On the day climate negotiators met in Copenhagen, economist and Nobel laureate Paul Krugman’s op-ed in the New York Times demonstrated that much has changed in two years of climate debate – and that there actually is hope that we may “save the planet.” A commentary by

The Blue Green Alliance between labour unions and environmental organisations wants to create jobs in the United States' environmental sector and has become part of the Washington scene.

While the US government is being internationally lambasted for its lame climate policies, researchers, entrepreneurs, and venture capitalists go beyond politics to find, on their own account, openings for green energies.

We have almost used up our emissions budget. Should we continue to emit at the current rate, our budget will be used up within ten years. Thus, we have to ask ourselves: Is continuous growth the right approach? Can we afford more economic growth? Is our present economic system able to increase and sustain wealth on a worldwide scale? The Böll.Thema essay by Claudia Kemfert tries to give answers to these questions. 

In 2050, three billion more people will inhabit the earth, while at the same time a large section of humanity will need greater access to energy in order to escape poverty. Eventually, we will have to become “CO2 negative” by capturing CO2 from the atmosphere and channelling it back underground.

The coalition treaty between Christian Democrats and Liberals provides that subsidies for the extraction of coal will continue until 2018. Additional subsidies for new coal-fired power plants will come from the implementation of EU rules on CCS and from income generated by emissions trading. Thus, the current German government is promoting an increase in coal-fired power plants, a policy that undermines climate protection. The idea seems to be to greenwash coal by means of CCS.

Opinions about the future of the Desertec project on the African continent.

With giant strides humanity is approaching a population level of ten billion. Fossil fuels have been almost fully exploited. According to Gerhard Knies, initiator and chairman of the supervisory board of Desertec, Desertec’s approach seems to be the best solution to face these problems.

Interview with Supinya Klangnarong, Media-rights advocate and researcher, about the crisis in Thailand, the polarisation of Thai society and the mistakes of government, and protesters.

Concepts of decentralised energy production such as Lichtblick and the centralised approach of the Desertec consortium to produce solar energy in the desert do not have to clash.