Solar Energy

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Solar panels have plummeted 80% in price during the past decade, but they are still relatively expensive and depend on mined silicon. They are also a big waste challenge, since they aren’t recyclable and they have toxic chemicals in them. Silicon panels last up to 30 years, but gradually lose […]

Climate Crisis

All Hands on Deck: Biden plans to fight climate change in a way no U.S. president has done before

The Conversation

By Bill Ritter Jr. | – Joe Biden is preparing to deal with climate change in a way no U.S. president has done before – by mobilizing his entire administration to take on the challenge from every angle in a strategic, integrated way. The strategy is evident in the people Biden has chosen for his […]

Climate Crisis

President Biden, We can do this too: Europe generates more electricity with Renewables than Fossil Fuels for First Time

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – A new report from Ember and Agora Energiewende finds that in 2020, the 27 countries of the European Union generated more electricity with renewables (wind, solar, hydro) than with fossil fuels (coal and natural gas). The growth in renewables has all come from wind and solar. These two increased by […]

Climate Crisis

The first thing we do, let’s kill all the Coal Plants: How Joe Biden can save the Planet

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – My title is from William Shakespeare’s Henry the VI. In the original, Dick “the Butcher” is speaking of ways to overthrow the king and improve the country, and he suggests killing all the lawyers first. Nowadays, carbon dioxide is the thing preventing us from improving the country. President Biden has […]

Climate Crisis

7 Million more Germans resolve to power Homes with Wind, Solar in 2021: 15% already Do

Clean Energy Wire

By Kerstine Appunn | – Many Germans are starting the new year with “climate resolutions” – around 24 percent of them want to make more use of environmentally-friendly means of transport, 13 percent want to switch to a vegetarian or vegan diet and 9 percent plan to switch to green electricity in 2021, a poll […]

Climate Crisis

Deficit Hawks: Reducing environmental damage of greenhouse gases, pollutants saves billions

Clean Energy Wire

By Charlotte Nijhuis | – ( Clean Energy Wire ) – Reducing the environmental damages caused by greenhouse gases, nitrogen emissions, other pollutants and human activities can save Germany billions of euros, the German Federal Environment Agency (UBA) writes. The agency has updated the cost rates of environmental impact to include those for nitrogen and […]

China

The new geopolitics of China’s climate leadership

Kevin Rudd

(China Dialogue) – The Paris Agreement’s five-year anniversary provides the perfect opportunity for China to demonstrate its confident, international policy activism on the environment, writes former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. Since 2014, China has embarked on a new era of confident, independent international policy activism under President Xi Jinping – the origins of which […]

Batteries

Greening America: Can Biden’s new Team of Buttigieg and Granholm save us from the Climate Crisis?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Washington Post is reporting that Joe Biden will make Pete Buttigieg his secretary of transportation and Jennifer Granholm his secretary of energy. This is very good news for climate policy. Energy is perhaps the most important portfolio in the Biden cabinet, since it is key to greening America and […]

Climate Crisis

How Biden could save $437 Bn, create millions of Jobs, by Reversing Trump Tariffs on Solar Panels

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Michelle Lewis at Electrek discusses a new study that finds hundreds of billions of dollars in savings and millions of jobs created if the US can power a quarter of its households with rooftop solar. Australia already gets 5% of its electricity from rooftop solar, and some states, such as […]