“There is no silver bullet to solve the climate/energy crisis” is one of theses phrases which can be heard over and over again in each and every energy debate in Brussels. Most of the times, the phrase is used by someone who wants to push his or her own silver bullet, be it nuclear, CCS [...]

Friends of Europe’s annual energy summit (held on 30 October) saw tough exchanges between CCS defenders and the renewable energy sector but kept dodging the real question: can we solve the climate/energy crisis without questioning our economic growth and development paradigm?
Energy commissioner Andris Piebalgs, as expected, defended his commission resolve not to “deviate” from the [...]

The energy-and-climate-crisis deniers are having a hell of a party these days. The financial crash has raised their hopes that global warming, peak oil and all the other “humbug” will finally be kicked off the political agenda. One climate policy “monitor” even served us the ludicrous title: “EU: saving the economy or saving green dreams?”
Unfortunately, [...]

I am not Al Gore and therefore cannot provide you with the “inconvenient truth” but there are a few inconvenient questions that have started to vex me recently as I am thinking and reading more about our global sustainability problematique.
Let’s start with a few of my beliefs in order to put my inconvenient questions [...]

Eric Grover’s recent contribution to BlogActiv (“Global-warming theology threatens freedom and prosperity”) is a useful example of the denial strategy of the few left-over climate sceptics. Its polemic tone (“global-warming theology”, “romantic environmentalists”, Kyoto as a ploy to undermine the US economy, “Taliban global-warming religionists” who are as dangerous as “resurgent Islamic ideology”) is meant [...]

How can Europe lead on the necessary transition to a carbon-constrained economic future when the policy measures needed might undermine the competitiveness of European industries? This was the subject of a major conference “Towards a global low carbon economy” organised as the closing event of the EU Commission’s high-level group on competitiveness, energy and the [...]

Three American political commentators do not see global warming as one of the defining issues for the upcoming presidential campaign. The next president will probably be chosen on the basis of personality and domestic issues unless there is a new terrorist attack before November 2008.
The three journalists, Rick Burke (NY Times), Carroll Doherty (Pew Research [...]

I was in London yesterday attending the launch of the International Energy Agency’s World Energy Outlook 2007 and I must admit that the report shocked me (because of its content) but also positively surprised me (because of the new ”soft” realism of the IEA)
The new Outlook states in cautious and, of course, more diplomatic words that our world is increasingly on a [...]

The Institute for European Environmental Policy has published a new report showing the link between car use, climate change and obesity. The report (paid for by Greenpeace) recommends to promote walking and banning cars around schools. More on this in the BBC News.
A remarkable story in Business Intelligence Middle East: according to the IEA, the [...]

For all the political rhetoric about the urgency to fight climate change, political and economic elites still do not seem to understand the full ramifications of our global crisis. This is illustrated once more by the revolt of six “new” EU member states (Latvia, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Estonia) against the Commission’s decision [...]