Solar Energy

(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 […]

Climate Crisis

Top Nine Reasons Why Climate change is best tackled through lots of small-scale solutions

The Conversation

By Charlie Wilson, Caroline Zimm and Simon De Stercke | – Massive amounts of public money are being mobilised to kickstart economies out of COVID-induced recessions. Many countries are allocating parts of their stimulus packages towards ensuring the recovery is green. As we emerge from the COVID shock and try to accelerate progress on decarbonisation, […]

Australia

Australia’s Massive Solar Energy Hub in Outback to produce coal-killer Green Ammonia

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Asian Renewable Energy Hub is planning a $16 billion solar and wind project in the part of the Australian outback known as Pilbara, that is, in the north of the West Australian desert. The panels work by converting photons or ordinary light rays to electricity. The Australian Bureau of […]

Climate Crisis

One last Time, Trump lies to the International Community about the Climate Emergency and Green Energy

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – DW gives a clip of Trump’s unhinged video rant to the G20 summit against the Paris Climate Accord on Sunday, which is being held virtually this year. Trump said, according to Kevin Liptak at CNN, “The Paris accord was not designed to save the environment, it was designed to kill […]

Featured

In G-20, Only India is on track to meet goals for keeping Global Heating to 3.6° F.

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The 2020 Climate Transparency report finds that India is on track to meeting the carbon dioxide emissions levels that, if all countries on earth did the same, would keep global heating to 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit (2 degrees centigrade). The bad news? Of all the top 20 economies in the world […]

Climate Crisis

We only need $1.5 Trillion to meet Paris climate goals, a fraction of what Gov’ts are spending on Pandemic Relief

The Conversation

By David L. McCollum | – As of late summer, governments around the world had pledged US$12.2 trillion of relief in response to the coronavirus pandemic. That’s around 15% of global GDP, three times larger than government spending put forward during and after the 2008-2009 global financial crisis and enough for every adult in the […]

Environmentalism

As Wind, Solar, surge, Renewables to be Globe’s largest Source of Electricity by 2025

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The International Energy Agency just issued a report concluding that wind and solar are growing rapidly, unlike beleaguered fossil fuels, and that in only five years they will be generating a third of the world’s electricity, overtaking coal. They will overtake natural gas sooner, in 2023. Coal is the dirtiest […]