Search Results for: Spain

Biomass is under threat as the leading source of renewable energy in the European Union (EU) under controversial proposals to cap use of primary woody biomass and end subsidies by the end of 2026. Bioenergy Europe figures (1) show that 69.6% of biomass energy feedstock used in Europe comes from woody biomass, which are forestry and wood industry residues with the remaining feedstock sourced 18.3% from agricultural biomass and 12.1% biowaste.…

Caribbean island states are looking to harness their natural advantage in bounteous sunlight to expand solar power, boosting their energy independence, while reducing the cost of energy as gas and oil prices rise. Even in oil and gas-rich Trinidad & Tobago, consumers have been feeling the energy pinch, facing increases in their electricity bills in 2023.…

Researchers at the University of Sherbrooke, in Québec, supported by CMC Microsystems, are helping build sensors to detect ‘dark matter’ – the unknown substance that scientists think makes up about 27% of the universe. That, combined with the equally undetectable dark energy (68% of the universe says physics research centre CERN), can be inferred by its gravitational pull on stars and planets.…

Ford Europe’s February 14 announcement that it will axe 3,800 jobs in Europe over the next three years is designed to ensure the US major’s European arm survives as a more focused electric vehicle (EV) brand, but some experts wonder Ford can prevent this key wing downsizing further in future.…

Factory digitisation, including the emergence of Internet of Things (IoT) technology, has increased big data availability by “at least two orders of magnitude from what was available a couple of decades ago,” said UK-based AI-driven predictive maintenance software provider Senseye chief technology officer and co-founder Robert Russell.…

The European Union (EU) is edging towards a digital Euro, one of several jurisdictions worldwide developing a central bank digital currency (CBDC), but what anti-money laundering controls would need to be built into the system and how can this be balanced with data protection and privacy considerations?…

The European Commission has added the British overseas territory (BOT) of Gibraltar to European Union (EU) list of high-risk countries with strategic deficiencies in their anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) regimes. This latest update to the EU AML blacklist (1) means that banks and other AML obliged entities will have to apply enhanced due diligence when dealing with transactions with Gibraltar, which was ceded to the UK in 1713, having been seized during the War of the Spanish Succession.…

The European Parliament is grappling with the fallout of the Qatargate’ cash-for-influence corruption scandal. Greek socialist MEP Eva Kaili has been replaced as the parliament’s vice-president by a Luxembourg socialist, after Kaili was arrested by Brussels police. Officers allege they found EUR1.5 million cash at her home and that of former MEP Pier Antonio Panzeri, another socialist, from Italy.…

The European Union’s (EU) new ‘Women on Boards’ directive (1) is designed to force change in the EU’s director cohort by requiring that the ‘under-represented sex’ (which could be male on rare female-dominated boards) make up 40% of non-executive directors or 33% of all major company directors.…

European textile companies are working to ensure that future water scarcity problems will not affect their operations, notably by cutting water consumption and installing high quality waste treatment facilities, European Union (EU) experts have told World Textile Information Network (WTiN).                               

According to EU statistical agency Eurostat’s regional yearbook 2022 (1), EU water scarcity – chiefly seen in southern Europe, with Portugal’s textile industry particularly affected – is primarily driven by climate change and excessive water consumption.…