Act on climate or be left behind, says Stern
ONE of the world's leading climate change experts, Sir Nicholas Stern, has warned countries such as Australia will face future trade barriers unless it moves to a low-carbon economy.
In a speech to the National Press Club yesterday, Lord Stern said the world should embrace what he called the ''new industrial revolution'' of cleaner technologies and renewable energy.
''Not participating in this new industrial revolution runs two types of risk: you drop behind technologically and you risk, not tomorrow or the next day but 10 or so years from now, finding real difficulty in the trade story,'' he said. ''Ten or 15 years from now, those that produce in dirty ways are likely to face trade barriers.''
Click here for full storyA major report handed to the United Nations in New York overnight recommends a big shake-up of the way the international body's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is run.
Click here for full storyAUSTRALIA is failing to meet its international responsibilities by delaying the introduction of an emissions trading scheme, Mike Rann said yesterday.
Click here for full storyWIND farm investment is suffering from a ''bust'' due to complex policy changes and uncertainty over government responses to climate change, says Infigen Energy.
Click here for full storyProjects to advance solar, geothermal and bio-energy in Victoria will now have access to a $30 million grant scheme, as the Brumby government pushes its green credentials before the November election.
Click here for full storyThe Joint Venture Nordsee Nassbagger- und Tiefbau Gmbh – GeoSea NV, both of them members of the Belgian dredging, marine engineering and environmental Group DEME, has been awarded two different contracts for prepiling and installation works to construct both the EnBW Baltic 2 wind farm, 32 km north of the island of Rügen, and the Trianel West Borkum II wind farm, 45 km north of the East Frisian Island Borkum in German waters.
Click here for full storyAustralia’s clean energy industry urges Federal Independent MPs to back whichever party will deliver a carbon price as soon as possible and provide the optimal conditions for investment in renewable energy.
Click here for full storyMost of Germany's energy demand can be met through renewable sources by 2050 but this is dependent on agreeing ambitious, multi-billion euro expenditure, according to the conclusions of a government-commissioned report into the country's future energy policy.
Click here for full storyDutch builder Ballast Nedam announced on Monday an order to lay down the foundations of the Anholt wind farm in Denmark. The Dutch company has signed a contract with A2SEA A/S for the use of its heavy lift vessel (HLV) Svanen in the construction of the Anholt offshore wind farm in Denmark, without providing financial details.
Click here for full storyShell and Cosan, one of the world’s largest sugarcane ethanol companies based in Brazil, signed binding agreements to form a $12 billion joint venture for the production and commercialization of ethanol and power from sugar cane. The resulting joint venture, if completed, will be the third largest ethanol producer in the world with 4,500 retail stations and annual production capacity of 2 billion liters (440 million gallons).
Click here for full storyGerman chancellor Angela Merkel has announced an extension to the nation's nuclear power plant operations for up to 15 years beyond a scheduled phase-out, in a move critics fear might signal that atomic power is here to stay.
Click here for full storyOne of the UK's most radical environmental policies – requiring all new homes from 2016 to be "zero carbon" – is set to be scaled back amid pressure from the housebuilding industry.
Click here for full storyINDEPENDENT MP Tony Windsor wants the next government to implement policies that will encourage ethanol use in cars.
Click here for full storyCLIVE Hamilton's latest foray into the climate debate ("MPs' obligation is to the planet", Commentary, 28-29/8) reinforces the need for better media scrutiny of dogmatic calls for "urgent action" to reduce carbon emissions which have, for two electoral cycles now, dominated political debate beyond all reason.
Click here for full storyEnvironmentalists have criticised a UK government report stating that the North Sea could store 100 years worth of carbon for focusing too much on old, coal-driven power rather than embracing renewable energy sources.
Click here for full storyDry water might sound like an oxymoron but the concept is pretty straightforward: encapsulate microdrops of water in silica (otherwise known as common sand) to form a substance that looks like powdered sugar, then sit back and watch the fun. Though it was first discovered in 1968, the unique properties of dry water are only recently being recognized as an important tool for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Click here for full storyDespite the drought, few in the rural region of Guyra support the Greens, fearing tax increases if climate change rules the national agenda.
Click here for full storyIt seems, on the face of it, a particularly stupid question - given we don't yet know who won this federal election. And given the glacier-like pace of negotiations between the major parties and the independents and Greens, history may eventually describe this poll as the 2010-2011 election.
Click here for full storyHopes surged this week that a swing to the Greens will result in meaningful action on climate change in the new Parliament. On the Climate Spectator website, Fiona Wain, the head of the Environment Business Australia think tank, urged the crossbenchers to grasp the "unprecedented opportunity in their hands - to help re-attract investment lost by the Rudd-Gillard deferral of putting a price on carbon".
Click here for full storyTHE NSW Government's solar bonus scheme, which pays householders for the electricity they generate from their rooftop panels, has proved so popular it has reached a 50-megawatt milestone 18 months before expected.But experts have warned that it is too generous and too short-term to encourage the industry investment in solar that is vital for a renewable energy future.They argue the scheme must be expanded to include commercial customers, not just small-scale residential properties.
