This is great news for peak oil and climate change mitigation. Meanwhile, the former British Prime Minister Tony Blair believes that energy efficiency is a faster solution than trading carbon-dioxide allowances.

Both news occur just days before the G8 meeting nears. One of the main topics will be climate change mitigation and the Copenhagen meeting that will take place in December.On the first news, the Wall Street Journal notes:

The International Energy Agency said non-OECD oil demand – which includes China, the world’s second biggest consumer after the U.S. – is expected to be about 1 million barrels a day lower by 2013 compared with its previous projection due to rising efficiency efforts such as improved vehicle gas-mileage standards.

China, India and other emerging markets have accounted for most of the increase in world oil consumption this decade.

The Chinese government then seemed to only confirm the IEA’s point about non-OECD efficiency efforts by announcing consumer gasoline and diesel price increases in its quest to nudge people to cut wasteful consumption. The price increases are the latest the Chinese government has implemented over the past year.

(…) What all this points to is that emerging markets are waking up to the fact that using energy more wisely puts money in consumer wallets, can help smooth out trade deficits and is better for the planet in terms of reducing carbon emissions.

This occurs as the Indian government stated that the country will reject greenhouse gas emission targets. But one needs to note that energy efficiency would save a lot of money to Indian businesses and citizens.

Regarding the second information, Bloomberg reported:

Former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair said saving energy and forests will yield faster reductions in greenhouse gases than trading carbon-dioxide allowances.

Blair, one of the biggest advocates of capping and trading emission credits when he led Britain from 1997 to 2007, said global carbon markets will pay off after 2020. He spoke to reporters at a July 3 press conference to introduce today’s report from the London-based Climate Group, which includes governments and businesses focused on global warming.

“If you want to meet a target that’s just over a decade away, there are things that we know that work, that we have to do now,” Blair said. “Otherwise, we won’t get there.”

Blair, now a senior adviser at JPMorgan Chase & Co., the New York-based bank, said the carbon market “will take time to develop, and it will yield a significant benefit.”

I have been for years an advocate of energy efficiency. As we have seen here, energy conservation is the cheapest solution. It also has a huge potential.

Let’s hope that both developing and developed countries will work harder on energy conservation…

Such a move makes me wonder. Indeed, nuclear power plants require to operate safely specialized engineers and stringent safety measures which would be difficult to have while building so many plants.

For the past decades China have shown the world it can do seemingly impossible things. I believe they can do it again with nuclear power.

Meanwhile, the New York Times notes the country will also invest massively in renewables:

As the United States takes its first steps toward mandating that power companies generate more electricity from renewable sources, China already has a similar requirement and is investing billions to remake itself into a green energy superpower.

Through a combination of carrots and sticks, Beijing is starting to change how this country generates energy. Although coal remains the biggest energy source and is almost certain to stay that way, the rise of renewable energy, especially wind power, is helping to slow China’s steep growth in emissions of global warming gases.

We previously saw that the People’s Republic is willing to have 35% of its electricity provided by clean sources by 2020. With such measures, one can believe they can do it.

85 percent of US energy comes from coal, oil and natural gas. This leaves only 15 percent to low carbon energy sources. Energy efficiency would enable American businesses and citizens to save huge amounts of money.

In this regard, both the new mileage requirements and cap-and-trade are steps in the right direction but are to little to really change the situation.

As we have seen previously the new mileage requirement – around 36 MPG by 2016 for US cars – is dramatically behind the European mileages which are due to reach the equivalent of 47 MPG by 2012.

I was at that time advocating that the US mileage reach 50 MPG by 2015. To TreeHugger, Chinese cars already get 43 MPG…

Cap and Trade also represents a step in the right direction but falls short in terms of greenhouse gases emissions reduction. The French financial daily Les Echos published a graph worth reproducing here.

Click to enlarge – Image credit: Les Echos [Fr]

The red line represents the US greenhouse gases emissions, which increased by nearly 20 percent since 1990 and would decrease little beyond 1990 levels in 2020.

It is worth noting that the IPCC advocates to cut these emissions at least by 25 percent below these levels in the next 10 years. The trend continuation for the European show that cutting by 20 or 30 percent is feasible.

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Back to the study, it is interesting to note that :

In 2006, American consumers and businesses spent $921 billion—or close to 7 percent of America’s gross domestic product—on fossil fuels, more than the nation spends on education or the military.In 2008, national expenditures on fossil fuels likely topped $1 trillion for the first time ever. Each year, more than 70 percent of this money is spent on oil.

In 2007, America spent more than $360 billion importing fossil fuels, with the vast majority of that money spent on crude oil. That money is a direct transfer of wealth from American consumers to oil companies and foreign governments.

For every dollar that an American household spends each year, about 10 cents are likely to go toward the purchase of energy, with most of that money spent on fossil fuels.

For more, please check out the official page of the study.

Via TreeHugger, Coal and Oil Will Cost the US $23 Trillion from 2010-2030, New Study Finds

To conclude, I would like to remind you that we have seen that America can dramatically cut its energy use. Cf:

• America can cut its coal consumption by 62 %
• Al Gore’s brilliant plan to repower America

If solutions exist, why wouldn’t America apply them ?

Since then, my readership has expanded significantly and I believe I can now ask you to help me. My mission for the family’s company being finished, I am looking for a job in the cleantech areas.

Polyglott, I am ready to relocate globally. So, don’t hesitate to pass the word to your friends and on your blogs, I look forward to reading your ideas and comments. Thanks in advance !

My goal being to provide you with the latest headlines and best researches on sustainable development, climate change and the world energy sector , I had to find a solution.

This came with my use of Twitter and this month was particularly intense in news and articles worth spreading. Below are the best and most interesting.

Sustainable development:

• on TreeHugger: Solaqua Uses Solar Power to Purify Water http://is.gd/NeVX I think I already read about a similar technology…

• 3 large Dark Skies Awareness Projects http://www.astronomy2009.or…

Climate change:

• d’oh ! on TreeHugger: Burning Down The House: 39% Increase In Global CO2 Emissions Projected By 2030 http://is.gd/OrbK

• There are 6 Americas when it comes to climate change http://is.gd/Q8pL Interesting post. Left a comment there regarding deniers… enjoy !

• UNEP: Investing in Carbon Capture and Storage Nature’s Way http://is.gd/RqC2 A global sound forests management is key !

Energy:

• Oil prices soared and almost reached $70. http://is.gd/OrKf When the recession will be over my guess: they will go back to $150 quickly!

• Still on TreeHugger: Goodbye Fossil Fuel Dependence, Hello Rare Earth Dependence! http://is.gd/Q4ZG For more: http://is.gd/Q57J Scarcity !

• Grid parity soon for renewables in the United States ? Google keeps acting on this: http://is.gd/YcDY

• on TheDailyGreen: Peak Coal – Exponential Math and Coal Supply and Demand – thedailygreen.com – http://shar.es/pjHQ

• Meanwhile on TreeHugger: Railroads Considering Use Of Rail Corridors To Carry Wind-Produced Electricity http://is.gd/11JNq

• via @TheOilDrum : “What people need to hear loud and clear is that we’re running out of energy in America.” —George W. Bush, May 2001 oO

• Sur le site des Echos : Charbon contre Energies renouvelables : le match a commencé http://www.lesechos.fr/serv…

Environment:

• Plenty of interesting articles. on TH: China Launches Complaint Hotline for Pollution http://is.gd/Q4WI Great idea ! Hope it will work !

• On HuffPost green: Conservation Pays Selling Credits For Carbon As Profitable As Converting Rain Forests Into Plantations http://is.gd/QoHz

• RT @UNEPandYou Plastic bags & bottles make up 80% of the trash collected in seas around the world. http://bit.ly/4jEYa #WorldOceansDay

• Read in @Le_Figaro : the environment was the third topic in the minds of the people who voted for the European elections with 29%…

• World Oceans Day | On TreeHugger: The Ocean Has Issues: 7 Biggest Problems Facing Our Seas, and How to Fix Them http://is.gd/TIq9

• Still on World Oceans Day | UNEP : Report Brings to the Surface the Growing Global Problem of Marine Litter http://is.gd/TIye

• More on UNEP work for oceans: World Oceans Day: Protecting Oceans Around the Globe http://is.gd/TIDI

Misc:

• Funny time : “this is a job for…” – http://cheezburger.com/tw/?… #lol #news

• Tonite on TV: crappy football game with the French national team or Home by Yann Arthus Bertrand (www.home-2009.com). No tough choice !

• Earth is the anagram of Heart… Funny. Here is a picture that exemplifies this : http://is.gd/Q7f0

My favorite picture for this month shows NGC 6240. To APOD, it offers a rare glimpse of a cosmic catastrophe in its final throes. The titanic galaxy-galaxy collision is located a mere 400 million light-years away.

I am absolutely still amazed at how many splendors can be seen at night. I just hope we may find a way to make our nights darker so more people can see them.

Here is my selection for this month:

• The North America and Pelican Nebulae
• Saharan Starry Night
• Noctilucent Clouds Over Germany
• Seaside Moon Mirage
• Dunhuang Star Atlas
• NGC 6240: Merging Galaxies
• Moonrise Over Turkey
• Stars at the Galactic Center
• The Milky Road
• Pyrenees Paraselene

According to an article [Fr] from the AFP, the installed wind power capacity in France reached 4,000 MW. In line with the targets set by the Grenelle, up to 25 GW will have to be installed by 2020.

To read the full post, please check out this link. If you have any question please leave it there. If it’s for a comment or a message of congratulations, please do it here !

Of course this article is the first of what I hope will be a long series. I will announce them here, so you won’t miss any.

Even better : don’t hesitate to subscribe to CleanTechies, there are many other people writing there on everything related to cleantech. I did so for months and always found there great stuff.

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Many many thanks to Ceylan Oney and the whole CleanTechies team.

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Photo credit: Flickr/Gregory Tonon

The concept known as three Rs is interesting in that regard. Indeed, reducing, recycling and reusing our stuff would provide many advantages societies to Nature, our societies and our economies.

As the economic crises multiply and people find themselves unemployed, a better waste management would prove to benefit us all.

Reducing

It can be done quite easily. As an example, if you still drink bottled water, do like me, buy a water filter or go straight to tap. There are many other possibilities.

This can be applied to life in general. Do you really need the new stuff you are about to buy ?

Recycling

Sorting out and recycling our stuff is important. I have been sorting out my trash for nearly 15 years now (we were sorts of  pioneers in France) and am still amazed at the stuff that will be recycled in what we throw away.

Recycling is very important. Did you know that with a tonne of paper recycled you can get 900 kilograms of brand new pages? Glass can be cleaned up and reused many many times… The list goes on and on.

Reusing

We tend to part from any single thing we aren’t using any more. Couldn’t it be fixed if it is broken ? Couldn’t someone find a use ?

You get the idea: the three Rs go well beyond just wate

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For more on this topic, please check out the page on the Natural Resource Defense Council (NRDC) on this issue.

Indeed global warming will increase the importance of already large climate phenomena such as storms or heat waves. This is bad news for the country as it is already plagued by derelict infrastructure from the soviet era.

The second news concerned the response to this impeding crisis. Like in Australia, the Russian government fails to act enough on climate change.As Bloomberg reported:

Russia is ill-prepared to cope with climate change because of the legacy of Soviet environmental mismanagement and crumbling infrastructure, the World Bank said.

The world’s biggest energy exporter is more exposed to the extremes of an evolving climate than European and Central Asian nations, the Washington-based lender said in a report today. The depth of seasonal melting in areas covered by permafrost may increase by as much as 50 percent by 2050, the bank forecast.

“Poorly constructed, badly maintained, and aging infrastructure and housing — a legacy of both the Soviet era and the transition years — are ill-suited to cope with storms, heat waves, or floods, let alone protect people from such extreme events,” said the study headed by Zeljko Bogetic, the World Bank’s lead economist for Russia.

The more than 180 countries negotiating a new climate- protection treaty are increasingly focusing on how to adapt to higher temperatures, in addition to their goal of reducing greenhouse gases that scientists blame for global warming.

Floods or other “extreme events” can cause far greater damage in Russia than would be the case in other parts of the world, the World Bank report said.

Meanwhile, the WWF noted :

Russia’s announcement to reduce its emissions by 10 to 15 percent by 2020 is disappointing and sets a bad example for other countries who are trying to negotiate a global deal to save the world from dangerous climate change.

On June 19, President Dmitry Medvedev announced a 10 to 15 percent emissions reduction by 2020. With a base year of 1990, where emissions were much higher than today, this really means that the country’s emissions can actually increase by 2 to 2.5 percent per year between now and 2020.

“Russia’s announcement is very disappointing. Today we can officially say that Russia is the weakest link of climate change negotiations,” said Kim Carstensen, the leader of WWF’s Global Climate Initiative.

Russian greenhouse gas emissions have been decreasing constantly since the early 90s, reaching a minimum in 1998 (60 percent from 1990 level).

To me retrofitting coal-fired plants represents a huge detour from going straight to massive plans of energy efficiency and low carbon energy alternatives like wind, solar or nuclear…

Indeed, we have seen on this blog that clean coal is an oxymoron and carbon capture and storage is too little too late. So why are they thinking of such a solution ?

Here is a quote from the Wall Street Journal :

The world—especially the U.S. and China—won’t be able to do anything meaningful on greenhouse-gas emissions unless it squarely tackles the coal question. That means now—not in the future. “There is today no credible pathway towards stringent GHG stabilization targets without CO2 emissions reduction from existing coal power plants,” the report begins.

The problem? That might just be doable, but won’t be a slam dunk. The economics are still miserable. Retrofitting existing coal plants is at least as costly—if not more—than building new ones. No government has yet worked out just how to store carbon dioxide once it’s been captured.

It is well known since 2002 and an article from the Economist, coal is the first environmental enemy. I can understand why developing nations like China need to burn coal because of their fast and massive economic growths, but why rich nations like the United States or Germany keep on burning it ?

Al Gore proved it, America could go coal free by 2020. I am sure that Germany and its engineers can work out a solution too. This is even more doable as prices of renewable energy sources are due to soon reach parity with coal prices. As we have seen Google is working on this.

Back to the MIT study, TreeHugger noted:

Even though the Journal admits that the economics of developing carbon sequestration and retrofitting existing coal power plants are “still miserable” they fail to make the logical leap to not building new coal power plants and phasing out as quickly as possible the ones we have.

If We’re Spending the Money Anyway, Why Not Spend It on Something That’s Actually Clean?

There’s no denying that replacing all that power from coal with renewables is going to difficult and expensive, but if we can come up with the money to clean up something that is inherently dirty (in many more ways than just greenhouse gas emissions), I want to know why we can’t wrangle the same sort of funding to install renewable energy sources which aren’t polluting in the first place? Seems like a no-brainer to me.

This seems to be great but the current discussions at the local Senate are being delayed until August because of conservative lawmakers. Australia has much to fear from climate change and is already struggling with a massive drought.

So why aren’t the local elective representatives acting ? This puzzles me but I think that lobbying from coal companies have to do with this…

I already blogged last year about this very topic and the situation has only worsened since then. This occurs as TreeHugger and the Financial Times are both thinking we are going toward another global food crisis.

This occurs as over a billion people are overfed and an additional 300 million people are literally obese. Could the food please go to the other tables ? This would make sense and social justice.

Of course it is easier said than done but I believe that a solution has to be found, and found quickly. This would be a win-win-win situation.

It is high time we work on those millennium development goals. Poverty and hunger are one of the many topics.

This is definitively another topic I will keep you posted about. So stay tuned !

This week many blogs and websites published articles on Desertec, a foundation that would like to install many concentrated solar thermal plants in the Sahara desert to provide a fraction of the electricity Europe needs.

But many problems will have to be solved : funding the project, transmitting the electricity through the desert and the Mediterranean sea and so on.

Concerning the financing of the project, the problem could be solved as a consortium of 20 German companies plan to raise no less than 400 billion euros ($554 billion).

To Solve Climate, the area installed with concentrated solar thermal plants would be 6,500 square miles, or around 17,000 square kilometers. This is indeed a lot of space…

Then transmitting the electricity would be an other problem altogether as a lot of energy losses would occur with so long distances. Indeed, we are talking about thousands of kilometers or miles.

This brings me to another problem I have with the project: the lines would be like pipelines waiting for to be blown up by extremists of all kindS. They also could be interrupted by countries when political troubles arise between nations.

Moreover, to TreeHugger, the grids and electricity systems vary within all the 27 members of the European Union. This would be another problem that would have to be solved.

But what if all Mediterranean countries could benefit from this project ? This would be a fantastic project for the Union for the Mediterranean…

This project reminds me by its scale the huge wind energy project in the North Sea which could provide more energy that the Middle East does with its oil.

My conclusion: even if this seems to be totally surrealistic by its scale and the amounts of difficulties that could arise at any time and doom the project, I look forward to reading from them and wish them success.

In any case, be sure that I will keep you posted !

Already experiencing extreme phenomenons such as wildfires, droughts and floods the USA could see an increase in their magnitude. An aggravation would cost more money and claim more lives.

This document is published as the US Senate debates over  the future legislation that will fight climate change. For more, please check out the official website.

As the UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner noted: “Land degradation threatens nearly a billion people in some 100 countries and it is estimated that around a third of the world’s lands are experiencing desertification.”

Climate change is one of  the factors explaining desertification but is not the only one. To learn out more, please check out the UNEP press release and the official website.

Les Echos [Fr],

The majority of the job creations are due to occur in the building sector as up to 20 million of apartments and houses need to be retrofitted in our country. The transportation and renewable energies would add  most of the other jobs.

But this study doesn’t stop there as it also notes that greenhouse emissions would decrease by 2020 by 27 % compared to 2005 levels, or 14 percent by 1990 levels.

50 percent of these cuts would occur by replacing thermal energy sources by renewables, another 25 percent of these cuts would be provided by the thermal insulation of buildings.

On the 450 billion euros ($620 billion) of financig required by 2020, 170 will be provided by the State at both national and local levels. 225 billion will be paid by the energy conservation measures and their savings.

As the study also explained the consumption of thermal energy sources (mainly oil and natural gas) would be decreased by a quarter. This is good news as energy prices are due to rise again soon.

All this occurs as French people are betting on green growth and green economy to get the country out of the current economic crises.

