Feature Article

China and South Korea have invested heavily in environmental stimulus projects. Other G20 countries need to deliver on their sustainability promises to save both the planet and the economy, says Edward Barbier.

While solar energy has great potential as a renewable energy source for India, in terms of resource availability, flexibility in scale and applications, it is one of the most expensive of such options today.

While the commercial and banking centre Dubai finds itself dealing with the aftermath of the economic crisis, the conservative neighbour Abu Dhabi is already pursuing ambitious targets-but the climate conditions in the desert states are not always ideal for the utilization of renewable energies.

In a worldwide survey, Sun & Wind Energy questioned more than 1,000 companies from the renewable energy sector about their social involvement. Only 49 companies took the opportunity to respond to our questionnaire. The result: social projects are popular. But background information in scarce.

While US clean energy and climate advocates rarely display any real swing time mode when looking at the Copenhagen Climate Talks and beyond into 2010, they definitely also do not play the blues. Quite to the contrary: The lack of any concrete international outcome at that point in time might still give the domestic US process the needed tailwind to come to some clean energy, climate legislation.

African countries are making some important strides toward a green energy sector. According to the Global Renewables Status 2009, Northern Africa boasts more than 500 MW of installed wind power, while Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania are all planning their first wind farms.

California - the top wind producer in the US since the 1980s lost its lead in 2008 in the face of intense competition from other states. But backed by strong financial and political support from the government, California's wind energy sector is slowly making a comeback.

In the UK, 2010 got off to a superb start for the wind power industry. Crown Estate has announced the nine successful bidder consortia for Round 3 of the offshore wind farm licencing. As administrative body for Crown property, it is also the official agency for awarding offshore projects.

There is a growing possibility that the U.S. will pass no climate change legislation in this session of Congress: the uphill climb is at least as steep, and probably steeper, as it is for health care legislation. President Barack Obama cannot presume to hold his own party in line on climate change.