Climate change evident across Europe, confirming urgent need for adaptation
Climate change is affecting all regions in Europe, causing a wide range of impacts on society and the environment. Further impacts are expected in the future, potentially causing high damage costs, according to the latest assessment published by the European Environment Agency this week.
Posted: Nov 23rd, 2012
Read moreAn unexpected source of clean energy - electricity from the marshes
An unexpected source of new, clean energy has been found: the Plant-Microbial Fuel Cell that can generate electricity from the natural interaction between living plant roots and soil bacteria. The technique already works on a small scale and will soon be applied in larger marshland areas throughout the world.
Posted: Nov 23rd, 2012
Read moreU.S. Energy Department announces $10 Million investment in innovative solar projects
The SunShot Initiative's Incubator program helps launch new start-ups and business units within existing companies to accelerate innovative solar technology development.
Posted: Nov 23rd, 2012
Read moreClimate change: Believing and seeing implies adapting
To communicate climate change and adaptation to stakeholders such as European forest owners is a challenge. A new study shows, for the first time, the importance of two personal factors; when forest owners believe in and see the effects of climate change, they are more likely to have taken adaptive measures.
Posted: Nov 22nd, 2012
Read moreNew EU research consortium will develop a training network for researchers in photovoltaics
The new KESTCELLS research project, which aims to develop a network for the interdisciplinary training of researchers in advanced thin films photovoltaic (PV) technologies, will increase the European competitiveness of existing technologies.
Posted: Nov 22nd, 2012
Read moreChina issues report addressing climate change
China on Wednesday published a report detailing policies and efforts that have been made over the past year in facing up to the challenges of global climate change.
Posted: Nov 22nd, 2012
Read moreUnexpected microbes fighting harmful greenhouse gas
The environment has a more formidable opponent than carbon dioxide. Another greenhouse gas, nitrous oxide, is 300 times more potent and also destroys the ozone layer each time it is released into the atmosphere through agricultural practices, sewage treatment and fossil fuel combustion. Luckily, nature has a larger army than previously thought combating this greenhouse gas.
Posted: Nov 21st, 2012
Read moreRenewable power costs continue to fall
Renewable energy has become the most cost-effective way to generate electric power for hundreds of millions of people worldwide who are not on the grid, a new IRENA policy brief reveals. Renewable energy has also become the least-cost option for extending grid supply in areas with suitable resources, such as sun and wind.
Posted: Nov 21st, 2012
Read moreIndicators and methods of sustainable development one-sided
The European SustainValue research project coordinated by VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland develops new types of tools for sustainable industrial development. According to Senior Scientist Teuvo Uusitalo of VTT, the methods and indicators used at present entail risks, since they tend to over-emphasise the economic perspective and that of individual companies.
Posted: Nov 21st, 2012
Read moreOcean currents play a role in predicting extent of Arctic sea ice
Discovery of feedback between sea ice and ocean improves Arctic ice extent forecast.
Posted: Nov 21st, 2012
Read moreGreen chemistry: The sweet conversion of a by-product
The waste plant materials remaining from palm oil extraction processes can now be converted into a useful sugar.
Posted: Nov 21st, 2012
Read moreA low-carbon Finland is a great challenge, but an achievable one
VTT specialists have assessed Finland's chances of achieving the 80% greenhouse gas emission reduction targets. The EU's goal for 2050 is to reduce emissions by at least 80% from the level of 1990.
Posted: Nov 20th, 2012
Read moreCalifornia holds first auction of greenhouse gas allowances
The California Air Resources Board (ARB) announced the results of the state's first auction for greenhouse gas allowances under its cap-and-trade program. Allowances for the equivalent of 28.7 million tons of CO2 emissions were sold at the auction on November 14th, 2012.
Posted: Nov 20th, 2012
Read moreSunlight-driven CO2 fixation
The increased use of renewable energy sources, particularly sunlight, is highly desirable, as is industrial production that is as CO2-neutral as possible. Both of these wishes could be fulfilled if CO2 could be used as the raw material in a system driven by solar energy. Japanese researchers have now introduced an approach to this type of process.
Posted: Nov 19th, 2012
Read moreEnvironmental impact assessment: the state of the art
In a recent issue of Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal, Richard K. Morgan of the University of Otago, New Zealand, reviews the progress of the EIA, with particular emphasis on the last 15-20 years. He also assesses whether EIA is ready for future challenges.
Posted: Nov 19th, 2012
Read more'Dangerous threshold' can hinder UN climate change negotiations
The identified critical threshold for dangerous climate change saying that the increase in global temperature should be below 2 degrees Celsius seems not to have helped the climate negotiations so far. New research shows that negotiations based on such a threshold fail because its value is determined by Nature. Climate negotiators should focus on other collective strategies.
Posted: Nov 16th, 2012
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