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🌅 BEAUTIFUL, FRAGILE DAYS

Alberto Vela

Summer is Europe at its best.

Long evenings by the Mediterranean, the Atlantic, or the Baltic. Cool mornings in the Alps, the Pyrenees or the Tatras. The hum of crickets in the background. Wildflowers in mountain meadows. Golden wheat fields swaying in the wind. Swallows tracing circles above sleepy villages. 

For a few precious weeks, Europe seems to slow down into a timeless rhythm. 

But this summer postcard is becoming harder to enjoy, with the climate crisis creeping into the season many of us cherish most. Another record-breaking heatwave. Another wildfire season. Another flash flood. Summer increasingly comes with a side of not just climate anxiety, but real danger.  

So, there’s a good chance the climate crisis will come up over dinner, at the beach, or while on a date with your summer crush. 

When it does, don’t miss the opportunity to get just a little bit nerdy. Casually mention that the pristine site you’re visiting is protected by Natura 2000. Explain why heat pumps are good for both the climate and your energy bill. Tell someone that the EU has some of the strongest laws in the world protecting our air and water. Or, if you’re feeling like getting your uncle’s nerves, make the case for taxing polluters and the super-rich their fair share to fund our transition away from fossil fuels. 

No need to lecture anyone. Just be the person who reminds others that change is not just possible; it’s already happening. 

September will be here soon enough, and with it another round of political battles. Before then, we’d like to leave you with one final New Leaf before the holidays.  

Inside this week: 

🌿  The Green Deal: battered… but still standing. 
⚡️  Latest news on EU climate action. 
🏛   A landmark legal challenge over Belgium’s PFAS inertia. 
📡  Summer stories worth your time. 
🧠  Your regular dopamine hit. 

Enjoy the summer. Rest well. We’ll see you back in the trenches in September and if you enjoy New Leaf, consider buying us a coffee. 

PS: This is my last New Leaf for a few months. I’m about to meet my newest (and probably toughest) editor: my son. Wish me luck. In the meantime, you’re in excellent hands. 

Alberto

🌴 STILL STANDING, STILL RIGHT

The scapegoat Olympics. The European Green Deal has become a convenient punching bag for political and industrial failures. If you believed some of the rhetoric coming out of Brussels this year, you’d think climate action and nature protection were behind everything from high prices to Europe’s competitiveness woes. Nice try, but such distraction tactics have a short shelf life. 

Still here.Still kicking. Despite relentless and ongoing attacks, the Green Deal is alive and kicking. The push to “simplify” EU rules (which always seems to focus on environmental and social protections) has descended into pure chaos. Governments, forward-looking companies and civil society are pushing back: yes, Europe can simplify rules without reopening legislation, weakening health and nature safeguards or creating uncertainty for those investing in the transition.

Numbers don’t lie. Can we stop pretending environmental and social protections are the problem? June’s heatwave alone killed around 14,000 people and caused €2 billion in agricultural damage. The failure to properly implement existing EU laws already costs Europe an estimated €180 billion every year (that’s €490 million per day). The real burden is the cost of delaying the green agenda. A cost we are counting not only in taxpayer euros and cents, but in human health and lives.

A word with ministers. We are in Dublin this week for the informal Environment Council organised under the Irish EU Council Presidency. Environment ministers are, de facto, the guardians of Europe’s green rulebook. They now need to stand up for the work they are doing and push back against those blaming environmental action for problems it did not create. Read more.

They know. We know. Europe’s prosperity will come from finishing the green transition. Cleaner industries, cheaper renewable electricity, circular materials, healthy ecosystems, a stable climate and homes freed from fossil fuel dependence. This is how we forge the foundations of a truly competitive, future-proof and prosperous Europe. 

Hands Off Nature. We’ll make sure the ministers hear your voice. There are nearly 600,000 of us. Sign now and spread the word. 

⚡️ CAN’T ACCELERATE WITH THE BRAKES ON

Speaking of breaking free from fossil fuels… Europe sent two very different messages about its decarbonisation journey last week. 

Au revoir fossil fuels. Launched on Friday, the EU’s new Electrification Action Plan was a welcome hit of good news, with aims to propel Europe into a new era powered by clean electricity! A legally binding electrification target and measures to scale up clean heating are important steps towards an economy powered by renewables. Read our positive reaction here. 

Unless you’re a big polluter. At the same time, the Commission’s revision of the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) risks pulling Europe in the opposite direction. By weakening the emissions cap, extending free allowances and creating more flexibility for high emitters, it risks rewarding companies that have delayed action for years (or worse), while punishing those forward-looking businesses already investing in fossil-free production. Check out our press release. 

Make it make sense. Europe cannot have its cake and eat it. The EU can either protect the polluting status quo, highly dependent on fossil fuel imports, or build the decarbonised economy of tomorrow. You cannot invest in the clean future while subsidising the dirty past.

📡 ON OUR SUMMER RADAR

🌿 Nature’s comeback stories. Nature can recover, if we give it the chance. From Austria’s Morava River, where floodplain forests are returning, to Ireland’s Lough Guitane, where peatlands and rivers are being restored, Europe is full of people bringing ecosystems back to life. From vultures returning in Bulgaria’s Eastern Rhodopes to seahorse habitats being rebuilt in Portugal, these stories show that nature restoration works, strengthening resilience to climate change while protecting the ecosystems we all depend on. 

📣 Belgium’s legal woes over PFAS pollution. Belgium is facing a human rights complaint over its handling of PFAS contamination, one of Europe’s most serious pollution hotspots. ClientEarth is taking legal action against Belgian authorities for failing to act despite years of warnings, leaving communities exposed to “forever chemicals” found across the country, including among EEB colleagues (and New Leaf authors) who volunteered their blood for PFAS testing.  

🐮 What goes on the farm doesn’t stay on the farm. Nitrates from fertilisers and animal farming may not sound exciting, but they have a habit of ending up where no one wants them: in our drinking water. That’s one reason the EU adopted the Nitrates Directive over 35 years ago. The Commission’s recent evaluation delivered a welcome verdict: it is fit for purpose and delivering results. This week, the FT published a video on fertilisers featuring the EEB’s water expert Sara Johansson. Our message? The health and financial costs are becoming impossible to ignore. Europe already has the right tool. Now it’s time to enforce it. 

🧠✨ DOPAMINE HIT

As ever, here are a few happy updates to get your weekend off to a perky start:

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By: Alberto Vela. Special thanks to the EEB’s editorial team: Roi Gomez and Christian Skrivervik. Editor: Ben Snelson.

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