In brief | 7 January '26

Euractiv: The heat is on: Why Europe’s homes matter for geopolitical power

Unaffordable housing and energy erode trust — and increase Europe’s vulnerability to coercion. Staying the course on efficiency and renewables creates stability, jobs, and much needed strategic room for manoeuvre, argues Social Democrat-affiliated Friedrich Ebert-Stiftung.

 RTÉ: Climate extremes disproportionately hit poor communities

Extreme weather events driven by human-induced climate change continued to disproportionately hit poorer communities in 2025, a group of international scientists found.

Bloomberg: How investors view the climate tech landscape in 2026

This year will be a formative one for climate tech investors, after a surprising — and at times, unsettled — 2025.

Bloomberg: Automakers face an ‘EV winter’ in 2026 as sales growth slows

Risks to China’s momentum, US reversals and European wavering spell trouble for electric vehicles in the year ahead.

The Conversation: Battle over energy transition is on between petro-states and electro-states

The energy transition was not meant to be a main topic when world leaders and negotiators met at the 2025 United Nations climate summit, COP30, in November in Belém, Brazil. But it took centre stage from the start to the very end, bringing attention to the real-world geopolitical energy debate underway and the stakes at hand.

Reuters: German emissions fell only modestly in 2025 due to buildings and transport

Germany's greenhouse gas emissions fell only marginally in 2025, as weak progress in cutting pollution from buildings and transport weighed on the overall climate balance, energy think tank Agora Energiewende said.