With COVID-19 spread across the globe and spikes of cases emerging, economies have fallen into recession and energy markets have been severely impacted, bottoming out in April. The global gross domestic product (GDP) in 2020 is now projected by the International Monetary Fund to decline to -4.9%; global GDP in 2019 was 2.9%. Furthermore, historic […]
Electricity is an important condition for the reduction of poverty and economic growth. The development of agriculture, education and technology demand sufficient and continuous electricity supply. The situation in Africa is fundamentally different. The shortage of energy significantly impedes the continent’s development. Approximately 70% of Africans don’t have reliable access to electricity. According to the […]
Accessible, reliable and affordable energy is the cornerstone of transformational socio-economic development. For Africa, delivering sustainable development is dependent on meeting the continent’s energy needs in order to lift populations out of poverty, catalyze industrialization, and stimulate economic growth. Despite the continent’s abundant energy resources, energy poverty is still rife in the continent with close […]
Hillary Clinton has put out an enormous number of climate change policy proposals. She may not be able to implement very many of them.
For years, oil has been powered our increasingly technologically dependent world. Oil alternatives are becoming increasingly popular, and coupled with the Persian Gulf’s limited supply, many governments have tried to stay ahead of the market, which forecasts a world that’s not dependent on the Arabian Peninsula’s oil.
Most people have never heard of El Hierro, westernmost of the Spanish-controlled Canary Islands off the coast of Africa. But this tiny outpost, population 10,000, may well become a model for larger communities and countries seeking energy independence.
South Africa is leading the charge of developing renewable energy in sub-Saharan Africa in part due to policy that provides a conducive investment environment to entice developers to investigate projects within the nation. As load shedding is a too frequent event, the nation is adding new options to its energy mix. Recently in South Africa’s […]
The countries of the European Union tend to be viewed as the main advocates at the national level for developing a more comprehensive and binding global plan to tackle climate change. As the EU pushes forward, other nations have been stuck in neutral or have been retrenching. With the European economy continuously struggling to pick […]
East Africa is on the verge of personifying an energy transformation. New advances in natural gas, wind, geothermal, solar power and potentially oil are emerging to feed the hungry markets, while large hydro will continue to expand as well. Ethiopia, a country of 92 million and 7+ percent economic growth, has been a driver in […]
Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa, president of the smallest oil producing and exporting member of OPEC, has committed to expanding oil drilling – from the current 513,000 barrels of oil per day. President Correa announced last week that he signed an executive decree to end the Yasuni Ishpingo-Tambococha-Tipuni (ITT) initiative. ITT are oil blocks, which house […]
Estonia, which joined the EU in 2004 and the Eurozone in 2011, officially unveiled its nation-wide electric vehicle (EV) network last week. The ex-Soviet republic designed its pioneering new fast-charging, web-connected network to eliminate “range anxiety,” improve energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions. The network’s current infrastructure includes 151 fast-charging stations with 14 additional […]
As COP 18 in Doha seems to have failed (as of writing) to reach a consensus on how to further climate change action for the future, Malaysia proves to be one developing country with a plan for internal action. The country has set ambitious emission reduction targets: by 2020 it has committed to cut it […]
Jochen Flasbarth, President of Umwelt Bundes Amt (UBA – Germany’s central federal authority on environmental matters), was in New York last week, where he discussed, among other things, Germany’s efforts to create a national electric supply that relies completely on renewable energy. Germany’s goal is to reduce its overall greenhouse gas emissions by 80-90% by the […]
China’s largest electric transmission company has announced an ambitious plan to develop a national smart grid by 2020 that would help utilities and their customers transport and use energy more efficiently. The sheer size of the project raises some intriguing questions. First, about whether China has the capital and technology for such an extensive upgrade. […]
Senior US Representatives Henry Waxman (D-Calif) and Ed Markey (D-Mass) today released draft cap-and-trade legislation that would reshape US energy and climate policy through drastic cuts in emissions in the next 20 years and significant increases in renewables by 2025. The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (ACES), intended to “create jobs, help […]