August 27, 2012
The EU aims at generating 30 per cent of its power needs from renewable sources by 2020 and close to 100 per cent by 2050. Most of the renewable power will have to come from on-shore and off-shore wind generation, the rest from large-scale PV installations in sunny regions in the South, including North Africa,… » 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
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Business & Climate Change, Climate change, English, Environment, EU, EU Priorities and Opinion |
July 12, 2012
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
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Climate change, Energy Efficiency, Energy Supply, Environment, EU, EU Priorities and Opinion |
July 6, 2012
After years of controversial political debate, China has its carbon tax! It has taken the courage of Julia Gillard, the socialist prime minister since 2010, to get there. As of July 1. 2012, 294 companies and municipal councils will be subject to a A$ 23 tax per ton of C02. That is more than twice… » read more
Posted by Eberhard Rhein
June 15, 2012
European Energy and Climate Policy are not in good shape. Commission, European Parliament and member States are at odds about the objectives to pursue and the best means to implement them. There is no agreement about increasing the target for reducing green house gas emissions to 25 per cent until 2025, Poland remaining dead against.… » read more
Posted by Eberhard Rhein
June 13, 2012
Just in time for the Rio+ 20 Conference on sustainable development UNEP has published the latest data on investments in renewable power in 2011. These paint an overall positive picture: Investments have increased by 17 per cent over 2010, despite a stagnating global economy. Solar power accounted for roughly two thirds of the investments, continuing… » read more
Posted by Eberhard Rhein
The German government aims to have one million electric vehicles on the roads by 2020. To that end, it grants some € 500 million for the development of battery technology, to be channelled via a “National Platform Electro Mobility” (NPE). Battery-driven electric vehicles will also be exempt from the vehicle tax for 10 years. But… » 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
April 2, 2012
The 100-year old internal combustion engine will be phased out in the coming six decades or so. This is bound to happen for two concurring reasons: Oil will become so scarce and expensive that driving vehicles on gasoline or diesel will no longer be affordable. In order to successfully combat climate change, for which mobility… » read more
Posted by Eberhard Rhein
Thoughts on energy and climate, the Mediterranean and whatever comes to mind.
