Belgium has the worst forever chemicals record in Europe: Are they breaching citizens' human rights?

Copyright AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel, File

By Alice Carnevali

Published on 07/07/2026 - EURONEWS

Environmental NGO ClientEarth argue Belgian authorities have not acted despite knowing about high levels for years.

Lawyers have filed a complaint against Belgium over its failure to protect its citizens’ from the significant health risks of forever chemicals.

ClientEarth has filed a human rights complaint with the European Committee of Social Rights (ECSR). Belgium has the highest levels of forever chemicals (PFAS) of any European country.

“Not only is there contamination for a long time, but we noticed that authorities have had information about this contamination for years, if not decades, and that very little has been done,” says Hélène Duguy, environmental lawyer at ClientEarth.

The NGO ClientEarth has a strong track record of filing legal procedures against governments and companies on environmental issues. This is the first time they’ve addressed the ECSR, a Council of Europe’s monitoring body that judges whether member states are respecting the European Social Charter. “We chose it because we know that this committee has a very big enforcement power,” Duguy tells Euronews Earth.

Life in Zwijndrecht: A European PFAS hotspot trying to tackle PFAS | Euronews Tech Talks

A half-baked roadmap’: What’s missing from the EU and UK’s so-called crackdown on forever chemicals

Belgium: The major European PFAS hotspot

PFAS, also known as forever chemicals, are a group of more than 10,000 man-made chemicals widely used by the industry for their water, stain, and grease-resistant properties. They’re also found in pizza boxes, non-stick pans, menstrual pads and outdoor clothing.

They have been linked to multiple health risks such as certain types of cancer, metabolic diseases and fertility issues.

Belgium has the highest levels of PFAS pollution in Europe, according to The Forever Pollution Project, which collected data and mapped PFAS pollution across the continent.

Major Belgian sites affected by PFAS pollution include Zwijndrecht, a town near Antwerp heavily impacted due to its proximity to the multinational 3M plant, and Chièvres, near the French border, where contamination has been linked to a nearby air base. The map also shows that Brussels is significantly impacted by PFAS pollution, particularly in the areas around Anderlecht and Uccle.

ClientEarth’s complaint is based on examples like Zwijndrecht, where public agencies knew about the PFAS issue years before the scandal erupted in 2021.

Members of the Flemish government, including Bart De Wever, the then-mayor of Antwerp and now Belgium’s Prime Minister, were informed of the contamination as early as 2017 but took no action.

As far back as the early 2000s, 3M and Flemish agencies had discussed the PFAS pollution in the area near the plant, but underestimated the extent of the problem.

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• ‘Forever chemicals’ exposure before birth raises the risk of high blood pressure in teenage years

What are the health risks of forever chemicals?

PFAS are associated with several health conditions. In 2023, the World Health Organization classified perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) as carcinogenic to humans and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) as possibly carcinogenic to humans.

These two PFAS are banned in the EU, but because they can take hundreds of years to decompose they are still present in soil, water, and the blood of people in many contaminated areas across Europe.

Cancer is not the only health hazard associated with PFAS. “These compounds are associated with various metabolic diseases like diabetes, decreased fertility, obesity,” Philippe Grandjean, professor of environmental medicine at the National Institute of Public Health in Copenhagen, told Euronews Earth.

Grandjean highlighted that PFAS not only pose a risk to adults currently exposed to them, but also to future generations.

“PFAS will affect the health of the father's semen, that is the semen’s quality, and PFAS will increase the risk of infertility or involuntary abortion,” he explained. “PFAS will pass the placenta, and therefore the mother will share her PFAS burden with her foetus, and third thing is that PFAS are excreted in human milk,” he added.

All these health risks, according to Grandjean, should therefore act as important drivers for governments to invest in prevention.

