Stefano Valentino

ROME – Over 300,000 people have subscribed to an Eni bond advertised as "green," including by major Italian media outlets. They may have contributed, without knowing it, to global warming.

CHACO – A cross-border investigation conducted by Voxeurop and Periodistas por el Planeta reveals that livestock farms in Italy and Spain, two major meat exporters across Europe, as well as iconic food brands are indirectly linked to deforestation in the Chaco province in Argentina.

KARACHI - Top clothing brands in the EU are hesitant to fully eliminate child and bonded labour from their supply chain from Pakistan, one of the biggest producers of cotton and one of the largest textile exporters to the EU.

BRUSSELS – A team of investigative journalists led by Voxeurop carried out a cross-border investigation into how the European automotive industry lobby managed to weaken the Euro 7 regulation on new motor vehicle emissions standards.

MILAN - Asset management companies in Europe are using semantic tricks and regulatory loopholes to sell 'green' investments that actually fund the hydrocarbon industry. Italy's Eurizon, a subsidiary of Intesa SanPaolo, is a case in point. 

BRUSSELS - Twenty years ago, the first SARS outbreak sounded the alarm. But Europe failed to prepare for the Covid-19 pandemic due to a lack of funding for drug research, and may still be unprepared for the next one, argue several prominent scientists interviewed by Stefano Valentino and Gian Paolo Accardo.

SUMATRA - An EU directive is set to ban the import of palm oil for use as biodiesel. In the meantime, diesel will continue to be made from oil from plantations that have replaced virgin forest. A good example is provided by ENI and TotalEnergies in Indonesia.

FREETOWN - Fish exported from Sierra Leone to Italy is exposed to allegedly illegal trawling that the Italian government seems unwilling to scrutinize.

BRUSSELS - Excess diesel emissions produce a tiny portion of harmful dusts. Yet, they cause dozens of deaths in Europe’s highly populated road traffic hotspots. The fact that they have such a high health impact despite their relatively small contribution to overall pollution reveals how seriously air contamination threatens our lives.

Steel producers and other industrial sectors must comply with new EU emission rules by 2016. But the giants of the steel industry have watered down their obligations after a successful lobbying campaign within the EU decision-making process.

PRISTINA - Up until nine years after the Kosovo War, from 1999 to 2008, Kosovo was ran by UNMIK (United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo).