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Today the European Commission has adopted a proposal for a European Strategic Energy Technology Plan (see IP/07/1750). Energy technology will be a key element of Europe's plans to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions and move towards a low-carbon future. But there are structural weaknesses in the current energy research system (see MEMO/07/469 – Why Europe needs a Strategic Energy Plan). The SET-plan (see MEMO/07/493 for details) should help the European Union position itself to develop the technologies it needs to meet its political objectives and at the same time ensure its companies can benefit from the opportunities of a new approach to energy.

PG&E provides funding, typically of up to a million dollars, to local government customers, including associations and quasi-government groups, to help them demonstrate and measure innovative ways to deliver energy savings.

The continued outward growth from a central business district has been the dominant characteristic of most cities in Australia. However, this feature is seen as unsustainable and alternative scenarios to contain the outward growth are being proposed. Melbourne is currently grappling with this issue while simultaneously trying to reduce per capita greenhouse gas emissions. Housing size, style and its location are the three principal factors which determine the emissions from the residential sector. This paper describes a methodology to assess the combined impact of these factors on past and possible future forms of residential development in Melbourne. The analysis found that the location of the housing and its size are the dominant factors determining energy use and greenhouse gas emissions.

Most governments provide some kind of financial assistance to boost energy supply or reduce prices for certain energy consumers. Fossil fuels have been widely subsidized for decades. The exact scale of these subsidies is not known because a comprehensive study has never been undertaken. What is clear is that fossil-fuel subsidies can drain government budgets and increase greenhouse gas emissions. In recognition of these unwanted impacts, the leaders of the Group of Twenty (G-20) countries agreed in September 2009 to phase-out inefficient fossil-fuel subsidies in the medium term. The Global Subsidies Initiative is well aware of the complex issues surrounding fossil-fuel subsidies and their reform. That is why last year, in anticipation of the current calls for such reform, it commenced an ambitious program to identify, measure, and analyze the effects of fossil-fuel subsidies. Key findings from the first five in-depth reports, which together make up the series Untold Billions: Fossil-fuel subsidies, their impacts and the path to reform, are summarized above. Below, each of the individual reports can be freely downloaded. Support for one of the papers, Gaining traction: the importance of transparency in accelerating the reform of fossil-fuel subsidies, was generously provided by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP).

The total generating potential from wind farms built along the Chinese coast is 5.4 times larger than the current demand for power in China’s populous coastal provinces, a study by Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and Huazhong University of Science and Technology in China shows