Related

• Exposure to 'forever chemicals' linked to gut health and kidney damage in young adults, study finds
• 'Forever chemicals' exposure in early pregnancy could lead to obesity, heart problems in later life

How forever chemicals became a human rights issue

It is not the first time that PFAS pollution has been linked to human rights violations. In 2024, United Nations experts called PFAS pollution generated by DuPont and Chemours in North Carolina a human rights issue.

Legal actions on PFAS pollution are ongoing across Europe, with environmental NGOs and residents suing France over its failure to tackle PFAS pollution in May 2026. A decision is expected in 2027.

“We really want to have a complaint that supports and is complementary to those [European] actions,” Duguy explains.

“PFAS is not only an environmental issue, it’s also very much a human issue and governments and public authorities have a duty to protect those rights,” she continued.

In a press release, ClientEarth noted that the ECSR is expected to decide on the admissibility of the complaint in 2027 and a final decision is estimated in two to three years.

With this complaint, ClientEarth hopes to spark concrete changes in Belgium’s PFAS regulation.

Specifically they want Belgium to ban all forever chemicals and provide solutions to affected communities. “Those measures are, for example, making sure there is systemic biomonitoring of people, specifically vulnerable populations like children or pregnant women. But it's also starting to remediate and decontaminate, which is something that's still very slow in Belgium,” Duguy told Euronews Earth.

Cleaning up PFAS pollution, however, is incredibly complicated. According to a study published on Monday (6 July) in the Environmental Science: Processes and Impacts journal, even if Europe invested €100 billion a year in remediation, it would remove a tiny fraction of forever chemicals from the environment.

 

North Macedonia’s rare pink ruby gets protected status in push for global recognition

The distinctive pink-coloured corundum known as the Macedonian ruby is found in the wider Prilep region. / IntelliNews

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By Valentina Dimitrievska in Skopje July 9, 2026

The story of the Macedonian ruby begins in a small jewellery store in the heart of Skopje, where one gemstone enthusiast spent years trying to convince the public and institutions that the country possessed a unique geological treasure.

Dean Skartov-Deko, a jewellery maker and gemstone expert who says he founded the Macedonian ruby business, has spent decades promoting the rare pink-coloured corundum found in the country.

After several years in Italy studying gemstone cutting, he opened his jewellery store in Skopje in the early 2000s. His laboratory for cutting Macedonian rubies started operating in 2004, followed by the public promotion of the gemstone in 2006.

The atmosphere in the shop reflects the personal connection many people have developed with the stone. The woman working there spoke with enthusiasm about gemstones and the Macedonian ruby, describing it not only as a unique natural stone but also as a symbol of love and forgiveness.

Asked whether foreign visitors were familiar with the stone, she said many were, noting that customers often leave messages in the shop’s guest book and, years later, return to read what they wrote during previous visits.

"In 2011-2012, we began to ask the state to legally treat this business," Skartov-Deko told IntelliNews, describing the protection of the gemstone as a prestigious activity and an important step for the future of the industry.

Today, he estimates that around 10 jewellery stores in North Macedonia sell Macedonian rubies or are involved in their processing.

For Skartov-Deko, the gemstone’s value lies not only in its rarity but also in its origin. "It is the only ruby originating in Europe," he says, noting that other rubies are mainly sourced from Africa, Asia and South America.

The decision by the state to protect the Macedonian ruby as a geographical indication marks a new chapter for the gemstone, opening the way for closer cooperation between institutions and businesses. A collection of Macedonian rubies is now planned to be exhibited at the Ministry of Energy, Mining and Mineral Resources.

Skartov-Deko believes that official recognition could help expand the sector, create opportunities for more jewellery workshops and eventually lead to Macedonian ruby stores opening in cities across the country.

From hidden treasure to protected brand

Now, North Macedonia is taking the first formal step towards turning one of its rarest geological treasures into a recognised national brand, with the protection of the Macedonian ruby as a geographical indication expected to pave the way for controlled promotion, stronger market recognition and future economic opportunities.

While the country has long been known among geologists and collectors for the distinctive pink-coloured corundum found in the wider Prilep region, officials say the priority is no longer simply promoting the gemstone but ensuring that every stone marketed as a Macedonian ruby can be traced back to its geological origin.

According to the Ministry of Energy, Mining and Mineral Resources, protecting the geographical indication is "the first and necessary step" for the proper valuation, presentation and promotion of the gemstone on both domestic and international markets.

Rather than launching an immediate global marketing campaign, the ministry plans to build the product's reputation gradually, beginning at home.

"The domestic market should be the first and main promotional space, because it is here that the product's recognition, trust in its origin and understanding of its value should be built," the ministry said in an e-mailed statement to IntelliNews.

Institutional promotion, cooperation with artisans and jewellers, tourism initiatives, museum and educational exhibitions, as well as the use of the Macedonian ruby in official promotional activities are among the measures envisaged to establish the gemstone as a recognisable national product.

Only after a credible domestic identity has been established does the ministry envisage expanding promotion abroad.

International marketing will be developed gradually through professional gemological, mineralogical, jewellery, tourism and diplomatic channels, with European and other markets showing interest in natural minerals, unique semi-precious stones, handcrafted jewellery and products with protected geographical origin identified as the initial targets.

A gemstone unlike traditional mining products

Unlike precious stones extracted through dedicated mining operations, the Macedonian ruby has a rather unusual origin.

"The Macedonian ruby is not a classic industrial exploitation of an independent mineral raw material, but a corundum material that occurs as an associated mineral occurrence in the dolomite and calcite-dolomite marbles of the wider Prilep region," the ministry explained.

As a result, the material is typically discovered during regular marble quarrying activities rather than through dedicated ruby mining.

This distinction also explains why there are currently no official statistics on companies or individuals involved in its extraction and sale.

Instead of industrial production, the process involves collecting, separating, recording, classifying and processing naturally occurring corundum material. Marble companies may encounter the stones during routine operations, while suitable samples can later be processed by artisans and specialised stone processors.

Until now, there has been no comprehensive system for recording, classifying or tracing the material through the supply chain.

Under the new geographical indication framework, however, only authorised users whose material can be verified and traced to its origin will be entitled to market products under the name "Macedonian ruby". 

Small volumes, bigger ambitions

The ministry acknowledges that production remains extremely limited. "There is no officially established, organized and statistically monitored annual production of Macedonian ruby, in the sense of classical industrial production," it said.

Based on consultations with craftsmen, processors and others familiar with the material, the current annual volume of collected or purchased corundum is estimated at around 100-200 kg.

The ministry believes that, once a formal reporting and traceability system is introduced, "the future annual recorded volume could reach approximately 250-300 kg of corundum material". However, officials stress that these figures should not be interpreted as future production capacity but rather as an indication of improved reporting.

"It is particularly important to emphasise that not every collected, purchased or processed sample can automatically be treated as a 'Macedonian Ruby' product in terms of the geographical indication," the ministry said. "For this, it is necessary to determine the origin, to have traceability, to document the processing stages and to carry out expert control."

Building value through authenticity

For now, the ministry is cautious about forecasting the commercial impact of the initiative. Rather than promising immediate gains in exports or investment, officials describe the geographical indication as laying the foundation for future market development.

The expected benefits include greater consumer confidence, protection against misuse of the name, stronger development of artisanal jewellery production, increased tourism appeal and wider recognition of North Macedonia's geological heritage.

"The protection of the geographical indication creates prerequisites for positive economic effects," the ministry said, adding that its precise impact on exports, investments, employment and local economic development will require separate economic and market analyses.

For a gemstone produced in only modest quantities, the strategy is less about increasing volume than about increasing value. By linking every certified stone to its unique geological origin in the Prilep region, North Macedonia hopes the Macedonian ruby will earn recognition not only as a mineral curiosity but as an authentic national product whose rarity becomes its greatest commercial strength.

Could Geoengineering Work To Tamp Down Super El Niños?

