U.S.: Floods and Wildfires Trigger New Fears over Nuke Safety

Just 100 days after a deadly earthquake and tsunami devastated the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan, concerns are being raised about several U.S. nuclear stations that are facing natural disasters of their own.

TRADE: Brazil and Africa Ready to Do the Samba

African trade with India and China flourished over the past decade but, with unemployment rising and industrialisation failing to take hold, cracks are appearing in Africa’s much-vaunted "Look East" doctrine. Meanwhile, from across the Atlantic, Brazil is making inroads into the continent.

JAPAN: Renewable Energy Grabs Limelight

After decades of being relegated to the sidelines, Japan’s fledging renewable energy industry is now basking in the limelight as the nation struggles to cope with the Fukushima nuclear accident.

The Oxymoron of Political Leadership

Political will is all that's needed to bring electricity to the 2.5 billion people with no or unreliable access to power, or to feed the one billion who go hungry every day, or to finally begin to slash carbon emissions to avoid dangerous climate change, or just about any other global problem.

OP-ED: The Good News About Coal

During the years when governments and the media were focused on preparations for the 2009 Copenhagen climate negotiations, a powerful climate movement was emerging in the United States: the movement opposing the construction of new coal-fired power plants.

COLOMBIA: Kidnapped in No Man’s Land

"Today we are launching the new campaign for demobilisation in Caguán. Planting seeds of hope against the terror of the FARC," Colombian Defence Minister Rodrigo Rivera recently wrote in his Twitter account.

Nuclear for the Poor, Renewables for the Rich?

In a debate about the future of energy, the global south wants to spend tens of billions of dollars on nuclear plants while the global north looks to spend hundreds of millions on decentralised, renewable energy.

On the Road to Green Energy for All

Like our cave-dwelling ancestors of 200,000 years ago, nearly three billion people still use fire for cooking and heating. Of those, some 1.5 billion people have no access to electricity. For a billion more, their only access is to sporadic and unreliable electricity networks.

“Microfinance Can Help Rural Communities Adapt to Climate Change”

Projects to fight climate change are being designed all around the world. But only five percent of them can be financed with the current international funds available, which means resources have to be used more wisely. Microfinance could be one solution.

MALAWI: Power Interconnection Project Costly but Needed

In Malawi’s administrative and commercial capitals, Lilongwe and Blantyre, two things are clear, especially at night: blackouts and the sound of generators in various workplaces.

Gender Indicators for Global Climate Funds Still an Afterthought

Of the millions of dollars spent on climate change projects in developing countries, little has been allocated in a way that will benefit women. Yet, in Africa, it is women who will be most affected by climate change.

JAPAN: Workers Bear Brunt of Nuke Clean-up

Twenty-eight-year-old Yushi Sato washes cars for a living, but they are no ordinary cars. Every day, Sato hoses down vehicles contaminated with radiation from the Fukushima Nuclear Power plant that was damaged by the earthquake and tsunami that hit north-east Japan Mar 11.

SOUTH SUDAN: Fuel Shortages Grip Country

South Sudan is facing severe fuel shortages less than three weeks before it gains independence from the rest of the country. Many gas stations have shut down and those that remain open have people lining up overnight for fuel.

EGYPT: Solar Energy Projects Picking up Again After Uprising

On a blazingly hot summer’s day in Cairo, it’s 36 degrees Celsius in the shade. Air-conditioners and fans whirr across the city, burdening the national electricity grid. Last summer, the populous city experienced frequent water and power cuts, causing a furore. Consumption had grown by 2,600 megawatts, an increase of 13,5 percent from 2009.

JAPAN: Anti-Nuke Policy to Bring Severe Economic Fallout

Three months after the devastating Mar. 11 earthquake that caused an accident at the Fukushima power plant, energy experts warn of economic fallout if nuclear energy is snuffed out too quickly, much to the dismay of an increasingly angry and frustrated public.

PERU: Dam Project Temporarily Suspended to Calm Protests

The outgoing government of Peruvian President Alan García has suspended construction of the Inambari hydroelectric complex, part of an energy deal with Brazil. But activists say the move is merely aimed at calming tempers among local people opposed to the dam, while handing the problem on to García's successor, president-elect Ollanta Humala.

Hydropower Dams Hurt Amerindians in Brazil and Canada

Michael Lawrenchuk, a Cree political activist from Canada, was given a standing ovation at the International Hydropower Association congress held in this Brazilian border town, after depicting the suffering of his people since dams began to be built on rivers across their land.

Postponing Emissions Cuts Carries Steep Price-tag

If we're lucky, by the time a tough but fair international treaty to meet the climate change challenge is finalised, it will be largely unnecessary. The snail's pace of negotiations certainly gives countries plenty of time to understand the financial, social and environmental advantages of kicking their dangerous addiction to fossil fuels.

OP-ED: Drilling Deep Mistakes in the Arctic

Nuuk is a long way from my hometown of Durban, and the Arctic is a long way for an African to come to campaign about climate change. Yet, here I sit, in a jail cell, with my colleague Ulvar Arnkvaern, in the ‘Institution’, a prison in Greenland’s capital. I sit here for breaching an exclusion zone and climbing aboard a dangerous deep water drilling rig some 120 km off Greenland’s coast.

ICELAND: New Energy Stinks, And Worse

Public health authorities in Reykjavik have criticised plans for the expansion of the Hellisheidi geothermal power plant. They say that levels of the gas hydrogen sulphide could increase by 40 percent if a new geothermal field, Grauhnukur, is developed and nothing is done to ensure that the levels of the gas remain below maximum permitted levels.

LATIN AMERICA: Renewable Energies Will Devour Metal Resources

The expansion of renewable energies in Latin America will drive up demand for metals like copper, which only recycling will be able to meet.