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.

Is Australia doing enough on climate change ?

To Ecogeek, Australia plans to soon install a 1 gigawatt wind farm and this kind of project is due to be followed by more as the country plans to have 20 percent of its electricity coming from renewables by 2020. This seems to be great but the current discussions at the local Senate are being […]

Is Australia doing enough on climate change ? Read More »

Over a billion hungry people

Thanks to my good friend Daryl from Verda Vivo – a must read blog – I came accross another worrying fact: the amount of hungry people around the world is increasing and to the FAO will reach a historic level with a billion people in 2009. I already blogged last year about this very topic

Over a billion hungry people Read More »

Is Desertec a sound idea ?

The fact has been known for years:  harvesting the energy provided by the sun to a tiny fraction of the Earth could supply all the energy Humankind needs without greenhouse gases emissions or pollution due to operation. This week many blogs and websites published articles on Desertec, a foundation that would like to install many

Is Desertec a sound idea ? Read More »

Impacts of climate change in the United States

A new report presented by the U.S. Global Change Research Program present the numerous impacts climate change will have in the country. The least one can say after reading is that the situation is worrying. Already experiencing extreme phenomenons such as wildfires, droughts and floods the USA could see an increase in their magnitude. An

Impacts of climate change in the United States Read More »

Fighting desertification matters

Today is the World Day to Combat Desertification, an initiative raising awareness about this important phenomenon which decreases the amount of water, food and place available to both Nature and Mankind. As the UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner noted: “Land degradation threatens nearly a billion people in some 100 countries and it is estimated that

Fighting desertification matters Read More »

The Grenelle could create up to 600,000 jobs

Les Echos [Fr], the French leading financial newspaper brought my attention to a study published by the Boston Consulting Group stating that the Grenelle de l’environnement could create up to 600,000 jobs in France in the very next years. The majority of the job creations are due to occur in the building sector as up

The Grenelle could create up to 600,000 jobs Read More »

Is this really a problem of rhetoric ?

Mankind as a whole – and particularly its leaders – is slow on acting against climate change, an issue that could be its doom if nothing was done fast and big to avoid the worst crises. Recently several articles – including on Grist and Dot Earth  – have been published wondering if this fact was

Is this really a problem of rhetoric ? Read More »

Renewables due to boom in South America

Recently two Latin America countries unveiled large renewable energies plans. If those projects were to become reality, they would bring several gigawatts of clean energy to the continent. Argentina is very ambitious as it plans to build a wind farm that will amount for 600 to 900 MW as well as an impressive solar park that

Renewables due to boom in South America Read More »

Could we unpave our streets ?

In a recent article Franke James was wondering ” Why do we cover up the earth with impermeable materials that stop the rain from going into the ground and require expensive sewers? According to the Chicago Green Alleys Handbook quoted by Franke, unpaving our streets would bring many advantages such as reducing localized flooding, recharging groundwater

Could we unpave our streets ? Read More »

French carbon tax delayed to 2011

To the AFP:  ” The French government on Wednesday kickstarted plans for a so-called carbon tax on energy-hungry products, to be rolled out by 2011 as part of France’s efforts to slash global warming emissions. “ (…) ”  President Nicolas Sarkozy’s government has said it hopes to shift part of French taxes from labour towards

French carbon tax delayed to 2011 Read More »