California

Biofuels, Fossil Fuels, Renewables September 12, 2019

Driverless Electric Trucks Are Coming, and They’ll Affect You More Than You Think

Self-driving and electric cars just don’t stop making headlines lately. Amazon invested in self-driving startup Aurora earlier this year. Waymo, Daimler, GM, along with startups…

California Gov. Jerry Brown signs SB350 on Oct. 7, 2015. The bill calls for increasing the state’s renewable electricity use to 50 percent and doubling energy efficiency in existing buildings by 2030. AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes

Climate Change, Renewables February 17, 2017

Will blazing a low-carbon path pay off for California?

President Trump has made it clear he intends to dismantle the Obama administration’s policies for reducing U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. But California Governor Jerry Brown…

Articles Innovation Nature & Environment

Inching towards abundant water: new progress in desalination tech

In early 2018, Cape Town, South Africa came dangerously close to being the world’s first major city to run out of water. People lined up for blocks to collect spring water. Stores sold out of receptacles like buckets and bowls.…

Articles Natural Gas Policy & Strategy Shale Gas

When fracking companies own the gas beneath your land

When Beth Crowder and David Wentz bought their 351-acre property in West Virginia in 1975, they knew that they would only own the surface land, not the minerals beneath it. But it didn’t bother them. “They showed us gas wells,…

Articles Climate Change Policy & Strategy

When rich economies cut emissions, poor ones stand to benefit, study says

If higher and middle-income countries cut their greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2050, reduced demand could lower oil costs and boost economic growth for low-income countries, according to a study published in the journal Climatic Change in April. To…

Articles Climate Change Policy & Strategy

The costs and benefits of a clean economy

Business leaders, politicians and policymakers have spent years asking if we were to cut emissions, how much would it cost in lost income or Gross National Product (GDP) in Australia? How much worse off would we be? If countries around…

Articles Climate Change Policy & Strategy

How Islamic finance can build resilience to climate change

In arid and semi-arid lands (ASALs), extreme weather manifestations such as droughts caused by prolonged dry spells, among other climate stressors, put ASALs at risk and intensify conflicts. Worsening climate change impacts such as extreme rainfall fluctuations and temperatures are…

Articles Policy & Strategy

Teen air

Age is the difference. “For more than 30 years, science has been crystal clear. How dare you continue to look away and come here saying that you’re doing enough when the politics and solutions needed are still nowhere in sight.”…

Articles CCS

CCS and coal: the carbon no one wants to capture

Ten years ago, carbon capture and storage or ‘CCS’ went hand in hand with the idea of ‘clean coal’. Although early efforts to capture CO2 emissions and store the greenhouse gas deep underground had mostly taken place in other industries,…

Articles Climate Change

Museums for future

Droughts, fires, severe storms, floods, and other calamities are increasing dramatically because of climate change. Humanity is charging into its human-made disasters caused by increased levels of greenhouse gases which are produced when burning fossil fuels. And there are still…

Articles Nuclear

Nuclear, a waste of time?

One kilogram of Uranium 235 generates the same amount of energy derived from the combustion of 2 million kilograms of coal. Thermoelectric power plants rely on coal, oil, hydrocarbons, whereas nuclear power plants use Uranium 235 bars, whose fission produces…

Articles Policy & Strategy

The archipelagic energy structure of the Philippines

Oversupply-solar displaces geothermal; renewables displace renewables – that’s the paradox. In the Philippines, renewable energy development to transition out of a fossil fuel-based economy is attractive, but the regulatory framework is not yet stable and well-established. Laws and institutions, besides…