The devastating hurricanes Harvey and Irma saw the U.S. military involved in emergency operations on a massive scale, writes energy expert and author Michael T. Klare. The future will hold more of the same. As the planet heats up, the armed forces and the nation will face an existential crisis, according to Klare, which will result in the need for a new, largely non-military strategic posture that puts climate action above other geopolitical … [Read more...]
Shell executive describes inevitable transition to carbon-free energy
"Shell wants to be a voice and a leader in the energy transition", said Harry Brekelmans, the projects and technology director for Royal Dutch Shell, a founding member of the MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI). But the company must "not abandon the process that made us a leader", namely production and distribution of oil and gas. Brekelmans met with groups of MIT students and faculty members for a public discussion about energy issues with MITEI … [Read more...]
Chasing electrification: progress is too slow
Shell scenarios show that the rate of electrification of the energy system needs to triple over the coming years to achieve the Paris goals. This is a much more challenging task than most people realize, writes David Hone, Chief Climate Change Advisor for Shell. … [Read more...]
Carbon capture and storage: too expensive for reducing power sector emissions
The hope that carbon capture and storage (CCS) can ever play a significant role in the reduction of power sector emissions is misplaced, write Jeffrey Rissman and Robbie Orvis of Energy Innovation, a San Francisco-based energy and environmental policy think tank. Coal-fired power is already more expensive than unsubsidized onshore wind and solar PV. Adding CCS will only increase this gap. The subsidies required to bring CCS costs in line with … [Read more...]
The geo-engineering taboo
A new book by David Hone, Chief Climate Change Adviser at Shell, takes the reader on a journey through the transition in the energy system that must be undertaken to address the climate change issue. The book, Putting the Genie Back: Solving the Climate and Energy Dilemma, deals with a wide range of topics, including carbon pricing, electric cars and solar power, and even ventures into areas such as the somewhat taboo subject of geo-engineering. … [Read more...]
Interview bio-energy expert AndrĂ© Faaij: “So much nonsense has been told – high time for the real story”
“An enormous amount of nonsense” has been told about bio-energy, says AndrĂ© Faaij, scientific director of Energy Academy Europe and professor Energy Systems Analysis at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. According to Faaij, it is high time for the real – scientifically validated – story. “The bio-based economy is indispensable for our climate policy and can mean huge progress for agriculture and nature in developing countries”. … [Read more...]
To slow climate change, India joins the renewable energy revolution
India has embarked on a remarkable renewables revolution, made possible by falling prices of solar power, writes Arun Agrawal, Professor of Natural Resources and Environment at the University of Michigan. According to Agrawal, what is needed above all to make the energy transition succeed, is robust grids and careful land use planning. Courtesy The Conversation. … [Read more...]
Climate change (II): overcoming the difficulty of acting to reduce emissions
Why is the climate change problem so hard to fix, asks energy and climate change economist Adam Whitmore? In the second of a two-part series, he addresses the political, social and psychological barriers to action. But he also identifies a number of trends that give grounds for optimism. … [Read more...]
Climate change (I): How did we get here, and why is it so hard to fix?
Why is the climate change problem so hard to fix, asks energy and climate change economist Adam Whitmore? The answer in a nutshell: activities that cause emissions are ubiquitous, diverse and deeply embedded in modern life. The world’s energy system is huge and long-lived. In addition, there are considerable political and psychological barriers. Whitmore addresses both these aspects in a two-part series. … [Read more...]
The Petro-Powers vs. the Greens: is Trump launching a New World Order?Â
There may be more method behind Donald Trump’s madness than people think, writes energy expert and author Michael Klare. His attempts to forge alliances with Russia and Saudi Arabia show that Trump is laying the foundations for a new world order, in which fossil-fuel powers will contend for supremacy with post-carbon, green-energy states. If we let him get his way, warns Klare, the world may soon be divided into two camps: the carbonites versus … [Read more...]
Interview David Hone, Chief Climate Change Advisor Shell: “Net zero emissions are achievable. The timing is challenging”
EU climate and energy policy is “reasonably effective”, but it could achieve more for the climate if it focused purely on reducing CO2-emissions, says David Hone, Chief Climate Change Advisor at Shell, in an interview with Energy Post. “There are too many goals and too many targets.” Hone also argues that first generation biofuels are needed to make advanced biofuels work and that a “new approach” towards CCS is urgently needed. Globally, Hone … [Read more...]
Donald Trump shows us how disturbed our world has become
We owe Donald Trump a small bow of thanks and a genuine debt of gratitude, writes Tom Engelhardt, editor of Tomdispatch.com. According to Engelhardt, Trump is teaching us just "how deeply disturbed our American world actually is". A withering analysis of a leader "without fixed boundaries, definitions, or history, which is why nothing he says has real meaning. And yet he couldn’t be more meaningful.” Courtesy Tomdispatch.com. … [Read more...]
Forbidden questions: 24 key issues that neither the Washington elite nor the media consider worth their botherÂ
The truth may now “be more important than ever”, as the New York Times proclaims, but finding it requires looking in the right places and raising fundamental issues, writes historian and author Andrew J. Bacevich. According to Bacevich, the foreign policy debate in the U.S. consistenly avoids the questions that really matter. Courtesy TomDispatch.com. … [Read more...]
The US quitting the Paris climate deal will only make things worse
Some argue that the U.S. leaving Paris would be beneficial to global climate policy, others believe it would be harmful. In this article, Jonathan Pickering of the Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance at the University of Canberra argues that the US quitting Paris will make matters worse. In another article, Luke Kemp, Lecturer in International Relations and Environmental Policy at Australian National University, takes the … [Read more...]
The world would be better off if Trump withdraws from the Paris climate deal
Some argue that the U.S. leaving Paris would be beneficial to global climate policy, others believe it would be harmful. In this article, Luke Kemp, Lecturer in International Relations and Environmental Policy at Australian National University, argues the world would be better off if Trump withdraws from Paris. In another article, Jonathan Pickering of the Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance at the University of Canberra takes … [Read more...]
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