In brief | 26 March ‘26
Le Monde: Night train service resumes between Paris and Berlin
The Belgian-Dutch cooperative European Sleeper is reviving the symbolic rail link between the French and German capitals that was discontinued by SNCF in December 2025.
Reuters: Germany's Merz says public finances cannot offset all price rises from Iran war
Merz said he was sceptical about calls for a tax on "excess earnings" of oil companies from his coalition partners in the centre-left Social Democrats, saying the term was practically impossible to define legally.
Reuters: Iran conflict threatens to stall Germany's economic growth, IMK says
If the conflict in the Middle East drags on or escalates, gross domestic product would grow by just 0.2 percent, the Macroeconomic Policy Institute (IMK) said in a risk scenario.
FT: Brussels plans carbon price brake as Iran war squeezes industry
An “emergency brake” that would apply if carbon prices soar would reduce how much companies are charged for their emissions.
Reuters: Used EV sales jump in Europe as Iran war drives up petrol prices
Petrol price spikes triggered by the war in Iran are boosting used electric vehicle sales across Europe, online car platforms told Reuters, in an early sign that pain at the pump is pushing consumers away from combustion engines.
Bloomberg: Future heat danger differs starkly for rich and poor countries
Lower-income nations will face 10 times as many heat-related deaths as high-income ones, researchers estimate.
Bloomberg: High levels of cancer-causing benzene in European cooking gas, study finds
Domestic gas supply in several European cities contains high levels of benzene, an odorless substance that can cause cancer, according to researchers at Stanford University and independent research institute PSE Healthy Energy.
Climate Action Tracker: India already on track to meet new 2035 target by - or before - 2030
CAT calculations show that India’s 2035 climate target to increase non-fossil capacity to 60 percent will allow the country’s emissions to continue rising and remain far from the levels it could achieve in practice.