International Energy Agency

The politics of biofuel subsidies are on full boil in Washington, D.C.

Don’t hold your breath, but there is a possibility that the G20 summit in Toronto next week will take action to reduce government subsidization of the fossil fuel industry and to level the playing field for clean and renewable fuels. 

Senator Bernie Sanders (VT-I) has proposed a measure to repeal more than US$35 billion in tax breaks for the oil and gas industry.  

Along with its photovoltaic solar (PV) roadmap, the International Energy Agency also released a roadmap for maximizing concentrated solar's (CSP) global potential [pdf].

Highlighting plenty of good news for solar on a global scale, the International Energy Agency (IEA) recently released a photovoltaic solar roadmap [pdf] at the Meditteranean Solar Plan

Data taken at at Norway's Zeppelin station on the Arctic Svalbard archipelago indicates an increase in carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere -- in spite of 2009's economic downturn, and efforts to improve global emissions.

The one thing that may put renewable energies like solar power over the top in the future is not price, efficiency, or even the size of environmental footprints, but merely the fact that oil and gas reserves are becoming increasingly uncertain.

While the worldwide economic crisis has been bad for many environmental initiatives – as companies and consumers scale back their purchases of solar panels and wind turbines – it turns out to be a blessing in disguise for greenhouse gas emissions.

The road to the Copenhagen Climate Conference is paved with irony.

On Friday, G20 leaders committed to phase out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies over the medium term and asked their finance ministers to report back at the next meeting in Canada in June next year.