Archive for green New Deal

I believe we are beginning this decade with a triple crisis as our economies are crumbling, our climate is warming and our energy supplies are getting scarcer.

This assessment of our situation seems pessimistic but it couldn’t be more accurate as it is based on the +700 articles I published here over the past three years. But nothing is lost yet. We still can act massively and fast worldwide.

The decade that just started will either be remembered as a time where people stood up to collectively address the problems or just failed at grabbing the opportunities we are offered. Continue »

Published on Monday, January 25, 2010

Green-jobs-forumAs I am still looking for a job in the cleantech sector I am attending today the Forum des Emplois Verts (French Green Jobs forum) in Paris where up to 2,000 jobs positions are proposed.

This is a fantastic opportunity since as I noted earlier the Boston Consulting Group believes the Grenelle de l’Environnement could create up to 600,000 jobs in France by 2020.

Among the companies present at this forum are Alstom, Areva, EDF, Peugeot Citroen (PSA) and GDF Suez, all major French companies.

Published on Tuesday, November 24, 2009

taj-mahal-indiaAccording to the Financial Times : ” India on Sunday night rebuffed an appeal (…) to embrace a low-carbon future in which the two countries would work together to devise new ways of consuming and producing energy. “

This puzzles me as I am sure the world’s largest democracy could with the proper government incentives become the biggest player in the cleantech sector as it already did in IT for the past 20 years.

I am currently reading Nandan Nilekani’s book Imagining India and the least I can write is that this book finishes to convince me that India could soon well become a major economic power. Continue »

Published on Tuesday, July 21, 2009

The Grenelle 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 to 20 million of apartments and houses need to be retrofitted in our country. The transportation and renewable energies would add  most of the other jobs.

But this study doesn’t stop there as it also notes that greenhouse emissions would decrease by 2020 by 27 % compared to 2005 levels, or 14 percent by 1990 levels. Continue »

Published on Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Global trends in sustainable energyThe United Nations published this week a compelling report on the investments in the green energy / clean tech sector last year. This shows that a real green New Deal is under way.

No less than $155 billion (110 billion €) have been invested last year in low carbon energy sources and efficiency. All this money added to the global grids 65 GW of solar, wind, hydro and other renewables.

This “arms race” will most likely continue for decades as many countries like India and China have plans to increase their reliance on these technologies. Continue »

Published on Thursday, June 4, 2009

Spanish Prime Minister, José Luis Rodriguez ZapateroBy reading the French daily Le Monde, I came across an interesting interview [Fr] of the Spanish Prime Minister, M. Zapatero. There he stated that one of the solutions to get his country out of economic trouble is green growth.

Several other countries including the United States, China and South Korea already did so and as much 430 billion dollars have been already allocated to green New Deals worldwide.

Well advanced in biotechnologies, the country is willing to work much more on energy efficiency and conservation, renewables and high speed trains. Continue »

Published on Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Green jobs now !If like many people you believe that green jobs are necessarily in the renewable energies industry or entitle you the position of Chief Sustainability Officer I have good news that will help you in your quest.

Indeed, both CleanTechnica and Earth2tech recently published articles on this very topic and their findings are interesting as they bring detailed analyzes of current and future trends.

Contrary to what many believe, green jobs aren’t reserved to engineers as many blue and white collars could become green. Continue »

Published on Friday, April 10, 2009

dollarsA recent Financial Times article caught my attention as it was written by both two eminent economists: Joseph Stiglitz and Nicholas Stern. This alone would represent an important event.

But the topic was even more interesting as it is an important call for action to tackle both the economic downturn and the climate change crisis. It is nice to see that  renown economists advocates such practices.

A Green New Deal has begun, but as I stated previously, we need to significantly increase the amounts of money allocated to sustainability. Continue »

Published on Tuesday, March 24, 2009

dollarsMany sites wrote about the Green New Deal which begun in the United States of America. With no less than $80 billion to be invested, this is significant. However little was written on HSBC’s latest findings.

To their experts: around 430 billion dollars are currently being invested in 15 countries in sustainability projects like clean tech or energy efficiency. These are excellent news!

There is no doubt this marks the beginning of a new era. More large projects will arise as more countries will launch green New Deals. Continue »

Published on Tuesday, March 3, 2009

unep-year-book-09I noted on October that the United Nations want a global green New Deal and their latest Year Book brings us more information on that as now we have an estimate of the money needed.

Dedicating one tiny single percent of the global GDP to combating water scarcity, climate change and biodiversity loss would enable us to avoid a lot of troubles in the near future.

This would represent the equivalent of a third of the global stimulus packages – worth no less than $2.5 trillion (2 trillion euros) – but would represent really sustainable investments. Continue »

Published on Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Let s socialize

Some random wisdom

We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us.

When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.
— Aldo Leopold