Tag Archives: renewable energy
The Case for EU Leadership on Global Climate Change (By Eva Yu)
Following the unsuccessful UN negotiations at COP15 in 2009, Brazil, South Africa, India and China (BASIC) met with the US to draft an agreement to address climate change. These states signed a non-binding arrangement to keep global warming to two degrees but neglected to set targets for cuts in carbon emissions. The multilateral backroom deal […]
Cities of the Past, Cities of the Future (By Michael Belinsky)
Why do cities exist? One theory holds that cities are more productive than less dense and smaller concentrations of people. The source of this productivity may result because urban concentration reduces transportation costs for goods and people. Or because proximity increases the flow of ideas. More people, more diversity, and a higher concentration means that […]
Evergreen Jobs: Sustainable Employment in Sustainable Sectors (By Michael Belinsky)
The creation of “green jobs” is a way to kill several birds with one stone – employment, energy, and the environment. Rio+20 certainly has the potential to further the dialogue around the creation of green jobs. For one, government regulation is a significant driver of green job creation. I saw this directly when working in […]
Rio+20 Is Around the Corner…And Everyone Needs To Do More
Rio+20 is coming up next week, and frankly, it’s not receiving nearly enough attention from Western policymakers. Today, Timothy E. Wirth, President of the Better World Fund and the United Nations Foundation and a member of the Secretary-General’s High-level Group on Sustainable Energy for All, wrote in the Huffington Post that “United Nations Secretary-General Ban […]
A Liter of Light Goes a Long Way (by Ami Valdemoro)
Demitrios “Demi” Bukas was an unemployed carpenter living in a small house in Laguna, Philippines. While searching for a useful way to occupy his time, he learned that if he took a two-liter plastic soda bottle, filled it with water and a little bit of bleach, and nailed it to a corrugated tin roof, he […]
The Learning Curve: Can Brazil Compete in Renewable Research and Development? (By Eric Lonstein and Todd Wintner)
This is part three of a three-part series. For more, please refer to part one and part two. Besides building an industry through subsidization, another way to promote domestic growth in renewable energy is through R&D. Up to this point, leading R&D has not been a part of the Brazilian growth story. Even with domestic […]
Why Alternative Renewables: Is Solar a Pipedream? (By Eric Lonstein and Todd Wintner)
This is part two of a three-part series. To read part one, please click here. Perhaps a better question for understanding renewable energy development in Brazil — and particularly the future role of solar energy — is not the “how” but rather the “why” of this industrial policy. Why did a country with vast untapped, […]
Wind and Solar Energy in Brazil: Understanding the How and Why (By Eric Lonstein and Todd Wintner)
This post is part of a 3-part blog series. For more, please see part two and part three. I: MAKING THE CLEANEST ENERGY ECONOMY CLEANER Brazil’s energy matrix is often touted as among the cleanest in the world: over 80% of Brazil’s power is produced from renewable resources. The predominant share of this 80%, however, […]
Harvard Students Talk Rio+20 