Energy & Environment

With an average of 300 days of sunshine a year, India is a country where solar power can technically flourish. In an act of recognition and confirmation of this potential, the Government of India announced in November 2009 an ambitious nation-wide initiative to promote solar energy. The Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission is...
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We are only in the first week of the climate change summit and every day something new and exciting happens, both in the U.S. and in Copenhagen. Of course, the conference is politicized; that is a given. It is astounding to see how politicians, financiers and opportunists with different interests can come...
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Peter Smith reports in the Financial Times from Sydney: Tony Abbott, Australia’s new opposition Liberal leader, a plain-spoken former student boxer nicknamed the “Mad Monk” following his flirtation with the Catholic priesthood, on Tuesday declared his intention of taking a wrecking ball to the Labor government’s emission trading scheme.
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Steve Forbes talks about why cutting down on carbon with economically binding measures is not necessarily the best foot forward to tackle climate change at Copenhagen: Copenhagen will be no more successful than was Kyoto. The reason: China. Last year China surpassed the U.S. in producing carbon dioxide, even though China’s overall economy is still...
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From the Financial Times: There is a real danger, of course, that if Copenhagen does not live up to the Bali billing, the world’s political leaders will gradually back away even from more modest measures to slow the warming of the Earth. Given the condition of their economies, many of them need only the flimsiest...
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A new entry, from Joe Gurowsky: As mentioned, there are various pressing issues that shape our studies in global affairs, but I believe Global Climate Change is the most significant. Global Climate Change is not constrained by borders, class, culture or ethnicity (even though much of the damage is a result of abuses from developed...
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…or so suggests Intellectual Ventures, a Washington-based firm, as described in this bizarre yet interesting take on global warming.
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To follow up on the David Rohde story, here’s a great interview he had on NPR’s Fresh Air yesterday with Terry Gross. In other news, last week, a five-week legal battle between oil trader Trafigura and the UK’s Guardian newspaper came to a close when Trafigura ended a secret injunction with the news organization. How...
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Summer is nearly officially over (and the weather here in New York shows it). This means the Perspectives on Global Issues blog is back from its sun-drenched hibernation. Our editors have already been churning out their thoughts and analyses on the latest breaking news in the world of international affairs — but just...
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Just thought I’d point to this intriguing Frontline documentary short about what happens to e-waste, i.e. our old computers and other electronics, after they’ve been disposed of. A group of journalism students tracks the waste through Ghana, Hong Kong, and India to find out what happens with e-waste and how it affects the local...
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