Lord Stern criticises Britain’s rush to frack

The Independent’s environment editor, Tom Bawden, reports on Lord Nicholas Stern’s latest criticisms of the Government’s rush into fracking without a thorough analysis of all its potential ramifications. Baseless economics': Lord Stern on David Cameron’s claims that a UK fracking boom can bring down price of gas Lord Stern, author of the hugely influential … Continue reading Lord Stern criticises Britain’s rush to frack →

Economist weighs in on the importance of a carbon tax in the US

N. Gregory Mankiw, a professor of economics at Harvard and an adviser to President George W. Bush, recently wrote in the New York Times about his preference for a carbon tax to address climate change concerns. A Carbon Tax That America Could Live With This summer, the Obama administration released the President’s Climate Action Plan. … Continue reading Economist weighs in on the importance of a carbon tax in the US →

Climate change and managing risk

Dana Nuccitelli provides a very thought-provoking column in the Guardian about our ability to normally manage risk, but when it comes to addressing climate change, we appear to be making some big mistakes. Is climate change humanity's greatest-ever risk management failure? Humans are very good at managing risks, except when it comes to the … Continue reading Climate change and managing risk →

Looking to Europe and Algeria for inspiration and innovation

Arnold Schwarzenegger, former Governor of California is fully committed to pushing for a clean energy future. While he knows innovation made the US great, he is worried that it is falling behind. He said he could not help but be jealous in Algiers and Brussels. As he said, “They have a vision, and they are … Continue reading Looking to Europe and Algeria for inspiration and innovation →

Vulnerability to climate change is not only in developing countries

John Broder explains in the New York Times about some of the breakdowns that can be expected in the energy system as a result of the impact of changing climate. Climate Change Will Cause More Energy Breakdowns, U.S. Warns The nation’s entire energy system is vulnerable to increasingly severe and costly weather events driven … Continue reading Vulnerability to climate change is not only in developing countries →

Explaining failure

Robert Manne, a professor of politics at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia, has written an excellent article article in The Guardian about why we have not made as much progress on addressing climate change as we could have. This is a sobering review that should give us some food for thought. Climate change: some reasons … Continue reading Explaining failure →

How easy it is for the media to change its coverage of climate issues

We normally expect unbiased, accurate coverage from the major news agencies. Suzanne Goldenberg writes in The Guardian about what happened at Reuters’ news agency because of one climate sceptic senior editor. Rest assured that EiD’s editor is not a climate sceptic. Reuters' climate-change coverage 'fell by nearly 50% with sceptic as editor' Media Matters … Continue reading How easy it is for the media to change its coverage of climate issues →

Linking energy efficiency and climate change

Peter Hannam writes in the Southern Weekly from New South Wales about how important it is to keep up the effort on energy efficiency, even if there is a shift on carbon pricing. Carbon change 'must not halt energy efficiency' Australia's businesses would be wrong to think an earlier-than-planned shift to a floating price … Continue reading Linking energy efficiency and climate change →

What do you know about carbon capture and storage?

Fiona Harvey recently wrote in the Guardian about a research study by the UK Energy Research Council that was trying to better understand what the public thought about the future of energy policy. CCS is considered by the government’s climate advisors to be a major way of helping to take carbon out of electricity generation. … Continue reading What do you know about carbon capture and storage? →

EU Emissions Trading System under the microscope

Nathaniel Keohane and Gernot Wagner provide an excellent analysis in the Financial Times of the Emissions Trading System (ETS). The writers are vice-president for international climate and senior economist at the Environmental Defense Fund based in the US. Judge a carbon market by its cap, not its prices The goal of the union’s ETS is … Continue reading EU Emissions Trading System under the microscope →