Thanks to massive cost reduction, renewable energy can now be used by developing countries in their industrial growth strategies, which was unthinkable until recently, writes John Mathews of Macquarie University in Australia in a new publication from UNIDO, "Promoting Climate Resilient Industry". Mathews notes that renewables can help countries expand manufacturing and create jobs, reduce local pollution, increase energy security and reduce … [Read more...]
COP21: a deal is in the making
As we enter the second week of the world’s make-or-break UN climate conference, the elements of a new global climate agreement are falling into place. It will provide energy companies the world over with the certainty of a long-term climate goal and of a push from governments to make them pay for their greenhouse gas emissions. But it will also recognise that the world has changed since the Kyoto Protocol and that emerging economies like China … [Read more...]
The Autowende has begun
In the next 60 months the automotive industry will see more change than in the last 60 years, writes entrepreneur Michiel Langezaal. He notes that Asian and US manufacturers are putting massive resources into developing batteries, electric drive trains and solar cells. Nothing like this is happening on a similar scale in Europe. European car and energy companies need to go all-out for the Autowende or Europe will miss out on the next trillion … [Read more...]
Apocalypse when?
Global warming is a slow-motion apocalypse that might end civilization as we know it, writes author Tom Engelhardt of Tomdispatch.com. According to Engelhardt, to prevent such an outcome, “successful negotiations in Paris can only be the start of something far more sweeping when it comes to the forms of energy we use and how we live on this planet” . … [Read more...]
Why corporate sustainability won’t solve climate change
In the run-up to the much-anticipated COP21 international climate summit in Paris, business leaders worldwide have shown substantial support for action on greenhouse gases, writes David L. Levy, Director of the Center for Sustainable Enterprise at the University of Massachusetts Boston. But according to Levy, voluntary corporate efforts won’t solve the climate problem. We need massive structural changes in our energy and transportation systems. … [Read more...]
Why Nordstream 2 risks failure
The Nordstream 2 gas pipeline that Gazprom and a number of major European energy companies, have agreed to build, faces formidable political, legal and economic obstacles that may make the project undeliverable, writes Alan Riley, professor at City Law School in London and nonresident Senior Fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Center. According to Riley, the overarching problem Gazprom and its partners Shell, Engie, Wintershall, OMV … [Read more...]
Energiewende is easily affordable – if we don’t go 100% renewable
Researchers from Fraunhofer ISE have published a new report investigating the net cost of Germany’s energy transition. The good news is that the German government’s current goals are likely to be affordable. The bad news is that 100 percent renewable energy is less so, writes Craig Morris of the website German Energy Transition. … [Read more...]
Energy Union as “energy democracy”
Citizens are at the core of the EU’s most ambitious energy strategy to date, the Energy Union, according to the European Commission. But how exactly could they get involved? Since 2012 social scientists with the R&Dialogue project have been working on processes to engage citizens, NGOs and industry in the energy transition. Their conclusion: citizens and companies should cooperate in participatory, ‘democratic’ structures to create a … [Read more...]
State of the Energy Union: the political work has yet to be done
The European Commission appears to be making a valiant effort at getting the Energy Union’s goals internalised into an institutional process that does not scare off Member States wary of “more Europe”. However, writes Oliver Sartor of the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI), the key test for the Energy Union will be how well it can succeed at getting Member States to buy into its objectives. The Energy Union … [Read more...]
Stanford: world can go 100% wind, water, sun by 2050 – and save money
Reneweconomy.com A new analysis from Stanford University has laid out a roadmap for 139 countries to power their economies with solar, wind, and hydro energy by 2050. It says the world can reach 80 per cent WWS (wind, water and sunlight) by 2030 and 100 per cent by 2050 with no impact on economic growth. … [Read more...]
Does the IEA’s new World Energy Outlook miss the global transition?
The energy transition from fossil fuels to renewables will likely be faster than the International Energy Agency predicts in its recent World Energy Outlook, writes Peter Simon Vargha, Chief Economist at Hungarian oil and gas company MOL. According to Vargha, we are at a point when renewables are getting cheaper than fossil fuels in many areas, and that means a whole different game. … [Read more...]
The Chinese dream: Jeremy Rifkin and the economic conquest of Eurasia
While the EU is mired in conflicts between east, south and west over over finance, climate policy and refugees, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang is wooing 16 Central and Eastern European leaders at a China-CEE summit in Suzhou. It is all part of the Chinese dream of creating a Jeremy Rifkin-esque infrastructurally and digitally integrated economic space spanning the vast Eurasian continent, writes journalist Pepe Escobar. Some years from now German … [Read more...]
The curse of lignite: the long-term underdevelopment of Germany´s second largest mining region
The government of the German State of Brandenburg wanted to buy the lignite mines and power plants from Vattenfall in the Lusatia region to keep them open. The left-far-left coalition was motivated by economic reasons: to prevent job losses and de-industrialisation. But statistics show that Lusatia is actually worse off both economically and socially because of the presence of lignite mining, write Conrad Kunze and Anika Zorn, Social Scientists … [Read more...]
What Paris is likely to deliver
Prospects look bright for the Paris Climate Summit. The sole fact that this year’s COP (Conference of the Parties) will start with the government leaders meeting instead of finishing with it, as was usual in the past, is promising, writes Rolf de Vos of Ecofys. According to De Vos, if the more than 80 world leaders who will gather in Paris, including Obama, Xi Jinping, Modi and Putin, will get the Summit off to a good start, the work of two … [Read more...]
Kirill Komarov, First Deputy Chief Rosatom: “The future belongs to fast-neutron reactors with closed fuel-cycle”
"Globally there are no alternatives that can replace nuclear power", but with the growth of renewables, "the demand for very large nuclear reactors will drop". That is the view of Kirill Komarov, First Deputy CEO of the Russian nuclear giant Rosatom. "Fast-neutron reactors with a closed fuel cycle will secure baseload and low and medium capacity reactors will serve balancing needs", says Rosatom's "number two" man in an exclusive wide-ranging … [Read more...]
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