The European Commission proposed a European Climate Resilience Law on 27 October. It asks every risk assessment in the EU to plan against one reference path: 1.5C of warming by 2030, 2C by 2050 and 3C by 2100.
Member states would assess their climate risks by June 2029 and adopt resilience plans by December 2030. Each major risk in a key sector gets a named "risk owner", so that responsibility for a flooded rail line or an overheated hospital sits with someone specific.
The Commission puts Europe's adaptation bill at about EUR 70 billion a year. The text sets duties to plan, not binding adaptation measures, and environment ministers first debate it on 11 December. (European Commission)
Energy Transition
Finland licenses the first final repository for spent nuclear fuel
The Finnish government has granted Posiva an operating licence for Onkalo, a disposal facility more than 400 metres down in the bedrock at Olkiluoto. It will hold up to 6,500 tonnes of uranium in 3,300 capsules and stay open for about a century.
Construction began in 2004, and the investment comes to about EUR 1 billion. Disposal starts once the safety regulator STUK has signed off Posiva's final tests, Other countries with reactors now have a working model to copy, and Posiva already sells its know-how to 19 of them. (Balkan Green Energy News)
Britain gets its own HVDC cable factory
Sumitomo Electric opened a GBP 350 million plant at the Port of Nigg near Inverness on 19 October. It makes 525 kV HVDC export cables and inter-array cables, the parts that carry offshore wind power to shore.
Until now, British offshore projects bought these cables abroad. The plant brings over 200 direct jobs, and the Scottish government put in GBP 24.5 million. (offshoreWIND.biz)
Masdar buys a 550 MW solar plant in Thessaly
Masdar is buying the Enipeas solar plant in central Greece from Lightsource bp, along with the two substations that connect it to the grid. The plant is close to completion and should run by year end, and Masdar plans to add batteries.
Masdar already owns Terna Energy, whose floating wind pilot we covered last week. It also signed a memorandum with Khazna Data Centers to study up to 600 MW of data centres in Greece, powered by dedicated renewables. (Balkan Green Energy News)
Climate Tech
Sonnen files for insolvency two months after Shell sold it
Sonnen, the Allgäu maker of home batteries, confirmed an insolvency filing on 22 October. Shell bought it in 2019 for close to EUR 500 million and sold it this summer to Tiven, the family office of an Aurelius co-founder.
Revenue fell from EUR 443 million in 2023 to EUR 198.9 million in 2024, under rising competition from BYD, Huawei and Sungrow. Service for more than 150,000 customers is meant to continue, with one production site kept and the US unit moved into a new company. (ZfK)
Hg buys a majority of Belgian software firm 3E
Hg has taken a majority stake in 3E, a 1999 spin-off of the research centre imec, from India's ReNew. Galvanize Climate Solutions joins as a minority investor.
3E's SynaptiQ platform monitors solar, wind and battery assets for their owners, and the firm does yield assessments and due diligence for lenders. Investors are now paying for the software that keeps existing parks earning. (ESG Today)
hansetherm raises EUR 10 million to install heat pumps in 30 days
Hamburg-based hansetherm, founded in 2023, disclosed a EUR 10 million seed round from G-FUND, property companies such as the Optima Aegidius Group, and its founders. It promises homeowners a working heat pump anywhere in Germany within 30 days.
Its pitch is speed of installation rather than new hardware. The money goes into staff, software and more installation teams. (Startbase)
Policy & Regulation
Parliament gives importers three years on methane, and industry more free allowances
On 22 October, Parliament voted 341 to 225 to give oil, gas and coal importers until 31 May 2031 to show their supply contracts meet EU methane rules. The Commission had proposed one year, and the EPP's three-year line passed with the right and far right while Renew split.
The same day, MEPs voted 474 to 82 for nearly 100 million free ETS allowances for exposed industry over 2026 to 2030. EU ambassadors take up the Council's methane mandate today, and that will decide how much of the delay survives. (Eunews, Il Sole 24 Ore)
Germany's renewables bill rises to EUR 17.5 billion
Germany's four transmission operators expect the federal budget to need EUR 17.5 billion for renewable support in 2027, up from EUR 16.2 billion forecast for 2026. Rooftop and ground-mounted solar take about 65% of payments.
Cheaper wholesale power widens the gap between guaranteed rates and market value, and most money goes to older plants with high tariffs. The renewables lobby BEE argues that more storage would lift solar's market value and cut the bill. (pv magazine)
Science
Greenland loses ice for the 30th year running
Polar Portal scientists at the Danish Meteorological Institute estimate Greenland lost about 135 billion tonnes of ice in 2025-26. The last year with a net gain was 1996.
Snowfall this year left a surface gain of 519 billion tonnes, the sixth highest in 46 years, and the ice sheet still shrank as glaciers discharged ice into the sea. Thirty years is the span climatologists use to separate a trend from natural variation. (Carbon Brief)
One to Watch
Energy ministers meet in Luxembourg on 29 October
Ministers hold their first policy debate on the network charges regulation the Commission proposed on 17 July, which sets how grid costs are split between users. They also discuss winter energy security with Ukraine and Moldova, and post-2030 energy targets.
Watch whether ministers back cost-reflective charges that reward flexibility. Home batteries and flexible household tariffs depend on that design. (Council of the EU)