Could the US tax more gasoline ?

It is a well known fact, US gasoline tax is ridiculously low compared to many countries in the European Union and other nations. The table on the left brings data from the OECD on this. US drivers pay less than 10 euro cents per liter of tax when their German, British, Italian, French or Turkish […]

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Energy sprawl is another reason to mix sources

Even if this not new as I wrote about this very issue as early as June 2008, the additional research bring us more data on how renewables – and especially biofuels – need much more land to generate energy than traditional solutions. As you can see with the graph biofuels are by far the least

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Water in Singapore : Conserve, Value, Enjoy

For this month’s article on CleanTechies we are moving from cleantech in France to focus on water management in Singapore as I read Erik Orsenna’s book on water. There are many interesting things to learn there. From massive rainwater harvesting to water treatment with 15 reservoirs and recycling and desalination, the island city covers 60

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Is waste to energy a good idea ?

There is a lot of buzz going on about waste to energy as many cities are thinking about it. Meanwhile, a CleanTechies’ member started a most interesting series on the matter and one of my follower on Twitter wonders if it should be supported. Personally I think we should reduce, reuse and recycle first –

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Imagining India, by Nandan Nilekani

My main trades and areas of interest before climate change mitigation and sustainable development are international business and management. This brought me to focus early on India. So when I discovered today’s book via The Daily Show with Jon Stewart I knew I had to read what promised to be a fantastic book on India’s

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The European Cap and Trade system works fine

To a new study presented by a US non-governmental organization, the European cap and trade system – called Emission Trading System or ETS – seems to finally work after a much difficult start. To TreeHugger: The trading system has created a healthy carbon market now worth 56 billion US dollars, and (…) has been responsible

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Why solar air conditioning is a fantastic idea

In these times of heat waves – it was 37°C here in France yesterday  – we all know that solar energy can heat places but it seems the sun could also cool them down thanks to air conditioning. Even if this is not entirely new as I read about such technologies as early as 2005

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Least developed nations call for climate action

It is no news if you have been reading this blog as China – alongside with other nations – has been calling the richest nations to cut drastically their GHG emissions by 2020 in order to prevent the worse from occurring. Now the 49 least developed countries are calling the G8 to cut their greenhouse

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Can natural gas be an alternative to coal ?

I read in The Daily Green an article on how natural gas could be a solution to environmental and energy issues in the United States as it emits half the carbon dioxide of coal and roughly 25 percent less than oil. Another advantage of this fossil fuel is that there are ample reserves in America

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Floating wind turbine may be a game changer

Offshore wind energy may soon change thanks to a new kind of turbines that literally floats on water. The first 2.3 MW prototype was installed 10 kilometers off the Norwegian coasts on June 8th. Developed jointly by Siemens and StatoilHydro the Hywind windmill can be located where seas depths reach from 120 to 700 meters,

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