30 March, 2007
A new US Congress report has taken a close look at “peak oil” and concluded that the US government has no strategy in place to minimise the economic consequences of reaching the maximum level of oil production. At least, the Americans politiians are studying the possible implications of peak oil which is more than can… » read more
Posted by Willy De Backer
With a new Green Paper, the European Commission has started a debate on the use of market-based instruments such as eco-taxes to reach its climate change and energy security targets. One of the objectives is to convince EU member states to shift taxation burdens from labour unto the environment and energy. But as taxation decisions… » read more
Posted by Willy De Backer
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Climate change, Energy efficiency, energy security, European Union |
27 March, 2007
George Monbiot argues on his Guardian blog today that there should be a five-year freeze on the use of biofuels for transport. Pointing to the environmental and social effects of first-generation biofuels production in developing countries, Monbiot makes the case for a moratorium “on all targets and incentives for biofuels, until a second generation of… » read more
Posted by Willy De Backer
I came across three interesting reports this week: Richard Heinberg reports on the Global Public Media blog that the German Energy Watch group is about to publish a very worrying report on the future of coal world coal reserves. According the the energy experts of the group, global coal reserves are much smaller than generally… » read more
Posted by Willy De Backer
23 March, 2007
Commission President Barroso clearly has a good doctor who helped him shake off his climate change fever as quickly as you and I can say “European emissions trading scheme”. In an article in the British Telegraph yesterday, Barroso is said to have taken the side of all these innocent citizens who might become victim to… » read more
Posted by Willy De Backer
21 March, 2007
“The best way to deal with gas issues, is that these should be based on free-market conditions” was the non-answer an EU commission spokesperson provided when I asked clarification yesterday on new media stories that major gas producers are likely to set up an OPEC-like gas-cartel on 9 April in Doha, Qatar. It seems the… » read more
Posted by Willy De Backer
18 March, 2007
The fifth European Business Summit, held from 15-16 March in Brussels, showed EU business leaders in an optimistic mood about the Union’s economic upturn but worried and confused about climate change. After 5 years of gloom and doom about the loss of competitiveness and economic growth, there was a much more upbeat atmosphere amongst the… » read more
Posted by Willy De Backer
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Climate change, energy security, Peak oil, resource depletion |
13 March, 2007
The EU’s emissions trading scheme (ETS), the center piece of the EU’s climate change strategy, is hailed by decision makers as the most cost-effective market-based solution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. But the ETS 1.0 has clearly shown its weaknesses and therefore the Commission is preparing ETS 2.0. But if it is true that climate… » read more
Posted by Willy De Backer
For environmentalists, UK politics these days looks like the famous Grimm fairy tale as the Labour Party and the Tory Conservatives are battling it out to be the greenest political formation of the country. In all that maneuvering, one could forget that there is a third (Lib Dems) and even a fourth (Greens) party for… » read more
Posted by Willy De Backer
11 March, 2007
The EU’s political leaders used big words such as “historic” after their 2007 Spring Summit. Are they correct? Has the EU tanker made a new turn which will gradually allow it to win back the trust of its citizens? As always, trying to evaluate the outcome of such summits is like gauging whether the glass… » read more
Posted by Willy De Backer
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Climate change, energy security, European Union, Low-carbon economy |
