Rhein on Energy and Climate

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After one year of intensive consultations with auto makers, unions, consumer and environmental groups and energy experts the US government has finalised its 2025 fuel efficiency standards for passenger cars and light trucks. By 2025 the average fuel consumption will be half of today’s values, 4.3 litre/100 km compared to more than 8 litre today.… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein

Satellites tracking the extent of sea ice in the Arctic have discovered that it will most probably reach a record low in 2012 since the the start of the surveillance programme 40 years ago. Scientists now think that before the end of the decade the Arctic Sea might be ice free in the summer months.… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein

23 years after the bloody destitution of President Ceaucesco from power and five years after joining the EU, Romania`s credentials as a fully democratic country respecting the rule of law continue to fall short of EU constitutional standards as laid down in the Lisbon Treaty. This has become visible in the most recent power fight… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein

In less than six months the 200-odd parties of the UNFCCC will meet once again to discuss on how to cope with the earth’s most pressing challenge: halting climate change. This time, they will get together in Qatar, a country that has the highest per capita C02 emissions and an absence of effective policies to… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein

With China and and the USA starting their phase-out of incandescent light bulbs in October 2012, the world will soon be without the venerable lighting system that has been with us since the19th century when Humphrey Davy invented the arc lighting (1806) and Thomas Edison made it safer and commercially viable (1879). Much more energy-efficient… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein

In the next 12 years the EU will be confronted with profound changes and look very different from today. It will comprise close to 35 member States, with seven additions from the Western Balkans. This will further complicated EU governance. Differentiation among member States will further increase, the most important being the division between EMU… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein