China has raised its 2015 target for solar-electricity capacity, helping its solar panels companies, many of which are struggling due to industry overcapacity, falling prices, slow global demand and trade disputes with Europe and the United States. More »
The governments of the world’s top two greenhouse gases emitters, United States and China, agreed Wednesday to tighten pollution standards on heavy trucks, increase energy efficiency in transport, buildings and industry, and a number of other initiatives to curb greenhouse-gas emissions. More »
According to Statista, China’s push to install more wind energy capacity has started paying off. Data from the China Wind Energy Association (CWEA) revealed that in 2012, wind energy overtook nuclear power for the very first time to become the country’s third largest source of electricity. The leading two are coal and hydro-electric power. More »
Sergio Abranches
After a week of informal conversations in Bangkok, Thailand, negotiators already know what stumbling blocks they will face on the way towards a successful meeting of the parties to the Climate Convention, COP18, in Doha, Qatar, November 26 to December 7. Most of the obstacles come from an old quarrel between the US and Europe, on the one side, and China, India and Brazil, on the other, on the meaning of the principle of common but differentiated obligations under the Climate Convention. More »
Sergio Abranches
Rio+20’s agenda is very broad, and delegates will have very little time to deal with all the issues. Negotiators have lost several weeks quarreling over almost every paragraph of a draft of resolutions to end up with 80 messy pages, 75% of which bracketed, i.e. undecided. More »
Sergio Abranches
Last week, China’s National Development and Reform Commission reportedly directed seven regions to set overall emissions control targets and submit proposals for how caps should be allocated. The directive, which encompasses the cities of Beijing, Chongqing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Tianjin and the provinces of Guangdong and Hubei, aims to establish cap-and-trade pilot projects for the country’s carbon market, meant to be in place by 2015. More »
