Europe

Germany, a climate change mitigation example ?

Germany is often quoted as the definite example in climate change mitigation. However, as with all black and white fallacies, it is not really the case and the situation is not that simple. Indeed, even if our neighboring country gets far more energy from renewables than we are, it relies much too heavily on coal, […]

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How we throw away tons of food

By reading La Marguerite I came across a very disturbing fact : we throw each month a lot of food. And when I write we, I mean both Americans and Europeans. This most disturbing fact – it concerns between a quarter and a third of the food we buy -occurs as in many less affluent

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Coal strikes back… globally

I once wrote that peak oil might push countries to get back to coal. It is already the case as the International Herald Tribune states it in a recent article. Indeed in Japan and the UK, old coal mines are reopening or see their activity increase. This albeit the fact that coal is by far

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Italy to build nuclear power plants

Italy has been since the Chernobyl catastrophe a huge opponent of nuclear. However, the newly elected government is planning to get back to using this energy source. This happens as the country depends on 60 percent on natural gas for its electricity, which is a huge problem as prices are soaring. This happens as some

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Barcelona is facing important water scarcity

The capital city of Catalonia and one of my favorite European places is facing an increasing water scarcity due to a severe drought as El Pais notes. This might lead to a total lack of water by October and there are no really good solution to solve this problem as Barcelona doesn’t have any water

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Huge European investments in renewables

According to Greentech Media, European utilities are “major movers in the renewable energy space“. They also are becoming global leaders compared to their US competitors. So far, more than 86 Gigawatts of renewable electricity capacity have been installed and an additional 100 GW are to be implemented by the eight “green giants”. This concerns companies

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Coal strikes back… in Europe ?

I knew that Germany had plans to build coal fired plants. Little did I know that according to this great article from the IHT other European countries like Italy are willing to do so. In 1958, I wouldn’t be surprised or anything, but in 2008, with the growing fears of a full scale global warming,

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Importance of energy efficiency in the EU

While browsing my favorite environmental websites, I discovered a gem : the official blog of the EU Energy Commissioner, Mr. Andris Piebalgs. There I read an impressive article on the multiple benefits an increase of 20 percent of energy efficiency would bring to the EU and its 27 state members. This is perhaps the best

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Germany stops supporting biofuels

Germany has been supporting biofuels for many years, but it seems that the accumulating proofs of their inadequacies are heard there. This time, it is not the fact that they emit more CO2 than previously thought or that they may plant the seeds of famine : they are simply still many cars that can’t run

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Ireland to invest billions on energy

According to The Guardian and Cleantech, Ireland plans to invest 22 billions euros on renewable energies and “smart” and efficient systems over the next 12 years. Half of this money will be invested in wind, wave and tidal energies and biomass. This is due to cut by half the greenhouse gases emissions by 2020. An

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