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How AI and robots will help safeguard our offshore energy infrastructure in the future

August 21, 2019

The modern world depends on the smooth provision of vital services such as energy, transportation, telecommunications, food, water and healthcare. But the systems underpinning these sectors are increasingly complex and interdependent, interacting at a global scale – which makes them susceptible to potentially catastrophic failures when they come under stress. David Flynn and Valentin Robu report

The Triumphant Return of Community Energy

by Paul Hockenos

August 19, 2019

About five years ago, decentralized community energy, though etched in history books for having sparked Europe’s clean-energy revolution in the 1990s, was deemed outdated in the age of the ever-more dramatic climate crisis. Paul Hockenos explains the development.

China’s emissions ‘could peak 10 years earlier than Paris climate pledge’

by Energiewende Team

August 14, 2019

CO2 emissions in China may peak up to a decade earlier than the nation has pledged under the Paris Agreement, according to a new study. Josh Gabbatiss reports

Dirty fuel switch: Germany and Western Europe’s CO2 emissions fall as utilities ditch coal for cheap fossil gas

by L. Michael Buchsbaum

August 12, 2019

Approaching this summer’s midpoint, despite record-setting heat and continued drought in Europe, one positive development amidst the growing climate crisis is the sustained fall of coal’s generation market share throughout most of the continent. L. Michael Buchsbaum reports

Germany eager to become global leader in developing hydrogen technologies

by Energiewende Team

August 7, 2019

Germany intends to invest €100 million annually into the research of hydrogen technologies. This could be the business of the future, as well as the country’s next top export. However, the future of green gas is still extremely shaky. Daniel Eck reports.

Polish politicians come to terms with climate change

by Michał Olszewski

August 6, 2019

Recent months have brought a series of signs of change on the horizon of Polish climate politics – some clearer than others. It is negligible how much such change is being forced by external circumstances and how much stems from genuine reflection. The climate crisis and its consequences are now so clear that the most hardened climate sceptics have been silenced. It is too soon to speak of an environmental breakthrough in Poland, but one can no longer definitively say that the right-wing remains completely indifferent to the ubiquitous signs of crisis. Michał Olszewski summarises the development.

Public problems, private solutions? The UN addresses the climate technology gap

by Silvia Weko

July 31, 2019

Even though unit costs for renewable energy have fallen sharply, there’s clearly more finance needed for mitigation and adaptation. The least developed countries still don’t have the technologies they need. Can the private sector deliver, or should governments and the UN intervene, asks Silvia Weko

Is democracy too slow to fix the climate?

by Craig Morris

July 29, 2019

As “we only have 12 years left” morphs into “11 years” because emissions keep rising, the question of whether benevolent dictators wouldn’t be better than sluggish, ineffective democracies is being posed more often. Will someone please tell people why democracy still matters? Craig Morris is searching for answers

How the EU-Mercosur trade deal is worsening the international climate crisis

by Kathrin Meyer

July 24, 2019

After twenty years of negotiations, the European Union is in the process of advancing one of the world’s largest free trade agreements with four states of Mercosur. The planned agreement suggests a political path that veers towards a worsening of the international climate crisis. Kathrin Meyer discusses the questionable contents of the political act, which will solidify inequality amongst the trade partners and enable the expansion of environmentally harmful methods.

Wanted: a double reorientation of energy finance

by Laima Eicke

July 22, 2019

Several countries’ national determined contributions (NDCs) highlight climate finance as a precondition for the ambitious action needed to achieve development paths compatible with limiting global warming to 1.5°C in 2100. Many hopes have been pinned on new market mechanisms in this context, but the trade-offs demanded by carbon trading schemes continued to be hotly debated at the UNFCCC last week, not least due to their political and economic implications. Laima Eicke reports

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