Chinese emissions are 20% higher than expected

Two different news regarding China hit the twitterverse on the same day last week. First, the bad one : The People’s Republic’s greenhouse gases emissions may have been underestimated by as much as 20 percent. This huge difference – as much as the annual emissions of Japan, or 1.4 Gt of CO2 –  can be explained […]

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The inexorable rise of… coal

Yes, you read that right. With all the fuss about renewable energies like solar, wind, hydro, geothermal and so on, the energy source that saw its use increase the most recently is the dirtiest of them all : coal. As the BP Statistical Review 2012 reports : ” Coal was again the fastest growing fossil

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India to add 30 GW of renewables by 2017

India is willing to increase significantly its clean energy output as it is willing to reach 53 GW by 2017. In the next five years it will add almost 30 GW, to be compared to the 13 GW added to the grids in the last five years. As Bloomberg notes : ” to add 15,000

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ZOE electric car does 1,000 miles in 24 hours

If you are feeling range anxiety regarding electric cars, rejoice. One of Renault’s electric cars, the ZOE, has been tested for 24 hours and it was able to go for almost one thousand miles (1,600 km) during this period. Of course, it had been recharged nine times, but the ZOE did better than the Nissan

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Impending catastrophe : Earth on the brink

This is the most important news you’ll read this week. Forget about whatever happened in this weekend’s elections in Greece, Egypts or France. Economies may crash but can recover with time. It’s not the case with the environment. To Nature : ”  the global ecosystem as a whole can react in the same way and

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Painting roofs white

Sometimes the simplest solutions can have huge impacts. Indeed, painting dark roofs white can decrease by up to a fifth  buildings air conditioning use. Generalized globally, this could make a big difference. Scientists at the Concordia University estimated that painting one percent of the world’s urban surfaces white could reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 130

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Brazilian forestry code changes get vetoed

As deforestation in the Brazilian part of the Amazon rainforest was hitting its lowest levels in over two decades, some special interests had introduced to the local Congress some law to change that. Luckily, environmental organizations has been campaigning to avoid those catastrophic changes. Celebrities joined in too… Even more fortunately, the Brazilian President –

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Cleantech is the next great investment opportunity

Even today too many people are still believing that cleantech isn’t making financial sense. Some others think that we the current crisis, we can’t spend money on futilities. Here is a post that could make them change their minds. The Green Market Blog collected forecasts and the prospects are enthusing as “ the global market

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EU countries could pay back their debts With renewables

” What if the European Union solved the triple crisis – economy, energy, environment – by solving the financial one ? Alice Stollmeyer sent me last week a link of project to do just that. “ ” Some European nations – Greece, Spain, Ireland, Portugal – are owing more and more money to the European

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RGGI slashes emissions in northern US states

Do you remember my enthusiastic post last year on a US “cap-and-invest” program, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (or RGGI) ? Well, it seems that it worked really well. To Climate Progress, the power sector of the nine participating states have slashed its emissions by 23 percent in only three years thanks to the decreased

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