Rhein on Energy and Climate

Archives for Climate & Environment

Belgium and other West European countries have witnessed one of the most bizarre March ever. After a spring-like beginning it turned unusually cold in the second half of the month with icy north-eastern winds making the cold feel really icy. Many People who tend to identify climate change only with rising temperatures may feel confirmed… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein

Global green house gas emissions keep rising at an alarming pace despite the slow down of the global economy. In 2011 global C02 emissions reached a new high of 34 billion tons, increasing by three per cent. There is no prospect for a rapid turn-around because of the rapid economic expansion of poor and emerging… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein

Within a few years unconventional gas, in particular shale gas, discoveries in the USA, have changed the geopolitics of energy. The USA is becoming one the major gas producers on earth, shaking off its dependence on the unstable Gulf region. Gas prices have dramatically gone down in the USA, enabling the country to re-vitalise energy-intensive… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein

The EU emission trading system, created 10 years ago, was meant to facilitate EU countries achieve their target of reducing green house gas emissions by 20 per cent until 2020, at the lowest cost. To that end, the 11 000 biggest emitter companies accounting for about 45 per cent of total EU green house gas… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein

Germany is about to lose its image as the most climate-friendly EU member country. The precipitated closure by 2022 of all nuclear power plants has led to a costly expansion of PV and wind power capacity, fed by exorbitant feed-in tariffs for widely scattered small-scale electricity producers. The German support regime for PV power generation… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein

The 2013 “State of the Union Address” devotes12 lines to climate change. These express a firm determination to “do more to combat climate change”. Visibly, Obama has learned the lessons from his first mandate when he got lost in frustrating battles with the Republican majority in the Congress that failed to understand the reality and… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein

Smog has been a familiar phenomenon in Western capitals, starting with London in the 1950`s and ending with New York, San Francisco, Mexico, Sao Paulo and Singapore in more recent years. But since 20 years it has ceased to be a serious health issue in most countries, China being one of the major exceptions. Its… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein

North Dakota, the emerging US shale gas/oil paradise, and northern German wind energy regions are learning similar lessons: Both produce more new energies than they are able to sell, due to inadequate pipeline and grid systems. The consequence is a waste of energy, through gas flaring in North Dakota and temporary over-supply of wind and… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein

For its energy supply, Humanity depends presently more on the Gulf countries than on any other part of the earth: one third of global oil and one fifth of gas reserves lie there; and production costs are lower than anywhere else. This situation will not be sustainable: The Gulf countries have to envisage a progressive… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein