Energy and the Climate Crisis

On the agenda: energy dialogue between the EU and producer countries

Due to the fact that EU imports around 40 % of oil from OPEC countries, it is understandable that the EU searches for a structured dialogue that would work to the advantage of its security of supply and transparency of the markets. This dialogue was agreed in 2004, with the first meeting (...)

Sunday 22 June 2008

At risk of losing the sense of snow

The Arctic’s indigenous are peoples who for centuries have depended solidly on their surrounding ecosystems for survival, and who in most cases still uphold their right to maintain this connection to the land. Today, their “sense” for the land – or rather, of the snow – and their traditional (...)

Saturday 17 May 2008

Climate Change Incites Mad Dash for Control over Arctic Ocean

While environmentalists deplore the negative effects of climate change, business interests are looking to capitalise upon a more lucrative corollary of global warming. The melting ice caps have prompted shipping magnates and oil and gas companies to lobby governments to adopt policies that (...)

Tuesday 22 April 2008

The EU-US open sky agreement: a decisive first step

Since March 30, air transport between the EU and the US has undergone significant changes. The implementation of the first phase of the “Open Skies” agreement will create new possibilities for airlines and passengers alike. While recently Air France and Alitalia – two major European (...)

Wednesday 9 April 2008

A European Energy policy of small steps?

On 24 March 2006, the European Council approved the idea of an “energy policy for Europe”, proposed by the Commission. Two years later, how far has this policy come? An assessment of the policy on the occasion of the last European Council on 13 and 14 March highlights mitigated results: (...)

Thursday 27 March 2008

A European government for the ecological revolution

The European Commission has approved a package called “Climate Action: Energy for a Changing World”, a set of proposals on emission of greenhouse gases, energy and climate change. The objectives that need to be implemented by the Member States are very ambitious as well as the spending (...)

Sunday 2 March 2008

On Global Politics and Petropolitics

How many billion dollars have the big oil companies spent in financing campaigns that presented nuclear energy as a too dangerous option? How much money for presenting bio-fuels and hydrogen as if they were good only for science-fiction books? How many dollars in delaying investigations on (...)

Sunday 27 January 2008

Arctic Oil and the Law of the Seize

There is a touch of the 19th century scramble to divide Africa among European colonial powers in Russia’s decision to drop a capsule containing a Russian flag on the Arctic sea floor not far from the North Pole on 2 August 2007. In preparation for the 1885 Berlin Conference which was to draw (...)

Tuesday 8 January 2008

The importance of being a “greenie”

Some days ago the Australian people chose a new path, which the newly elected leader Mr. Kevin Rudd calls „The new Era of Australia“. The former Prime Minister, Mr. John Howard, was elected in 1996 and re-elected in 1998, 2001 and 2004. He is the second longest-serving Prime Minister of (...)

Friday 30 November 2007

The Climate is changing:
What about EU?

Taking a look at the work of the European Union, one could say that it is amazing how a project that once started as an attempt towards discovering better and more efficient ways of producing coal and steel is now one of the global leaders in the environmental field. This makes sense from a (...)

Tuesday 13 November 2007

Torrid Climate

Public opinion worldwide has been deeply shaken by the publication of three influential reports on the health of our planet. Their conclusions, high-lighted in the world media, are a matter of concern for the governments of many countries. The three reports The World Wildlife Fund’s (...)

Sunday 11 November 2007

Bush vs. Kyoto

North-American transport and industries are responsible for no less than a quarter of all world emissions of greenhouse gasses. Until now, the stubborn US government always neglected to ratify the Kyoto Protocol. But individual states made efforts independently from the Bush government. In (...)

Friday 4 May 2007
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