Coal

Latest news from China

I originally wanted to write a post only on how the People’s Republic of China is willing to quadruple its solar PV capacity by 2015.  But given other news from there got my attention, I thought it would be better to present them all. First thing first : the Chinese government is not messing around …

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The beginning of the end for coal

Carl Pope, the former executive director and chairman of the Sierra Club published an article on the very topic last week as the World Bank and the US government announced they wouldn’t fund coal anymore. But this week, there was another third blow on financing coal. As The Guardian reported : ” The European Investment …

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Kazakhstan starts green revolution

To Reuters : ” Oil-rich Kazakhstan will spend 1 percent of annual output every year until 2050 to increase power generation from greener sources (…) cutting its dependence on coal far faster than some of the world’s big polluters. “ Still to the article, this amounts to around $3.2 billion (2.4 billion euros) annually. This …

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Could the European Union ban coal ? When ?

Yesterday Alice Stollmeyer asked on Twitter “ What should the European Commission do to improve air quality ? ” as she is participating today to a EU chat session dedicated to green topics. My answer was quite simple: Ban new coal projects and phase out the existing capacity. Replace by efficiency and renewables. This would …

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Fossil fuels are abundant. So what ?

Last week on Cleantechies, an article caught my attention. Titled ” What if We Never Run Out of Oil? “. The article made me think and I have to say I got quite mad at it as it is promoting fossil fiels just because they they are abundant. They might be, and they can be considered …

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IEA : Cleantech is progressing too slowly

In another wake up call, the prestigious Paris-based International Energy Agency has called for a significant increase to clean up the global energy system as the effort ” has stalled “. As the IEA Executive Director Maria van der Hoeven stated : “Despite much talk by world leaders, and despite a boom in renewable energy …

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A primer on our current energy predicament

Years ago I was often reading The Oil Drum, a great website dedicated to oil and other energy issues. Years later, the website still provides great content and I am glad to have read one of their latest posts : Our Energy Predicament in Charts. This post is an excellent introduction to energy issues for …

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Global fossil fuels subsidies total $1.9 Trillion

Yes, you read that right. According to a new report from the International Monetary Fund, governments around the world are giving in direct and indirect aids up to 1,900 billion USD ( 1,500 billion euros ) to fossil fuels subsidies each year. This total to 2.5 percent of global GDP. More importantly, ending those subsidies …

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Coal’s staggering healthcare costs around the world

We have seen it here time and again, burning coal is a huge health issue. This is even more worrying as it is the most polluting fossil fuel and the environmental enemy number One. Now here comes a study from the Health and Environment Alliance – or HEAL – on how this energy source is …

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More on the Chinese carbon tax

A year ago I was relating how China, the largest greenhouse gases emitter, was willing to tax carbon by 2015. It seems the local government is pretty serious about it as last week’s news show. To the Clean Revolution : ” China’s Finance Ministry has announced a new set of green taxation policies, including a …

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