Rhein on Energy and Climate

Archives for Climate change

Heed the Warnings on the Wall

Throughout the last 15 years, Alan Greenspan, the once illustrious FED Chairman, had indulged in an irresponsible deregulation of the American banking system, ignoring occasional warnings from subaltern officials. He had full trust in the self-regulating capacity of Wall Street and could fully rely on the backing of US Presidents, in particular G.W. Bush. Today,… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein

Between 1995 and 2007 the EU has almost doubled its membership, from 15 to 27 members, accepting more new member states than ever before within a very short time span. This rapid expansion has not been preceded by the necessary strengthening of its institutional functioning, in particular its decision making capacity. Since 2004, the EU… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein

At the ongoing international climate conference in Poznan the Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has rightly underscored that “our work for the environment should be timeless”. This commitment for preserving the global climate does not prevent the Polish government from raising serious objections to the EU climate package, which the European Council is scheduled to… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein

On the side-lines of last week’s European Council meeting, essentially devoted to resolving the financial crisis, heads of government clashed on EU climate policy. Some heads of government tried to renege the 20 percent C02 reduction target for 2020 with the outrageous argument that they had not attended the March 2007 European Council Meeting, when… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein

Humanity is living through its worst financial crisis since the Great Depression 1929-33. A decade of complacency, self-deceit and appalling flaws of government regulation and oversight, above all in the USA but also in Europe, have been at the root of the financial disaster that has been unfolding for the past 18 months. It has… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein

The 2008 hurricane season in the Caribbean promises to be costly. Gustav, Hannah and Ike have forced millions of people to temporarily evacuate their homes and caused immense human suffering, loss of property and damage of infrastructure along the coastal areas in Florida, Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Cuba and Haiti. More tropical storms are expected to… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein

The failure of the 150 odd trade ministers from the WTO member countries, on July 28th, to wind up seven years of laborious negotiations throws a dark shadow on the increasing dysfunction of the international community. Most commentators have focused on the negative impact on international trade, fearing rising protectionism and a blow to the… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein

In early September, the UN Secretary-General has given the alarm signal by urging all governments to accelerate preparations for finalising the KYOTO successor agreement before the end of 2009. He has called upon them to engage in substantive talks at the next preparatory conference in Poznan in December 2008. Despite a massive input of manpower… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein