Renewable Energy Meteo

Whenever these days I tell people – when asked -  that I work on renewable energy, they always reply that it is a very actual topic. Indeed, these days everybody seems to know what renewable energy is. However, when I then ask them what they actually know about present renewable energy use, they do not have a good idea of e.g. how much renewable energy we actually use these days (EU ca. 10%; Belgium/Netherlands 3-4%). There is general awareness of renewable energy, but people still have little concrete feeling for it: it seems it is still an abstract topic despite the visibility of wind turbines and solar panels.

A project in Wallonia/Brussels is trying to change this through raising concrete awareness by including the topic of renewable energy in the weather forecast. It cannot become more part of daily life than that!

Every week on Monday the Francophone Belgian TV Channel ‘La Une’ brings in its weather forecast also the ‘renewable energy meteo’ of the previous week.  It shows this in three indicators (see picture):

• The first indicator, in blue, shows the ‘solar photovoltaic weather’: it shows which percentage of the electricity use of an average household was generated by the sun for those houses that are equipped with solar panels (a typical set-up of soalr panels is assumed).

• The second, in green, shows the ‘wind energy weather’: it shows how many households have been supplied with electricity generated by the wind turbines in Wallonia. The amount of households is also translated into an actual local town or area of that size.

• The third, in red, shows the ‘solar thermal weather’: it shows which percentage of warm water needs of an average household was generated by the sun for those houses that are equipped with solar water boilers on their roof.

Hopefully this will make people think now and then when looking at the weather: ‘this looks like a good renewable energy day!’

Renewable Energy Meteo

Robin Hood Tax

When I mentioned in my blog a little over a year ago – in the run-up to the European elections – that an anti-speculative tax on financial transactions was highly necessary to prevent the casino-speculation in the banking sector that led to the financial crisis, this seemed still an idea of the very few, among which the Greens.  The idea is from the late economist and Nobel-laureate James Tobin and therefore dubbed ‘Tobin tax‘, which comes down to levying a very small tax on financial transactions which makes speculation with money and all its derivates less attractive and thus would bring the business of money back to what it was supposed to do: invest.

The idea is gaining more and more support, first EU leaders and now 350 economists are signing up to it, meanwhile also dubbed ‘Robin Hood tax‘ as of course there will be revenues. Such revenues could be used for the poor and the good: to achieve the millenium development goals and/or to combat climate change. It seems that only the bankers are still opposed, but their arguments against it are running out (see video).

The Impossible Hamster

Often images are much more powerful than words. I intended to write how bankers seemed to have learned nothing from the financial crisis, how a disappointing climate change conference in Copenhagen seems to be leading to apathy and how politics seems back to business as usual where it was several years ago: concerned mostly with economic growth. Then I came across the video below showing in the clearest possible way why the old economic growth model does not work.

Luckily it is not all business as usual these days. The financial sector may still undergo some serious reforms and grassroots action on climate change takes new forms. Moreover, very slowly the concept of a different way of measuring growth, i.e. in terms of happiness and sustainability is attracting broader political interest. Hopefully sooner rather than later economists (or whatever we will call them instead!) will stop talking about a contradictio in terminis such as ‘jobless recovery from the crisis’.

As for the hamster: what would it think of a fast-food chain that is reducing meat in its burgers?

What 2010 for Belgium?

After the excitement in Belgium late last year of Van Rompuy being ‘elected’ as Mr Europe (President of the European Council), it should be back to business this year for Belgium. It will be a busy and difficult political year. In the second half of 2010 Belgium will hold the Presidency of the EU, thus with a Van Rompuy – Leterme tandem steering European policy. However, Leterme and his government will have a lot to do before that.

Firstly, there will be pressure on the Belgian Government to deal with the backlog on transposition of EU laws. Obviously, it would not look good for Belgium not having complied itself with EU law while chairing the EU. The Deputy Minister who is in charge of preparing the Belgian Presidency was apparently also of that view and thought it would be useful to convene a parliamentary working group to discuss the topic. However, it seems only then he realised that it was his own party-leader and Deputy Prime Minister Reynders who is by far leading in the backlog and he apparently tried to back out. It remains to be seen what will be left of his initial good intentions.

Secondly, Belgium will want to avoid a domestic political crisis during the EU presidency in order not to leave a ‘chaotic’ legacy as many consider the Czech’s have done with their Presidency of the EU last year. The problem is that there is still a big political hurdle going by the – for foreigners obscure – name of  Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde (BHV). The name simply refers to the name of an electoral district formed after a reform of the electoral districts in 2002. In 2003, the Belgian Court judged the reform to be in violation of the constitution with respect to BHV as the district covers different language areas (Brussels: bilingual, Halle and Vilvoorde: Dutch). There are several possible solutions to correct this, but the problem is that this issue goes to the very heart of the (language – though that does not quite do it justice) conflict between Flanders and Wallonia. Flemish Members of Parliament could in theory push through a solution as they constitute a majority in the Federal Parliament and several have threatened to try. Of course the Belgian political system has measures in place that can at least delay that in order to find political solutions through other ways. Most of those have however meanwhile been used up and now veteran Dehaene has been tasked to prepare the way for a compromise by Easter in order to avoid political crisis during the Belgian EU Presidency.

Of course the to-do list for 2010 is longer than just these two: there is still an economic crisis, unemployment and government deficit to deal with and climate change should be a priority more than ever after the ‘failure’ of Copenhagen. The question is, is the (second) Leterme Government ready to take it all on? If one looks at the ‘performance’ of one of its ministers in the Belgian Senate this week (see movie – after 1:30) one may have doubts. It has caused yet another polemic that Leterme has to deal with..

Born of hope

After ‘The Hunt for Gollum‘ another on-line film was released this month by fans of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings: ‘Born of Hope‘ (trailer below). The setting of the story is in the time before ‘The Hobbit’ (of which the cinema film is still to come) and ‘The Lord of the Rings’. It tells the story of Arathorn, the father of Aragorn, and is inspired by just a few of Tolkien’s paragraphs in the appendices of the Lord of the Rings. I have to say, they have turned those paragraphs into an impressive film!

In memory of a fellow admirer. Safe journey, my friend, Namárië

New Jean Monnets needed to save the UN .. and the climate

Two years of preparation and build-up and increased last-minute efforts and pressures such as the manifestation 5 December in Brussels (also picture below) have in the end brought very little in Copenhagen. Not only is outcome bad news for combatting climate change, the whole system of the United Nations seems to have come under pressure. Trying to reach global consensus to address worldwide challenges seems still something for a distant future.

The paralel with the incapacity of League of Nations, a forerunner of the UN, surfaces. Jean Monnet, once deputy secretary general at the League of Nations, said later: in every meeting everyone started by talking about our common interest, but further on they forgot all about it and got obsessed about the effect a possible outcome could have on themselves, on their country. The result was that no one really tried to solve the actual problems: their main concern was to find an outcome that would not infringe the interests of anyone around the table.

If there is however any paralel in history, Jean Monnet is the best one can get. Monnet did not become disillusioned and never gave up his ideals to bring nations together and went on with tremendous effort and patience to create what has now become the European Union, which with all its failures has clearly very much advanced in comparison with the League of Nations; possibly further than Monnet would ever have believed.

I am sure there must be new Jean Monnets around to save the UN, but above all the climate. Monnet started with coal and steel to bring Europe together. The new Jean Monnets better use renewables..

Brussels wave for the climate

Climate change, more ambition needed: a Green Deal

This afternoon I had to privilege to visit the Flemish Parliament to attend a discussion organised by Groen!, the Flemish Green party. Two scientists and two representatives from NGOs set out their ideas and views related to climate change and necessary actions in order to highlight, just before the conference in Copenhagen, that more ambition is needed.

One of them set out the current science concerning climate change. Although this is of course well-known, it is always refreshing to get a good overview of the latest science. The picture is not rosy: it appears that we are now in territory of increases in carbon levels and temperature rises that are not comparable with anything in the past. He also showed that the current carbon emissions have already set processes in motion that might soon become irreversible, e.g. the melting of the ice-cap in Greenland. Further, most of the current scenarios will not limit the temperature rise to 2 degrees Celsius, which is however what politicians say they are aiming for.

The next speaker confirmed that story, but highlighted that telling it to citizens does not seem to have an effect. These doom scenarios, while realistic, are only frightening them or make them disillusioned. That might explain why a majority of the Americans does not (want to) believe that climate change is caused by our own actions. It is an inconvenient story at the least. Further, even the people that are convinced that action is necessary, often do not change their behaviour themselves.

It thus seems that other ways are necessary to achieve a wider support base for more ambitious action against climate change. One way is to highlight the secondary benefits from measures tackling climate change. For example, renewable energy like wind power creates jobs, many more than fossil and ten times more than nuclear energy. It also enhances our security of energy supply.

