Climate change is the most serious issue ever to have faced humanity. Rightly, it is now high on the public, political, media and business agendas. However, too much of the discussion is still about what we should not be doing or what we should be against. There is not enough discussion or information on solutions – what we can and should do to minimise dangerous climate change, and what should be done to make us not only safer and more secure, but also richer and happier.
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President Obama has again asked the US Congress to agree a budget which cuts the more than $40 billion in tax breaks for oil, gas and coal producers over the next decade. The president’s budget proposals are sensible and should be passed by Congress. But they won’t be. The left-right divide on climate in US politics is unnecessary.
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Global investment in renewables and energy efficiency increased 5% to $260 billion in 2011, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
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Philip Lowe, the Director General, Energy in the European Commission, has responded to my criticism of the EU’s Energy Roadmap.
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The European Commission should focus on proposing specific policies, rather than modelling different scenarios. It has done well with its energy efficiency proposal; now it should propose strengthening the ETS and setting a 2030 renewables target.
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Durban was better than Copenhagen and a bit better than Cancun. However, it was basically just an agreement to keep talking. Policy makers must not allow international negotiations to exclude progress on national and regional measures.
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Prashant and I agree about many things, but not about nuclear power. Climate Answers doesn’t seek to impose a party line – authors are free to write whatever they think is right.
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Three months after the Fukashima nuclear reactor caught fire, Germany decided to phase out nuclear power. The decision stunned Europe’s energy policy community. Nuclear presently provides a quarter of Germany’s electricity – how would it plug the gap?
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Prashant Vaze, my co-author of Repowering Communities, has been to visit some local renewable energy schemes in Germany and has written about one of them, Schönau im Schwarzwald. But do I agree with him on nuclear?
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According to the US Department of Energy, global energy use and carbon emissions are set to increase more than 50% by 2025. Demand in China and India is expected to escalate a combined 91%, with other developing countries close behind. Industrialised states’ needs’ are expected to grow by approximately one-third. Governments’ efforts to curb the resulting environmental effects are generally met with low expectations. Are SMRs a solution to this?
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Development charity, Practical Action, has created a new online campaign that asks people to make their point in support of energy for all.
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