Click here for full storyNew research from Eurostat, the statistical office of the EU, has shed light on how each country is coping with meeting their quota, with some faring much better than others. According to the figures, Sweden was found to have the highest share of renewable energy in total consumption in 2008, with 44.4 per cent of its resources coming from the likes of biomass and wind power. Other top performers in the research included Finland (30.5 per cent), Latvia (29.9 per cent), Austria (28.5 per cent) and Portugal (23.2 per cent)....... As the biomass industry in Europe builds momentum within a complex legislative environment it highlights the need for a collective discussion of leading minds from both a government and industry perspective. Energy IQ has done just this by producing the EU Biomass Forum with the objective to shape debate on European policy, feedstock availability and the economic feasibility of biomass projects.
Click here for full storyThe International Energy Agency said Norwegian hydropower could provide the reliable base Europe needs to invest in solar, wind and other renewable energy forms and urged Norway to expand cable links to other countries.
Click here for full storyWind and solar power could become the world's main sources of energy, a Nobel-prize winning scientist suggests. The global photovoltaic energy production increased by a factor of about 90 and wind energy by a factor of about 10 over the last decade.
Click here for full storyA major Chinese generator manufacturer is in Northern Ireland to explore investment opportunities which could create over 600 jobs in the renewable energy sector. XEMC (Xiangtan Electrical Manufacturing Corporation), whose visit to the province is its first to the UK, said it was considering locating its European wind turbine assembly plant and blade factory in Northern Ireland.
Click here for full storyE3 Technologies, LLC, a new firm based in Athens, Ohio, will develop an Ohio University invention called the “GreenBox” designed to clean commercial and agricultural wastewater and produce hydrogen energy -- a technology that’s been described as “pee power.”
Click here for full storyEDF Energies Nouvelles SA, the renewable-energy arm of Electricite de France SA, fell to a one- month low in Paris trading after the government cut tariffs for solar power.
Click here for full storyPlanning processes for renewable energy projects will be streamlined with Victorian councils receiving support to administer wind farm permits, the State Government has announced.
Click here for full storyGermany's Siemens AG plans to become a major player in the Philippines' nascent wind farm industry.
Jacky Chan, Siemens Philippines Inc. president and chief executive officer, said the company is stepping up its clean energy portfolio by cornering a lion's share of wind power projects in the country. "We are looking forward to capture the wind farm market in the Philippines," he said.
Click here for full storyAnalysts at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Livermore Labs have run the numbers on the US energy use in 2009, and come up with similar results to those obtained when examining the country's carbon emissions: energy use is dropping at a pace that is faster than would be expected based on the slowing economy alone.
Click here for full storyThe White House on Tuesday unveiled a report showing large federal investments in renewable energy are putting the U.S. on track to lower the cost for generating solar power, creating batteries for electric cars and sequencing the human genome
Click here for full storyThe tipping point for climate change, after which many of its most destructive effects will become irreversible, strongly suggests that atmospheric CO2 must be reduced from its current level of 390 ppm to "well below 350 ppm‚ significantly closer to pre-industrial concentrations of 285 ppm," according to a recent report by Beyond Zero Emissions, an Australian nonprofit organization.
Click here for full storyAustralia is home to an infamous outback and thousands of miles of coastline. These areas make Australia a hotbed for renewable energy generation. Australia is able to attain massive amounts of energy from solar, wind, geothermal and wave energies. However, Australia currently only attains six percent of their energy needs through renewable energy.
Click here for full storyThree independent and one Green MP who could decide the make-up of Australia's next government will hold their first meeting on Tuesday to discuss whether to back Labor or the conservative opposition.
Click here for full storyAustralia could accelerate action on climate change, possibly resurrecting an emissions trading scheme, after independent and Greens MPs won the balance of power in elections that left a hung parliament.
Click here for full storyWind energy is set to be the big technological winner in Europe over the next 10 years, as EU countries get down to the serious work of meeting renewable energy targets, reports the Danish Energy Association in its daily newsletter. The EU has set the goal that 20% of its energy needs will be met by renewable energy by 2020, and according to a report from environmental news and information service ENDSEurope, wind energy is set to be a bigger contributor to the green energy mix than solar power and hydro power combined.
Click here for full storyChinese solar panel companies will be faced with challenges at home from some European companies. Simon Currie, partner and global head of energy of UK law firm Norton Rose LLP, believes that the whole world is eyeing Chinese photovoltaic (PV) product manufacturers because the photovoltaic industry will play a decisive role in opening overseas markets, compared to wind farms.
Click here for full storyThe tipping point for climate change, after which many of its most destructive effects will become irreversible, strongly suggests that atmospheric CO2 must be reduced from its current level of 390 ppm to "well below 350 ppm‚ significantly closer to pre-industrial concentrations of 285 ppm," according to a recent report by Beyond Zero Emissions, an Australian nonprofit organization.
Click here for full storyA marine power plant that uses osmosis to generate electricity is being trialled in Norway …… The plant, built and operated by Norwegian energy company Statkraft not far from Oslo, employs a technique known as osmotic power generation, which uses the difference in salinity between seawater and fresh water to drive an electricity-generating turbine.
Click here for full storyAccording to World Energy Council many of the best locations on the world for wave energy exploitation are placed on Australia’s southern coast. Scientists have mapped out Australian south coast from Geraldton in Western Australia to King Island in Tasmania to mark best places for generating electricity from wave energy and concluded that there can be generated five times more electricity than Australia’s current consumption.
Click here for full storySelf-cleaning technology developed for lunar and Mars missions could be used to keep terrestrial solar panels dust free. Dust deposits can reduce the efficiency of electricity generating solar panels by as much as 80%. The self cleaning technology can repel dust when sensors detect concentrations on the panel's surface have reached a critical level.
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