get the policy side of green news

Traditionally buying and building decision are taken with accounting mainly for purchasing costs. While the upfront paying for building a new house or buying a new car may seem the most relevant factor and intuitively comprehensible, it is only one – and actually quiet incomplete – part of the real costs over the lifetime of an item. According to the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) Applying “life cycle and cost analysis” (LCCA) is an efficient way to learn about the real costs of design and buying decisions and more and more engineers and customers are using it. Some interesting insights ... [more]

Some interesting figures that are worth being noted. Biofuel production now consumes 40% of the US corn harvest. In terms of produced quantity, biofuels account for more fuel than the oil production of Libya. Biofuels become price competitive if oil costs more than 70 US$ / barrel – it has frequently topped 100 US$ in the last couple of years. ON-green-policy. Biofuels are questionable in terms of carbon saving efficiency and also in terms of competing with food production. While the US, where 50% of the world’s biofuels are produced don’t go hungry, the recent boom in Biofuels still influences ... [more]

In 2011 German house owner installed an amazing 7500 megawatts of solar power production capacity. Even considering that this is largely a theoretical figure, the number corresponds to the capacity of 7 nuclear power stations. Adjusted for population this would amount to a rather impressive 30 nuclear stations in the US. Now, Germany reduces subsidies according to installed capacity and because of this huge success, subsidies will be reduced by 15% for 2012. On-green-policy. Several things are noteworthy. First, subsidy’s reduction fails to keep up with even faster decreasing prices. Therefore, solar power installations will still get more attractive and ... [more]

For years citizens presented increasingly overwhelming evidence that hydraulic fracturing used in gas and oil drilling is tainting drinking water. Buying off plaintiffs and closing off evidence the fossil industry has somehow managed to create the impression that there is no proven link between chemically poisoned and sometimes inflammable drinking water close to fracking operations and injecting huge amounts of undeclared chemicals into the soil. Not any longer. In an overdue report, the US environmental protection agency (EPA) has now officially declared that fracking is linked to tainted water in Wyoming. ON-green-policy. It is hard to understand that available crystal clear ... [more]

Chinas is now the worldwide biggest emitter of greenhouse gases (GHG). However, if we take into account the end-consumers of Chinese goods, the ranking might look quiet different. After all, Chinese industries export a very substantial part of their production to western states. As pointed out recently by the Environmental Investment Organisation (EIO) in its Global 800 2011 Carbon Rankings, it’s the west that basically outsources GHG intensive manufacturing into emerging countries, taking advantage of cheap consumer products and lowering (or at least slower rising) CO2-emissions. In a recent ranking by IFO calculating the real carbon footprint of countries, ... [more]

For the first time, at least since industrialisation, global investments in renewables have outstripped investments in fossil energy generation. According to Bloomberg, despite economic crisis on the horizon, 187b US$ have been invested in clean energy production. Clearly, nobody can talk of a negligible industry anymore. It is also obvious that investors take the emerging and rapidly growing industry very serious. On-green-policy. “Despite the economic crisis” may be badly misleading. Maybe the economic crisis actually favours renewable energy production because private as well as public actors are forced to do the maths properly. As they increasingly consider total, lifetime and ... [more]