European Union

( Clean Energy Wire ) – Together with French manufacturer Alstom, German railway company Deutsche Bahn is going to start trial runs with the country’s first battery-powered passenger train. Test operation of the so-called Battery Electric Multiple Unit (BEMU) from Alstom would begin in late January on regional routes in the southern German states of […]

Ireland

Ireland has the Wind and Seas to become an offshore Superpower

The Conversation

By Aldert Otter | – The Irish government signed up to the recent Glasgow Climate Pact and used the summit to announce a raft of ambitious goals, including the development of 5 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind energy up to 2030. That would more than double the country’s current onshore and offshore wind power capacity. […]

Germany

Renewables supplied 46% of net public power in Germany in 2021, 40.9% of Gross

Clean Energy Wire

NB: “In 2020, renewable energy sources (including wind, hydroelectric, solar, biomass, and geothermal energy) generated . . . about 21% of all the electricity generated in the United States.” – EIA [half that of Germany]. – JRC By Kerstine Appunn | – ( Clean Energy Wire ) – The share of renewables in net public […]

Bashar al-Assad

Syrian survivors of Torture rejoice over German Court indicting Regime Officer of Crimes Against Humanity

Global Voices

By Okba Mohammed | – ( Globalvoices.org) – Survivors of torture in Syrian prisons celebrated a verdict made at 10 a.m. on Thursday, January 13 by Koblenz Court in Germany, convicting former officer in the Syrian regime Anwar Raslan of crimes against humanity. Many also demanded the end of torture for their loved ones still […]

Drought

New German Chancellor Scholz Pledges Success in Ambitious Doubling of Renewables by 2030

Julian Wettengel

By Julian Wettengel | – ( Clean Energy Wire ) – The new German government’s plan to more than double power production from renewable sources by 2030 presents a “gigantic task” for the country, said Chancellor Olaf Scholz in his first government declaration in the Bundestag (national parliament). “However, I am firmly convinced that we […]

censorship

Justice: French arrest Man they believe to be Top Saudi Assassin of Journalist Jamal Khashoggi

Juan Cole

Update: French authorities have released the individual they apprehended on Tuesday. Read on for the significance of this attempted arrest of al-Otaibi. Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Rick Noack and Sarah Dadouch at The Washington Post report that French authorities arrested a Saudi man they believe to be Khalid Aedh al-Otaibi, a member of 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 […]

Belgium

Belgium has decided to Label Squatter-Settler goods from Occupied Palestine as Not from Israel — Will it start a Wave?

Ramona Wadi

( Middle East Monitor ) – Labelling Israeli settlement products “strengthens extremists, does not help promote peace in the region, and shows Belgium as not contributing to regional stability,” according to Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister Idan Roll. He lashed out at Belgium’s announcement that it would start applying more restrictive measures on goods produced by […]