After several decades of stagnation, the recent discovery of significant natural gas deposits in the Mediterranean, which could supply Israel’s energy needs for the coming decades, and the introduction of domestic renewable energy generation could signal a rapid energy transition for Israel. Noam Segal explains.
Archives
The benefits of community energy in Ontario and elsewhere
The Toronto Renewable Energy Cooperative (TREC) highlights some of the global estimates about payback to communities that allow their citizens to invest in renewable projects. But Craig Morris’s overview of the statistics shows the lack of comparable hard data.
Will Germany reach its 2020 target for renewable power this year?
In the first half of 2016, 36.4 percent of the electricity produced in Germany was renewable according to preliminary data. The target for 2020 is only 35 percent – and that figure does not include power exports. Renewables seem to be cutting into both coal power and nuclear; gas is up. Craig Morris explains.
A struggle between coal and renewable energy in the Philippines
The struggle between coal-fired and renewable energy plants in the Philippines is heated. Pete Maniego Jr explains the resurgence of coal and the need for a renewable energy transition in order to meet the COP21 goals.
What to do about the disenfranchised? Enfranchise them!
For those of us who call for greater energy democracy, Brexit is a challenge. After all, doesn’t it demonstrate that the public is easy to fool and cannot be trusted to make decisions based on facts rather than emotions? To draw the right conclusions for all of Europe, it helps to understand how the Energiewende strengthened democracy in Germany. Craig Morris calls for more democracy, not less.
Opportunity to leapfrog into the renewable age – is India on the right track?
India is poised to show the value of renewable energies to developing economies. Its new targets, government programs, alongside other factors, seem to be moving India into a renewable energy age. Srinivas Krishnaswamy takes an in-depth perspective.
Mixed feelings: Brexit’s impact on EU energy and climate policy
They did it. They actually did it. The British voted against the European Union and in favor of “splendid isolation.” What will Brexit mean for European climate and energy policy? How will it affect the dynamics of greater climate protection that we are taking pains to maintain in the wake of Paris? Antje Mensen takes a look.
Berlin’s Renewable Energy Fiasco… Revisited
Although the Wall Street Journal has called the German energy transition a “fiasco,” Javier López Prol argues that renewables are clearly a success. Fossil fuels only seem cheaper as they externalize costs onto the environment, and that higher electricity costs are not the economic catastrophe that critics claim.
The case for ‘Gigawatts of Change’ in Egypt
Simon Ilse summarizes the new study “80 Gigawatts of Change” by the Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights (ECESR). Civil society groups can use study to compare social and ecological impacts, and use its findings as a tool for advocacy.
Media silence on urgency of climate change?
Is the media doing a bad job covering climate change and the energy sector? If not, why do so many experts think so? A group of them recently met in Germany to discuss the issue. Between practitioners (journalists) and outsiders (climatologists), what was missing was media analysts. Craig Morris explains.