Yes, you read that right : the People’s Republic of China has announced last week a massive $372 billion plan for the next three and a half years in order to curb fossil fuels consumption and pollution. That’s $291 million per day ! The main goal is to cut coal consumption by 300 million tonnes […]
China to invest $372 billion in energy efficiency Read More »
When Germany announced after the Fukushima disaster that it was willing to stop all its nuclear reactors, I published a piece on Cleantechies on how this was premature and dangerous for climate. I guess I was quite right as this week the same Cleantechies published an article stating that coal consumption of the first European
Coal consumption increases in Germany Read More »
A thousand billion dollars, or if you prefer, a trillion dollar. This is the staggering amount of money you and I are handing out to Big Fossil fuel companies each year by the mean of governmental subsidies. At a time of climate weirding and warming, massive pollutions of our air, water and soil, massive unemployment
It is high time to end fossil fuels subsidies Read More »
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
RGGI slashes emissions in northern US states Read More »
As Treehugger reported last week, the Japanese company Sharp has broken another record : 43.5 percent of efficiency, to be compared with their previous record, 36.9% efficiency which had been reached in November 2011. Typical solar panels in the market today still have around 15 or 20 percent of efficiciency. But research is breaking records
Another solar efficiency record : 43.5 % Read More »
As the situation is getting more and more desperate and climate gets weirder, global greenhouse gases emissions keep on increasing globally. As the International Energy Agency stated last week : ” Global carbon-dioxide (CO2) emissions from fossil-fuel combustion reached a record high of 31.6 gigatonnes (Gt) in 2011, according to preliminary estimates from the International
IEA : Global CO2 emissions increased in 2011 Read More »
Little by little, Big Business understands that climate change has to be addressed. The last example is Microsoft as it is willing to become carbon neutral as early as July 1st, 2012. As Kevin Turner, Microsoft’s COO, noted : ( Microsoft wants ) ” to infuse carbon awareness into every part of our business. To
Microsoft to become carbon neutral Read More »
Things do seem to accelerate on the climate front. South Korea will have in 2015 a national emissions trading scheme that will cover sixty percent of the country’s carbon dioxide emissions. As Reuters noted: ” (t)he programme won approval, despite fears it would hurt the economy, because of the long-term benefits to the country’s huge
South Korea to enact carbon trading scheme Read More »
Two recent polls are showing that change might soon take place in the United States. Climate Progress recently noted that 75 % of Americans support regulating carbon dioxide as a pollutant, and that 60 % support a carbon tax. The same website mentioned shortly afterwards another poll showing that 63% of Americans say their country
Americans connect the dots, demand action Read More »
Here we go. The only debate of the French Presidential elections have come and gone. Sunday, Mr. Sarkozy and Hollande will be either reelected or elected as the President of the sixth world economy. During nearly three hours, none of them have mentioned environmental issues. Peak oil occurred during the last Presidential mandate, but both
Appaling environmental politics in France Read More »
