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 !
Yes, you read that right : twelve (12!) billion trees have been planted within the UNEP Billion Tree Campaign. The landmark was reached in November in Kenya. (Was it an homage to Wangari Maathai ?) To the official website :
” China is the leading participating country, having planted a total of 2.8 billion trees under the campaign. India is currently in second place with 2.1 billion trees, followed by Ethiopia, Mexico and Turkey. “
I am starting to wonder how all these trees will impact climate change ? In any case, their effect can’t be negative. Now, let’s plant even more trees. The campaign is willing to reach 14 billion !
Just as Grist is asking if Germany did the right move on nuclear – here is as a reminder my opinion piece on Cleantechies – several bad news for the industry of this energy source got my attention this week.
First and foremost, the reactor number 2 of Fukushima ” had probably experienced “spontaneous” fission “ according to an official quoted by the Agence France Presse.
Furthermore, it has been estimated that fully decommissioning Fukushima could take no less than 30 years. All this could have terrible consequences for the whole industry. Continue »
While browsing old articles on Sustainablog, I found one that I particularly liked on successful huge reforestation projects. I learned many cool things and thought that was well worth a post.
” Governments, NGOs, and even for-profit companies recognize the environmental and economic losses caused by deforestation, and are working to restore the health of these important ecosystems.”
This reminds me of an old post I published in 2009 about afforestation projects. Meanwhile, the Billion Tree Campaign is nearing 12 billion planted trees. This is absolutely stunning ! Continue »
To CleanTechies developing nations will install more than 22,000 MW of wind power capacity in 2010. Of course, China is behind an important part of this, but countries like India, Mexico are also moving forward on clean energy.
“If policy ambition has stalled in the industrialized world, it has if anything accelerated this year in key emerging markets,“ wrote HSBC Global Research in a recent Cancun policy brief.
To Ceres, developing nations will indeed install more wind power capacity than developed ones, thus showing that cleantech isn’t an industry dedicated to wealthy nations. Continue »
This weekend ended the 16th conference of parties (COP16) due to prepare the future of the Kyoto Protocol. Albeit it didn’t end as badly as the Copenhagen meeting did, we are still pretty far from solving the climate / energy equation.
In today’s post I propose you a selection of the most interesting articles related to this event that lasted no less than two weeks and brought forward some progress, notably on forests with REDD+. (cf. my previous post on the matter).
This was a critical success but the road to solving the coming triple crisis (peaking fossil fuel resources, massive unemployment and climate change) is still long. Continue »
I recently subscribed to Courrier International, a French weekly newspaper which translates and publishes articles from over 900 international newspapers. Recently it proposed an article on Mario Molina, the Mexican Nobel prize.
This is how I came to read about today’s story in Nature magazine : ” Molina’s great challenge is to help Mexico City to reach its goal of becoming the greenest megacity in Latin America. It is a tall order.”
The full article is ripe with interesting ideas that could be replicated in cities of the developed and developing nations around the world. Continue »
You may not remember it, but the Copenhagen climate talks will be followed by a series of conferences in Cancun, Mexico between November 29 and December 10. Contrary to Copenhagen, little is currently said about the preparations.
And the media aren’t encouraging. To AP : ” In two days of talks, major economic powers discussed ways to move ahead in slowing and coping with climate change, but no one sees a grand global deal anywhere on the horizon “
“(…) no one is expecting or anticipating in any way a legal treaty to be done at Cancun this year.” This situation is puzzling as there are many reasons to act fast and big. Continue »
Biodiversity is a vital issue to us all as to the United Nations the disappearance of both fauna and floral species costs six percent of the world GDP, or more than $3,100 billion (2,000 billion euros) per year.
The Mother Nature Network published recently a splendid infographic with the Top 20 countries with most endangered species. The list is as impressive as it is truly scary.
This is another issue to be tackled fast as even if “only” 900 species disappeared over five centuries, we are currently on the verge of losing 10,000 in a short period of time. Continue »
The Copenhagen climate conference failed in preparing the future of the Kyoto Protocol. This is even more enraging as at first positive signs kept on piling : the United States and many developing nations proclamed they would act.
I saw it coming as still too many are elected representatives around the world that don’t understand the benefits a strong climate change accord could bring us all in terms of employment and sustainable energy.
I won’t point fingers at any particular country or group of countries as I believe this is a collective failure. In today’s post you will find a selection of links on this event. Continue »
India, the most populated nation and largest democracy announced it would cut its greenhouse gases emissions by 20 to 25 percent by 2020 or 2030. As you can see, the targets are very wide.
This happens as China decided to cuts the carbon intensity of its growth by 40 to 45 percent by 2020. CleanTechies also noted that ” Mexico, Indonesia, Brazil and South Africa have already announced plans to reduce their carbon outputs.”
All these news make me more comfortable about the Copenhagen Climate Conference due to begin next week. We will see what will happen there, so stay tuned !
