Climate and Energy

After her Pulitzer-winning The Sixth Extinction, Elizabeth Kolbert’s new book, Under a White Sky, describes the world of “techno-fixes” to the damage we have inflicted on nature. Today, the world faces the dilemma that even the most well-intentioned interventions risk making matters worse, though we may no longer have the luxury of refusing them. In a century that will be shaped by the climate crisis, learning to navigate humanity’s “mixture of hubris and cluelessness” when dealing with nature will be essential.

Climate change will be high on the agenda in the first 100 days of Biden’s presidency. Here’s what he has promised and why a clean break with fossil is improbable.

The EU and national governments have gone to work on recovery plans to be deployed against the imminent economic crisis. But how green are they?

Geoengineering proposals are already influencing plans to combat climate change more than we realise. But with such high stakes, a public debate is urgently needed.

With the right support from governments and the EU, communities all over Europe can be at the heart of a sustainable energy system.

China’s projected image of ambitious climate actor is contradicted by fossil fuel investments abroad and its prioritisation of economic growth.

As generations mobilise to save the climate, traditional military mobilisations are doing much to destroy it. The carbon footprint of the military needs to be on the table.

Melodrama is the genre of choice of the far right, through which it pays special attention to fights with environmentalists, feminists, and minorities.

Villagers have mobilised to fight both for their homes and for more ambition in German energy policy.

Longstanding problems with EU climate policy have been overcome and real money is on the table for the transition. The question is will it be enough.