The long road to accessibility
According to the European Commission, 1 out of 5 European citizens has a disability which prevents them from fully taking part in society.
Climate crisis makes beaches disappear
Europe is set to lose up to 15,000 km of shoreline due to erosion. The UK, France, Greece, Spain and Italy will be especially affected. And European holidaymakers will find less sand on beaches during their trips to warm destinations around the world.
It is difficult to reach school in Italy’s least connected provinces
In certain areas of Italy the distance to the nearest railway station makes this form of transport impractical. Below, we take a look at how well or poorly – and how many – schools in these areas are connected to households' places of residence.
Timber mafia and deforestation in Romania
Virgin forests in Central-Eastern Europe are the last remaining ones on the continent, yet they are being mercilessly torn down. Part of this multi-billion euro industry is a mafia-like system that stretches all the way from Romania to Ukraine. Austrian timber companies are right at the heart of it.
Climate change is happening now in Europe
Key climate hazards are already affecting Europe and will increasingly do so, a series of maps published by the European Environment Agency reveals. Impacts, calculated through different scenarios and models, can only be reduced by keeping the global temperature increase well below 2°Cs.
‘Flight shame’? Europeans have never flown as frequently
Many people claim they are flying less to protect the environment, but figures from 2018 say otherwise. The aviation industry is doing better than ever and its emissions have more than doubled since 1990.
What is the end state in Mali and why is no-one asking?
On January French President announced a new Coalition for the Sahel, to tackle with the security and development challenges in the region. But public debate in some countries about why so many organisations and countries are engaging in the region and what they hope to achieve has been lacking.
The energy transition yet to come
The European Union wants to abandon coal by 2050, but this will require significant help from European banks, which still finance 26 per cent of all coal power plants in the world.
Is there any red in the European Green Deal?
As the European Commission's president Ursula von der Leyen focuses on the combination of environmental and economic measures, one may wonder to what an extent will social issues enter the picture – and whether the European Pillar of Social Rights is still a priority.
Getting tough on gender-violence
According to a 2014 pan-European survey on gender violence, 50 per cent of women across the EU experienced sexual harassment at least once, since the age of 15. The Grassroots View sheds light on the state of the art of the fight against it.
