As a result of more stringent standards, recycling of plastic packaging is set to fall in the EU. Without better industrial capacity, the EU will not reach its 50% target in five years' time. And illegal exports are likely to increase.
Despite the Dieselgate scandal, diesel-fueled cars are still the most popular in Europe. A trend that is slowly changing, as governments and the public opinion are starting to grasp with their impact on public health.
After observing a decline in 2020, the mechanical engineering industry in the EU is predicted to grow next year, in spite of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Virgin forests in Central-Eastern Europe are the last remaining ones on the continent, yet they are being mercilessly torn down. Part of this multi-billion euro industry is a mafia-like system that stretches all the way from Romania to Ukraine. Austrian timber companies are right at the heart of it.
Most of the drugs sold worldwide come from India and China, where production is cheapest. As a result, Europe’s supply of medicines is in the hands of a few companies.
The COVID-19 outbreak has revived fears over acute drug shortages in Europe, sparking calls to repatriate the production of pharmaceutical ingredients from China. But rebuilding capacity would take years, if it were even possible.
The use of plastic has been increasingly questioned because of environmental concerns, but hundreds of million tonnes of plastic continue to be produced every year.
By 2030, as many as 20 million manufacturing jobs will be lost to robots, according to a report published by Oxford Economics, a global forecasting company. Some people have already started to fight back – in the footsteps of the 19th-century Luddites – deliberately sabotaging the robots they work with on a daily basis. They are afraid that these robots will take over their jobs.
A report by the NGO Transport and Environment promises a six-fold increase in Europe’s electric-car production by 2025. But Chinese producers continue to dominate the sector.
The Mana-Vox platform ranks companies according to their environmental impact (deforestation, threats to biodiversity, support for fossil fuels, etc.).