Rhein on Energy and Climate

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Humanity will run out of fossil fuels before the end of this century latest. It will therefore need to develop sustainable substitutes, especially for air and road transport, as well as for shipping. Biofuels will be one of them, renewable electricity to power electrical vehicles another one. Both will be complementary. Biofuels produced from corn,… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein

The Lisbon Treaty has opened the way for a more active EU involvement in health issues. It offers the Union more leeway in the fight against health epidemics, including tobacco, alcohol abuse and obesity. The principal responsibility for health remains, of course, with individual member States, most which would not appreciate the EU intervening in… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein

The EU is facing its worst ever economic and financial crisis. Unemployment has reached intolerable levels. One in ten EU active citizens and one in four Spaniards are out of work. To overcome the crisis Europe needs to step up productive investments, rapidly and without bureaucratic strings. Most governments are not willing or able to… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein

During the last 60 years sub-Sahara Africa has seen an unprecedented population increase growth. In 1950, its total population amounted to some 200 million. Today, it is close to one billion, more than one third of whom illiterate! For the middle of the century, the UN Population Bureau projects more than 2 billion people, four… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein

Climate change and the 2008 financial crisis in the US are cataclysmic developments that were foreseeable long before they fully erupted in the open. But while the consequences of the US financial crisis are reversible this will not be the case for climate change. Beyond a critical point it will become impossible to restore the… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein

On June 20-21st the international community will remember the 20th anniversary of the last UN Conference on Development and Sustainability in Rio de Janeiro. There is little reason to celebrate this anniversary. Though we have witnessed stunning economic progress in East Asia, the Gulf and several Latin American countries, the inequalities of living conditions on… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein