It seems I wasn’t the only one to call for more efficiency as it was responsible for 75 percent of the carbon dioxide emissions reduction in 2012 in the United States of America. Natural gas only accounted for a quarter of these reductions.

Given how energy efficiency solution – like insulating houses – are also great at creating jobs, I guess they’ll play an increasing role in the near future. The recent announcement is just the beginning…

Even if the efforts being done are lacking the necessary scale, results are very encouraging. Portugal is getting 70 percent of its electricity from hydro and wind, Spain over a half of electricity came from clean sources as well.

In Germany, solar can provide up to 22 GW, or 44 % of the total demand. In Australia, one in eleven houses have solar panels installed.

You got it : in a mere few years, renewables have been booming and this is due to be only the beginning as clean energy sources are getting cheaper and cheaper and are creating loads of jobs.

This is why as GreenTech Media notes, Conventional Wisdom About Clean Energy Is Still Way Out of Date :

“We’re fifteen to twenty years out of date in how we think about renewables,” said Dr. Eric Martinot to an audience at the first Pathways to 100% Renewables Conference held April 16 in San Francisco. “It’s not 1990 anymore.”

Dr. Martinot and his team recently compiled their 2013 Renewables Global Futures report from two years of research in which they conducted interviews with 170 experts and policymakers from fifteen countries, including local city officials and stakeholders from more than twenty cities.

They also reviewed more than 50 recently published scenarios by credible international organizations, energy companies, and research institutes, along with government policy targets for renewable energy, and various corporate reports and energy literature.

The report observes that “[t]he history of energy scenarios is full of similar projections for renewable energy that proved too low by a factor of 10, or were achieved a decade earlier than expected.”

For example, the International Energy Agency’s 2000 estimate for wind power in 2010 was 34 gigawatts, while the actual level was 200 gigawatts.

The World Bank’s 1996 estimate for China was 9 gigawatts of wind and 0.5 gigawatts for solar PV by 2020, but by 2011 the country had already achieved 62 gigawatts of wind and 3 gigawatts of PV.

Dr. Martinot’s conclusion from this exhaustive survey? “The conservative scenarios are simply no longer credible.”

Please have a look at the full article at it is full of hope for a quicker energy transition.

Will discuss more about it when I’ll get back from Oxford and London, so stay tuned !

The European commission seems to have understood that as it will ban three pesticides -called neonicotinoids or neonics for short – that are particularly harmful to bees and other pollinating agents. The ban will last two years.

This is a historic victory for environmental movements as bees pollinate up to 75 percent of all crops. Let’s hope other countries will follow the European lead.

While this may sound mundane to most people, this is a real event, and one that could have dire consequences. Last time CO2 concentration were this high, temperatures were 8°C (or 14°F ) higher.

Additionally, sea level were significantly higher. Both higher temperatures and higher sea levels would be lethal threats to our civilization.

It is worth noting that before the Industrial Revolution, CO2 levels were of around 280 ppm. Such a high level of 400 ppm haven’t been seen on this Planet for as long as for a million year.

Scientists have stressed the fact that getting back to 350 ppm would be ideal for our civilization. This is why a global campaign have been started in the United States by Bill McKibben.

The United Nations Environment Program brings an interesting perspective :

Observed concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere have exceeded the symbolic 400 parts per million (ppm) threshold at several stations of the World Meteorological Organization’s Global Atmosphere Watch network.

This is a wakeup call about the constantly rising levels of this greenhouse gas, which is released into the atmosphere by fossil fuel burning and other human activities and is the main driver of climate change. Carbon dioxide remains in the atmosphere for thousands of years, trapping heat and causing our planet to warm further, impacting on all aspects of life on earth.

Several other websites and newspapers have dedicated posts and articles to this.

For more, please check out the New York Times, the Washington Post, Grist, Treehugger and many others including National Geographic, On Earth and of course, Climate Progress.

” According to ADEME, solar PV has the potential to reach grid parity in France in the coming few years, and therefore is an essential component of sustainable energy policies. “

For solar to reach grid parity in a country relying massively on nuclear power would be a major achievement. For more, please refer to the official ADEME report (in French, pdf format)

The Guardian, the Financial Times and the Economist published compelling articles on a new report that points that this situation could bring another financial crisis as up to six trillions dollars are linked to unburnable carbon.

This strong warning is backed up by banks such as HSBC, Citi, and organisations such as Standard and Poor’s and the International Energy Agency.

The introduction from the Economist’s article is just brilliant and encapsulates the problem :

” Either governments are not serious about climate change or fossil-fuel firms are overvalued. “

The report by The Carbon Tracker Initiative points out that economies around the world could have to face another major crisis as fossil fuels companies would be overvalued if we were to become serious in our fight against climate change.

Here is an extract of the excellent Economist article :

Several recent reports suggest that markets are now overlooking the risk of “unburnable carbon”. The share prices of oil, gas and coal companies depend in part on their reserves. The more fossil fuels a firm has underground, the more valuable its shares. But what if some of those reserves can never be dug up and burned?

If governments were determined to implement their climate policies, a lot of that carbon would have to be left in the ground, says Carbon Tracker, a non-profit organisation, and the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change, part of the London School of Economics. Their analysis starts by estimating the amount of carbon dioxide that could be put into the atmosphere if global temperatures are not to rise by more than 2°C, the most that climate scientists deem prudent. The maximum, says the report, is about 1,000 gigatons (GTCO2) between now and 2050. The report calls this the world’s “carbon budget”.

As the official website points out :

• Already in 2011, the world has used over a third of its 50-year carbon budget of 886GtCO₂, leaving 565GtCO₂
• All of the proven reserves owned by private and public companies and governments are equivalent to 2,795 GtCO₂
• Fossil fuel reserves owned by the top 100 listed coal and top 100 listed oil and gas companies represent total emissions of 745GtCO₂
• Only 20% of the total reserves can be burned unabated, leaving up to 80% of assets technically unburnable

The Carbon Tracker Initiative gives recommendations. Please turn to page 28 of the report.

This really gives an excellent explanation of why Bill McKibben, the founder of the 350.org campaign is urging to divest from fossil fuels interests.

So if you are new to natural cleaning products, you can check Verda Vivo’s articles or this new one, from Earth 911. Their slideshow focuses on vinegar, baking soda and lemon, all common and natural ingredients.

Cheaper, safer and more environmentally friendly than your average cleaning products and detergents, I am amazed at how much you can do with them. I definitively should use them more.

Collectively, they represent as many as 500,000 bicycles combined. This just might be the beginning as to a specialist “bike sharing has experienced the fastest growth of any mode of transport in the history of the planet.”

If you are interested, please take the time to read Grist’s article as it is simply a must-read. Nonetheless, beware : it’s a long read…

As Elisa Wood wrote on Cleantechies : ” To achieve the goal, the Obama administration in 2011 initiated the Better Buildings Challenge, a way to encourage investment, share information and create demonstration projects that save energy.”

30 billion euros is a huge sum. I wonder how much these savings could translate to globally. I guess it’s high time to find out and launch a similar program globally to create jobs and save our civilization…

Your next car could run on air (and gas).

As the New York Times, the Guardian and Le Figaro [Fr] reported, the Hybrid Air combines a hydraulic drive that recovers energy each time the car brakes or decelerates as well as a conventional thermal engine.

These models would be ideal for urban driving. Due to be sold as early as 2016, it would be cheaper -and more efficient in city driving – than a Toyota Prius.

PSA ( the official name of the Peugeot Citroen company ) is willing to reach a mileage of two liters for 100 kms for 2020 (around 117 MPG).  This model seems like a good way of achieving those ambitious goals.

Now, here are some ideas that came to my mind while reading the afore mentioned articles.

First, why combine the ” scuba tank “ (ie. the hydraulic tank, filled with nitrogen ) with an electric engine, thus achieving a 100% clean motorisation ? I guess it just wasn’t feasible, but I am not sure.

Second, why not going for carbon fiber ? Peugeot would be able to reduce even more the energy consumption ? (granted, it would also increase significantly the price).

In any case, I just hope this will enable Peugeot Citroen to survive the crisis as the company got seriously hit as sales have been decreasing for the past six years…

They might be, and they can be considered perhaps cheap if you don’t take into account the tremendous negative externalities on the environment, our climate and human health. (and a tiny lil’ thing like our civilization ).

This could be depressing given the urgency of acting on climate change. Luckily there are two major trends against coal, oil and natural gas.

First : renewables are achieving grid parity all over the world. Both solar PV and wind power are getting cheaper and cheaper each month, allowing them to compete with “traditional” energy.

Second : carbon taxes are sprouting globally as fossil fuels are just too polluting and too damaging.

So don’t worry. Economics will make fossil fuels obsolete.

The Stone Age ended not because we had no more stones, but just because Mankind had invented something better. It will be the same with coal, oil and natural gas. They will be replaced by solar energies, wind power and all the other renewables…

—

For the record, here is the comment I left ( which still hasn’t be published. I wonder why…) :

So we might have oil and fossil fuels to kill ourselves. OK, so what ? Renewables are becoming cheaper than fossil fuels. This ” grid parity ” is taking place as I write those words all over the world. On a planet where economics reign supreme this is a huge argument for renewables.

Furthermore, renewables don’t pollute. You don’t get those horrific oil spills with them. Last but not least, they also create more jobs than fossil fuels. It’s a lose lose lose versus a win win win. Renewables will prevail. No matter what fossil fuels interest think, publish or say. -

Yep, a solar installation that generates fresh water, thus solving two common problems faced in developing nations around the world. Icing on the cake, it could also be used for air conditioning.

If all this wasn’t enough, IBM believes this could be cheaper than comparable solar systems, less than $10 cent per kilowatt hour. Talk about genius !

Here is the presentation video :

Click here to view the embedded video.

Let’s hope this will become a real product and that it will be use all over the world.

This takes into account municipal and industrial waste management, recycling, waste-to-energy and sustainable packaging. Europe is seen as facing the “toughest strategic challenges ” while Asia and Latin America see the fastest growth.

Opportunities are due to abound in waste management, waste to energy (WtE), wastewater and sewage and recycling among others.

As the Bank of America Merrill Lynch analysts found out, only 25 percent of the 11 billion tons of trash produced each year are recycled or just recovered.

Yep, that’s right : globally, 75 percent of trash goes to the ever growing landfills. Given how much there is recoverable and interesting resources there, no wonder we will have to mine landfills.

As Cleantech IQ noted :

In the U.S. alone, the BoAML analysts estimate the waste management market is worth $1 trillion today, which includes municipal solid waste, industrial waste, waste-to-energy and sustainable packaging.

Reuters’ Global Investing page provides additional details :

(Analysts at Bank of America/Merrill Lynch) have compiled a list of more than 80 companies which may benefit most from the push for recycling waste, generating energy from biomass and building facilities to process or reduce waste. It’s an industry that is likely to grow exponentially as incomes rise, especially in emerging economies.

(…) By 2050, the earth’s population will reach 9 billion, while global per capita GDP is projected to quadruple. So waste production will double by 2025 and again from 2025 to 2050, United Nations agencies estimate.

And in emerging markets, challenges and opportunities are both enormous, BofA/ML says. Just Brazil for instance needs investments of $180 billion in this sector. For one, recycling is less widespread. Second, as countries grow richer they produce more rubbish. Third, all big emerging countries have multi-billion dollar plans to improve waste disposal.

(…) Lets look at some of the opportunities BofA/ML has identified:

– Disposal and recycling of municipal solid waste (rubbish, in common parlance) is currently worth $400 billion but over the next decade,  $87 billion in investments are expected in this sector.

– Waste-to-energy (energy recovery from waste): One ton of rubbish can create 500-750 kilowatts of power. This market is worth $7.4 billion in 2013 and  could grow to $81 billion by 2022.

– Sustainable packaging: Accounts for a third of solid waste in developed countries. Worth almost $109 billion in 2011, the market is expected to grow to $178-212 billion by 2015-18.

– e-waste (discarded electrical or electronic devices):  Recycling/reuse of e-waste components was worth $13.9 billion in 2012 but could grow to between $25 and 44.3 billion by 2017-20. One example of how lucrative this can be – -recycling one million mobile phones can recover 24 kg of gold, 250 kg of silver and more than 9,000 kg of copper.

Wastewater and sewage treatment:  The biggest investments are needed in the developing world but in the United States alone, infrastructure of $1 trillion could be needed over the next 25 years, BofA says, citing research from the American Waterworks Association.

For more details, please check out Environmental Expert and Waste to Energy International

Nota : Despite having looked at many websites writing about this report and googling it for a long time, I haven’t been able to locate the original source. This is to me a pity as I try to always put the original source. If you know where it is exactly, please tell me in the comments.

Image credit : Flickr.

A tiny 0.7 percent cut sure isn’t what we need, but it’s a start. Given how little we are doing on energy transition, one can hope that once we will be set on specific targets, we could deliver major greenhouse gases emissions cuts.

Good or excellent news are popping up all around the world and I want to see there a tidal change in favor of cleantech. The fact that renewables are reaching grid parity all over the world will sure accelerate the process.

For years if not decades, Deutschland has been at the forefront on energy efficiency and renewables. I wrote many articles here on how the country is leading on these crucial economic sectors.

It doubled the share of renewables in its electricity mix in only seven years. They now account for over 22 percent of the total. Solar PV accounts for a quarter of that.

Germany is still leading the world in terms of solar photovoltaic capacity with over 32 GW. This is almost a third of the global capacity. Since EU Countries could pay back their debts with renewables, it’s perhaps time for other EU nations to follow the German lead.

Regarding wind power, the country is equally strong. Between 2011 and 2012, the installed capacity reached 30 GW. There were over 22,000 wind turbines installed all over Germany as of 2011. They contributed to a little less than ten percent of the net electricity consumption.

On other renewables, the case is equally compelling. As Wikipedia noted, in 2012 : 21,000 GWh were produced by hydropower, nearly 36,000 GWh by biomass, to be compared with the 28,000 GWh by solar PV and 46,000 by wind power.

And this is only the beginning… As I noted last year :

” Chancellor Angela Merkel is planning to spend 200 billion euros ($263 billion) developing an energy program that will create a series of offshore wind farms that will cover an area six times the size of New York City. “

” (…) Germany has a plan to boost its renewable energy production to 35% of the country’s energy consumption by 2020; and 80% by 2050. The administration has a set a target of producing 25 GW of offshore wind energy by 2020 “

In terms of employment, an important factor as Spain has reached horrendous levels with six million unemployed and France has broken its own records with 3.2 million people, over 380,000 people work in renewables in Germany and half a million of them are forecast by 2030.

To conclude : Germany is to date and for many years to come the example to be followed in terms of renewables. If only all major economies were acting as big on renewables as Germany…

It seems to be the case as Courrier International shown last July. Around the world, from Buenos Aires to Hangzhou and from New York to Moscow or Copenhagen, more and more people are biking.

This is good news as bikes are a great solution to many problems that are plaguing our communities : obesity, traffic congestion, energy use and air pollution.

In China, bikes were for many years a part of the cultural identity as Chinese people dreamed of having one. Beijing was long considered the worlds’ capital city of bikes with as many as nine million of them.

But from 1995 to 2005,  bikes numbers decreased by 35 percent, from a staggering 670 million to 430 million. Meanwhile, the amounts of cars soared, and even doubled, from 4.2 to 8.9 million.

This had dramatic consequences as traffic congestions started to plague all major cities. In 2010, the country reported a 100-kilometer long traffic congestion that lasted nine days. This led to a turnaround in the government’s policies, which started to favor cycling again.

As a result, bike sharing have sprouted in many cities such as Beijing, Hangzhou, Shanghai or Suzhou. The Hangzhou bike-sharing system has 60,600 bikes, constituting the world’s largest. cf. Wikipedia for more.

In Copenhagen, Denmark, the majority of inhabitants are going to work by bike and in Denmark, nearly half of households don’t own a car. This achievement took local authorities years to achieve – and a lot of money as the capital city has no less than 300 km of bicycle paths – but it has proved to be a success.

In Moscow, Russia, the situation is much different as there, people are just demonstrating and going out together on one (!) or two wheels to demand more biking infrastructures. The local association Let’s Bike it ! is organizing events to promote this way of going around.

To conclude this review of cycling related news I would like to share with you a brilliant article that was written by singer and cycling advocate, David Byrne, for the New York Times. It was published shortly before the city of New York introduced its bike sharing program.

This is just a love declaration to such systems as they just enable to rediscover entire cities very cheaply and very easily. This is perhaps why Europeans are buying two bikes for every car as Grist reported last week.

To further exemplify how biking is just great, I invite you to have a look at a previous post I wrote as well as to the following images.

However, I don’t blog as much as I would like to and generally write around 25 posts per month. But many more news are worth reading. This is why I use Twitter to share dozens of news that are worth your time.

I believe it offers a good complement to this website. So if you are on Twitter and like this selection, don’t hesitate to start following me.

Climate and environment

New study of deep ocean shows that global warming, far from pausing, has accelerated http://thinkprogress.orgconfirms/ …

HSBC: peak in greenhouse emissions will need to be achieved by 2020 latest, and it’s possible: http://goo.gl/O6nQe 

An optimistic must read: Victory at hand for the climate movement? http://reneweconomy.com.au/

Carbon tax becomes a popular topic in Washington http://huff.to/13ZJbZy 

If we start reducing CO2-emissions now and keep going at 4% per year, we have 50% chance of staying within 2°C. Need 9% per year for p=80%.

Two-Thirds of Depleted Fish Stocks Rebound Under Federal #Fisheries Law http://j.mp/XIWJHD

China Claims Emission Levels Dropping Across The Board http://bit.ly/WFRl5h

American Consumers Are Paying a #Climate Disruption Tax of 2.7% http://j.mp/YtLQmD

Quel scandale ! Quelle horreur ! RT @mlinnenluecke Climate change threatens French wine http://www.globalpost.com/

Achoo: climate change sends allergy rates (and asthma) up up up http://www.delawareonline.com/

China’s air pollution problem currently on pace to get 70% worse by 2025: http://wapo.st/ZBxNzx

Pesticides are killing our sperm http://bit.ly/Z7bL7D

Energy

Solar PV prices reduced by 2/3 in 7 years. That IS a breakthrough! Apologies to media for not looking like a cliff. pic.twitter.com/MVeqInKCHX

Peugeot Hybrid Air: 81 mpg, and 5k cheaper than a Prius. Allez-vous! http://www.guardian.co.uk/

WSJ puts things in the funniest way: “Utilities face Mortal Threat From Solar” http://online.wsj.com/

Buying one kW of solar PV is like buying 40 barrels of oil, prepaid. In 2006, that cost €128/barrel, now only €42! pic.twitter.com/h4xrakvotx

The beginning of the end of #coal in the UK http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-21881129 … (EU’s Large Combustion Plant Directive)

Even France can go 100% ou le scénario #negawatt en anglais http://cleantechnica.com/

Fossil fuels are about to hit a big economic wall. Why they can’t sustain economic growth for much longer: http://bit.ly/102tz1X

Solar PV cost decreases by 20% for every doubling of cumulative capacity. Given growth rates translates to ~10% per year.

On RTCC: @Masdar unveils world’s largest concentrated solar power plant, and its epic http://bit.ly/YDPg6a

China seeks to install 100GW of wind by 2015 – but excludes 3 provinces cos “grid overloaded w/ carbon-free energy” http://www.bloomberg.com/

Japan installs 1.12GW of solar power in 9 months http://bit.ly/119eJvI

Tough EU fuel economy rules could create 443,000 jobs | EurActiv: http://www.euractiv.com/

Australian Sunshine Illuminates The Path Toward Massive Solar PV Growth http://bit.ly/103CXVd

It takes 4.4 million gallons of water to frack just 1 gas well. And big oil wants to drill tens of thousands: http://bit.ly/Y9P9TZ

Jaguar Joins BMW, Other Luxury Makes, In Adding Start-Stop For Fuel Savings (Video) http://bit.ly/ZFq7wo  #car #green

“Clean energy investment would need to increase by a factor of 2 to 3 for energy emissions to peak by 2020″ http://thecleanrevolution.org/

Oh, energy efficiency…is there anything you can’t do? http://twitpic.com/cahshm

@NYTimes: “tar sands oil should be among the first fossil fuels we decide to leave alone” http://nyti.ms/10D3paV 

On RTCC: Renewables are missing out on $71trn investment pot says @climatepolicy initiative http://bit.ly/W0Bb7m

Chinese environment ministry’s “state secrets” claim adds to mounting public outrage http://huff.to/13Nzu08

A #carbontax ? Even #Exxon CEO is for it ! Let’s make it happen ASAP… http://clmpr.gs/Zlyg5q  via @thinkprogress Please RT !

9.5 GW RT @greentechmedia New Texas record: On Feb 9, 28% of total electricity supply was windpower http://bit.ly/VvB1oe

There Are At Least $40 Billion Of Investment Opportunities For Energy Efficiency In US Commercial Buildings @Citi http://bit.ly/XLkuJk

Friedman cites IMF: “as much as one-fifth of some Arab state budgets go to subsidizing gasoline and cooking fuel” http://nyti.ms/XKmoNt

Sustainability

#USA: Green jobs grow four times faster than others http://ow.ly/jiH6y  | via @latimes #GreenEconomy

Love! Meet The 14-Year-Old Girl Who Developed A Low-Cost Water Purification System! http://trib.al/t17e2GQ 

Did you flush? At least 2.5 billion people didn’t today… because they don’t have a toilet http://j.mp/Z5v6p9

The Origin of GDP and Why Gross National Happiness (GNH) might make the world a better place. http://ht.ly/jgzrc

RT @anucrawford: “Climate change threatens to roll back decades of development & the poor will suffer most” @rkyte365 http://crawford.anu.edu.au/

Unless we tackle our environmental impact (particularly climate change), the global poor could number 3 billion: http://bit.ly/Yw2GkA

€1 billion for 24 km through the heart of London! RT @ICLEI Europe’s longest segregated cycling route in the making: http://bit.ly/ZFuCqE

Japan shows how to demolish a building without noise, smell, or dust – a good model for densely built cities http://ow.ly/iX1fa

“The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago; the second best time is now.” Great Chinese proverb via @1000000_trees

U.N. plan intended to give everyone access to clean #energy could help keep temp. rise below 3.6°F http://bit.ly/1612oJQ

Why ‘business-as-usual’ myth is dead – Global warming’s new frightening deadline | Pete McMartin: http://www.vancouversun.com

70% of world’s population will live in cities by 2050. What plans are in place to help our urban areas to cope? http://ow.ly/ir4fm

News for Australia: China’s coal imports may collapse, by taxes on pollution and carbon emissions: http://goo.gl/fqoz2  (via @abjartnes)

Misc

Success is bounding from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm – Winston Churchill.

Sometimes it is not enough to do our best; we must do what is required. – Winston Churchill

“Experience: that most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my God do you learn.” – C. S. Lewis

“Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify.” – Henry David Thoreau

“Limerence” is the technical term for having a crush on a person.

Books: Seeing and Thinking Like Sherlock Holmes: Two new books aim to offer insights into the fictional detect… http://nyti.ms/14OAeOF

This is really really cheap as generally wholesale prices in Europe are three to five times higher. Cleantechnica has a very nice article on how renewables are becoming cheaper and cheaper as the prices of fossil fuels increase.

Grid parity – ie. renewables as cheap or cheaper than coal or gas – is slowly but surely arriving all around the world as I wrote in the past few weeks here.

The tremendous advantage of both solar and wind energies is that once they are installed, there is no fuel costs. In a world where energy prices are skyrocketing and will just keep on doing so – see : Oil prices will just keep on increasing – this is perhaps the ace card renewables have to play.

This would be already a huge worry for traditional utilities if wind or solar weren’t becoming cheaper and cheaper. Back to Brazil, the prices of wind power got slashed by no less than 41 percent since 2009.

And this is only the beginning as globally, wind power will be competitive by 2016 and solar will be by 2018 at the latest. Exciting times ahead !

Image credits : Flickr.

However I seriously advise you to increase your climate resilience. With a warming and weirding climate, as well as with increasing resource scarcity,  all kinds of disruptions are due to occur sooner rather than later.

This is why the first step is to slash the amount of resources you use. Whether we are talking about basic commodities or gizmos and gadgets, consuming less is always a good idea.

Energy efficiency, whether at home or on the road are good starters. This is why I have been advocating to weatherize your home time and again and this is why I advocate efficient or electric cars as well as biking and public transport.

Renewable energy sources ( whether solar, wind, wood, geothermal ) are good ideas. If the grid fails or a nuclear / coal / gas-fired plants is no longer able to provide your much needed electricity, your panels / turbine / stove / heat pump will most likely continue providing you both heat and electricity.

The same goes for water. Harvesting the rain falling on your roof can today help you water your garden or flush your toilets but might help you tomorrow to stay hydrated.

Garden ? Did I just mention garden ? While we are at it, if you have the time and space necessary, why not start growing some of your own vegetables and fruits ? Alternatively, becoming a locavore or joining a community shared agriculture group is a good idea.

I always found dumb that in a region renown for its apples such as Calvados (France), kids are fed in schools apples that are being grown on the other side of the world. This isn’t climate resilient or even economically sound.

Like for other doomsday scenarii, staying (or becoming) fit is also a great idea. I previously wrote that staying slim is good for the environment.

I hope this post helped you in your journey towards sustainability and that these tips will help you should the worse occur. If you believe this list is incomplete, please don’t hesitate to comment.

” For a long time the European Union has been leading against climate change. Part of this leadership was its emission trading scheme (ETS), a cap and trade scheme that was designed to cut industrial greenhouse gases emissions. “

As usual, please check out the full article for all the details. As you can imagine, all shares on social media and comments are more than appreciated.

If the previous version of this website offered at the bottom of each page a randomized selection of these reviews, the current one lacks this feature. To solve this – relatively – small problem, I would like to introduce you to a new page.

Book reviews is a page located between Archives and Contact. I hope it will help you learn out more about the most critical questions of our time and how we can solve them.

