Author: Tasos Mallotis

Germany will rule out direct financial support for low-carbon hydrogen production from natural gas and waste, limiting subsidies for these technologies to the demand side, an updated draft of its revised national hydrogen strategy suggests. “Direct financial support for hydrogen production is limited to production of green hydrogen,” the government said in the draft seen by Argus. On the demand side, the government wants to support the “use of low-carbon blue, turquoise and orange hydrogen to a limited degree”, with strict requirements for emissions reductions in mind, it said. Blue hydrogen refers to production using natural gas with carbon capture…

In some European countries, we will need to stop thinking that we have an automatic right to cheap, plentiful water which we can use to clean our streets, wash our cars, or fill our swimming pools whenever we wish, Mark Smith writes. Last Thursday, the Spanish government held an extraordinary meeting about the economic impact of the drought currently ravaging the country. Spain has experienced drought more severely and for longer than other European counties, but the whole of Europe is set for a worse summer drought than that of 2022, already its worst for 70 years. On the face…

Flights to Europe will be plentiful this summer. Cheap airfare? Not as much. Airlines scheduled a near-record 51,000 flights from June through August from the U.S. to Europe, according to airline data firm Cirium. The number of scheduled seats is the highest since 2018. Despite that increase in capacity across the Atlantic, fares are up sharply as airlines test travelers’ appetites for trips abroad. According to Hopper, U.S.-to-Europe roundtrip flights are going for an average of $1,032, up 35% from last year and 24% from 2019. Average domestic U.S. airfare, by contrast, is down 15% from a year ago to…

NEW YORK – Concerns of Greece’s departure from or expulsion from the Eurozone during the severe economic and austerity crisis, which necessitated a bailout of 326 billion euros ($353.71 billion), have given way to a surge in investor interest. Following the 4 ½-year rule of the previous anti-business Radical Left SYRIZA government, which deterred foreign enterprises, the New Democracy administration led by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has successfully attracted them back. As the COVID-19 pandemic recedes, Mitsotakis has expedited the country’s recovery, with numerous Information Technology (IT) and high-tech giants establishing operations in Greece to tap into the skilled workforce…

A key committee of lawmakers in the European Parliament have approved a first-of-its-kind artificial intelligence regulation — making it closer to becoming law. The approval marks a landmark development in the race among authorities to get a handle on AI, which is evolving with breakneck speed. The law, known as the European AI Act, is the first law for AI systems in the West. China has already developed draft rules designed to manage how companies develop generative AI products like ChatGPT. The law takes a risk-based approach to regulating AI, where the obligations for a system are proportionate to the level of…

Uzbekistan  overwhelmingly approved constitutional changes that will allow President Shavkat Mirziyoyev to remain in power until 2040 in a tightly-controlled referendum slammed by international observers as flawed. According to preliminary results released Monday, the changes were approved by 90.21 percent of votes with a 84.54 percent turnout on Sunday. But election observers from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) said the vote lacked the participation of meaningful opposition and was not truly representative. Mirziyoyev, 65, became president in 2016 after the death of dictator Islam Karimov. His proposed reforms, when confirmed, could extend presidential terms from five to seven…

Spain set a record in April for natural gas exports by pipeline to France. Through its two interconnections, Irun in the Basque Country and Larrau in Navarre, a flow of 6.52 TWh was recorded last month, Enagás announced yesterday in a press release. This record, which exceeds the flow recorded in May last year of 5.9 TWh, highlights the “crucial role” played by the Spanish gas system in the security of European energy supply. The technical manager of the Spanish gas system explained that the strike in France has caused “a decrease in local gas production, which has led to greater…

BERLIN — Germany expelled Russian diplomats mid-April in order “to reduce the presence of intelligence services” in the country, the government said Monday, in justifying a decision that triggered retaliatory expulsions by the Kremlin. The Foreign Ministry said in a statement that “the activity of these people was not in line with their diplomatic status,” adding it had been in contact with Russia in recent weeks about the matter. Berlin had previously not provided a justification for the departure of the diplomats, a move that triggered the expulsion of some 20 German embassy staff in Moscow. Germany’s Foreign Ministry confirmed the…

Bulgaria’s Supreme Administrative Court (SAC) has ruled that the outcome of the tender to award frequencies for 5G broadband mobile services was illegal due to procedural breaches by the country’s telecoms regulator. The high court upheld an earlier ruling by the Sofia District Administrative Court and its decision is final. The courts ruled that the Communications Regulation Commission (CRC) breached the law in failing to hold public consultations before the tender, did not publish a justification for its decision how to award the frequencies and did not publish its decision in the State Gazette. CRC awarded 5G frequencies to the…

BAKU, Azerbaijan, Oct. 22 Electricity production in Tajikistan increased by a record 3.8 percent in 2022, Trend reports citing a review by the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB). According to the bank, electricity generation by EDB member countries increased by 0.6 percent in 2022. The growth in electricity generation in Armenia amounted to 16.1 percent, in Belarus (from January to November 2022) – up to 2 percent, in Russia – up to 0.6 percent. At the same time, electricity generation in Kazakhstan decreased by 1.4 percent, in Kyrgyzstan – by 8.4 percent in 2022. Countries have to compensate for the shortage of electricity through imports…