Energy firm E.On has announced a 5.1% reduction in its standard gas price for residential customers. [BBC News] In an AP interview, Iran’s foreign minister is decrying what he calls the United States’ “addiction to coercion” with its new sanctions against Iran over ballistic missile tests. [ABC/AP] The oil price slump below $30 barrel is… Keep reading →
A new World Economic Forum report on the Water-Energy Nexus explores the link between water quantity and electricity production and specifically looks into strategic considerations for energy policy-makers on how best to plan energy and water infrastructures for the future. In short, sensible planning is a prerequisite for responsible management. As demand for electricity grows… Keep reading →
It is no news that across the African continent infrastructure investment and thus development has lagged behind. According to estimates by Jean Claude Gandur, founder of Addax Energy, Africa has been investing 4 per cent of its GDP in infrastructure, compared to China’s 14 per cent. Nevertheless, a recent report by the World Economic Forum,… Keep reading →
Users of critical infrastructure – for example, the electrical grid – are not really known for being blessed with outstanding customer service from their respective providers. Instead, for operators/providers – i.e. utilities – of a public good such as electricity, customers seem not to be the primary consideration given that utilities have a legal “obligation… Keep reading →
A timely new report published by the World Economic Forum in April 2014 titled “Strategic Infrastructure Steps to Operate and Maintain Infrastructure Efficiently and Effectively” addresses an important area for necessary investment globally: infrastructure. The current focus in the US is on energy infrastructure – whether this concerns the need to build out the petroleum… Keep reading →
The world’s business and economic policy elite are gathering once again in the mountains of Switzerland this month for the latest iteration of the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting, colloquially just known by the name of the town it gathers in: Davos. Following a run of self-congratulatory meetings in the years before the global financial… Keep reading →
As part of its New Energy Architecture initiative to better understand the changes currently in full swing within the global energy system, the World Economic Forum recently published its Global Energy Architecture Performance Index Report 2014. The report identifies and examines various indicators across countries and regions that are significant for an effective global transition… Keep reading →
A project to measure the carbon footprint of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, may lead to tougher greenhouse-gas reporting standards for “mega cities” such as London and Rio de Janeiro.
A research team, led by Silicon Valley technology firm Picarro, installed monitors in Davos and on a nearby mountainside to measure the carbon emissions tied to the annual gathering of high-powered government and corporate officials. But weeks before the WEF began Jan. 25, emissions were already 35% higher than expected, Picarro says. Keep reading →
Over the last few days, experts in fields from neuroscience to music to energy came together to share ideas at the TEDGlobal 2011 conference. With Shell one of the conference sponsors, there was extensive discussion of the energy sector and the industry’s future.
Among the speakers was Pavan Sukhdev, an energy economist who worked at Deutsche Bank for 15 years before writing a groundbreaking report, The Economies of Ecosystems and Biodiversity.” Sukhdev chairs the Global Agenda Council on Biodiversity and Ecosystems for the World Economic Forum. Keep reading →
