China’s Belt and Road Initiative is arguably the biggest regional connectivity and cooperation programme in operation today. But with China being a major polluter, there are also concerns the Initiative could just be adding to global environmental stress. Not so, argue John A Mathews and Carol X Huang of Macquarie University, Sydney: it’s actually a magnet for renewable energy investments. Courtesy of The Asia-Pacific Journal. … [Read more...]
Flexible printed solar cells – a new manufacturing frontier?
The University of Newcastle in Australia has unveiled a 200m2 rooftop solar array made from innovative flexible and printed solar cells that could further revolutionise the global use and manufacturing industry of renewables. According to Professor John Mathews of Macquarie University in Australia, this could be a giant step forward for solar cells. Courtesy Global Green Shift blog … [Read more...]
China’s green energy revolution has saved the country from catastrophic dependence on fossil fuel imports
China’s shift to green energy has made a huge contribution to reducing the country’s dependence on imported fossil fuels, write researchers John A. Mathews and Xin Huang. But for China’s renewables revolution, the world would have faced potentially catastrophic geopolitical tensions over oil and gas. Courtesy John Mathews’ Global Green Shift blog. … [Read more...]
India’s green shift to renewables: How fast is it happening?
India is moving at a rapid pace to adopt a green shift in its power sector, across industry and in transport, aiming to reduce dependence on the black fossil fuelled energy economy, write Simran Talwar and John A. Mathews. But finance remains a problem: many banks are complacent in their lending to fossil fuel projects. Attempts in the international trade arena to curb India’s strategies of building green power industries using the tools of local … [Read more...]
The spectacular success of the German Energiewende- and what needs to be done next
While a government is being formed in Berlin, which will have important implications for the future of the Energiewende, author and scholar Professor John Mathews of Macquarie University in Australia, looks back on what Germany has achieved so far with its unique energy policy and concludes that it has been a spectacular success, whatever its detractors may say. But he also has some advice to offer: the German government, he writes, should be … [Read more...]
China’s continuing green shift in electric power: evidence from 2016
Over the past decade, China has been greening its electric power system faster than any other industrial power. But China is also continuing to pump out more greenhouse gases than any other other country. Is its green transformation happening fast enough? Hao Tan and John A. Mathews dig deep into the 2016 data and present an awesome picture of the stunningly large Chinese electric power sector. Courtesy Asia-Pacific Journal. … [Read more...]
China’s new Silk Road: is it black or green?
The expansive internationalization of China’s energy role has led many to believe that while China is "greening" its own economy, it is at the same time exporting it's fossil-fuel-based energy system abroad. John Mathews, Professor of Management at Macquarie University, Australia and Hao Tan, Senior Lecturer at the University of Newcastle, Australia, provide a detailed assessment of China's energy exports and come to a largely different … [Read more...]
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