In The News

Copenhagen: Yet Another Giant Beginning with an Uncertain End

Scott Barrett December 21, 2009
As feared by many, the UN conference on climate change has produced a lame document which can, most charitably be described as a beginning. As environmental economist Scott Barrett notes, previous meetings on the environment were also called a beginning but have not ended in anything tangible. Despite a long period spent on negotiations, the final outcome is a short text that reflects a lowest-...

World's Top Polluter Emerges as Green-Technology Leader

Shai Oster December 15, 2009
China’s low cost labor, government support, and cheap capital may help the country become one of the largest providers of clean technology. The country’s solar panels and wind turbines have already received much press, but now there is a chance that China may find an economic solution to reducing carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants. Known as carbon capture, various technologies exist to...

Awaiting Climate Accord, Governments Toy With Dubious Measures

Doaa Abdel Motaal November 6, 2009
In the lead up to the Copenhagen Climate Summit in December, developed and developing nations are already preparing themselves for the outcome, a multilateral deal or not. This approach is bound to harm the prospects for reversing global warming, for fostering free trade, and for ensuring competition, according to World Trade Organization Counselor Doaa Abdel Motaal. Many countries plan to enact...

More Carrot and Less Stick Needed to Fight Global Warming

Emmanuelle Ganne October 28, 2009
With the convention on climate change in Copenhagen in December fast approaching, countries tend to be focusing on measures that punish carbon users. As 2009 Yale World Fellow and trade specialist Emmanuelle Ganne puts it, governments favor a stick approach. But while popular, such policies place significant costs on households and create an image of fighting climate change as a burden. They do...

Shifting the World to 100 Percent Clean, Renewable Energy as Early as 2030 – Here Are The Numbers

Louis Bergeron October 22, 2009
The key to reducing fossil fuel energy use in the future is to switch to renewable sources of energy that generate electricity instead of relying on combustion to drive vehicles or generate power. Two scientists argue that this difficult task is possible with already-existing forms of technology and walk through the numbers of how to get there. Switching to these renewable sources of energy –...

Stumbling Blocks Threaten Kyoto, Copenhagen

Yolandi Groenewald October 16, 2009
It is no secret that global community must act swiftly and decisively to curb carbon emissions and thus halt climate change. Originally, the Kyoto Protocol was one attempt to solve such problems, its many critics notwithstanding. Now the US and a small group of developed nations want to dismantle Kyoto and incorporate its best provisions into a new treaty to be drafted in Copenhagen. One reason...

China Rising: Have Cash, Buy Oil

Dilip Hiro October 9, 2009
While the global financial crisis has left much of the Western world in disarray, China’s position remains strong with a stockpile of cash ready to acquire cheap assets. In many cases, these assets are natural resources, especially hydrocarbons. According to author Dilip Hiro, Beijing’s acquisition strategy seeks to insulate itself from the vagaries of raw material price fluctuation while...