Rhein on Energy and Climate

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Since the introduction of the common currency, the 16 member countries, that have presently adopted the Euro, form an informal group within the EU institutional framework where they discuss their specific concerns on monetary and fiscal policies. This has often been very useful. The Lisbon Treaty has therefore formally confirmed the Euro group. Backed by… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein

At the Commission Hearings by the EP, January 15, the new Climate Commissioner, Connie Hedegaard, has pleaded in favour of continuing to rely on the UN machinery as the way to reach an international agreement on climate change. After two years of unsuccessful preparations, in the UN framework, for the Copenhagen Climate Conference, this is… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein

In December 2008 the EU has decided onto providing at least 20 percent of its energy needs – the equivalent of 30 percent of its electricity consumption – supply from renewable sources by 2020 latest. To that end, it will need to generate about one third of its electricity from renewables. This is anything but… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein

As of January 1st, the new Brazilian climate legislation (“National Policy on Climate Change Act”) has entered into force. It fixes ambitious targets. By 2020 green house gas emissions should be 39 percent lower than “business as usual”, which should bring back Brazil‘s emissions back to 1994 levels. To reach this objective, Brazil must first… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein

As of January 1, 2010, France was supposed to have launched its ecological tax reform, under which fossil energy would be taxed at increasingly higher rates and taxes on income and would be lowered correspondingly. On December 27th, the Conseil d`Etat has, however, declared the envisaged legislation as unconstitutional, on the grounds that it contained… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein

The signature of a $ 20 billion contract, at the end of 2009, between the United Arab Republic and a South Korean industrial consortium under the leadership of the Korea Electric Company for the construction of four nuclear 1400 MW power plants marks a milestone in global energy cooperation: · The UAE will be the… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein

Fighting climate change requires action by all countries, but in particular the small number of major emitting countries- China, USA, EU, Russia, Japan, India, Gulf states, Brazil, Mexico, Canada, Australia, Korea, South Africa – on which effective mitigation of global climate change hinges. Up to now only the EU and Japan have taken stringent actions… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein

“Political pressure on governments and utilities to refrain from building new coal-fired power plants is rising across Europe. Citizens no longer want to have them in their neighbourhood. As a result as many as seven projects have been abandoned in Germany only in the course of 2009, the last most recentlymost recently in Lubmin in… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein

In June 2009, the Swedish prime minister had suggested member states to introduce C02 taxes as an additional instrument for tackling climate change. But neither the Swedish Presidency nor the Commission followed up on this suggestion. So far only two member states seem have on their own decided to prepared to go ahead with C02… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein

For the past 10 years the EU has been the undisputed leader of wind power development, first on land and more recently off-shore. Combined, EU countries continue to have more wind-power capacity installed than any other region on earth; but its advance is rapidly shrinking as the USA and more recently China are developing their… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein