@carokyllmann.bsky.social
Correspondent at Clean Energy Wire - all things climate adaptation and water, sustainable construction, grids and electricity markets. Trail running when not.
What happens when the Winter Olympics can't rely on winter?
For one, all the cities that staged the Winter Games since 1950 have heated up in the years since by an average of 2.7C.
Read the full story w @hayleywarren.bsky.social via @bloomberg.com for FREE
www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...
Germanyโs emissions trading revenues rise to record โฌ21.4 billion
EU ETS income remains broadly stable at โฌ5.4 bln, while proceeds from national system for transport and heating rise to โฌ16 bln
www.cleanenergywire.org/news/germany...
What happens in German #energytransition and #climate policy in 2026?
@benjwhereman.bsky.social, @carokyllmann.bsky.social, @samelang.bsky.social and I put together an overview. Use it to plan the year ahead, and let us know what we've missed!
Remains to be seen whether the sector uses this as an opportunity for greater sustainability and innovation, even if the government does not communicate this.
I broke down why this matters in this dossier on sustainable construction: www.cleanenergywire.org/climate-and-...
Germany's buildings ministry presented key points to the "Building type E" meant to speed up construction and reduce costs
No mention went to sustainability or climate, even though previous discussions pointed out that "Experimental" could also enable building/renovating with bio-based materials
UN convention to review environmental case against France's 2030 Winter Olympics
Claimants say France failed to adequately consult public, to transparently disclose env information & raised concerns about project's carbon footprint
www.reuters.com/business/env...
To put this in context, do read @ben-cooke.bsky.social's fantastic piece on what this looks like on the ground in Germany's southwestern city of Mannheim
www.cleanenergywire.org/news/mannhei...
Key step for the future of Germany's gas distribution grids: utilities will be legally allowed to decline new connections and to cut existing ones under current draft plans
www.cleanenergywire.org/news/germany...
ACER just published its 2025 EU electricity market monitoring report, finding that flexibility is now the central challenge to reduce price volatility
www.acer.europa.eu/monitoring/M...
To understand why Europe's electricity market matters, and what challenges lie ahead, read my deep diveโฌ๏ธ
City of Berlin to get hundreds of thousands of trees over next 15 years to fend off urban heat, adapt to climate change
New law foresees over a million trees by 2040, twice as many as today
Interesting to follow where they are planted & whether trees will be adept for future climatic conditions
Referring to a reform to Germany's law to gradually phase out oil and gas boilers, env ministers says implementation will be eased, but ambition level not lowered.
03.11.2025 10:19 โ ๐ 1 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0
"Businesses and states at the forefront [of the energy transition] should not be punished through a weakening of [climate] targets," says @umweltministerium.de Carsten Schneider at #dena Energiewende-Kongress
03.11.2025 10:17 โ ๐ 2 ๐ 1 ๐ฌ 1 ๐ 0
Local utilities struggle to develop plans to decommission or repurpose their networks of gas pipelines ahead of net-zero deadline
Association survey finds that lack of rules governing phase out, conversion, financing remain major obstacles for plan making
Hamburg referendum backs more ambitious climate action, 2040 net-zero target
Result forces city government to toughen climate law, despite warnings about costs and feasibility
www.cleanenergywire.org/news/hamburg...
Important move to support Europe's shift to clean electricity www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
For more background on why it matters and the challenges ahead, read my deep dive www.cleanenergywire.org/dossiers/car...
Monitoring report here: www.bundeswirtschaftsministerium.de/Redaktion/DE...
Article on @cleanenergywire.bsky.social to follow shortly
Germany's economy minister to present highly anticipated energy transition "reality check" today, 10.30am
Follow live (in German): www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...
CLEW's Q&A on why it matters here: www.cleanenergywire.org/factsheets/q...
Full report: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
And here the list of top emitters: carbonmajors.org/Entities
Emissions from the worldโs largest fossil fuel and cement companies played a significant role in making heatwaves more likely and more intense, according to a new study
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Deep dive from me coming up, but in the meantime you can get an idea on how the two topics intersect here
www.cleanenergywire.org/news/climate...
I've been looking into the intersection of climate and sports in the background for a few months now, so it's great to come across a report analysing football venues and how advancing climate change "will reshape the places we play"
footballforfuture.org/pitchesinperil
Last year, I looked into why construction should get more attention in climate debates for @cleanenergywire.bsky.social
Now, I'll be speaking about the sector's hidden climate impact -and the cool solutions already there - at the #bfuturefestival in Bonn
Be there: www.b-future.org/en/2025/even...
Power supply will remain secure in near future provided that Germany builds additional controllable capacities, said network agency head @muellerklaus.bsky.social
04.09.2025 15:33 โ ๐ 1 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0
Experts say that the longer Europe delays on acting, the worse the consequences will be
However, they agree that all needed solutions to increase climate resilience are there, so the priority now should be on implementing them
Read the full story: www.cleanenergywire.org/news/europe-...
This is materialising in #Barcelona, for example, where climate resilience is happening on a systemic level
Projects under the jurisdiction of Barcelonaโs metropolitan area, like with the municipal archive pictured below, have to follow holistic #sustainability criteria
Average surface temperatures at midday in the summer months of June, July, and August from 2013 to 2024 for the greater Berlin area. The figure shows how surface temperatures differ in built-up and undeveloped areas. Image: DLR (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
Moreover, itโs slightly less tangible solutions that will make a big difference on how ready Europeโs cities are to react to new climate realities
This includes legislation, standards, funding and governance frameworks โ only this can truly scale and sustain urban resilience
There is much to learn from each solution, but upscaling them successfully across regions is not always possible, Blaลพ Kurnik from the @eea.europa.eu told me
Plus: climate change's consequences, for example longer droughts or intensifying storms, can make it harder to care for much-needed trees๐ก
Shading infrastructure on the banks of the Seine river in Paris help keep residents cool in summer. Photo: Valentin Chesneau / City of Paris.
#Paris, meanwhile, has set the target of planting 170,000 trees by 2026๐ณ โ but has had some trouble finding suitable spaces
The cityโs density and underground infrastructure can get in the way, so city officials are rolling out other solutions such as artificial shades
The Floating Office Rotterdam is designed to be largely self-sufficient and โfuture proofโ - rising and falling with the tide, rising sea levels and floods pose no threat. Photo: CLEW / Kyllmann.
Rotterdam is even experimenting with floating construction โ I had the pleasure of taking a dip in front of the worldโs largest floating office๐โโ๏ธ โ and with other surprising ways to involve citizens in the move to become climate-adapted
01.09.2025 14:36 โ ๐ 0 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 1 ๐ 0
One of these cities is #Rotterdam, which hosts Europe's largest port and which is largely built below sea level
Increasing climate resilience "is a matter of self-interest" said vice-mayor Chantal Zeegers
For over a decade, the city has built water squares, green spaces, dykes, and storm barriers
