10 Lessons from the Keystone XL victory
During one of our dinners at the Durban conference in late 2011, I heard someone speak out loud and say that the climate movement desperately needs a victory. A victory that many of the strong yet embittered civil society groups could take inspiration from and continue building this movement around the world; with even more vigor. The recent [...]
Why the rhetoric of war is terrible for the climate
As I write this, American troops are setting up a strong base in Israel to begin an exercise of flexing their mighty military muscle alongside their ever ready Middle East ally, Israel. The war games called the “Austere Challenge 12” is aimed to train troops in interacting with antimissile and antiaircraft defenses. Thousands of US [...]
Sustainable Energy for All in 2012
Picture: Abbie Trayler-Smith / Panos Pictures / DFID At the outset of this new year, under the banner of the United Nation’s sustainable energy for all campaign, the voices clamoring for a revolutionary shift from centralized fossil power to decentralized clean energy are growing louder. What’s more, they are increasingly coming from traditionally conservative [...]
Rethinking Equity and Other Things Indian
On December 13, The Hindu’s editorial announced that “India Lost the Plot at Durban.” The editorial said that the Indian delegation was “isolated” and “intransigent” and quite simply “unprepared for the groundswell of support” for a comprehensive legally binding agreement. Jayanthi Natarajan, the Minister of Environment and head of delegation, fired back, in a rebuttal to [...]
Human Stories of An Energy Revolution
Guest post by Grace Boyle, Greenpeace India Roughly one in six people in the world live in India. Approximately 40% of those people have no access to electricity – and the amount with access to a reliable, quality supply is even smaller. The centralised energy system currently favoured by policy makers is not delivering electricity [...]
Era of Cheap Coal Ends, Solar Age Dawns
The bright lights of Diwali have further exposed the depth and breadth of India’s coal crisis bringing a 21st century reality into painful focus: Geologically speaking coal is abundant, economically speaking cheap coal is not. India may be the first country to face this harsh reality, but it will not be the last. Fortunately, the clean energy sector is [...]
Solar Wars
If anyone needed proof that clean energy is the future they need look no further than the recent trade disputes the US has filed against China over wind and now solar. Nations simply do not fight over unprofitable, unviable sectors. Instead they do exactly what China, India, the EU, and the US are all doing: [...]