El Niño on June 8, 2026 as represented by sea surface height. Image: NASA


July 9, 2026 
By Eurasia Review


With an anticipated “super” El Niño looming, a new study led by UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography considers whether society could use a weather-altering technique as a tool to mitigate the floods, extreme heat and other events that El Niño would bring.

An attempted real-world field test could lead to disastrous unintended consequences but the “Black Summer” bushfires that scorched Australia in 2019 and 2020 served as a “natural experiment.” The smoke that wafted into the atmosphere was filled with reflective, cloud interacting aerosols akin to those used in a geoengineering method called marine cloud brightening.

Previous research by one of the study co-authors found that the smoke-brightened clouds throughout the southeastern Pacific Ocean appeared to play a key role in creating global La Niña-like weather patterns. The effect was compelling enough that the team led by Scripps Oceanography researchers Kate Ricke and Jessica Wan used a seasonal forecasting model to investigate what would have happened if a similar event had occurred before a “super El Niño” instead. The results suggest that this might be an instance where geoengineering is worthy of serious consideration, the authors said.

“As long-term anthropogenic warming and short-term natural variability often compound to produce extreme weather events, our findings suggest it may be worth considering interventions which target natural variability, rather than the forced response to greenhouse gases,” said the authors in the study released July 8 in the journal Science Advances. “Such an approach could result in similar physical risk reduction with shorter duration interventions that carry less sociotechnical risk than a sustained deployment.”


The study appears in the journal Science Advances.

Geoengineering — the altering of climate by making clouds brighter, the oceans more greenhouse gas-absorbent or other means — has been proffered as a solution to slow the pace of global warming for decades but is always accompanied by controversy. Scientists and environmental agencies cite the potential for such methods to make things worse in ways not easily predicted. Entrepreneurs seeking to build a new industry have pushed for real-world testing and have quietly done so in a few regions of the world.

Ricke, a climate scientist with appointments at Scripps Oceanography and UC San Diego’s School of Global Policy and Strategy, is usually firmly in the camp of scientists who urge caution, saying much more research needs to be done to make an adequate risk/reward analysis. This case is not ordinary, she said. Applied to El Niños like the one forming now, geoengineering could be used temporarily as a tool to help society mitigate specific events nearly guaranteed to produce significant damage. Economic analyses have shown that recent large El Niños cost society trillions of dollars in damage, the authors note.

Strategic marine cloud brightening could be added to an arsenal that already includes flood control and other measures.


The rapid-response nature of such an intervention contrasts with geoengineering schemes that address human-caused global warming but entail a need for international cooperation to manage them over years or decades, Ricke and Wan said.

“One of the biggest social concerns around geoengineering is the fact that if we use it to reduce long-term climate risks, we have to deploy it continuously for an indefinite period of time,” said Wan, now a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Chicago who performed the research while she was a graduate student in Ricke’s lab. “If we could target natural variability, we could get some of the benefits of geoengineering without having to employ it indefinitely.”

Ricke and Wan say this analysis wouldn’t have been possible without a 2023 study led by John Fasullo of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado. (Fasullo is also a co-author of this paper.) Fasullo’s team charted the effects of the bushfire smoke that mixed with clouds over the southeastern Pacific Ocean. Another research team had earlier found that the fires emitted a record-breaking amount of aerosols, an effect on par to that from volcanic eruptions.

The reflective particles in that smoke brightened the clouds, increasing the amount of solar radiation bouncing back to space and altering the atmosphere’s circulation, lessening how much El Niño-fueling heat made it to the lower atmosphere. The team also found that it enhanced the La Niña that formed in 2020.

“It was the key breakthrough to this becoming a viable research question,” said Ricke. “Without that validation opportunity, I don’t think our findings would be so credible.”

The team modeled what would happen if — instead of “natural” cloud brightening from smoke during La Niña — deliberate marine cloud brightening were deployed in the Southeast Pacific during major El Niños that originated in 2015 and 1997. The simulation suggested that the targeted marine cloud brightening would indeed attenuate its effects, becoming more effective the earlier in the El Niño event they were introduced. If deployed over the central Pacific Ocean, marine cloud brightening could increase the cooling and drying effects associated with La Niña by more than 40%.


