Germany should not grant additional Subsidies for E-Mobility
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...
View ArticleGlobal Investment in Renewable Energy keeps rising
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...
View ArticleEU Energy and Climate Policy in Disarray
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...
View ArticleAustralia introduces a Carbon Tax
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...
View ArticleFarewell to the Incandescent Light Bulb
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...
View ArticleWill the Qatar Climate Conference be more successful than its Predecessors?
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...
View ArticleThe EU needs to elaborate a European-wide Power Grid
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...
View ArticleThe EU should work with Australia for a credible Climate Policy
The landslide victory of the Australian Conservatives in September 6th parliamentary elections risks having negative ramifications for Australian and global climate policy. One of the priorities of the...
View ArticleBeware of ever more violent Typhoons
On November 8th 2013 the eastern Philippines have been struck by another typhoon this year. With wind speeds exceeding 300 km/h, a 200 000 people city flattened to the ground and an estimated number of...
View ArticleCombating climate change will be a long difficult haul
While the international community is due to finally take serious action against climate change it is worthwhile having a look at Denmark, Sweden and, to a lesser degree, Finland and Norway that have...
View ArticleEU proves to be the best Pupil in Climate Efforts
The EU has transmitted its climate objectives and strategy in view of the Paris Climate Conference in early December. It was one of the few, together with Switzerland, Norway, Mexico, USA and Russia to...
View ArticleHumanity must phase out CO2 Emissions by 2050
According to the calculations of the world’s top climate scientists, humanity has only 30 years to go, until 2045, before reaching an increase of global temperature of more than two centigrade, its...
View ArticleObama Climate Policy deserves high Score
In the last eight years US energy and climate policy has made impressive strides towards sustainability. This is due essentially to President Obama who has invested more in climate policy than any...
View ArticleCOP 21 should take Lessons from the International Energy Agency
Doing business as usual will be a recipe for failure at the decisive climate meeting in Paris next December. 20 previous world climate conferences have shown this; and the two-week Bonn preparatory...
View ArticleFossil Fuels getting under rising public Pressure
Fossil fuels, in particular coal, are starting to come under public pressure from many quarters in the world. That is the most positive news for the 21st international climate conference that will take...
View ArticleParis Climate Conference must plead for higher fossil Fuel Taxes
In the last 20 years international climate conferences have produced no more than lengthy unintelligible papers without targeted actions addressed to participants. As a result, we have been through 20...
View ArticleHillary Clinton makes Climate Change an Issue for US Presidential Elections
Climate change has traditionally divided the American political elite. If Republicans had acknowledged that citizens are responsible for climate change the US would no longer be the “villain of the...
View Article
