Welcome ! As a young French Marketing professional with a Master's in International Management I have been selecting since January 2007 the latest headlines and best researches on sustainable development, climate change, cleantech and the world energy sector. Sounds great ? Don't hesitate to subscribe now !
I have been blogging here many times over on how biking and bike sharing are great sustainable solutions to fossil fuels depletion, high oil prices, air pollution and traffic congestion.
While browsing Cleantechnica in search of great articles to share with you all, I found a blog solely dedicated to bike sharing and the many projects around the world : The Bike-sharing Blog
From the Americas to Asia and Europe, it seems this solution is gaining a lot of traction and attention. So if you are interested to keep up with related news, don’t hesitate to read this blog…
Are we finally getting things right on climate change ? Not completely, but what happened last week may be a good omen for the Rio +20 conference. As I noted in a post published yesterday on Cleantechies :
” Further to the Camp David meeting last week, G8 leaders agreed to act on climate change and air pollution by focusing on methane, black carbon (soot), and hydroflurocarbons (HFCs). “
” This is the logical follow up of a move in the same direction by the United States, China and other countries back to February. However, like the previous agreement, CO2 is still not mentioned. “
The Atlantic published an article under this title that points to another inconvenient truth: between the growing needs of an increasing population and climate change, water will soon come in short supply.
To the first U.S. Intelligence Community Assessment of Global Water Security :” by 2030 humanity’s annual global water requirements will exceed current sustainable water supplies by forty percent.”
” Absent major policy interventions, water insecurity will generate widespread social and political instability and could even contribute to state failure. “. It’s time to save the precious liquid.
I previously wrote on Cleantechies that more aggressive climate policies could save Europe money and that air pollution costs billions to the European Union. Here is another example of how Europe could save money :
” According to a recent study carried out by Euroheat & Power, the international association of district heating and cooling, the value of energy wasted each year in the European Union amounts to a whopping 1.000 euros per citizen. “
To learn out more on this, please check out the full article. As always, comments, shares and so on are more than welcome.
(Word of caution : this is a repost from an old series) For the fourth installment of these series – see the previous articles on heating, electricity and water- I would like to propose you a selection of the best tips to help you using less your car.
Doing so is good for your health, your budget, your community and our common environment. It is also one of the most efficient step to cut your greenhouse gases emissions.
Spring is the best moment to do so as the weather is becoming more clement and allows to get back on our bikes. It is also the best way to prepare for summer. Continue reading “Towards sustainability, reloaded : transport” »
If a weirder climate, rising sea levels and so on and so forth weren’t enough to motivate us to combat climate change, here is another reason to do so. As Al Gore notes on his blog :
“Watery eyes, runny noses and puffy faces will abound this year as a warm winter, human development and climate change converge to create a brutal allergy season that will likely get worse for years to come, according to experts.”
“(…) More people are becoming susceptible to allergies over time as pollen seasons are getting longer.” (via E&E News : Climate change is expanding allergy risks )
The recent launch of a 600 MW solar park in the state of Gujarat – the largest in Asia – was the occasion for The Economist to publish an interesting article on the huge potential of solar energy in India.
The British weekly notes : ” solar power would appear to be an obvious winner for India. The country has plenty of sun and flat, idle land. India is energy-hungry, but electricity supply is sporadic “
There, you will read how the ambitious plans presented by the government could pretty well be just the start if prices keep decreasing and decreasing.
Yes, you read that right : the oil superpower is willing to tap into its significant solar potential by installing no less than 41 gigawatts of solar capacity by 2032. The project is estimated to cost $109 billion (84 billion euros).
Out of the 41 GW of capacity, 16 will be brought by solar photovoltaic (PV) and the remaining 25 will be coming from Concentrated Solar Power (CSP). This will be a smart use of the Kingdom’s huge deserts.
As Green Prophet notes the project will enable the country to save half a million barrels of oil per day. Solar would then account for a third of the electricity production. Continue reading “Saudi Arabia to invest massively in cleantech” »
This seems to come straight from a nightmare. According to Grist, the Pacific Garbage Patch has gotten a hundred times bigger in only forty years. This is a huge problem as all this pollution directly harms the local biodiversity.
Turtles and fishes are the first victims but all this could also endanger zooplankton in the near future as to the BBC ” the fragments make it easier for the marine insect Halobates sericeus to lay its eggs out over the ocean.”
If you think about cleaning up Grist notes that ” the microplastic is intensely difficult to clean up, so it’s critical to keep plastic out of the ocean to keep the problem from getting worse. “ Indeed !
” According to the French utility EDF, the French solar PV capacity reached in March 3,000 MW, with over 2672 MW in mainland France and 339 MW in Corsica and overseas.”
” According to the data : the total capacity grew by 15 percent this semester in metropolitan France. An additional 1,581 MW are already installed but are waiting to be plugged to the grids. “
You will be able to read the full article on Cleantechies as this represents the introduction of my latest post there. Hope you will like it.