The researchers said they are not aware of any proposals to test this on the El Niño brewing now, but as research progresses, actual geoengineering schemes could be considered by government-level decision makers in the future.

“It’s a different way of thinking about geoengineering,” said Ricke. “We need to understand a lot more, but if there is a way to use this in addition to the risk reduction tools to mitigate El Niños, why wouldn’t we consider it?”

Besides Wan, Ricke and Fasullo, study co-authors are Nan Rosenbloom and Chih-Chieh Chen of NCAR.

The National Science Foundation, NASA, the U.S. Department of Energy and NOAA supported the research.

 

Uzbekistan expands anti-desertification drive with 1.27mn-hectare reforestation plan

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By Mokhi Sultanova in Tashkent July 8, 2026

President Shavkat Mirziyoyev has approved proposals to strengthen Uzbekistan's efforts to combat desertification between 2026 and 2030 and launch the Green Samarkand initiative aimed at transforming the city into a climate-resilient urban centre.

The proposals, reviewed by the president, come as Uzbekistan faces mounting environmental pressures linked to climate change, water scarcity and land degradation. 

Around 80% of the country's territory consists of desert or semi-desert landscapes, with soil salinisation, shifting sands and dust storms posing growing risks to agriculture, public health and economic development.

The government noted that the strategy for 2026–30 will focus on restoring ecosystems while creating new economic opportunities through what it described as a "desert economy" model.

Under the plan, forests will be established or restored across 1.27mn hectares, while protective forest belts will be planted on 16,000 hectares of desert, mountainous and foothill areas. 

Authorities also intend to create 10,000 hectares of new green cover in Surkhandarya region and establish an 84km "green wall" along border areas of Syrdarya region.

The initiative builds on existing reforestation programmes, including efforts to stabilise the dried seabed of the Aral Sea. More than 2mn hectares of forest plantations have already been established on the former seabed, while the nationwide Yashil Makon (Green Nation) programme has planted more than 1bn trees and shrubs since its launch, increasing Uzbekistan's green coverage from 8% in 2020 to 14.3% in 2025.

Mirziyoyev noted that desert regions should be viewed not only as an environmental challenge but also as a source of economic growth. 

The proposed desert economy strategy includes developing nurseries for desert plants, expanding cultivation of salt-tolerant crops, increasing pasture productivity and supporting livestock farming, ecotourism and scientific research.

Plans also include establishing desert plant nurseries in Karakalpakstan, creating pistachio plantations in the Babatag area, expanding halophyte gardens and developing a regional bank of drought-resistant plants and seeds. Authorities aim to attract international financing and private investment to support the projects.

The proposals also call for stronger regional cooperation among Central Asian countries, including expanding the activities of the Central Asian Regional Research Centre for Combating Desertification and Developing the Desert Economy, increasing projects under the regional Green Shield programme and preparing a regional strategy on desertification through 2040.

Separately, the government presented the Green Samarkand initiative, which aims to transform the historic city into a climate-resilient urban centre by 2030.

The programme sets environmental targets including preventing the release of 51,200 tonnes of air pollutants, halving concentrations of PM2.5 and PM10 particulate matter, reducing construction-related dust by 80%, cutting vehicle emissions by 50% and increasing green space to an average of 30% across populated areas.

A dedicated Yashil Samarkand Project Office will be established to coordinate implementation across urban planning, transport, construction, tourism, industry and municipal services.

The strategy also introduces stricter environmental standards for new construction, requiring energy- and water-efficient technologies, waste sorting and recycling systems and compliance with green building standards.

Transport reforms include the purchase of 50 electric buses, installation of 150 new traffic lights and a commitment to transition public transport and taxi services to electric vehicles by 2030. 

