Green Energy

By Kerstine Appunn | – ( Clean Energy Wire ) – Experts from Germany’s environment ministry expect the global market for environmental technologies to grow by more than seven percent annually in the next ten years. The German sector is developing even more dynamically with average annual growth of more than eight percent, the environment […]

Climate Crisis

New US climate pledge: Cut emissions 50% this decade, but can Biden make it happen?

The Conversation

By Morgan Bazilian and David Victor | – President Joe Biden announced an ambitious new national climate target at a livestreamed summit of world leaders on April 22, 2021. He pledged to cut U.S. carbon emissions in half by the end of this decade and aim for net zero emissions by 2050. The new goal […]

Afghanistan

Afghanistan’s Green Future? Earth Minerals and Renewables

John Feffer

( Foreign Policy in Focus ) – Can Afghanistan’s mineral wealth finance a transition to a carbon-neutral future? By John Feffer | April 21, 2021 Everyone has a different Doomsday scenario for Afghanistan once U.S. and NATO troops withdraw by September 11. The Taliban will take over and reimpose their repressive social agenda. Al-Qaeda will […]

China

Despite Hawks Seeking new Cold War, the US and China can only Confront Climate Emergency by Cooperating

Juan Cole

( China Dialogue ) – They say don’t mess with Texas, but Mother Nature didn’t get the memo. A surprise winter storm killed at least 111 people in March, when rolling blackouts left several million Texans without power for several freezing days. Their misery came just a few years after Hurricane Harvey put a US$125 […]

China

New Wind and Solar up 50% globally in 2020, as China beats US by over 4 to 1

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The new report on 2020 by the International Renewable Energy Agency reveals that the world’s renewable energy generation capacity increased by an astonishing 10.3% in 2020 despite the global economic slowdown during the coronavirus pandemic. It beats the previous record for an annual increase in this sector by a healthy […]

Climate Crisis

Technology innovation gives government leverage to drive down CO2 emissions fast – here’s how

The Conversation

By Jessika E. Trancik | – To avert the worst effects of climate change, global greenhouse gas emissions should fall at faster rates than they have risen for over a century. Economies must essentially turn on a dime and then move quickly toward a carbon-free future. In the U.S., the Biden-Harris administration has recommitted the […]

Climate Crisis

Germany sees record greenhouse gas emission fall due to pandemic, renewables

Clean Energy Wire

By Kerstine Appunn and Julian Wettengel | – ( Clean Energy Wire) – Germany’s greenhouse gas emissions dropped nearly nine percent in 2020 – the largest annual fall since 1990 – as the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic pushed down the use of fossil fuels and added to the effects of the shift to renewable […]

Climate Crisis

America is ‘Can-do’ again: Biden’s $3 trillion infrastructure Plan includes $500 bn for Green Energy and Transit and Massive Innovation

Juan Cole

Jeff Stein and Tyler Pager at WaPo report that $500 billion of the proposed $3 trillion Biden infrastructure plan, or 16 percent, will be devoted to dealing with climate change. They write, “The infrastructure component is expected to include $400 billion in spending to combat climate change, including $60 billion for infrastructure related to green […]

Coal

As Solar, Wind costs Plummet, Coal, Gas vastly Over-priced in Bubble that could Burst worse than 2008

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – A new report by RethinkX, a think tank using the ideas of Tony Seba, who teaches Business at Stanford University, demonstrates that the value of fossil fuels and of the electric plants they fuel is vastly overstated by government agencies and financial analysts. Seba and his colleagues point out that […]