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Joel Darmstadter: If Not a Carbon Tax and Universality, What Then?, Common Resources, 15/05/2015 http://common-resources.org/2015/joel-darmstadter-if-not-a-carbon-tax-and-universality-what-then/RFF’s own Joel Darmstadter gave the commencement speech at Penn State’s College of Earth and Mineral Sciences’ graduation ceremony on May 8.  His remarks touched on the very difficult policy challenges associated with addressing climate change against the background of two important impending milestones: the implementation of the Clean Power Plan and the international climate negotiations in Paris this winter. Remarks by Joel Darmstadter, Senior Fellow, Resources for the Future. May 8 2015...« L’Europe de l’énergie jouera son rôle à condition d’envoyer les bons signaux », l'Observatoire Energies d'Entreprises, 15/05/2015 http://www.observatoire-energies-entreprises.fr/leurope-de-lenergie-jouera-son-role-a-condition-denvoyer-les-bons-signaux/Alors que Jean-Claude Juncker vient de décider de relancer l’Europe de l’énergie, le paysage européen pourrait devenir de plus en plus interconnecté. Quelles évolutions pour les industriels ? Le point de vue de Jacques Percebois, professeur émérite à l’Université de Montpellier et parrain de l’Observatoire...Educating for Sustainable Development / Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO, Project Syndicate, 18/05/2015 https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/world-education-forum-sustainable-development-by-irina-bokova-and-christiana-figueres-2015-05This year marks a turning point for the world, with the international community adopting a new global development strategy in September and negotiating a universal deal to combat climate change in December. To succeed, policymakers must recognize that today’s global imperatives – to eradicate poverty and improve wellbeing, while restoring the Earth’s balance – form a single agenda, and that the most effective means of achieving it is education...The Mexican INDC: a conditional target that calls for collective climate action / Thomas Spencer, Henri Waisman et Céline Ramstein, Climat 365, Iddri, 19/05/2015 http://www.blog-iddri.org/2015/05/19/the-mexican-indc-a-conditional-target-that-calls-for-collective-climate-action/Mexico published its INDC on 30 March, the first middle-income country to do so. In publishing its INDC just ahead of the March 31 deadline, Mexico sent a strong signal. Major developed economies are yet to come forward with their proposals. The content of this INDC must, however, be evaluated based on the information it contains, both in terms of the level of ambition of the targets and the level of detail...Is Clean Coal Too Expensive? / Andrew Campbell, Energy Institute at Haas, 18/05/2015 https://energyathaas.wordpress.com/2015/05/18/is-clean-coal-too-expensive/Policies that subsidize the demonstration of large-scale technologies make economists queasy. Severin explored this topic in a recent blog. In retrospect it’s easy to point to failures, including the United States Synthetic Liquids Fuels Program that died in the 1980s and Solyndra’s bankruptcy in 2011. But there are a few clear winners too. Take the government-supported technologies that enabled the US shale oil and gas boom...Economic and environmental impacts of fracked shale gas / Catherine Hausman, Ryan Kellogg, Vox EU, 15/05/2015 http://www.voxeu.org/article/impact-fracked-shale-gasThe economic and environmental impacts of the US fracking boom are hotly debated. This column argues that there’s been a large positive impact on the US economy, estimating that the benefits to producers and consumers totalled $48 billion in 2013, or around one-third of 1% of US GDP. The climate change impacts have been large, but they do not outweigh the private gains. However, a lack of data on the impacts to water, air, and seismic activity hamper policymakers effectively targeting the areas of greatest concern and hamper them drawing up effective regulation...More on pricing pollution vs. energy efficiency mandates / Ted Gayer, Planet Policy, 14/05/2015 http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/planetpolicy/posts/2015/05/14-pricing-pollution-energy-efficiency-mandates-gayerIn my recent Senate testimony, I argued that the best way to address environmental damage caused by energy use is for the government to charge a price for these pollution costs. In previous Senate testimony, I argued that a pollution tax is preferable to a cap-and-trade program, but either will result in substantially lower economic costs than command-and-control regulations that mandate technologies, fuels, or energy efficiency standards...The Environmental and Climate Stakes in Arctic Oil Drilling / Michael Levi, Energy, security and climate, 13/05/2015 http://blogs.cfr.org/levi/2015/05/13/the-environmental-and-climate-stakes-in-arctic-oil-drilling/On Monday, the Obama administration gave Shell conditional permission to move forward with Arctic oil drilling. The New York Times captures a common sentiment well in identifying this as a “tricky intersection of Obama’s energy and climate legacies”. The reality, though, is that this intersection isn’t nearly a fraught as many assume: decisions about offshore drilling in Alaska are indeed difficult, given the local economic and environmental stakes involved, but climate isn’t a central factor...Au pays du solaire levant, CNRS Le journal, 13/05/2015 https://lejournal.cnrs.fr/articles/au-pays-du-solaire-levantÀ la suite de la catastrophe nucléaire de Fukushima, le Japon a décidé de revoir complètement sa politique énergétique. Le pays redouble ainsi d’efforts pour développer les énergies renouvelables, avec en ligne de mire les Jeux olympiques de 2020, date à laquelle le monde entier aura les yeux rivés sur Tokyo...