Welcome ! As a young French Marketing professional with a Master's in International Management I have been selecting since January 2007 the latest headlines and best researches on sustainable development, climate change, cleantech and the world energy sector. Sounds great ? Don't hesitate to subscribe now !
We already saw that solar PV is due to compete in terms of costs with fossil fuels by around 2017 as this energy source is gaining momentum so fast that the Holy Grail – grid parity – might soon be within reach. These are sure great news…
But there is more as to Bloomberg New Energy Finance : ” The cost of electricity from onshore wind turbines will drop 12% in the next five years thanks to a mix of lower-cost equipment and gains in output efficiency. “
” The best wind farms in the world already produce power as economically as coal, gas and nuclear generators; the average wind farm will be fully competitive by 2016 “
To Bloomberg : ” Japan approved a bill today to subsidize electricity from renewable sources, joining European nations in shifting away from nuclear power after the Fukushima reactor meltdowns in March.”
” (…) The bill allows for incentives that guarantee above-market rates for wind, solar and geothermal energy. The so-called feed- in tariff created a race to install solar panels when implemented in Germany and Spain.”
” (…) Solar panels had capacity to produce about 3.68 gigawatts of power at the end of last year in Japan, and the government is targeting 28 gigawatts by 2020.”
Here we go again… New climate talks, same disappointment. Preliminary talks took place in Bonn, Germany, to discuss the future of the Kyoto Protocol, which will end next year. To the Guardian, the negotiations aren’t progressing :
Even if they are making progress on ” technical issues “, countries are ” still nowhere near agreement in the three key areas of finance, greenhouse gas emission cuts and the future of the Kyoto protocol. “
Most if not all countries see the current financial and economic crises as excuses for delaying action when they are contrarily to what they think reasons to push the cleantech and energy revolution forward ! Continue »
We have seen previously that large investors completely understand how climate change mitigation is critical. Last year, more than 200 investors representing $13 trillion in assets demanded action on climate.
Now, according to the United Nations, the movement is growing to 259 investors with $15 trillion in assets. This represents over a quarter of global market capitalization…
If companies like Allianz and HSBC are willing to act, why are some countries still stalling progress on this vital topic ? Why can’t they just follow the examples of the European Union and many others ? Continue »
The Guardian published last week a most interesting series of articles on a report to be published this year by the United Nations and Trucost which estimates the damages on the environment to $2.2 trillion per year.
To the newspaper ” the activities of the world’s 3,000 biggest companies estimates one-third of profits would be lost if firms were forced to pay for use, loss and damage of environment”
This poses an important question: Are we ready to pay for the damages done to the environment ? This question leads to many others on our societies and economies. Continue »
Some believe that with the current economic crises we can’t afford to spend extra money on climate change mitigation or on the protection of the environment. However various recent studies show exactly the opposite.
In today’s article will see how and why this is possible. This occurs just a few days after I wrote on how investors demand strong climate change action and how Big Business steps into climate change mitigation
More and more understand that fighting climate change harder than what we are currently doing would not only prevent overwhelming expenses but would also enable us to make billions globally. Continue »