Authorities also plan to introduce a Park & Ride system, expand pedestrian-friendly tourist areas and gradually reduce private vehicle access to the city centre.

Infrastructure projects include the construction of at least four artificial lakes and reservoirs in Samarkand, development and restoration of 319km of irrigation canals and creation of a 102.7km green belt covering 3,532 hectares around the city's New Grand Ring Road.

The government also plans to develop a 300-hectare Green City Samarkand district featuring residential, commercial, tourism and public facilities built to international sustainability standards.

Industrial facilities will be required to adopt best available technologies, digital environmental monitoring and "Zero Visible Emission" systems, while eight high-risk industrial enterprises are expected to be relocated outside the city.

Additional measures include introducing a zero-waste management system, developing carbon reduction targets for 2030 and 2035, launching climate finance and environmental monitoring platforms and promoting biodiversity through new tourism and conservation initiatives.

Officials said the programme is intended to position Samarkand as Central Asia's capital of green investment and innovation.

Exclusive: Brussels puts trade ban with Israeli settlements on the table

Copyright Ohad Zwigenberg/Copyright 2026 The AP. All rights reserved.

By Mared Gwyn Jones & Maïa de la Baume & Luca Bertuzzi

Published on 09/07/2026 - EURONEWS

The EU executive has laid out several options to further restrict EU imports of goods produced in Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, after a majority of EU foreign ministers called for clarifying what restrictive trade measures could be taken during a meeting in June.

Brussels has proposed fully or partially banning imports of goods produced in illegal Israeli settlements, alongside additional options to further restrict EU trade with settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, according to diplomatic sources.

The proposals come after a majority of member states urged the EU executive to propose tighter trading restrictions in response to the continued expansion of settlements in the occupied West Bank.

An "options paper" circulated by the European Commission to EU member states on Wednesday, and seen by Euronews, outlines three measures to further tighten restrictions on imports of goods produced in Israeli settlements, which are already excluded from preferential EU tariff treatment.

They include a full or partial ban on the import of settlement-made products but also stricter export licenses, as well as prohibitive tariffs. EU ambassadors are expected to provide their initial feedback in a closed-door meeting in Brussels on Friday before EU foreign ministers gather for further discussions on Monday.

However, the paper only outlines options, not actual proposals, and no formal decision is expected on this matter next week. The next formal Foreign Affairs Council is only expected in October, which for some member states will further delay the measures.

"The Commission is quite clearly buying time, but there is also no consensus within the Council," an EU diplomat told Euronews under the condition of anonymity, adding that, while they did not see the initiative as ideal, maybe it set the ball in motion.

Israeli settlements in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights are considered illegal under international law.

The first option would require companies importing goods from Israeli settlements to apply for an export license, which was among the solutions pitched by the French and Swedish governments in a joint letter to the European Commission in April.

Yet the Commission’s options paper warns that such a system remains vulnerable to circumvention.

Recent investigations have found that exporters in Israeli settlements continue to sell their goods in European markets free of tariffs despite existing restrictions, using methods such as mislabeling and mixing of settlement goods with products made inside Israel.

Secondly, the Commission has proposed introducing higher tariffs to make the import of goods from settlements prohibitively expensive, but acknowledges that this option is also vulnerable to circumvention methods.

The third option is a full or partial ban on imports from illegal settlements, which would require customs officers in national authorities to identify goods from Israeli settlements at the EU borders.

The paper leaves open the issue of the legal basis, whether it should be commercial policy, on which a qualified majority suffices, or the common foreign and security policy, which requires unanimity.

The Council legal services, the influential legal advisory branch of the institution, told EU countries in an oral opinion that using the commercial policy legal basis should be possible, depending on the details of the proposal.

By contrast, the Commission reiterated in its paper that it considers the foreign policy legal basis is required, which would make any proposals extremely difficult to pass.

Euronews understands that at least 20 member states called on the Commission to outline the options available to further restrict settlement trade when foreign ministers gathered for talks in Luxembourg in June.