It is also worth mentioning that the eco-loans are a big success as 10,000 eco loans have been signed in the two first months. the French government would like to have 100,000 loans the first year and to stabilize to 400,000 afterwards. More at Enerzine [Fr]

Download the full report (2.0 Mo) via the official website of the French environment Ministry.

Recently several articles – including on Grist and Dot Earth  – have been published wondering if this fact was due to bad rhetoric (or PR, but this term is to me more business related)

I believe there indeed is a problem. Solutions exist and would bring many improvements over our current energy sources and lifestyle. So why aren’t we applying them already ?

Additionally, why should we keep on arguing on climate change, as there are still some folks here and there that don’t believe in climate change ?

Couldn’t we, or even shouldn’t we, stop talking about it and press on the numerous advantages brought by alternative energy solutions and changing our lifestyles ?

As Andrew Revkin noted on Dot Earth:

As debates over national and global climate and energy policy continue to drag out, there’s been an intensifying exploration of climate miscommunication among those seeking concrete actions that will make a noticeable difference in the atmosphere someday.

If the science pointing to a rising risk of dangerous human interference with climate is settled, the thinking goes, then why aren’t people and the world’s nations galvanized? Maybe it’s a language problem? This reflects an ongoing exploration here.

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Some even advocated we should stop using the terms climate change or global warming and suggested a term that to me sounded absolutely preposterous and even obnoxious: “our deteriorating atmosphere “.

To me, this euphemism is far too vague. Climate change on the other hand is spot on. Our climate is currently changing, because of the billion tons of pollutants we emit each year.

Similarly, would a Doctor announce to his or her patient that instead of telling him the blunt truth of a cancer in its terminal phase, would he or she says that the patient has ” a deteriorating health ” ? I don’t think so.

What do you think ?

Argentina is very ambitious as it plans to build a wind farm that will amount for 600 to 900 MW as well as an impressive solar park that could provide up to 2,500 MW (via Ecoworldly).

To TreeHugger, Chile is also working on several projects including a 850 MW wind farm, a 500 MW solar photovoltaïc park as well as 10 MW solar thermal pilot project.

According to the Chicago Green Alleys Handbook quoted by Franke, unpaving our streets would bring many advantages such as reducing localized flooding, recharging groundwater and saving taxpayer money.

This brilliant idea reminded me of my post on green roofs as well as the series of pictures showing what would Tokyo look like if it unpaved its streets (above: Akihabara ).

I seriously wonder what cities will look like with such ideas. The handbook linked above brings many creative ideas that would decrease the impact cities have on the environment.

From high albedo pavement and recycled construction materials to dark sky compliant light fixtures or urban gardening, there are plenty of possibilities.

As more and more people live in urban areas, we truly need reflections on this topic.

(…) “  President Nicolas Sarkozy’s government has said it hopes to shift part of French taxes from labour towards polluting goods, but consumer groups have warned against penalising families already feeling the pinch of recession. “

(…) “  The carbon tax is now expected to be rolled out in 2011, a year later than initially envisaged, Borloo said. ” Too bad the government back pedals on such a great idea from the Grenelle.

The author – a former chief economist for CIBC World Markets – noted in an article that ” Expensive oil means a severe curb on the free-spending lifestyle that cheap energy has afforded us for some time now.”

For more on what seems to be a great book, please check out the reviews on The Oil Drum and TreeHugger. In the full article, a great video of an interesting presentation by the author.

Jeff Rubin explains how oil prices played a major role in the the current economic downturn.

TreeHugger published last year another interesting article : Jeff Rubin Predicts “Mass Exodus” From Cars in US.

Even if this is very good news for the environment as a whole, this doesn’t include climate change as greenhouse gases have a global warming potential (GWP) and lifetime of several decades.

This means that even if climate change will continue, we can undo most of the harm we have done to our environment and to our beautiful planet if we start seriously to work on sustainability.

According to the press release at Yale:

Most polluted or damaged ecosystems worldwide can recover within a lifetime if societies commit to their cleanup or restoration, according to an analysis of 240 independent studies by researchers at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. Their findings appear today in the journal PLoS ONE.

The researchers found that forest ecosystems recovered in 42 years on average, while ocean bottoms recovered in less than 10 years. When examined by disturbance type, ecosystems undergoing multiple, interacting disturbances recovered in 56 years, and those affected by either invasive species, mining, oil spills or trawling recovered in as little as five years. Most ecosystems took longer to recover from human-induced disturbances than from natural events, such as hurricanes.

“The damages to these ecosystems are pretty serious,” said Oswald Schmitz, an ecology professor at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies and co-author of the meta-analysis along with Yale graduate student Holly Jones.

