Author name: Edouard

Edouard is an experienced sustainability and energy professional committed to bringing our societies to a carbon neutral future. He has been writing on related topics on this very blog since 2007.

An image is worth a thousand words

Nothing could be more true with infographics as they combine data and images. As Cool Infographics notes  “Charts and graphs can communicate data; Infographics turn data into information.” This is a fantastic tool to understand complex topics like energy in general or for example how the United States rely too much on foreign oil and  […]

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10 reasons to support nuclear power

Warning: This is an old post from 2009, before the catastrophe of Fukushima, Japan and before the sharp decrease of prices for both solar and wind. I have since then changed my position on nuclear, cf Five reasons to oppose nuclear. Some points below however, remain valid. 

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International Day of Climate Action

Today is special as 350 is organizing the International Day of Climate Action. In 181 countries over 5200 events are taking place for the most widespread day of environmental action in the planet’s history. 350 is “ an international campaign dedicated to building a movement to unite the world around solutions to the climate crisis–the

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Does the European Union really leads on climate ?

Some six weeks ahead of Copenhagen, the Guardian published an article on how the European Union believes it is taking the lead on climate change mitigation. At first I was quite optimistic with the title. However there is nothing new: the EU is still willing to cut by 20 percent its emissions by 2020 and

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IEA believes carbon capture and storage is crucial

The International Energy Agency recently released a report on how carbon capture and storage (CCS) could account for 19 percent of the greenhouse gases emissions cuts needed by 2050. The IEA specialists believe Mankind would need to install up to 3,000 plants by 2050. This however might prove to be a problem as CCS is

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We now need war time effort at war time speed

During World War II, posters were advocating a series of efforts to civilian populations to conserve energy. Similarly cars industries were producing tanks. What was done in the US in the 1940s now has to be done on a global scale. Avoiding catastrophic climate change now needs war time effort at war time speed. Governments,

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United Kingdom may need to import cereals

I am absolutely no fan of biofuels, and am even believing they are more a problem than a solution as still hundreds of millions people are starving. It seems that it could also pose problem in the richest nations. Indeed, Green Inc. noted that the United Kingdom may have to resort to cereals imports in

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Could America tax gas more and fund cleantech?

For my latest post for CleanTechies I propose a reflection further to an interesting op ed Thomas L. Friedman wrote on the New York Times on why America should tax more gasoline. As I noted earlier US drivers pay less than ten euro cents per liter of tax when their German, British, Italian, Turkish or

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Why heat pumps are a fantastic idea

As Eurobserv’ER published a market barometer for heat pumps I thought it might be the occasion to have a look at this most interesting and promising technology which already accounts for nearly 9 GW th of capacity in Europe. With over 100,000 systems installed every year throughout the European Union, heat pumps can both heat

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Healthy oceans matter in climate

A new report published by many agencies of the United Nations – including the FAO, the UNEP and the UNESCO – shows that maintaining healthy oceans is a vital topic for climate change mitigation. Indeed, more than half of the carbon dioxide captured by Nature is captured by oceans and seas. Coastal ecosystems like mangroves

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