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EU-Russia on energy access: liberalisation or justified interest protection?

31 August, 2007

I collected a few interesting blogosphere reactions to yesterday’s FT news that the European Commission will restrict Russian access to the European gas- and electricity transmission networks when it will present new proposals for further liberalisation of the energy market on 19 September [see story on EurActiv and original news on the Financial Times]. On the… » read more

Posted by Willy De Backer

energy nationalism, European Union, Globalisation, Russia, Sovereign Investment Funds

More questions for big oil companies

30 August, 2007

In a recent post, we drew attention to David Strahan’s controversial prediction that “Western big oil companies are heading for liquidation”. Today, even the conservative Wall Street Journal is asking questions about the future of big oil. According to the article written by Sacha Kumaria, senior advisor to the Center for Energy Studies at Cambridge… » read more

Posted by Willy De Backer

Oil companies, Shell, Statoil

Chinese light bulbs and sustainability

I am a bit surprised today to see WWF taking the side of globalisation champion Peter Mandelson, as the European Commission decided to retain its duties on energy-efficient light bulbs imported from China for one more year. The Commission decided to give in to its Vice-President, Günther Verheugen, who had been defending the anti-dumping duties to… » read more

Posted by Willy De Backer

China, Energy efficiency

Preparing for the Bali climate top – 1

26 August, 2007

Technorati Tags: Bali, climate change, global warming, Kyoto Although I have expressed my deep scepticism about the “climate travelling circus” taking place under the auspices of the UNFCCC [Wikipedia], I would like to keep my readers informed about the preparatory inter-governmental discussions in the runup to the COP13 meeting in Bali from 3-14 December 2007.… » read more

Posted by Willy De Backer

Climate change, Global Warming

German government reaches climate compromise

23 August, 2007

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government is to hold a special “Klausur” meeting to agree an “integrated climate change/enery package” on 23-24 August. Environment minister Sigmar Gabriel and economy minister Michael Glos reached a compromise one day before the meeting after having been at loggerheads for months. The measures of the deal should lead to a 36%… » read more

Posted by Willy De Backer

Climate change, energy security, Global Warming

Of parachutes and climate change

21 August, 2007

Most of my readers will know by now that Herman Daly [Wikipedia] [Encyclopedia of the Earth] is one of my long-time heroes. When I started reading him in the beginning of the eighties, I came to understand the weaknesses of classical economics and the promise of ecological economics. His diagnosis of the established economics paradigm… » read more

Posted by Willy De Backer

Climate change, Energy and Climate Change, Global Warming, sustainability

Forget "Unconvenient Truth" and go see "The 11th Hour"

20 August, 2007

I am looking forward to the opening of the movie “The 11th hour” in Belgium. Produced and narrated by Hollywood’s Leonardo diCaprio, the movie, according to the WorldChanging blog, “picks up where An Inconvenient Truth left off by drawing the connections between seemingly disparate environmental and humanitarian issues (global warming, deforestation, poverty, globalization, etc.) and… » read more

Posted by Willy De Backer

Climate change, sustainability

New attack on EU biofuels policy

In an article in the magazine Science, a team of UK researchers has attacked the European Union’s ambitious biofuels targets (10% by 2020) saying reforestation would be a much better way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The researchers from Leeds University and the World Land Trust calculated that new forests would absorb nine times the amount of… » read more

Posted by Willy De Backer

Bio-energy, Biofuels, Climate change

Lessons from the financial crash

17 August, 2007

The current turmoil hitting the financial markets might have a few interesting lessons for those political and economic leaders who keep denying the reality of declining natural resources (peak oil, gas, coal etc.). First of all, just like the peak resources deniers, the financial “experts” and the “establishment economists” have for years underestimated the risks of deregulated globalised… » read more

Posted by Willy De Backer

Economics, Peak oil, resource depletion

News Alerts: peak phosphorus; German government fights over climate plans

14 August, 2007

The Energy Bulletin has two articles on the declining reserves of phosphorus, one of the essential nutrients for our global agriculture and food system. According to studies done by physicist Patrick Déry, the production of phosphorus peaked in 1989. Unless we learn to create a cycle of nutrients (recycling phosphates and other nutrients), our global… » read more

Posted by Willy De Backer

Climate change, Global Warming, resource depletion

3E Intelligence

News, analysis and comments on energy, environment and sustainability policies


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