“But the message is that if societies choose to become sustainable, ecosystems will recover. It isn’t hopeless.” The analysis focuses on seven ecosystem types and major anthropogenic disturbances, such as agriculture, deforestation, invasive species, logging, mining, oil spills, overfishing, power plants and trawling. Major natural disturbances, including hurricanes and cyclones, are also accounted for.

The researchers analyzed data derived from peer-reviewed studies conducted over the past century that examined the recovery of large ecosystems following a disturbance. The studies measured 94 variables that were grouped into three categories: ecosystem function, animal community and plant community.

The researchers quantified the recovery of each of the variables in terms of the time it took for them to return to their pre-disturbance state. The analysis found that 83 studies demonstrated recovery for all variables; 90 reported a mixture of recovered and non-recovered variables; and 67 reported no recovery for any variable. Schmitz said 15 percent of all the ecosystems in the analysis are beyond recovery. Also, 54 percent of the studies that reported no recovery likely did not run long enough to draw definitive conclusions.

In addition, the analysis suggests that an ecosystem’s recovery may be independent of its degraded condition. Aquatic systems, the researchers noted, may recover more quickly because species and organisms that inhabit them turn over more rapidly than forests, for example, whose habitats take longer to regenerate after logging or clear-cutting.

(…) The researchers said the study rebuts speculation that it will take centuries or millennia for degraded ecosystems to recover and justifies an increased effort to restore degraded areas for the benefit of future generations. “Restoration could become a more important tool in the management portfolio of conservation organizations that are entrusted to protect habitats on landscapes,” Schmitz said.

Jones added: “We recognize that humankind has and will continue to actively domesticate nature to meet its own needs. The message of our paper is that recovery is possible and can be rapid for many ecosystems, giving much hope for a transition to sustainable management of global ecosystems.”

To the message carried by this film, we have ten years to change the way we live and avoid the worse with “the depletion of natural resources and the catastrophic evolution of the Earth’s climate.”

Packed with fabulous images and truly worrying facts and figures it is an absolute must watch whether you are concerned or not by the environment.

I believe this is the perfect movie to convince people who aren’t concerned yet by environmental issues to act now and change the way they live.

I was stunned by the pictures and the beauty of our planet, and this even if I knew Yann Arthus Bertrand’s brilliant book, Earth from above.

Without further ado, I would like to propose you to watch (or re-watch the movie):

I look forward to reading your views on this brilliant movie…

No less than $155 billion (110 billion €) have been invested last year in low carbon energy sources and efficiency. All this money added to the global grids 65 GW of solar, wind, hydro and other renewables.

This “arms race” will most likely continue for decades as many countries like India and China have plans to increase their reliance on these technologies.

According to the Executive summary of the report:

The year 2008 was another milestone for investment in sustainable energy, especially in view of the difficult overall investment climate. A total of $155 billion was invested in companies and projects globally, a more than four-fold increase on 2004.

As compared with 2007, however, investment growth was only 5%, in stark contrast to the growth rates of over 50% in previous years (see  Figure 1). This was mainly due to the global financial crisis, which had a significant impact on investment in the second half of the year : investment in the second half of the year was down 17% on the first half, and down 23% on the inal six months of 2007.

Investment in new energy generation projects (wind, solar, biofuels etc.) grew by 13% during 2008, to $117 billion, and new private investment in companies developing and scaling-up new technologies, including energy efficiency, increased by 37% from 2007 to $13.5 billion (see Figure 2).

Other types of finance decreased. Capital raised via the public stock markets for equipment manufacturing and project pipelines fell 51% to $11.4 billion, as clean energy share prices lost 61% of their value during 2008. Total transaction value in the sustainable energy sector during 2008 – including corporate acquisitions, asset re-financings and private equity buy-outs – was $223 billion (see  Figure 2), an increase of 7% over 2007 .

While the sustainable energy sector was showing signs of being negatively affected by the global financial crisis, it was not until the start of 2009 that the full impact was really evident.

In the first quarter of 2009, new financial investment fell by 53% to $13.3 billion compared to the same period in 2008, the lowest level of quarterly investment for three years. There were some ‘green shoots’ of recovery during the second quarter of 2009, but the sector has a long way to go this year to reach the investment levels of late 2007 and early 2008.

For more please check out the executive summary or the full report (subscription necessary apparently.

You may also read the excellent article from Live Science, which brings a lot of data.

After reaching the one billion mark in 2007, the UNEP decided to plant seven billion around the world before the Copenhagen meeting which will decide of the future of the Kyoto Protocol.

To conclude: the UNEP will plant one tree for every twitterer who follows www.twitter.com/UNEPandYou by 5 June, World Environment Day. Don’t hesitate to follow them !

To a local newspaper – The Hindu – the world’s largest democracy indeed would like to have 20 GW of solar energies by 2020, 100 GW by 2030 to finally reach 200 GW twenty years later.

