France

Italy to build four nuclear reactors by 2020

There is something I totally overlooked while writing earlier this week my article on how Europe goes forward on energy. Indeed, last month Italy announced its intention to build nuclear reactors this decade. Italian electricity is both heavily reliant on foreign fossil sources (70 percent) and on imports (ten percent comes from France’s own reactors). Building …

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Xynthia, another extreme weather event

As climate warms, extreme weather events are more and more frequent and more and more violent. Indeed, after the blizzards on the East coast of the United States, Europe was hit this weekend by an important storm. Xynthia claimed more than fifty lives this weekend in France alone and the costs are due to exceed …

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A global wind energy boom

If you think 2009 was a rotten year for all businesses, read on. To the Global Wind Energy Council 37.5 GW of wind energy capacity was installed in 2009 alone. This represents a 31 percent increase over 2008. In Europe, capacity grew up by 10 GW and investors pumped 13 billion euros into the industry. …

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Green economy: 90,000 new green jobs in France

Here is my latest post for CleanTechies : According to a new report [Fr] from the ADEME ( the French Environment and Energy Management Agency ) 90,000 jobs have been created in the French green growth sectors between 2006 and 2008. These jobs have been created mostly in energy conservation and the development of renewable …

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Forum des Emplois Verts

As I am still looking for a job in the cleantech sector I am attending today the Forum des Emplois Verts (French Green Jobs forum) in Paris where up to 2,000 jobs positions are proposed. This is a fantastic opportunity since as I noted earlier the Boston Consulting Group believes the Grenelle de l’Environnement could …

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Europe to go beyond its Kyoto Protocol goals

The European Union 15 first members already achieved their Kyoto Protocol goals and will even go beyond. Meanwhile, the 27 members already cut their emissions by 13.6 percent. These excellent results date of 2007. With the economic recession of the past months, the industrial activity have drastically decreased and thus the emissions and thus slashed …

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The Alps are endangered by climate change

To the latest report of the European Environment Agency, climate change “poses a grave threat” to the snows of the Alps, and thus will decrease the amounts of water received by many rivers like the Danube, Rhine, Po and Rhone. At the center of Europe the Alps – like the Himalayas are for Asia – …

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France seeks alternatives to GDP

Gross Domestic Product, also know as GDP, is not a sustainable indicator. Indeed it only focuses on the economy and makes no mention of societies and environment. So we need alternatives that would take that into account. This is even more urgent with the current economic downturn. Indeed, even if things are slowly and difficultly …

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My first night of astronomy observation

I spent my first night of astronomy observation this weekend, as a part of the Nuit des Etoiles, which takes place every year in July in France. Organized by the French Astronomy Association, many evenings are organized. One of the them was taking place not far from home, I had the pleasure to meet there …

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Renewable energies are progressing in Europe

EurObserv’ER published its eighth report on the state of renewable energies in Europe. Both in French and English, it demonstrates the sector is vibrant and is just taking off. As there are too many renewable energy solutions to be handled in a single article, I will only present you here the findings of the report …

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