This is of course not a new insight: it is exactly the ‘Green Deal’ that the European Greens have advocated in the recent election campaign. However, it applies more widely than just to (renewable) energy. Unpopular messages such as lower meat consumption may come across more convincing when the health benefits from such diet are communicated as well. In fact, many necessary climate change actions have health benefits. Cycling as means of transport is of course the most obvious, but only one of them.

Such arguments will need to be used more highlighting that many of the measures tackling climate change taking are ‘no-regret’ options that will bring a sustainable economy closer, both from the environmental and the social viewpoint. Those are arguments that can help convincing citizens and build support for voluntary change of behaviour as well as more ambitious political action. It will be crucial to bring that message across to citizens not only via green politicians but also via alliances with consumer organisations, trade unions, etc.

In short, the Green Deal is not just about a deal in Copenhagen, it is a path towards a sustainable economy. It is a social deal as well as an environmental one.

It is time to enter the solar age

My blog has been silent for a while. I was simply speechless because of the ongoing exchanges in preparations leading up to the climate change negotiations in Copenhagen 6 to 18 December.

While scientists keep on stressing to politicians that action is needed now the signals and consequences of not acting are becoming more worrying than ever, this seems to fall on deaf ears. Asian and American leaders say they do not aim for a deal anymore in Copenhagen. Even the EU seem to have given up already before the summit has even started. On top of that there are shameful campaigns in the US by oil industry lobbyists not even denying climate change, but stating that it is a good thing.. (see movie)

It looks like the politicians are throwing in the towel. By speaking about targets for 2050 instead of for 2020, they leave a huge problem to their children and grandchildren. Maybe it would be better for them to hand over power to those grandchildren already.

However, it is too late to be a pessimist. Let us call on them again on 5 December in Brussels. We need to come out of the dark ages and enter the solar age!

Apparently the milk farmers were in Brussels again

Sometimes work is so demanding that I hardly take notice of what else is going on around in Brussels. That seems to be where I am again at the moment. The implementation of the EU Renewable Energy Directive is taking so much of my time, that I hardly notice the manifestations going on in Brussels. Like the one on Monday by the dairy farmers. Even though on the way to work and back I have to cross the Schuman round-about where it all takes place, I was so early and late on Monday that I have not seen a single dairy farmer. And it is remarkable how little you notice of such manifestations a few hundred meters away where my office is.

There are very different views on the nature of the milk crisis as well as on the solutions. For me, at least two things are clear. First, as I have often said during the election campaign earlier this year, European agriculture needs to be reformed towards a sustainable agriculture where farmers are rewarded not only for their products, but also for producing them in a sustainable way, as well as for providing public services such as landscape management. Second, the balance of power between farmers and supermarkets has become so uneven that supermarkets squeeze the farmers for lower prices while consumer still keep on paying the same.

However, by calling for simple solutions as milk quota the farmers are calling for solutions that are not sustainable. They have a right to be heard, but next time they come to Brussels I hope they will come with suggestions for sustainable solutions. And maybe next time they should not come to Brussels at all, but go to wherever the headquarters of the big supermarket chains are located.. (I just hope that is not Brussels as well!)

What is to become of Italy’s media .. and women?

The war over the freedom of the press continues in Italy. Berlusconi tries to use every opportunity to attack Repubblica, one of the few newspapers that still dares to criticize him or his government. Even an inappropriate occasion as a 3-hour special edition of ‘Porta a Porta’ at Rai Uno about the earthquake in Aquila in April he used to this end. Conveniently for him, any possibly competing programmes on other channels were ‘rescheduled’ in advance.

In these attacks Berlusconi portrays himself and his party as a victim of the media (i.e. the few media his immediate family does not control!). However, the reality is that Berlusconi is acting like he thinks his party’s election victory means he can decide for five years anything that happens in the country and no critisism should be allowed until the next elections. That is however not how democracy should function and freedom of the press seems in danger in Italy. When this very topic was discussed in the TV programme ‘Annozero’ on Rai Due, his government was furious and announced an investigation into the programme. If that does not prove that there is a problem with freedom of the press in Italy, what does?

However, just as worrying as Berlusconi’s attempts to limit the freedom of the press, is Italy’s television culture, to which Berlusconi’s Mediaset channels have contributed greatly. These days you are not important in Italy if you are not on TV. Television has become so central in Italian life that TV stars now even receive state funerals! Women go at great length to be on TV and have let themselves become debased in their television role. A recent documentary ‘Il corpo delle donne‘ (‘women’s bodies’) shows what this television role has done to Italian women (though hopefully not all of them!). It needs no further introduction..

The full version (24 minutes) with English subtitles can be watched here.