This plan is very ambitious but we will have to see if it becomes real. If so, the country would clearly become a leader in this industry.

To the Worldwatch Institute’s article, this additional capacity would represent more electricity that the country is currently generating. With more than 250 sunny days,there is a lot of energy awaiting to be tapped.

I already knew solar would become an important energy source there as I wrote two academic papers on this very subject:

• Feasibility of using Renewable Energies Solutions in Mumbai (Dissertation written during my B.A. in international business and languages at the Dublin Institute of Technology ; Ireland)
• Selling solar panels to the middle class in Maharashtra State (paper written for my International Marketing Communications class during my Master’s in International Management at the Audencia Nantes Management School ; France)

However, I would never have thought this could become this big…

For more on these great news, please check out Ecogeek, TreeHugger and the original article from The Hindu.

This is a magisterial lesson on history and how Mankind evolved during 13,000 years from small groups of hunter gatherers into the current complex societies with agriculture and industry.

I highly recommend GGS to any person wondering why European civilizations conquered the world and not the opposite or each person interested in social sciences as a whole.

During 450 pages, the author brilliantly exposes the causes of the Eurasian predominance in our world. Indeed one can wonder why Europeans societies conquered the world and not the reverse.

Among the factors that contributed one can note the exceptional conditions the Fertile Crescent had and the west-east axis of the Eurasian continent which enable biodiversity to prosper.

One striking element of this book is how the environment contributed to the success of Eurasian civilizations. If the climate had been worse or if biodiversity had been less flourishing we wouldn’t be living as we do nowadays.

Mankind first appeared in Africa, and spread from there to Europe and Asia. From the latter it slowly spread to the many islands in the Pacific Ocean and crossed the Bering Strait 12,000 years BC.

Civilization first appeared in the Fertile Crescent – now a mostly desert region – and spread to the whole Eurasian continent. Both climate and geography slowed down the expansion to the Americas and Oceania. This is one of the explanations.

I am amazed at how the author explains with ease the birth of agriculture – the founding stone of our civilizations -  to writing – which was enabled by the former – and then to all the other developments.

Conclusion : This book is due to make on me a long lasting impression. If you loved Collapse, you will appreciate this one too.

Grade: 20/20.

Re-readability: Yes.

—

Disponible en Français sous le titre De l’inégalité parmi les sociétés, chez Gallimard. (environ 11€)

My goal being to provide you with the latest headlines and best researches on sustainable development, climate change and the world energy sector , I had to find a solution.

This came with my use of Twitter and this month was particularly intense in news and articles worth spreading. Below are the best and most interesting.

Environment

• on @TreeHugger: Obama’s first 100 days were great for the environment, here is what he should do for the next 100: http://is.gd/vUfQ

• The kind of bombs I love: Seedbomb http://is.gd/xVLO En Espanol: http://is.gd/y3Mb Gracias a @VeoVerde !

• 30% Ocean Mercury Rise Linked to Asian Coal Plants http://digg.com/u13QzW

Climate change

• US Emission Reduction Efforts Inadequate: IPCC Chair and Lord Stern Play Good Cop-Bad Cop http://is.gd/zBMk

• Climate-Change Skeptics Proved Wrong (Again): Sun Nixed As Cause http://is.gd/ANid

• on @TreeHugger: Canada Could Join Forces with US for Multinational Cap and Trade http://is.gd/EQwn Great news. Hope they will too act big !

Sustainable development

• RT @tweetmeme London Plans Bicycle Sharing Program : EcoWorldly http://tinyurl.com/cxu463

• Water Wars Strike Ahead of Predictions http://digg.com/u13STl Scary…

• Sur les Echos: Les consommateurs de la planète plus attentifs à l’environnement http://is.gd/zBMH

• RT @frankejames Posted excerpt of my Univ of Cincinnati talk: How Alice in Wonderland thinking can win over City Hall http://is.gd/EGjJ

• RT @AlGore: What the Generals say. http://tinyurl.com/nttkzt reducing America’s reliance on oil and addressing climate change is critical !

Energy

• China to have 100 GW wind power energy capacity by 2020 http://is.gd/wASO Now that makes a loot of wind turbines !

• The tweet on China is EXACTLY an exemplification of my article on why cleantech is the new arms race. http://is.gd/soF8

• Cap and trade would SAVE money to US households and cut the country’s GHG emissions by 56% by 2030. http://is.gd/wIl5. Please RT !

• Seems very interesting: Solar in the Developed and Developing World http://is.gd/x3vJ

• Can the US double the amount of their nuclear plants ? Sen. Alexander Pushes For $700B For Nuclear Reactors http://is.gd/Iea1

• on Reuters: Australia to build world’s largest solar (PV) energy plant http://is.gd/B1ic 1GW for 1 billion USD. The arms race continues !

