Energy

By Phoebe Barnard and William Moomaw | – For some time, the Earth’s natural resources have been depleted faster than they can be replaced. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has set a 2030 deadline to reduce heat-trapping emissions by half to avoid climate change that is both irreversible and destructive. With colleagues, we coauthored […]

Featured

Nuclear Talks: Iran thumbs nose at US, betting on China as new Superpower

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The recent round of talks in Vienna between Iran and Germany plus the 4 members of the UN Security Council who are still members of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA) have not gone well, though further meetings are planned. One reason is that […]

Featured

As Iran Negotiates on Nuclear Deal, Americans Wrongly believe it has a Bomb — and that Israel Doesn’t!

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – This week Iran returned to Vienna for negotiations with Germany and the four members of the UN Security Council still adhering to the 2015 nuclear deal or Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JPOA). Chief negotiator Ali Bagheri-Kani brought two documents, one on the lifting of sanctions on Iran and the […]

Climate Crisis

Will Germany’s New Climate Super Minister Robert Habeck Super Charge the Clean Energy Transition?

Clean Energy Wire

By Sören Amelang | – ( Clean Energy Wire) – As Germany’s first climate “super minister”, Green politician Robert Habeck will play a key role in fulfilling the future government’s promise to get the country on a path compatible with the 1.5°C global warming limit. The widely popular party co-leader must oversee the translation of […]

Climate Crisis

Germany to Get Green Party Ministry of Economy, Energy and Climate in boost for President Biden

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Germany’s environmentalist Green Party, led by two popular politicians, nearly doubled its seats in parliament to become a swing party for the formation of a new government coalition. Their prospects were boosted when the center-left Social Democrats narrowly beat the conservative Christian Democrats in number of seats in the September […]

Climate Crisis

Whether Gov’ts like it or not, Coal Plants are doomed by Cheap Solar and Wind Power

The Conversation

By James Ha and Alison Reeve | The international climate summit in Glasgow aimed to “consign coal power to history”. But while some major coal-consuming countries have agreed to phase out the fossil fuel in the 2030s, Australia is not one of them. Under its recently released plan to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, the […]

Iran

Having Left the Iran Nuclear Deal, can the US revive it with the seventh round in Vienna?

Middle East Monitor

By Hani Habeeb | – ( Middle East Monitor) – While the American Special Representative to Iran, Robert Malley, surprised observers of the nuclear file by saying that the point of no return for this file is approaching, Israel is escalating its tone, especially in the context of its dispute with the US over this […]

CO2

Climate Emergency: Big Oil wants to go on drilling while greenwashing with imaginary “Carbon Capture”

The Conversation

By June Sekera and Neva Goodwin | – After decades of sowing doubt about climate change and its causes, the fossil fuel industry is now shifting to a new strategy: presenting itself as the source of solutions. This repositioning includes rebranding itself as a “carbon management industry.” This strategic pivot was on display at the […]

Climate Crisis

Despite 5.1 bn Tons of deadly annual CO2 Emissions, 39% of Americans Think US is Doing a Good Job on Climate

John Feffer

( Foreign Policy in Focus) – We all think that climate change is somebody else’s problem. We have to be persuaded otherwise. There is an astonishing statistic in a Pew research study released in 2020 on perceptions of how different countries handled COVID-19. Only 15 percent of people in a dozen countries around the world […]