Climate Solutions

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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Do digital devices reduce energy and emissions? Our climate podcast digitalisation episode finds that the answer’s not as clear as you might think

Video-conferencing should be good for the environment. Instead of business teams commuting to a single office in vehicles that emit greenhouse gases, they can meet virtually on screen. But if they don’t have to come to an office, the team might end up living far apart, even in different countries. So their occasional meetings could generate a still greater amount of carbon emissions.

That’s the kind of dilemma we’re looking at in our climate podcast digitalisation episode. Is the production and use of digital devices good for the environment—because we don’t need to cut down a tree to make the paper for you to read the news, for example. Or are there just so many of these devices that they end up consuming more resources than ever.

You’ll find out on Climate Solutions.

Subscribe to the entire series of Climate Solutions from the European Investment Bank, the EU climate bank. Learn what you should do to fight climate change in the oceans, on the road, on your dinner plate and even in the windowbox of your apartment.

In the climate podcast digital episode, you’ll find out:

·        some studies say that the carbon dioxide emitted by digital technologies has increased by around 450 million tonnes since 2013 in OECD countries

·        but others indicate that emissions have flattened out in recent years, because ICT equipment is more energy efficient

·        the connection between Abraham Lincoln’s second inauguration, Lewis Carrol’s publication of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and the theory formulated by a British economist named William Stanley Jevons that explains why more efficient digital devices might lead to an apparently paradoxical increase in emissions

·        why the circular economy could be key to ensuring that the production and use of digital devices doesn’t increase greenhouse gas emissions in the long run

If you’ve got something to say about climate in general or this podcast in particular, let me know @EIBMatt on Twitter. And don’t forget to subscribe to Climate Solutions.

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When we cool or heat our buildings, we waste a lot of energy—and release emissions that damage the climate. Our climate podcast energy efficiency episode shows how you can turn that around

When I was a kid, my dad used to go around the house switching off lights and shouting that we were wasting electricity—in those days that meant we were throwing away money. My eight-year-old daughter goes around the house switching off lights, shouting that we’re wasting electricity—which today means we’re harming the climate.

Energy efficiency is a crucial part of the fight against climate change. In our climate podcast energy efficiency episode, we’ll show you how to reduce the energy you use to cool or heat your home—and the impact that can have on climate change.

Subscribe to the entire series of Climate Solutions from the European Investment Bank, the EU climate bank. Learn what you should do to fight climate change in the oceans, on the road, on your dinner plate and even on your digital devices.

In the climate podcast energy efficiency episode, you’ll find out:

·       The electricity and fuel used to heat, cool and light buildings account for nearly 40% of energy consumption in Europe. It’s responsible for around 35% of greenhouse gas emissions. Buildings are the single biggest consumers of energy, so making them more efficient can have a big impact on the race to meet climate goals

·       75% of buildings and housing could be made more energy efficient. But less than 1% of housing is renovated each year for energy efficiency

·       The European Union wants to cut overall emissions by 40% by 2030 and it wants to increase energy efficiency by more than 30%.

·       One energy efficiency programme operated by the European Investment Bank, ELENA, has worked on 95 projects so far. These projects will eventually lead to over €6 billion in investment in energy and transport efficiency. That will save more than 3,600 GWh of energy and 1.4 million tonnes of carbon emissions each year

If you’ve got something to say about climate in general or this podcast in particular, let me know @EIBMatt on Twitter. And don’t forget to subscribe to Climate Solutions.

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Cleaner urban transport can be a big part of halting climate change—and saving our lungs. Our climate podcast urban transport episode lays out a roadmap to climate-friendly mobility

We know that cleaner, electric urban transport will be a big improvement for our cities. But it’s not always clear how we get there. Our climate podcast urban transport episode lays out the benefits of cleaner mobility for the climate—and our health.

Subscribe to the entire series of Climate Solutions from the European Investment Bank, the EU climate bank. Learn what you should do to fight climate change in the oceans, on the road, in your home and even on your digital devices.

In the climate podcast urban transport episode, you’ll find out:

·       An electric vehicle isn’t only cleaner than an internal combustion vehicle, it’s also more efficient. Electric vehicles consume one-third of the energy of traditional cars.

·       The number of electric cars is growing exponentially. In 2018, the number of electric vehicles on the road surged to 5.1 million, up 2 million from 2017. Most of those electric vehicles, 45%, were in China, with the European Union making up 24% and the United States 22%. Of course electric vehicles still represent only a small fraction of the more than 1 billion cars on the road.

·       Europe has also made progress addressing the other part of the electric puzzle: the charging infrastructure. The number of charging stations in the European Union surged from a mere 3 800 in 2011 to more than 150 000 expected by the end of 2019. The rollout is being fuelled by projects like Enel X Mobility, which plans to install 14 000 charging stations in Italy by 2022. The European Investment Bank is supporting that project with a €115 million loan.

·       Electric vehicles still face many challenges. For one, the cost of batteries has to come down for electric cars to be as affordable as conventional cars. Progress on this is encouraging. Electric car prices have fallen 85% from 2010 to 2018.

·       In Europe, emissions from electricity production have fallen steadily, from over 500 grams of carbon per kilowatt hour in 1990 to less than 300 grams of carbon per kilowatt hour in 2016. That decline means that electric cars are responsible for less emissions per kilometre driven than conventional cars, throughout the European Union.

If you’ve got something to say about climate in general or this podcast in particular, let me know @EIBMatt on Twitter. And don’t forget to subscribe to

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Why is it so important to know how green a bond is? Our climate podcast green finance episode explains this is crucial to the fight against climate change

Any kid with a paint set knows there are lots of different shades of green. So if I try to sell you a “green bond” to help fight climate change, can you know how green it really is?

Our climate podcast green finance episode will tell you how big institutions have figured out a set of rules to make sure that you—or the pension fund or bank that buys them for you—will be able to tell just how green your green bond is.

That’s more important than it might sound. Because fighting climate change is a lot of things—it’s urgent, it’s crucial to the survival of humanity, and it’s really, really expensive.

If we’re going to hit our climate targets, we need to invest trillions of euros in renewable energy and energy efficiency, in adaptation projects that protect us from the impact climate change is already having—and we need to develop new technologies that none of us have even thought of yet.

All this costs a lot of money, and we won’t raise that money unless we can demonstrate to investors that it’s being spent on climate projects with a real impact. That’s what you’ll find out about on our climate podcast green finance episode.

Subscribe to the entire series of Climate Solutions from the European Investment Bank, the EU climate bank. Learn what you should do to fight climate change in the oceans, on the road, in your home and even on your digital devices.

In the climate podcast green finance episode, you’ll find out:

·       What are green bonds? Green bonds are bonds whose proceeds are allocated to renewable energy and energy efficiency projects.

·       Before we get to green bonds, we’ll also explain what bonds are. A bond is a financial instrument that’s sold by a company or an institution or even a country. The investor buys the bonds, because the issuer—the seller of the bond—agrees to pay back the investor’s money plus interest at a set time in the future. Green bonds do all this, but with a cool twist.

·       What is a sustainability awareness bond? Sustainability Awareness Bonds are financial bonds whose proceeds go to projects that contribute to sustainability objectives, beyond climate change mitigation (because mitigation is for green bonds). Sustainability awareness bonds deal with other issues related to the environment.

If you’ve got something to say about climate in general or this podcast in particular, let me know @EIBMatt on Twitter. And don’t forget to subscribe to Climate Solutions.

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