• on TreeHugger: Bio-Electricity Far More Efficient For Transportation Than Biofuels… Better Greenhouse Gas Reduction Too http://is.gd/xQ1C

• Meanwhile in China: China’s new faith in solar energy projects is hailed by environmentalists as a milestone http://is.gd/JPod

• On grist: How to shut down 93% of coal without building new plants or reducing power supply http://is.gd/Jq7c Can the US do it quickly pls ?

This month is special as Hubble (left) was repaired by NASA’s astronauts. I wonder what new marvels it will bring with its new cameras as the previous pictures were already absolutely wonderful.

Launched in 1990, Hubble has been repaired already three times before this mission. This fourth is due to extends it’s life by at least by five years.

But without further ado, here is my selection of pictures for this month :

• Hubble Floats Free ;
• East of Antares ;
• Above Earth, Fixing Hubble ;
• Sagittarius and the Central Milky Way ;
• A Space Shuttle Before Dawn ;
• M31: The Andromeda Galaxy ( this month’s favorite) ;
• Titan Beyond the Rings ;
• The Eskimo Nebula from Hubble ;
• The Whale Galaxy ;
• Lyrid Meteor and Milky Way.

I hope you will enjoy these pictures as much as I did !

Published by an environmental NGO and various official bodies specialized in solar energy, a study notes that concentrated solar power (CSP) in deserts could bring a quarter of the global electricity by mid-century.

To date, CSP provides a mere 430 MW worldwide but things could change fast as this energy offers multiple advantages such as virtually zero greenhouse gases emissions.

As the Guardian noted:

Solar power stations that concentrate sunlight could generate up to one-quarter of the world’s electricity needs by 2050, according to a study by environmental and solar industry groups. The technology, best suited to the desert regions of the world, could also create hundreds of thousands of new jobs and save millions of tonnes of CO2 from entering the atmosphere.

Concentrating solar power (CSP) uses mirrors to focus sunlight onto water. This produces steam that can then turn turbines and generate electricity. It differs from photovoltaics, which use solar panels to turn sunlight directly into electricity and can operate even on overcast days. CSP only works in places where there are many days with clear skies and is a proven, reliable technology.

At the end of 2008 CSP capacity was around 430MW, and worldwide investment in the technology will reach €2bn (£1.8bn) this year, according to Sven Teske of Greenpeace International and co-author of the report. He said investment could increase, under a relatively moderate scenario, to €11.1bn by 2010 and provide 7% of the world’s generating capacity by 2030.

By 2050 investment could reach €92.5bn, creating almost 2m jobs by 2050 and saving 2.1bn tonnes of CO2 every year.

“Due to the feed-in tariff in Spain and a few schemes in the US, this technology is actually taking off and we wanted to highlight that we have a third big technology to fight climate change — wind, photovoltaics and now CSP,” said Teske.

Spain is leading the field on CSP: more than 50 solar projects in the country have been approved for construction by the government and, by 2015, it will generate more than 2GW of power from CSP, comfortably exceeding current national targets. Spanish companies are also exporting their technology around the world.

Environmentalists argue that many countries in the “sun-belt” around the equator would benefit from CSP technology — including desert regions in the southern United States, north Africa, Mexico, China and India.

The new study, carried out by Greenpeace International, the European Solar Thermal Electricity Association and the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) SolarPACES group, looked at three scenarios of future growth in CSP.

The first was business-as-usual reference scenario that assumed no increases at all in CSP; the second continued the CSP investments seen in recent years in places such as Spain and the US; while the advanced scenario was most optimistic, removing all political and investment barriers to give figures for the true potential of CSP.

Under the third, most optimistic, scenario there could be a giant surge in investments to €21bn a year by 2015 and €174bn a year by 2050, creating hundreds of thousands of jobs. In this case, solar plants would have installed capacity of 1,500GW by 2050 and provide 25% of the world’s electricity capacity.

Even in the second scenario, which sees only modest increases, the world’s combined CSP capacity could reach 830GW by 2050, representing up to 12% of the world’s energy generation needs.

Teske acknowledged that these estimates were far higher than official figures from the IEA. It says that by 2050, CSP would provide only0.2% of global power generation. But Teske added that the IEA analysis does not assume any increases in production capacity in the next few decades, hence CSP forms a very small part of the overall energy mix.

The new report also said that CSP technology was improving rapidly, with many new power plants fitted with storage systems for steam so that they could continue to operate at night. In addition it said the cost of the electricity produced , currently at €0.15 to €0.23 a kilowatt, would fall to €0.10-€0.14 by 2020 if governments continued to support the technology with incentives such as feed-in tarriffs.