Posted by admin | Education | Posted on May 12th, 2011
As the global economy grows and growing powers like China and India require more energy, countries are looking for ways to produce green energy and become much more efficient at energy production. France is trying to lead the way in green energy and has set some rather ambitious goals for the future. Even though there has been rather lackluster financial support of green energy projects in France, that isn’t stopping the country from moving forward with its goals to produce around 25 percent of its energy from renewable energy sources by the year 2020.
France is a country that has traditionally got a lot of its power from nuclear energy. It has lead the way in nuclear energy production, but now France wants to lead the way in renewable energy production. This shift from nuclear energy to renewable energy is going to cost a lot of money. It is this cost of switching from nuclear energy and oil that is slowing down the transition to renewable energy. In order to become the new leader in green energy, France must work out how to finance the transition.
France has currently already installed around 6GW of wind power capacity. They have a target of 19GW set for the year of 2020, which means they need to add about 1.5GW of wind power capacity a year to achieve this goal. Wind power is a very efficient form of green energy and can really help with France’s transition if they can get enough wind turbines put up. There was only 1.1 GW of wind power installed in the year 2010. It seems that a lot of wind turbine projects in France are held back by systematic appeals. These appeals can take upwards of two to three years to resolve and are hurting the transition to green energy.
Nicolas Sarkozy, president of France, announced in January that there would be offshore wind farms that would generate 3.5GW of wind power, but they would not be available until 2015.
Another way that France is trying to go green is with solar power. France intends to have 5 million solar thermal units installed in buildings in the country by the year 2020, around 80% of these solar units will be installed in residential homes. Solar power is getting less expensive to utilize and should help France achieve its goals of going green.
France hopes to lead the way with green energy and they have a plan on how to get things done. The people of France want this and so does the government. Perhaps they want to keep their county looking beautiful so it can resemble Pulau Tioman and not go the way of countries that trash the environment for their energy supply.
Posted by admin | Education | Posted on May 12th, 2011
The “Choose the Future: Education for Sustainable Development Conference” was held November 26-28, 2008, in Winnipeg, Canada with approximately 500 participants. The conference was co-chaired by Dr. Christine McDonald and Mr. Robert Anderson. The international conference was held as part of the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014).
The conference audience included educators who intended to incorporate sustainability principles into their teaching and leaders in business and government who wanted to integrate these ideas into practice with employees and interested parties.
Lonnie Dupre, a polar explorer, was the first keynote speaker of the evening on November 26. He did a video presentation on his explorations and observations on Arctic Change.
The conference was opened on the morning of November 27 by the Hon. Lloyd Axworthy, president and vice-chancellor of the University of Winnipeg. He highlighted the complex issues of climate change and challenged his audience to find new and creative solutions to sustainability problems in order to move forward on these issues.
Over the course of the two day conference, participants attended six keynote sessions and 22 concurrent workshops and panel sessions.
The second keynote address was by Chuck Hopkins, UNESCO chair for ESD, who focused on the role of education in sustainability development. He emphasized that education on these topics included environmental as well as social and economic dimensions using both formal and informal education models. He also reviewed the four thrusts of ESD: public awareness, educational access, educational reorientation, and training.
The third keynote speaker was Samantha Nutt, Founder and Executive Director of War Child Canada. This speaker focused on the essential role of teachers in educating students towards individual responsibility for sustainability.
The fourth speaker was Bob Willard, author and business consultant, who focused on the role of business in sustainability and how business can partner with environmental organizations.
The fifth speaker was Wade Davis, Explorer-in-Residence, National Geographic Society. Mr. Davis is an anthropologist and ethnobotanist and spoke on the importance of travel in order to respect and understand different cultural orientations, especially indigenous cultures.
The final keynote speaker was Patrick Moor, Founding Member of Greenpeace, Environmental Consultant and Founder of Greenspirit for a Sustainable Future. Dr. Moore described his journey away from confrontational social activism towards greater political consensus on environmental issues. He discussed the controversies on environmental issues and reviewed the best energy sources for the future. He concluded by stating that a combination of nuclear and renewable energy is the best way to replace fossil fuel dependence for global use.
The 22 concurrent session offered a wide range of sessions focusing on new educational approaches for ESD and sustainability programs for industry and business groups.