“Despite much talk by world leaders, and despite a boom in renewable energy over the last decade, the average unit of energy produced today is basically as dirty as it was 20 years ago.”

This is is highly surprising if you remember that despite all the efforts that are being made on solar and wind energy, coal is still booming around the world.

The executive summary of their latest report brings some worrying data :

To illustrate this inertia, the report, Tracking Clean Energy Progress, introduces the Energy Sector Carbon Intensity Index (ESCII), which shows how much carbon dioxide is emitted, on average, to provide a given unit of energy. The ESCII stood at 2.39 tonnes of CO₂ per tonne of oil equivalent (tCO₂/toe) in 1990, and had barely moved by 2010, holding at 2.37 tCO₂/toe (see data visualisations).

“As world temperatures creep higher due to ever-increasing emissions of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide – two thirds of which come from the energy sector – the overall lack of progress should serve as a wake-up call,” Ms. Van der Hoeven said. “We cannot afford another 20 years of listlessness.

We need a rapid expansion in low-carbon energy technologies if we are to avoid a potentially catastrophic warming of the planet, but we must also accelerate the shift away from dirtier fossil fuels.”

While noting that progress remains alarmingly slow for a majority of technologies that could save energy and reduce carbon dioxide emissions consistent with international climate goals, the IEA’s reportdid find some recent, positive signs.

For more data, please don’t hesitate to read the official statement as well as the articles from the Huffington Post, Bloomberg and Cleantechnica.

” The combustion of fossil fuels are a huge health hazard as to a recent United Nations report, 3.3 million people died from outdoor air pollution in 2010. An additional 3.5 million people die early annually from indoor air pollution. “

” (…) As the World Health Organization notes, going for cleaner energy sources – ie. renewables – could easily halve the amounts of deaths by 2030.” As usual, please enjoy and share ! 

Electrical grids are expensive and so is coal. In countries with so much sun such as India, solar energies such as solar PV looks like the perfect fit as it is slowly but surely becoming the cheapest solution.

Grist offers a compelling post on how companies and NGOs are targeting people living in slums to help them have access to cheap, low carbon electricity.

This post is an excellent introduction to energy issues for people who are not familiar with them and don’t grasp their importance in our lives. Cheap energy from coal and oil have enabled our civilization to become what it is nowadays.

As cheap oil reserves dwindle and as coal is just way too polluting to be used indefinitely. Low carbon, non polluting and cheap alternatives are being sought.

The situation at hand is nothing short of explosive and the worst is that our current elected representatives in their huge majority don’t understand this. Consider the issues we are facing :

• species loss
• water shortage
• air pollution
• soil issues
• entropy
• population
• oil supply
• CO2 level
• food prices
• oil prices

This list comes from the Oil Drum article and does remind me of the one published by Jared Diamond in Collapse. Each of  these have been extensively tackled here. To which the author adds three other huge problems : financial issues, political issues and disease susceptibility.

If the two first are quite self-explanatory, the last does need an explanation. To the author : it is ” inadequate food, medicine, and sanitation due to inadequate wages and government cutbacks “. This refer to the sequester situation in the United States and similar situations around the world.

If the post gives quite a pessimistic outlook, solutions do exist and are being applied as I write. They might lack for the time being scale and scope but they are gaining speed globally.

Yes, renewable energy sources are the solution. But to be able to save us from our predicament in time, they’ll have to be reinforced by an equally large push for energy efficiency. And this latter point quite fails to be addressed.

Will it be in time and in scale ?

Image credits : flickr.

Now comes even more scary – at least for the Frenchman I am - climate change could slash by up to 85 percent the production of wine in Bordeaux and other famous wine making regions of France, Europe and around the world.

It’s not as if we lacked reasons to be very serious on climate change, but I believe this is just the last straw. For more, please refer to The Guardian, Grist and the Huffington Post.

All the news I will develop today clearly allow us to understand why the country is willing to push forward renewable energies and efficiency so massively. Business as usual is simply killing people and endangering the nation itself.

Unbridled economic growth without any environmental concern or regulation is clearly unsustainable, environmentally, socially and economically.

