Rhein on Energy and Climate

Archives for

The news from the climate front is extremely worrying. After 10 days of debate on formalities and secondary issues the Bonn preparatory meeting has ended without offering much hope for a substantive outcome in Copenhagen at the end of year. The gulf between what humanity needs to do to prevent a dramatic deterioration of the… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein

President Obama has done what many citizens across the world following the preparations for the Copenhagen Climate Conference had hoped for: take the lead. He has invited the heads of government of the 16 main emitter countries of green house gases and the UN Secretary General to a meeting at the White House, April 27-28th,… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein

In 2007, the US Supreme Court had issued a ruling requiring the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) to determine whether C02 emissions endangered public health or welfare. Following pressure from the automobile and fossil power industries and instructions from the White House, the EPA failed to comply with the rule of this Supreme Court. Now the… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein

The EU is in the process of finalising a free trade agreement with Korea. Like all free trade agreements, it would exacerbate climate change, as more products would be shipped across the planet without paying for the external costs of shipping. Proponents of the agreement might – rightly- object that the issue of free trade… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein

The generation of electricity has traditionally been in the hands of municipalities, in Europe, or small private companies, in the USA. This business model belongs to the past. In the future power generation – and separately transmission – will be concentrated in the hands of big transnational companies operating globally. European companies have been the… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein

Following in US footsteps the EU has been negotiating a free trade agreement with Korea during the last two years, which is on the point of being finalised. If signed and ratified by both parties it would progressively abolish duties and other import obstacles on a bilateral trade volume of some $ 100 billion within… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein

The success of the Copenhagen Climate Conference is at great risk. International climate diplomats have lost sight of what it should achieve. They seem more concerned with creating new financial mechanisms for adapting to future climate change than getting tangible reductions of green house gases by the major emitting countries. Last Friday, the European Council… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein

The 19/20 March 2009 European Council Meeting was a rare show of European unity and resolution to tackle unprecedented challenges Europe and the world are confronted with. It was visible in declarations of the leaders and the resolute Presidency Conclusions. The accusations of protectionism and the frictions between the French President and the Czech Presidency… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein

The European Association of Electricity Producers (Eurelectric) is prepared to phase out its C02 emitting power plants in the course of the coming 40 years so as to become carbon-free by 2050. In return, it expects a “generous” treatment by the EU on regulatory procedures and support for alternative energies. A priori this looks as… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein

A team of scientists at MIT may have achieved a breakthrough in enabling lithium-ion batteries to become the centre-piece of the future generation of electric engines in light vehicles. They found out that through appropriate design changes, it would become possible to charge and discharge these batteries 100 times faster than at present and to… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein