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.

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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An interesting geoengineering idea

I was previously noting that  the Sahara desert is slowly turning green. To a new study hurrying the process and extending it to the Australian outback by planting eucalyptus trees (left) could absorb our global CO2 emissions. Indeed this geoengineering idea would absorb eight billion tons of carbon a year. But we shouldn’t forget that

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The USA and China cooperate on climate change

Last week two different news about how the two countries responsible for more than 40 percent of the global greenhouse gases emissions could sign an agreement in November and work together on greentech. To the New York Times a deal on climate change could be signed in November when President Obama will visit China. No

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Australian per capita emissions larger than US

It is a well known fact : American per capita greenhouse gases emissions are among the world’s highest because of massive consumption of both oil and coal. But to a new study Australian per capita emissions are exceeding the US. One of the main reason is the country’s electricity production which mostly comes from the

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Book Review: Sustainable energy – without the hot air

I finished reading this weekend a book I strongly recommend to anyone interested by sustainable development and energy as it is packed with figures and findings that are due to start discussions among CleanTechies. One of the main findings of this book is that electrifying our cars and installing heat pumps in our buildings would

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Japan to cut GHG emissions by 25 percent

To the Financial Times, Yukio Hatoyama – the incoming Japanese prime minister – announced that his country will cut by 25 percent its greenhouse gases emissions by 2020 compared to 1990 levels. Even if this still below the IPCC’s recommendations – rich countries must cut their emissions between 30 and 40 percent by 2020 –

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Romania builds largest onshore wind farm in EU

This just broke in : Romania will have in 2011 the largest onshore wind farm in the European Union with 240 wind turbines accounting for no less than 600 MW of installed capacity. This 1.1 billion Euro ($1.6 billion) project is done in order to offset the emissions of the dirty coal fired plants of

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Deforestation in Brazil decreases by 46 percent

To the pictures taken by satellites the annual rate of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest have dropped by no less than 46 percent this year. If these figures were confirmed by ground data this would prove significant. These figures are the lowest since record keeping begun 21 years ago and can be explained by the

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Indian greenhouse gases emissions to triple

The Indian government announced it on last week and the news spread around the world as to their analyses the country’s greenhouse gases emissions are due to at least triple by the next twenty years. One might think this is huge, but not that much as the country’s emissions are accounting for five percent of

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More on the UK Low Carbon Transition Plan

My post on the UK Low Carbon Transition Plan in July was short, way too short for such a news as a major economy is committing itself to cut its greenhouse gases emissions by 34 percent by 2020 compared to 1990 levels. Using all means at its disposal – energy efficiency, renewables, nuclear, electric cars,

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