Political momentum behind the move has increased since France and Sweden urged the Commission to put forward a proposal in April, citing the 2024 International Court of Justice (ICJ) advisory opinion on the illegality of the Israeli settlements.

Several UN resolutions spanning from the late 1970s to today also state that settlement activity in the Palestinian territories is illegal.

By contrast, the Israeli government rejects the designation of those settlements as illegal, classifying them as "temporary sites."

Speaking to Euronews in May, France’s deputy minister for foreign trade, Nicolas Forissier, said that calling for tighter restrictions was “"not an aggressive position”. “In terms of [international] law and human rights, it's normal that we say that,” he added.

Israel has recently introduced measures aimed at strengthening its control over the West Bank and East Jerusalem in areas including property law, planning and licensing. Those moves appear to contravene key agreements that were signed under the Oslo peace agreement in 1993.

 

More ‘deadly’ heat is on the way: Can Europe’s waterways cool us down and replace air con?

Copyright Sourced via the European Commission.

By Liam Gilliver

Published on 08/07/2026 EURONEWS

“District cooling offers clear benefits for cities aiming to safeguard public health and cut emissions.”

Europe’s next heatwave is already building over the Atlantic, as the World Health Organization (WHO) warns that more “deadly weeks may still lie ahead”.

Spain’s weather agency AMET has declared a top level red heat alert in three eastern regions, warning that temperatures could reach a sweltering 42C this week. The Aragon, Catalonia and Valencia regions are predicted to be among the worst hit as the mercury rises.

Portugal and France are also bracing for temperatures to exceed 40C – with forecasts predicting more ‘tropical nights’. This is where the temperature never drops below 20C in a 24-hour period, leading many to sleep badly.

The looming heatwave comes as wildfires ravage huge parts of Europe, forcing thousands of people to evacuate their homes and prompting officials to ban spectators from a stage of the Tour de France race.

Europe’s warming climate – which is conclusively caused by the persistent burning of fossil fuels – has resulted in calls for the continent to embrace air conditioning. Even the UK, which is known for its dreary weather, has been told by the independent Climate Change Committee that 22 per cent of the country’s buildings will need active cooling in a future with 2°C warming.

But an innovative solution is gaining ground: Europe’s waterways could help cool down cities and replace the need for individual air conditioning as part of the EU’s innovative ‘Cities Refresh’ campaign.

Can Europe cool itself down sustainably?

While air conditioning has been proven to save lives during periods of extreme heat, the EU says it is not a “long-term solution”.

This is because air con systems are energy-intensive, often straining Europe’s already stretched grid and increasing the risks of blackouts, and drive-up greenhouse gas emissions.

Air con also contributes to the urban heat island effect – which is where hot air that gets dumped outside gets trapped in a city’s infrastructure, such as concrete and asphalt, where it is later released and drives up temperatures.

A solution to this is district cooling: where a central facility produces chilled water which is then distributed to local networks through an underground system.

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• Heatwave: WHO says Europe's readiness for extreme heat falls short

“District cooling offers clear benefits for cities aiming to safeguard public health and cut emissions,” the European Commission states.

“It provides efficient cooling for all building types, uses less energy than individual air conditioning, and can be powered by local, low-carbon sources such as seat or river water, geothermal energy or waste heat.”

Under the Energy Efficiency Directive (EED), cities with more than 45,000 inhabitants are now required to develop local heating and cooling plans. As a result, many urban regions are opting for district cooling infrastructure which increased by more than three per cent in 2023.

Marseille’s ‘sea-side detox’

Marseille is making the most of the Mediterranean by leveraging seawater to provide thermal energy for both cooling and heating.

There are already two networks (called Massileo and Thassalia) combining 4.4 km of pipes that connect seawater energy to heat pumps in urban districts, which then provide buildings with heat, cool air, and hot water.

These networks have resulted in an 80 per cent decrease in CO2 emissions in energy production compared to fossil fuels.

