Possible End of Kyoto at Durban Threatens MENA Renewable Energy

Kyoto-Durban-Clean-Development-Mechanism.jpg

CDM funding for renewable energy in emerging nations is endangered in Durban, South Africa With the increasingly likely non-renewal of the Kyoto Accord after 2012 at this week’s international climate talks at the seventeenth Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the UN Convention on Climate Change in Durban, South Africa, renewable energy project funding throughout […]

Read more

Israel Corporation Subsidiary to Build 510 MW Hydro Project in Peru

Israel-Peru-hydro-electricity-510mw.jpg

Israel Corporation subsidiary Inkia Energy has signed an engineering procurement contract for the construction of a huge 510 MW hydro-electric project in Peru. Its Cerro del Águila Hydroelectric Power Plant will be located in the province of Tayacaja. Peru is a country that already gets 48% of its electricity from hydropower, which depends on water at elevation for its operation. Peru's Energy and Mines Ministry, Pedro Sanchez said in a press release that the project is one of three hydroelectric plants it was seeking tenders for building and operating, that will require a combined investment of $1.7 billion.

Read more

Dutch Company Floats New Idea for Artificial “World” Island Investors

Floating-Islands-the-World-Dubai-1.jpg

Dutch Docklands proposes floating islands as an alternative to developing Dubai’s “The World” artificial islands We can’t think of anything more unfortunate than getting stuck with an artificial island (like this one that Israel proposes to build off Gaza). But investors who bought one of 300 “countries” off the coast of Dubai will be happy […]

Read more

Book Review: ‘The Ethical Tragedy of Climate Change’ by Stephen Gardiner

images.jpg

Stephen Gardiner argues that climate change is a combination of the ‘prisoners dilemma’ and ‘tragedy of the commons.’ Stephen M. Gardiner regards climate change more or less as an ethical failure on the part of the human race, something that implicates our institutions’ moral and political theories alongside ourselves as supposedly moral beings. He employs […]

Read more

Desertec Plans Get Boosts from MENA and EU Renewable Policies

desertec-eu-mena-renewable-policies.jpg

For both the interim Mediterranean Solar Plan and Desertec, the creation of renewable policy and renewable job skills development in both the potential energy-supplying countries and the potential energy-receiving countries is necessary. The Mediterranean Solar Plan represents an interim step towards Desertec. It aims to create 20 gigawatts’ worth of new renewable energy sources in MENA […]

Read more

Next for MENA Nations: Desertec University

MENA-solar-potential.jpg

University degrees in renewable energy are among the practical first steps towards realizing the visionary desertec program. A new university degree program is being funded with more than 3 million euros by the Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany, and additional support from the Kingdom of Morocco, and the Eu. RE-Generation MENA will initiate […]

Read more

UN: Urban Trees Needed Everywhere

green-space-trees-istanbul.jpg

Tighten your city’s green belt on World Habitat Day: Plant trees everywhere, in cities all over the Middle East. When we think of treehuggers, and people who advocate treeplanting, we think 80s hippie, or Julia Butterfly Hill, the gal who lived in a tree for 2.5 years to fight against deforestation. Or the old-fashioned model […]

Read more

No, Canada – There is No Ethical Oil

civilizations-end.jpg

Lobbying group EthicalOil.org is challenging Saudi Oil on the basis of women’s rights. A Canadian lobbying group is claiming that Canada’s oil is somehow more “ethical” than Saudi Arabian oil because the Saudis don’t just destroy the climate we evolved to live in but also abuse women’s rights. Now, I am as feminist as they […]

Read more