Rhein on Energy and Climate

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Whatever the outcome of the Copenhagen Climate Conference, humanity will need a simple and effective tool for making fossil energy increasingly more expensive and renewable energies relatively cheaper. An excise tax on coal, oil and gas would constitute such a tool. • The tax should be specific and not ad valorem, levied at the import… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein

It appears almost certain that the US Congress will not be in a position to pass a climate act in time for the Copenhagen Climate Conference due to start in 90 days. The very cautious bill that the House passed in June goes far beyond what the Senate with its narrow Democratic majority is ready… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein

Humanity is at the very beginning of a long process which will lead one day to the electric car. This is the impression one gathers from the 2009 International Automobile Exhibition in Frankfurt. At present, no more than a few thousand electric cars are running on the roads or streets in Japan, Europe and the… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein

Munich, the third biggest German city with a population of one million people, has announced its intention to make its electricity supply “green” by 2025. This will happen in two stages. As early as 2015, all private households will be provided with electricity from water, biomass, solar and wind, and by 2025 the city also… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein

Three months ahead of the Copenhagen Climate Conference international attention risks being diverted to a side show: droughts, floods and rising sea levels, the unavoidable consequences of climate change. This is the wrong debate at the wrong moment. The UN should have killed this debate long ago instead of fomenting it. The central objective for… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein

The newly elected Japanese candidate for prime minister has demonstrated political courage by raising Japanese climate targets for 2020. In his capacity as leader of the Democratic Party, he has indicated that Japan should reduce its C02 emissions by 25 percent over 1990 rather than only 8 percent, as proposed by his predecessor in government.… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein

Against all odds, France is rapidly taking the pole position among EU member countries in the battle against climate change. It was under the French EU Presidency in the second half of 2008 that the EU succeeded in adopting its climate packing providing for a 20 percent reduction of its green house gas emissions by… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein

Finally Russia seems to discover it has to do something about its shocking waste of energy. In a brutally frank speech to the Russian State Council at Archangelsk on July 2nd, President Medvedev has called upon his citizens to radically change their energy consumption habits: • Raising energy efficiency will have to be the no… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein

Whatever conclusions will be adopted by the international community in Copenhagen it is imperative to insist on practical follow-up and effective measures to be taken by each of the 200-odd governments to obtain medium-term reduction of global C02 emissions. Too much time has been wasted on optimal targets for reducing green house gases, preparing for… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein