Without help, lower-income people could miss out on the clean energy revolution – hence the arrival of community projects aiming to boost access to solar panels, batteries and other green technology.
The World Bank has highlighted steps to improve sustainable energy investment.
The Trump administration has the tools to slow the momentum Obama started on clean energy. Countering Trump are global market forces and state-level action.
A man burns rubbish on the side of a road in Dandora in Nairobi, Kenya.
Reuters/Siegfried Modola
Leonardo DiCaprio's new climate documentary is an urgent call for the promised green tech revolution. But it shows too much faith in politicians and corporations to change their ways.
Solar jobs now outnumber coal jobs in U.S. Is that reason enough for government policies to promote clean energy?
Mario Anzuoni/Reuters
Will government policy to promote clean energy be disastrous or a boon? A close look at the 2009 stimulus, which plowed $90 billion into energy, can tell us a lot.
The Greens are the party of climate action - but do they embrace enough technologies to get there?
AAP Image/Julian Smith
The Greens have successfully cast themselves as the party of climate science. But to hit their climate goals they may need to become even more radical, by embracing technologies like nuclear power.
Across Africa the potential is ripe for a clean energy revolution that upsets and leapfrogs the old fossil-fuel order.
Reuters
In the age of austerity, governments have limited resources to invest in new areas of research – like clean energy – that have multiple risks. Billionaires like Bill Gates can help plug the gap.
A biogas plant in Queensland.
NH Foods Oakey Beef Exports
The government has issued a draft direction to the Clean Energy Finance Corporation to invest in "emerging" clean energy such as bioenergy. But what are the prospects for bioenergy?
The Australian government has instructed the Clean Energy Finance Corporation to stop investing in wind.
penagate/Flickr
Can the government tell its clean energy finance body what to invest in? Recent news that the Clean Energy Finance Corporation will be banned from investing in wind farms and small-scale solar suggest that the government is trying to do just that.
Both electric cars and renewable energy stand to gain significantly from cheaper storage.
Mariordo/Wikimedia
Most of the energy that fuels our lives comes from plants. Whether it is a fossil fuel that was formed hundreds of millions of years ago or the food we eat, all carbon-borne energy has its ultimate origins…
The G20’s impressive declaratory record on energy cooperation hides serious practical shortcomings.
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With the Brisbane G20 Leaders Summit only a matter of weeks away, Australia is increasingly succumbing to G20 fever. Rarely does a self-declared middle power such as Australia get to play host to such…
Treasurer Joe Hockey joins a long line of leaders unable to close the gap between promise and reality.
Dave Hunt/AAP
Governments are notorious for missing targets. Look no further than France or Spain’s recent fiscal calumny, despite the European Union’s excessive deficit procedure. Closer to home, the Association of…
How genuine is China’s commitment to green energy?
WiNG
During Chinese premier Li Keqiang’s last visit to the UK, China signed a series of deals on energy and low carbon technology, and a declaration of cooperation on climate change. A few weeks later, similar…
Battery costs can make up a quarter of the cost of an electric car such as this Tesla Model S.
Shal Farley/Flickr
At the heart of the current debate around energy is the question of storage. In cars, how to build batteries that run for hundreds of kilometres; in electricity, storing energy from solar panels for when…
Clive Palmer announced his climate policy at a press conference with former US vice president Al Gore last night.
AAPImage/Alan Porritt
In a surprising announcement last night Clive Palmer promised to abolish Australia’s current carbon price, and block the coalition’s Direct Action policy. But Palmer has said he will vote to retain the…
We’ll need more of these, wherever they end up.
Andrew Milligan/PA
Do we have enough onshore windfarms, or do we have too many? And who decides what “too many” looks like? The Conservative Party has announced it would end subsidies for new onshore wind farms if it won…
Time to put some heat into the hydrogen industry.
Flames on a black background, Olga Nikonova
The inhabitants of a frequently cold and windy country like the UK need to heat their homes, even in what is loosely termed “summer”. This is achieved mostly by natural gas-fed boilers – but this dependence…