Following the boom in energy-intensive AI data centres, Marseille is now exploring how the waste produced from these sites could be recovered to heat residential homes and buildings in the colder months.

Cooling Paris with the Seine

The Fraîcheur de Paris network is one of Europe’s largest district cooling systems, and uses 120km of underground pipes to transport cold water from the Seine to provide low-carbon cooling for approximately 850 buildings, including the Louvre.

Instead of individual air conditioning units, buildings that benefit from the network use a heat exchanger. The building’s internal cooling system transfers its heat to the network’s cold water, which is then sent back to a specialised plant to be rechilled.

According to the bloc, it delivers over 100 per cent energy efficiency, reduces electricity consumption by 35 per cent, cuts refrigerant emissions by 90 per cent, lowers chemical use by 80 per cent, and decreases CO₂ emissions by 50 per cent.

Barcelona tackles the urban heat island effect

Spain already has one of the world’s biggest networks of climate shelters to help protect people from extreme heat. This is where public buildings like libraries and museums offer free water and collective cooling during heatwaves – reducing the need for individual air con and keeping vulnerable communities out of deadly temperatures.

Underground, Barcelona is also home to one of Southern Europe’s largest thermal energy distribution systems.

The network consists of four parallel pipes, two for hot water (supply at 90ºC and return at 60ºC) and two for cold water (supply at 5.5ºC and return at 14ºC), which transport energy from three production plants (one of which is cooled using seawater) to substations or energy exchange points in the customers' buildings.

This means it can be used to heat or cool buildings. So far, the network is connected to 192 buildings and has reduced fossil energy consumption by 96 per cent, according to Districlima, the network’s owner.

Vienna’s ‘efficient energy loop’

Over in Austria, a new district cooling centre at the MedUni campus uses chillers powered by electricity and district heating to produce cold water for cooling.

This system captures excess indoor heat using a heat pump, which is then repurposed for winter heating, creating what the bloc describes as a “seasonally efficient energy loop”.

Compared to conventional air conditioning systems, the district cooling centre at the MedUni Campus Mariannengasse in Vienna saves 1,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions annually.

"From here, we will connect the district cooling network around Vienna's city centre with the AKH and the Spittelau district cooling centre,” says Michael Strebl, CEO of Wien Energie, the firm behind the network.

“Summers are getting hotter and the demand for climate-friendly cooling is growing. That is why we have been continuously expanding district cooling since 2007. We will invest a total of €90 million here by 2030."

EU remains main export market for Moldova’s pro-Russian separatist Transnistria

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By bne IntelliNews July 9, 2026

The European Union remained the main export destination for companies in Moldova's separatist Transnistria region in the first half of 2026, accounting for nearly 77% of the region's exports, according to Moldova's Reintegration Bureau cited by Newsmaker.md.

Between January and June, 76.9% of Transnistria's exports were shipped to EU member states, virtually unchanged from the same period a year earlier, the bureau said.

The EU also supplied 41.5% of the region's imports during the period, underlining the bloc's importance as both an export market and a source of goods for businesses operating in the breakaway territory.

Romania, Italy and Slovakia were the largest export destinations for companies from Transnistria, while Ukraine, the European Union and China were the region's main sources of imports.

The Reintegration Bureau said the figures demonstrate the region's continued economic integration with the European market despite its unresolved political status.

"These data confirm the Transnistrian region's strong commitment to the EU trade space, which directly contributes to the country's economic reintegration. This approach brings both banks of the Dniester closer together economically, as access to the European market requires companies in the region to comply with uniform rules, procedures, documents and standards in force throughout Moldova," the bureau said.

The trade data come as the Moldovan government moves to further align the separatist region with the country's fiscal framework. The Ministry of Finance has proposed requiring businesses in Transnistria to pay VAT and excise duties on selected imported goods from August 1, 2026, with the draft legislation currently under public consultation.

The measure is part of a broader reform aimed at gradually eliminating Transnistria's preferential tax regime and integrating the region into Moldova's national tax and customs system by 2030.