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 !
I have recently noted that cleantech is booming globally, but what does it mean for Africa ? In today’s post I will try to give a few answers to this crucial question as still 600 million Africans have no access to electricity.
To a study titled Mega Trends in Africa: A bright vision for the growing continent ” Investment in renewable power in Africa is set to grow from a total of US$3.6-billion in 2010 to $57-billion by 2020. “
I have found several other articles on cleantech in Africa in the past few weeks. Let’s review the main ones. Continue »
The 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) which is starting today in Durban, South Africa is THE event to follow during the next two weeks.
According to Dr. Rajendra Pachauri ” Global climate talks need to focus on the growing threat from extreme weather and shift away from political squabbles that hobble progress toward a tougher pact to rein in greenhouse gas emissions. “
Indeed, time is almost up if we want to have a chance to fix the various problems we are facing, and fixing them relatively without too much problems.
To TreeHugger : ” If (the) Kyoto Protocol dies at COP17 climate talks, so does our climate “. This article reminds us that the next round of UNFCC climate talks will start in less than two months in Durban, South Africa.
It also reminds us that it is the only law we have on a global level on climate and that even if the United States are still not part of the process it is working (quite) well as developed nations decreased their emissions since 1990.
Due to end in 2012, the Kyoto Protocol might not be perfect but really got us moving on climate and energy issues. Continue »
To the AFP : ” Brazil, South Africa, India and China said Saturday that November’s UN climate talks should aim to extend the Kyoto Protocol, the only binding global deal to cut greenhouse gases. “
” The four key emerging powers – seen as critical to the success of any future effort to combat climate change – said keeping Kyoto alive should be the “central priority” at the key UN summit in South Africa. “
” The bloc released the statement after two days of talks in southeast Brazil to prepare for the next UN climate conference scheduled to take place in Durban from November 28 to December 9. “ Continue »
The main problem with renewables today is scale. Even if they are growing faster and faster, we very rarely see projects that will bring more than a few hundred megawatts to the grids. But it is changing.
Indeed, to CleanTechies, South Africa will soon build a five gigawatt park where technologies in photovoltaic and concentrated solar power will be tested. We are talking about 21.3 billion dollars investment. (15 billion euros)
For more, please refer to the article published by the Agence France Pressed (AFP) today. It brings further details on what might be the world’s largest solar plant.
Since Friday millions of people – me included – are following the 2010 Football FIFA World Cup which is taking place this year in South Africa. It will last one full month.
This event will have according to EU Infrastructure a carbon footprint of 2.7 millions tons of carbon dioxide. Out of this 1.9 million tons will be emitted by visitors in international transport.
A further 484,000 tons will be emitted by the inter-city transport. “ This leaves the World Cup with a carbon footprint twice as big as the 2008 Beijing Olympics. “
We all know it : coal is by far the most greenhouse gases emitting energy source. It is also a major air pollutant. For these two reasons it is the environmental enemy #1. (cf The Economist’s cover, back to 2002)
However, many countries like China, India, Germany or the United States are still relying importantly on this solution to generate their electricity, and some of them to astronomic proportions.
TreeHugger recently published a list of the ten countries that burn coal the most according to the data provided by the US Department of Energy (DoE). 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 !