First article : You must have read by now about the thousands of pigs that were found roting in the Yangtze river. This article from Foreign Policy shows how this could lead to a possible pandemic. (thanks to Olivier for bringing this to my attention)

Second : air pollution in the People’s Republic of China may be responsible for the premature deaths of 1.2 million people each year. As the New York Times reports ” Figured another way, the researchers said, China’s toll from pollution was the loss of 25 million healthy years of life from the population.“

Third : in case you don’t give much importance to human lives, you may perhaps consider a financial news more apt to make you react. As Global Post noted : ” A report by the Chinese Academy of Environmental Planning said environmental degradation in China cost the country about $230 billion in 2010.“

Fourth : for World Water Day the Atlantic published a series of great photos showing all the extent of water pollution and sheer toxicity in this country. The photo on the right comes from this series. Here is the caption : ”

Chen Guokang from Sanjiang village is 51 years old and diagnosed with lung cancer, the exact causes unknown. The yellow nature of his eyes and skin are due to the cancer spreading, affecting his liver, and causing jaundice. “

Some pictures are quite ” graphic “. So please be advised.

Fifth : China will spend $16 billion in next three years to decrease or at least stop the mounting pollutions in Beijing. Given the huge sums involved for one city only, one has to wonder how much it could cost the nation as a whole to tackle its pollution. Needless to say, the costs of inaction could be much higher as all the afore mentioned news show all too clearly.

To conclude, Green Leap Forward explains that this might change as officials are more and more active to solve this problem.

Hydro supplied 37 percent of the total while wind provided 27 percent. Last year, both energy sources only accounted for 37 percent of  the total electricity generated. Meanwhile, the total electricity consumption fell for the second year.

If all this wasn’t good enough, REN notes that compared to last year, generation by coal fired plants  and natural gas fired plants fell by 29 percent and 44 percent, respectively.

However, Gilding keeps piling arguments in his article ; arguments that I have developed on this very blog and on Cleantechies for now six years and almost 1,500 articles. Indeed two momentum are being built as you read.

Climate change is becoming more and more serious, and the climate movement is winning bigger and bigger battles. Can it just win the war in time ?

As Gilding notes :

That is the reality of the climate movement – it is massive, global, powerful, and on the right side of history.

Regarding the article, it’s simple, I urge you to read it in full. Be warned, it’s quite lengthy but it is really worth your time. However,  if you haven’t got much time, lucky you, I took a few extracts and developed them below.

His summary of the situation is quite impressive :

• The science shows how we are not just failing to slow down climate change, but are in fact accelerating towards the cliff.
• In response, mainstream organisations focused on the global economy are becoming increasingly desperate in their calls for action, fearing the economic consequences if we don’t.  They are arguing that the only way the world can avoid the risk of breakdown is to transform the economy urgently and dramatically.
• Our capacity to do so is now real and practical, with the technologies required already being deployed at very large scale and at competitive cost. The size of the business opportunity now on offer is truly breathtaking.
• In response, the financial markets are waking up to the transformation logic – if the future is based in renewables and these are price competitive without subsidy, or soon will be, the transformation could sweep the economy relatively suddenly, even without further government leadership.
• This then puts in place an enormous and systemic financial risk – in particular investments in, or debt exposure to, the multi-trillion $ fossil fuel industry.
• This risk is steadily being increased by activist campaigns against fossil fuel projects (worsening each projects’ financial risk) and arguing for fossil fuel divestment (putting investors reputation in play as well).
• In response investors and lenders will reduce their exposure to fossil fuels and hedge their risk by shifting their money to high growth renewables.

The author believes that we have to stop using coal, natural gas and oil within as little as twenty years. He also believes this can be done. Gilding concludes his article by stating :

(f)or the first time, we can envisage victory in the decades long fight on climate change. The science is clear, the technology is ready, significant sections of the elite are on side and the financial momentum is with us.

And this time, the economics is playing on the same side as the environment. Just in time.

You might believe this really can’t be done as fossil fuels industry keep raking trillions in profits and subsidies. But they also keep raking more and more problems :

The recent oil spill in Arkansas is the latest thorn in the flesh of US Big Oil. At a time where they are trying to have the Keystone XL pipeline approved, another environmental disaster doubled of a population one.

Going for Arctic oil, seen as the next frontier for the industry has seen so foolhardy that Total stated it wouldn’t go for it, Shell stopped trying for the year and last but not least, Lukoil said a resounding ” Nyet ” to it.

Meanwhile, renewables are literally booming. My update on the triple crisis has made that clear and since then, momentum has just kept on growing. Related technologies are also becoming better and better and at cheaper and cheaper prices.

The only question I am asking myself regarding Gilding’s article is ” Can we really make it happen in time ? “ Twenty years might seem short, but given the urgency of the situation, will this be enough ?