State of the Planet

News from the Columbia Climate School

Energy52

  • When High Hopes Make Little Sense: Why the Hartwell Paper Fails to Deliver

    Earlier this year, 14 energy academics, analysts and advocates gathered with hopes of reinventing the way the international community treats climate policy. The result, The Hartwell Paper: A new direction for climate policy after the crash of 2009, aims to examine “all aspects of the crisis which enveloped global climate policy” last December during the…

  • Climate News Roundup – Week of 6/7

    10 Eastern States Join Wind Energy Consortium,  Providence Business News On Tuesday a memorandum of understanding signed by Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and the governors of ten states established an Atlantic offshore wind energy consortium.  The goal is to promote the efficient development of wind resources on the Outer Continental Shelf from Maine…

  • Climate News Roundup – Week of 5/31

    United States Climate Report to UN Projects 4% Emissions Rise by 2012, Associated Press (via Metronews Halifax) On Tuesday, the U.S. delivered its first emissions report to the United Nations since 2006.  The projections indicate about a 4% increase in emissions between now and 2020, which includes a 1.5% rise in CO2 emissions.  The emphasis…

  • Water and Energy – an Integrated Approach

    In the news, electricity and resource use seems to get the most exposure – people are looking at emissions, global warming, and oil and coal dependence.  One thing that is for certain is that electricity use needs to decrease if we are to decreased our dependence on oil, our CO2 emissions, and become a greener…

  • LIMPET: Land Installed Marine Powered Energy Transformer

    I recently posted a piece on the ‘Deep Green’ project to generate electricity from deep ocean currents. Here is another of the ocean-based generation schemes: Land Installed Marine Powered Energy Transformer, or LIMPET.

  • Sea-kites harvest the energy of the ocean

    A test site for a process called ‘Deep Green’ will be built off the coast of Northern Ireland in 2011, according to Minesto, a Saab spinoff. Sea kites will fly deep under water, using ocean currents to lift them, while an attached turbine harvests the the kinetic energy and turns it into electricity.

  • Vote for the Earth Institute in the eBay Fundraising Tournament for the Environment

    Do you share our belief that the world has the know-how and resources to solve our environmental challenges in a sustainable manner? Do you support efforts by the scientific community to help understand the effects of climate change, reduce environmental degradation, and advance renewable energy technologies? Then please vote for the Columbia Water Center’s parent…

  • Mandating energy benchmarking: the next step for cities in addressing climate change?

      by Marne Sussman Within the past two years, two cities in the U.S. have passed ordinances mandating that existing buildings benchmark their energy usage. Benchmarking requires a building owner to report energy use data which can then be compared to data from buildings of a similar size and function and to past data from…

  • A Rogue Water Project

    Even today, many Central Asian nations rely on infrastructure that was clumsily implemented by the Soviet Union in the 1970s, and Tajikistan is no exception.  In fact, she is the poorest country in Central Asia and has long been quarrelling with Uzbekistan and even Afghanistan over resources and related policies.  One such controversial project involves…

Colorful banner with city: "MR 2025: Mobility, Adaptation, and Wellbeing in a Changing Climate."
  • When High Hopes Make Little Sense: Why the Hartwell Paper Fails to Deliver

    Earlier this year, 14 energy academics, analysts and advocates gathered with hopes of reinventing the way the international community treats climate policy. The result, The Hartwell Paper: A new direction for climate policy after the crash of 2009, aims to examine “all aspects of the crisis which enveloped global climate policy” last December during the…

  • Climate News Roundup – Week of 6/7

    10 Eastern States Join Wind Energy Consortium,  Providence Business News On Tuesday a memorandum of understanding signed by Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and the governors of ten states established an Atlantic offshore wind energy consortium.  The goal is to promote the efficient development of wind resources on the Outer Continental Shelf from Maine…

  • Climate News Roundup – Week of 5/31

    United States Climate Report to UN Projects 4% Emissions Rise by 2012, Associated Press (via Metronews Halifax) On Tuesday, the U.S. delivered its first emissions report to the United Nations since 2006.  The projections indicate about a 4% increase in emissions between now and 2020, which includes a 1.5% rise in CO2 emissions.  The emphasis…

  • Water and Energy – an Integrated Approach

    In the news, electricity and resource use seems to get the most exposure – people are looking at emissions, global warming, and oil and coal dependence.  One thing that is for certain is that electricity use needs to decrease if we are to decreased our dependence on oil, our CO2 emissions, and become a greener…

  • LIMPET: Land Installed Marine Powered Energy Transformer

    I recently posted a piece on the ‘Deep Green’ project to generate electricity from deep ocean currents. Here is another of the ocean-based generation schemes: Land Installed Marine Powered Energy Transformer, or LIMPET.

  • Sea-kites harvest the energy of the ocean

    A test site for a process called ‘Deep Green’ will be built off the coast of Northern Ireland in 2011, according to Minesto, a Saab spinoff. Sea kites will fly deep under water, using ocean currents to lift them, while an attached turbine harvests the the kinetic energy and turns it into electricity.

  • Vote for the Earth Institute in the eBay Fundraising Tournament for the Environment

    Do you share our belief that the world has the know-how and resources to solve our environmental challenges in a sustainable manner? Do you support efforts by the scientific community to help understand the effects of climate change, reduce environmental degradation, and advance renewable energy technologies? Then please vote for the Columbia Water Center’s parent…

  • Mandating energy benchmarking: the next step for cities in addressing climate change?

      by Marne Sussman Within the past two years, two cities in the U.S. have passed ordinances mandating that existing buildings benchmark their energy usage. Benchmarking requires a building owner to report energy use data which can then be compared to data from buildings of a similar size and function and to past data from…

  • A Rogue Water Project

    Even today, many Central Asian nations rely on infrastructure that was clumsily implemented by the Soviet Union in the 1970s, and Tajikistan is no exception.  In fact, she is the poorest country in Central Asia and has long been quarrelling with Uzbekistan and even Afghanistan over resources and related policies.  One such controversial project involves…