasbourg – is running dry. This is the same river that catastrophically flooded a year ago, destroying towns in Germany and Belgium. The impact of climate change on urban areas in Europe is unmistakable. On one of those days when the temperature hit 30 degrees, the “Green Deal – Big Deal?” podcast host Ewa Iwaszuk from Ecologic Institute in Berlin speaks with her guests about the climate change impacts in cities and especially about the EU's plans on how to adapt to and better deal with those impacts. The discussion focuses on the possibilities that nature offers to help us cope with challenges such as heat and flooding.