We often use the term "Commons" to explain, that we aim at transforming our societal organization. But which realistic concepts do we have at hand to regain the control over our energy system? We need to ask the question of ownership: Shall the energy system pass into public ownership? Shall we fight for it on all levels, at the municipal, regional and national level?
The multi-reactor meltdown accident in Japan beginning last March 2011 has not ended. Plants continue to leak radiation and shockingly no sytematic monitoring of radiation levels is taking place.
While countries all over the world review their nuclear energy plans and safety measures in the wake of the Fukushima disaster, the Indian government still pushes ahead with it's fiercely opposed Jaitapur plant.
Have our rulers decided to place India on the wrong side of history and arrest her social progress? Going by their policy of forcibly promoting nuclear power regardless of its hazards, environmental damage potential, high economic and social costs, and unpopularity, that seems to be the case.
We, the signatories of this declaration, are calling on the European Union (EU) to exclude bioenergy from its next Renewable Energy Directive (RED), and thereby stop direct and indirect subsidies for renewable energy from biofuels and wood-burning.
Deutsche Welle - The arrival of transnational dam-builders in Guatemala is threatening cultural and natural riches. DW met with activists in Berlin, who are asking Europeans to reexamine exactly what such "green energy" entails.
While it is increasingly clear that climate change is an irreversible processes that will hit people and the environment hard, the defence industry sees new profit opportunities.
The BP Gulf oil spill is not an anomaly but the result of industry-wide recklessness, as companies employ more and more risky methods to reach inaccessible reserves as the conventional ones run dry.
India's story starkly illustrates the disconnect between GDP and social progress, and the need for radically new economics developed from the bottom up.
Speaking at a recent conference in Iceland, David Fig of UCT questioned why SA remained trapped in an undemocratic industrial paradigm which gave primacy to its minerals and energy sector.
The Indian government's demonisation of NGOs opposed to coal mining marks a backwards step in climate commitments. India is heading towards being the number two leading world emitter of carbon dioxide, missing out on a renewable energy (RE) revolution worldwide.
The Japanese crisis is a wake up call for India, which is currently building of one of the world's largest nuclear power plants at Jaitapur, despite massive popular protest. When such a disaster can occur in an industrially advanced country like Japan, India, whose atomic agency is notorious for its poor safety standards, needs to rethink its nuclear ambitions.
As the Asia-Europe Summit gets ready to meet in early October, what are the implications of the rising power of Asia for progress on tackling poverty, inequality and climate change?
Prime Minister Modi's government has frozen the bank accounts of Greenpeace India, part of a wider campaign against 'anti-national' movements that challenge India's development policies based on the aggressive exploitation of coal, minerals, big hydro and nuclear power.
President Obama’s decision comes despite the fact that US government and independent models predict an 80% chance Polar Bears will become mostly extinct by 2050, with total extinction this century without cuts in emissions.
Global finance is only one facet of multiple crises facing human civilization - crises over food, water, climate, energy as well as the global economy urgently need to be addressed. So far, neoliberal responses of governments have been to tackle finance alone - by replacing a banker or by pumping money into the system. But it is the system itself - that is in crisis.
In this special edition of Globalizations, François Houtart outlines the interlinked but different elements of the multiple crises we face, and makes radical suggestions for moving beyond the current state of affairs - through addressing all together.
