Show Me the Climate Money: UN Climate Deal Is a Triumph, now Onto Bridging a Huge Investment Gap
The Paris Agreement reached on 12 December is a triumph of the human spirit, built around the world class diplomacy of F...
Blog Archives: 2015
In Africa, Adapted Development Can Lead to Inclusion and Green Growth
If Africa stood still, it would need to adapt. But Africa is not standing still. Africa is poised on the cusp of development. Therefore simply adapting the things we have will not ...
The Three Outcomes That Matter at The Paris UN Climate Talks
The annual climate talks – or COP21 – just began, with forty five thousand people and over one hundred heads of state descending on Paris....
Emission reductions – going out of fashion?
Emission reductions are a major fixture in the lexicon of the climate change industry. Many of today’s climate change specialists cut their teeth on the Clean Development Mechani...
Climate Change: New York vs. Exxon and the Coming Earthquake in the Financial Market
Late last week, New York State decided to examine whether Exxon Mobil, the oil company, may have violated state consumer protection laws or the Martin Act, New York’s powerfu...
The Paris Climate Talks Could Jolt Private Sector Investments Worldwide
Over the past three decades annual climate talks under the United Nations banner have become part of the Zeitgeist of a large movement. They draw government officials, think tanks,...
A Green Economy Will Lift Us All – But Cheats Like Volkswagen Still Stand in the Way
A Joel Pett cartoon from 2009 still making its rounds online neatly summarises the battle to create a green economy. In it, a climate summit is interrupted by an angry outburst: &#...
Three Reasons Clean Energy has Permanently Decoupled From the Oil and Gas Markets
It’s been a rough summer for energy markets: Oil prices crashed, China stuttered, the Federal Reserve dithered and emerging market currencies threatened to fall off a cliff. ...
Carbon markets under a 2020 climate agreement
Developing countries must claim their share of atmospheric space Gareth Phillips is Chief Climate and Green Growth Officer at the African Development Bank and this blog is base...
Why Cutting Solar Subsidies Will Speed Up the Clean Energy Revolution
The UK government has just announced that people will get close to 90% less money than before for installing solar panels on their homes....
Why INDCs Can Be A Firm Foundation To A Climate Deal
Gareth Brydon Phillips is Chief Climate and Green Growth Officer at the African Development Bank and this blog is based on an internal briefing note circulated to AfDB staff. You m...
The $7 trillion solar tsunami in our midst
Never mind government inaction (or worse) on climate change, writes Assaad W Razzouk. Solar power costs just keep on falling, and it’s already providing the lowest cost elect...
Meanwhile in Lebanon, A Public Health Waste-pocalypse Threatens
For the past six years, Sindicatum Renewable Energy, the company I run, has been operating Asia’s most successful landfill gas to energy project, an hour and a half drive away fr...
Don’t mention climate change! Europe’s response to the refugee crisis is doomed to fail
The more EU politicians try to look in control of the Mediterranean refugee emergency, the more it’s obvious they aren’t, writes Assaad W. Razzouk. A key driver of the ...
Enough With The Doom And Gloom: Fighting Climate Change Promotes Prosperity
The coverage of climate change and the rhetoric around it are wearing me down.....
Can We Rise To The Climate Change Challenge?
If international climate change objectives are to be achieved fossil fuel resources will need to remain in the ground or should only be extracted and used under certain conditions....
Climate Change Policy: The First Air Grabs Are Under Way
Welcome to the age of the air grab. We are all familiar with the concept of the land grab, whether at a local or international level and history relates how armie...
5 reasons why low oil prices are good for the environment
Low oil prices are to be cheered: may they stay low for a long time and decrease even further. Here are five reasons why they are great for our health and that of the planet....