For the first time since November 2013, the European Union (EU) has approved for import 12 genetically modified organisms (GMOs), 10 crops and 2 flowers. The corn, soybean, cotton, and rapeseed varieties are produced by Monsanto, BASF, and Bayer CropScience, and will be used primarily as livestock feed. Sixty-eight GMO crops are now approved for import into the EU, but a recent proposal would allow individual countries to restrict imports despite the approval of the bloc.

The European Commission has issued rules banning the sale of stovetops, ovens, and cooking hoods that do not meet new energy efficiency requirements. The new rules are expected to save customers who replace inefficient appliances about $57 per year. Industry groups were consulted throughout the rulemaking process and welcomed the changes, but critics have attacked the broader policy, known as ecodesign.

European politicians are expected this week to back by a narrow majority early action to bolster prices on the EU carbon market. Thursday's vote, one of several legislative stages, will be closely watched by traders. The European Commission, the EU executive, last year proposed putting hundreds of millions of Emissions Trading System allowances in a Market Stability Reserve (MSR) starting from 2021.

The European Union's Juncker Commission named job creation, debt reduction, and increasing industrial competitiveness as top priorities while threatening to abandon support for major environmental legislation in a recently leaked draft workplan. There has already been opposition to scaling back air quality legislation that would establish national emission limits for six toxic air pollutants, but lack of executive support means plans for a massive waste reduction program are more uncertain.

On Friday, October 24, European Union leaders agreed upon a binding target to reduce emissions by at least 40% below 1990 levels by 2030, scaling up its previous commitment to reduce emissions to 20% of 1990 levels by 2020. EU Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard said in an interview that the move was intended to challenge other big economies ahead of climate talks in Lima in December, and ultimately Paris in 2015.

Bloomberg News reported that European Union (EU) carbon permits had their biggest weekly drop in almost two months amid concern weak economies will discourage efforts to reduce a glut of the contracts in the world’s biggest greenhouse-gas market. Allowances for December fell as much as 3.7% last Friday to 5.48 euros ($6.85) a metric ton, the lowest since July 7, on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London. Permits traded at 5.66 euros at 4:47 p.m., taking the weekly drop to 4.6%, the largest since August 8.

In light of the Fukushima disaster in 2011, the EU has promulgated a new law that would strengthen nuclear safety measures. Prompted by the devastating aftermath of the earthquake in Japan, the EU conducted a series of stress tests on nuclear power stations and found that nearly all European power plants need safety improvements. The new rules, announced last Wednesday, specify that power plants be designed so that reactor damage would not have any consequences outside the plant.

Last Wednesday, the EU struck a compromise on genetically modified (GM) crops that will make it easier for them to win approval from some member states while allowing other countries to ban them. The deal was widely supported by EU member states; the UK farming and environment minister was hopeful that the compromise would “unblock the dysfunctional EU process for approving GM crops,” while France, which recently upheld a domestic ban on GM maize, was reassured that their opposition to such crops would be respected.

New EU rules published April 9 will replace green energy subsidies with market-based schemes. The rules will address “market distortions” that may result from renewable energy subsidies such as feed-in tariffs, which have spurred investment in renewables, with competitive bidding processes. Some critics see the rules as favoring business at the expense of consumers. Certain energy-intensive industries, such as chemicals, metals, and paper, would be exempt from charges levied for the funding of renewable energy.

EU leaders plan to set an October deadline for agreeing to the bloc’s 2030 climate goals. The 28-member bloc has already nearly met its 2020 target of a 20% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions from 1990 levels, and in January the European Commission outlined a proposal to reduce emissions by 40% of 1990 levels by 2030.