In The News

The Three Challenges Facing the Electricity Sector

Jean-Paul Bouttes, François Dassa and Renaud Crassous November 28, 2011
The global demand for energy is climbing, and governments must encourage innovation to keep up, contends a team from EDF, a leading nuclear energy company based in France. Other challenges include limiting greenhouse-gas emissions to stem global warming and promoting sustainability in cities with rapid growth. “On the demand side, technologies exist for a wide range of end-uses: thermal...

How Walmart Is Changing China

Orville Schell November 23, 2011
Walmart is working with China to identify and reduce waste in packaging, shipping and energy use, explains China expert Orville Schell in an article for the Atlantic. Any cost-saving idea can be multiplied among thousands of suppliers, thousands of stores, millions of employees and shoppers. Since 2005, Walmart and China “are engaging in a bold experiment in consumer behavior modification, market...

Green Costs Go Global

Nayan Chanda November 22, 2011
Recovery from natural disasters is costly, and climate change, combined with ongoing reliance on fossil fuels, promises more crises and expenditures. Extreme weather events are disrupting the global supply chain with consequences for corporations. Flooding in Thailand is just one example: The country “quietly emerged as a key player in the production and distribution of automobile and consumer...

Darkening Skies on the Road to Durban – Part I

J.R. McNeill November 21, 2011
The discomfort over record floods, droughts and wildfires is merging views around the globe – with many hoping for decisive action from the more than 200 nations gathering for the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Durban. This YaleGlobal series focuses on the challenges confronting decision-makers. Climate change, as the dominant issue of our time, demands global cooperation, writes J....

World Anxious as Iran Inches Toward Nuclear Bomb

Leonard S. Spector November 14, 2011
As the international community seeks ways to reduce nuclear weapons, the few nations that defy this common goal are targets for ire, monitoring, and escalating sanctions. The International Atomic Energy Agency has reported evidence that Iran is continuing to build the technical skills required for producing nuclear weapons and accumulating stocks of partially enriched uranium. Nonproliferation...

German Automakers Embrace Car-Sharing

Christian Wüst November 14, 2011
Austerity is a science in Germany, and youthful Germans no longer yearn for cars. Attuned to such sensibilities, BMW and other automakers are developing car-sharing programs that allow members to reserve cars online and then drive a new vehicle, as needed, for few euros. “[M]embers get an electronically readable driver's license sticker, which opens the doors of hundreds of BMWs or Minis...

Where Did Global Warming Go?

Elisabeth Rosenthal October 31, 2011
As a political issue, climate change has fallen off the US policy agenda due to an economic downturn and dogged insistence by climate-change naysayers that science has not produced enough evidence on whether human activity contributes to global warming. The United States stands as the “one significant outlier” on responding to climate change, suggests an HSBC global research report, while other...