Climate change

14 carbon bombs to defuse before 2020

Greenpeace has released an interesting report on fourteen projects that could increase greenhouse gases emissions by 20 percent by 2020. This would lead to an increase of temperatures by five or six degrees Celcius. The largest threats are China and Australia as they plan to increase their coal productions. This is particularly ironic as Climate […]

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Are our cities just too big to flood ?

This was the question asked on the the Yale Environment 360 blog and I believe the timing is perfect as last year cities such as New York City, Manila and Bangkok got it by record floods. Now it is the turn of Jakarta. The capital megacity of Indonesia now has water in its streets and

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Obama’s second inaugural speech is a new hope

President Barack Obama delivered his second Inaugural Address this Monday in Washington DC. Climate change got quite a few mentions and it looks like the second term might be the time where the climate crisis is tackled as it should. However, this was supposed to be the case in his first term. And many analysts

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COP 18 was another major disappointment

Last week COP18 ended in Doha, Qatar. As always, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has failed in addressing the climate crisis. With the various commitments made there, we are on our way to warming our planet by more than three degrees (see below) whereas 2°C – and sometimes even a mere

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Another year, another CO2 emissions record

This is getting really worrying. To the German renewable energy institute, global CO2 emissions rose by 2.5 percent in 2011. The IEA on its side saw a 3.2 percent increase. Global emissions are now 50 percent higher than in 1990. This is taking place as respected organizations such as the World Bank, the IEA and

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European Parliament calls for 30 percent cuts

Good news everyone ! As I noted in my latest post for Cleantechies : ” The European Union has been committed for years to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent by 2020 (compared to 1990). “ ” As we have seen in a recent article, reaching such targets is very plausible and wouldn’t

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What Obama’s re-election means for climate

Barack Obama’s re-election this week occurred shortly after the Hurricane Sandy that killed dozens people and inflicted for billion of dollars of damages to the US economy. The past year has been the hottest ever for the United States. On a positive note, President Obama have introduced various bills and laws to help America become

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Hurricane Sandy, aka the Frankenstorm

Unless you have spent the week remote from civilization, you must have heard of THE event of the week : Disney bought the Star Wars franchise. Ooops, sorry, I meant : Hurricane Sandy, also known as the Frankenstorm. All joking aside, the matter is tremendously serious as dozens died in the Caribbean and the United

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Climate change is already here, costing billions

If you think climate change is a threat upon our future only, you should read what follows. Indeed, a to a recent study, climate change already costs 1.6 percent of global GDP or $1.2 trillion (900 billion euros) per annum. Worse, climate change already and fossil fuels kills up to five million people each year.

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Why I am against fracking

I was pleased to see the previous French conservative government had banned fracking and I am equally pleased to see that the new liberal government – elected in May – kept it banned. So there is a political consensus against it, at least in France. This is a good thing as fracking is, let us

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