Barcelona gives away "olipots" to promote kitchen oil recycling

From a post by Petz Scholtus in TreeHugger

France: local (cantonal) elections are coming (March 20 and 27)

This is the electoral poster for Henri Stoll, Green Mayor of Kaysersberg (3000 people) in Alsace. Here is the story about this poster: because of the use of the colors blue, white and red it had to be modified and a new version printed. It is prohibited to use blue, white and red on an electoral poster. In the new version the red letters turned orange and voilà (Source: Rue89).
Here the Europe-Ecologie-Les Verts website: there are 1,400 candidates and 400 blogs. There are presently 24 Green conseillers généraux, as are called the representatives at the cantonal level. How many will be elected on March 27?
Here the site for the campaign, with a map of the blogs and constant update. Everything in French, bien entendu.

Spain: demonstrations against decisions to lower the price support for photovoltaic electricity.

Similar decisions by several governments in Europe to lower the price support for photovoltaic electricity are met with protest and resistance. Here in Barcelona. Here in France. Last week in Italy.
Background information for Spain, here. What is an adequate price support system? Germany also decided to cut support prices by 15% in February.

Estonian Elections: easy to follow with this exclusive live blog in English

Thanks to Estonian Free Press. Will the Greens be present in the new Parliament? In the last poll they were getting 4% of the national vote when the threshold is at 5%.

Estonia: Carbon Dioxide credits sold to Japanese corporations in exchange of green projects

The Estonian government deal involves a contract for 507 new i-MiEV electric cars with Mitsubishi (including 250 charging stations), An agreement with the banking corporation Sumitomo Mistui to improve the energy efficiency of 37 buildings is also part of this "Green Investment Scheme". In 2010 credits had been sold to Spain for the development of wind energy projects and new buses.
Initial Source: Estonian Free Press

Eco-Fashion: should Europe emulate the US?

TreeHugger announces the creation of a Sustainable Apparel Coalition. Should Europe do the same or do we already have some comparable organization? Apparently there are plenty already according to this list on the EcoFashionWorld site. According to Ecouterre, Eco-Fashion is more than a passing trend. What do you think? The image is from Mark Starmann's blog.

Italy: "Killer" Decree by Paolo Romani threatens global solar industry

This excellent post by Carlo Ombello in his blog OpportunityEnergy sums it up perfectly.
It looks like the fast growth of the solar industry is threatening powerful interests. The same scenario is taking place in France.

France: No to shale oil exploration and drilling

Protests are growing up in France against attempts to develop shale oil exploration and drilling. Demonstrations are drawing large crowds that can be seen on YouTube and e-petitions have started collecting significant number of names, like this one started by French MEP José Bové or this one initiated by two MPs (one from the rightist UMP party, the other a socialist) with already 80 signatures of French MPs and Senators. What future, if any, for shale oil in France and in other European countries?

Spain's nuclear spin (as explained by Greenpeace)

A visit to the sites of Greenpeace Spain (in Spanish) and Greenpeace International (in English) invites us to look at how long should the nuclear plants be allowed to operate? In Spain the Government had promised it would not be more than 40 years but this promise appears hard to implement. What about in the other European countries?
Greenpeace Spain claims more than 100,000 members.

Estonia: All our best wishes to the Green candidates

It is election time in Estonia. Valdur Lathvee,  a candidate and one of the the Estonian Greens spokespersons explains the picture: "We have chosen this jar with pickles as main image for our campaign. On this one the text means: "It's time! to save the economy from hangover - Contains Organic Pickles - Best after March 6th - Estonian Greens".
It is a current practice in Estonia to eat pickles after having a shot of vodka and/or to fight a hangover.
It's time (for change) is our major slogan during those elections. As for now the polls give us 4% of the vote. There is a 5% election threshold, but we are still optimistic."

How big is Eco-Fashion?

Beyond the recycled dress Livia Firth was wearing at the Oscar ceremony, we googled Eco-Fashion and found there is a whole industry and plenty of valid sustainable and fair thinking to consider.

Sweden: One Tonne Life. The project begins. The family arrives in the house

In TreeHugger: This week in the suburbs of Stockholm, an unprecedented low carbon lifestyle experiment has begun. 
The Lindell family have moved into a solar powered prefab house that is specially designed to minimise energy consumption. The family's aim is to see if they can radically reduce their average carbon footprint of 7 tonnes per year, down to 1 tonne. (Image courtesy one Tonne Life)

Sweden: The One Tonne Life project. Interview of the architect

You can read the interview of the architect in TreeHugger.

Sweden: One Tonne Life project. Is it possible to live carbon neutral today?

Is it possible to live carbon neutral today?
Every Swede contributes to the greenhouse effect with six to eight tonnes of CO₂ per year.
With energy-smart housing, electric cars and clean energy, we could go on living almost as usual.
Couldn't we? What does it really take for a family to live carbon neutral?
That's what the One Tonne Life project is about.

Why this blog?

This blog is born from a job application for the position of communication officer with the European Green Party. As I was looking at their site I started to brainstorm about the type of "green news" that could be collected and shared. I wondered how much information there was and how it could be presented in the context of the European Green Party. This blog is an experiment that is -for now- only fueled with my own choices. Ideally the content would be provided by special correspondents, concerned citizens/advocates from all the European countries.

Why this blog?

This blog is born from a job application for the position of communication officer with the European Green Party. As I was looking at their site I started to brainstorm about the type of "green news" that could be collected and shared. I wondered how much information there was and how it could be presented in the context of the European Green Party. This blog is an experiment that is -for now- only fueled with my own choices. Ideally the content would be provided by special correspondents, concerned citizens/advocates from all the European countries.