As Germany is showing, it is very possible to get large penetrations of renewable energy while phasing out nuclear energy. With bold political and social support, a consistent incentive framework for clean energy investment, and creative thinking about how to deploy geographically-dispersed resources, Germany is undergoing a major transition in its energy sector.
Global negotiators and observers met for two days in Mexico City at the end of April to start their work of designing the future Green Climate Fund. This first analysis by Liane Schalatek describes options for and potential obstacles to the process.
After Fukushima, the debate on nuclear power is changing. Arne Jungjohann provides insight on the discussion in Germany, compares the role of renewable energy in Europe and in the United States and explains why the US could boost renewables very quickly once its political will is strong enough.
The upcoming summit "Rio+20" is not only to set the stage for a green economy, but also to provide an impetus for the institutional reform of the UN environmental sector. An analysis by Barbara Unmüßig.
Critics of renewable energies argue their costs are too high. This analysis by the Wuppertal Institute gives an overview of the costs and benefits of Germany’s Renewable Energies Act (EEG).
On 22 February, the Heinrich Böll Foundation North America, the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP), Women Organizing for Change and Natural Resource Management (WOCAN) and the UN Non-Governmental Liaison Service (NGLS) co-organized a panel discussion on "Climate Adaptation Challenges from a Gender Perspective - CSO Messages for Rio +20."
Ralf Fücks, President of the Heinrich Böll Foundation, gave a welcome address at the conference “Opportunities and Challenges: The Future of E-mobility in Germany and the US”. The e-mobility conference was hosted by the German Embassy and The Representative of German Industry and Trade in Washington D.C. on March 30, as part of the Transatlantic Climate Bridge initiative.
Climate change is the biggest environmental problem currently confronting humanity and affecting all socioeconomic sectors in the country and around the world. Its impact, however, is differentiated by gender, economic, social and geopolitical factors. In this case study, interviews with women and men in six communities in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas were conducted.
The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) has recently published a new report: The Myth of Green Jobs - The European Experience. It claims that clean energy technologies increase energy prices and don’t lead to a net job growth in Europe. Given the German experience, Arne Jungjohann argues, AEI’s report has several flaws.
Americans consumed 275lb of meat in 2010. That is more than 341 grams each day. Most Americans do not know - or care to know - where their daily meat comes from. The truth is: in the United States, 79% of pigs are raised on farms with 2,000 pigs or more. These factory farms promised better employment, affordable food for everybody and better, more efficient farming practices. They delivered the opposite.
The Heinrich Boell Foundation Prague published a new report on the state of nuclear energy and plans to expand it in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, and Bulgaria. In many of these countries high-level politicians are vigorously promoting the development of nuclear energy.
The unfolding disaster at the nuclear plants in Japan, which involves some of the oldest reactors in the country, starkly shows that the United States’ current policy of rubber-stamping 20-year license extensions for its aging reactors is very dangerous.
This Green European Foundatio (GEF) publication is a first, critical look at six National Renewable Energy Action Plans submitted to the European Commission in 2010. These action plans contain detailed information on how these six European Union member states expect to meet their EU renewable energy targets, and hence provide great insight into the expected development of the European energy industry over the coming decade and beyond.
The Adaptation Fund (AF), established by the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), is mandated to finance concrete adaptation projects and programmes in developing countries that are Parties to the Kyoto Protocol and to allow direct access to the Fund by Parties.
This paper takes a close look at the status quo of public climate change finance post-Cancun and proposes the use of existing core principles and tools of international environmental law and human rights as the fundamental conceptual guide.
…. this is the condensed conclusion of the final report – recently released – of the UN Secretary-General’s High-level Advisory Group on Climate Change Financing (AGF), which was tasked with trying to find ways to raise US$100 billion per year by 2020 for mitigation and adaptation actions in developing countries. This number — far less than what many experts believe is really needed — was the sort of political compromise, the lowest common financial denominator, leaders came up with at last year’s international climate negotiations in Copenhagen.
The Heinrich Boell Foundation has published a new report on greening the budget by pricing carbon and cutting environmental harmful subsidies. The publication provides lessons on how greening the budget combines fiscal responsibility with the environmental sensibility that is inevitable for a sustainable future.
Germany has become the world leader in the development, manufacturing, and deployment of renewable energy technologies. By applying some of the lessons learned in Germany, Midwestern states such as Indiana, Michigan, and Minnesota could strengthen their renewable policies, build truly local industries, and create new, well-paying jobs.
