You’ll hear it over and over again in the debates over the global climate negotiations: while the U.S. has put more carbon overall into the atmosphere than any other nation (and is still the number two emitter overall), the lion’s share of future carbon emissions will come from the big developing nations. China, now the world’s …
Carbon Policy
Transportation: The White House Puts Out Fuel Efficiency Standards for Heavy Vehicles
Though Congress has been (self-)stymied on climate change this term, the Obama Administration has taken steps of its own to deal with rising U.S. carbon emissions. And nowhere have they been more aggressive than in promoting—mandating, really—better fuel efficiency on our roads, as I wrote earlier this month:
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Politics: European Energy Companies Funding Climate Skeptic Campaigns in the U.S.
There’s been no shortage of attention paid to the vast amount of money being poured in the 2010 midterm campaigns by corporations—with the bulk of the cash going to conservative candidates. Given the strongly skeptical views on climate change that now dominate the Republican Party—and especially their
Climate: Money Vs. Money in the Battle Over California’s Climate Law
Thanks in part to the Supreme Court’s decision to allow unlimited political spending by corporations and unions, money is flowing into this election like never before. A lot of that funding is coming from corporate sources, and conservatives are receiving the lion’s share of those funds—although because many of those donors are keeping …
Climate: Why Bipartisanship on Energy Won’t Be Easy—and Why It’s Necessary
Last week I wrote about a paper on energy and climate policy that came from scholars at the leftish Brookings Institution, the conservative American Enterprise Institute and the (centrist and technology-focused) Breakthrough Institute. Called “Post-Partisan Power” (download a PDF here), the paper laid out a research and development …
The Future of Energy in Europe
I just spent an interesting morning at the European Future Energy Forum in London. The opening panel debate—titled “Movers and Shakers”—included representatives from European governments, industry and NGOs. A full line-up can be found here.
The conversation was fast-paced but seemed to orbit around what will happen if the next …
Energy: An Attempt to Breakthrough the Bipartisan Climate Policy Logjam
Update (8/14/10): A few additional voices in this argument. Over at his blog for the Council on Foreign Relations, Michael Levi argues that government investment in research isn’t enough on its own to bring clean energy to parity with fossil-fuel power, in part because unlike previous innovations like the Internet, clean energy doesn’t …
Energy: Will Efficiency Lead to More Consumption?
In the polarized realm of climate and energy politics, energy efficiency has always been the common ground. The concept is so attractive—we clearly waste far too much of our energy, whether that means driving a car with that gets low gas-mileage or living in a poorly insulated house. If you’re worried about climate change and are …
Climate Change: U.S. and China—Faraway, So Close
The UN climate change negotiations have fallen off the news map since last year’s summit in Copenhagen ended in barely avoided disarray, but that doesn’t mean they’ve gone away. China will be hosting interim talks for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Tianjin starting on Oct. 4. That meeting will be …
Bjorn Lomborg, Climate Skeptic, Calls for Massive Global Warming Investment
Yesterday the Guardian reported that Bjorn Lomborg, the Danish scientist with the shock of blond hair who made a name for himself decrying the world’s hysteria about climate change, makes a surprising claim in his upcoming book – that confronting climate change should be a global priority, and that a $100 billion per year …