Rhein on Energy and Climate

Bees are in danger of global extermination, particularly in Europe and North America. Without bees Humanity will not be able to feed itself. Albert Einstein is on record to have said 100 years ago that Humanity would not survive more than four years if bees were to disappear, as they pollinate 70 per cent of… » 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

As expected, the Latvian government has put in its request for joining the Euro-zone as of January 2014. This is a courageous step considering that two thirds of the Latvian population are against the introduction of the Euro. Like all EU countries, with the exception of Denmark and UK, Latvia is obliged to introduce the… » 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

Europe finds itself in a process of relative de-industrialisation. The share of manufacturing in the GDP keeps falling. Few are the EU countries where manufacturing accounts for 30 per cent of GDP, the global average, let alone that of China (47 per cent), the world` s industrial power house. With a share of only 19… » 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