Dear Reader, Welcome to Sustainable EU Economy. This book is more than a textbook—it is an invitation to explore how the European Union shapes business, society, and sustainability in today’s interconnected world. My hope is that it will inspire you to think critically, engage actively, and see how Europe’s …

The decarbonisation of the aviation industry requires strict regulation to align with the EU Green Deal, which aims to make the EU the world’s first climate-neutral region by 2050. EU regulations continuously evolve and impact the key performance indicators (KPIs) used to measure progress towards this …

Background Positive Energy Districts, which incorporate energy planning at the district level, are a pioneering concept for sustainable, smart and climate-neutral urban development. This concept supports creating communities that generate more annual energy than they consume. To this end, integrative …

The transition to a sustainable and climate-neutral society requires professionals with integrated technical, economic, legal, ethical and societal competencies. The University of Applied Sciences Utrecht (HU) introduces the full-time bachelor’s program Energy and Sustainable Development (“Energie en …

Er is het een en ander af te dingen op het gewicht van de autonome en stedennetwerken, gezien de reikwijdte en slagkracht van stedelijke netwerken en lokale overheden op het wereldtoneel nog beperkt zijn. In het navolgende zijn aan de hand van het voorbeeld van de "Europese Urban Agenda for the EU" drie …

Cities are very significant for the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations as they are responsible for more than 70% of global energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Within this context, the European Union has a mission for climate-neutral and smart cities, including decarbonization …

Afgelopen maand verbruikte de familie Visser thuis 50% minder gas en elektriciteit dan normaal. Fijn voor de energierekening. Bovendien een fraaie bijdrage aan de Nederlandse klimaatdoelen, aldus Martien Visser. “Maar voordat u met gelukwensen komt: we waren twee weken in Duitsland en Zwitserland. Goed …

Positive Energy Districts (PEDs) are potential high-impact climate change mitigation actions towards low carbon or even climate neutral cities. This implies that the energy performance and greenhouse gas emissions of PEDs need to be assessed. To this end, an accounting methodology, metrics, supporting …

The transition towards sustainable, healthy diets in Europe is necessary to make Europe the first climate-neutral continent by 2050 and achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. It is well established that meat production and consumption are unsustainable from environmental and health …

Over the past few years the tone of the debate around climate change has shifted from sceptical to soberingly urgent as the global community has prioritised the research into solutions which will mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. So far this research has been insufficient. One of the major problems …