Germany is the world’s fourth largest economy.  It is also the third largest exporter; and the powerhouse behind what little growth there has been in the Eurozone economy.  But according to Business Insider there are signs that the Germany is slowing to a halt… with potentially catastrophic results for the …

Chile has been generating so much solar electricity that it has to give it away free.  And while this looks good for both consumers and the environment, it spells trouble ahead for Chile’s infrastructure. As Vanessa Dezem and  Javiera Quiroga at Bloomberg report: “Spot prices reached zero in parts of …

According to the mainstream media, UK fracking is back in business.  The decision by North Yorkshire Council to approve an application for further testing of the KM8 well that was drilled in 2013 was reported as the first UK approval for fracking since 2011.  From the coverage, you would be …

One reason why Third Energy may have suddenly wanted to begin fracking in rural North Yorkshire is that the breakeven price – the point at which shale oil and gas becomes profitable – has been falling in recent months.  Pro-fracking publicists like to pretend that the reason for the fall …

Taking the stairs instead of the lift could cut more than a third of the carbon/energy footprint of most UK buildings according to a new report by carried out by StepJockey and specialist lift consultants SVM Associates . The study looked at the real world performance of lifts rather than …

From the moment Britain’s energy supplies went into irreversible decline in 1999, the National Grid was doomed.  The only questions were about how long the process would take to unfold, and what we might do to replace it. The reason for this is quite simple – National Grid is funded …

Portuguese banks are set to be the next to require massive state handouts in the latest instalment of the global financial crash that first emerged in 2007.  Although massive government borrowing by countries like the USA and the UK, that still enjoy their own currencies helped stave off a complete …

The scientific evidence is clear enough.  Two degrees of global warming is now locked-in.  The best we could do now is to take action to avoid overshooting this dangerous upper limit.  Some scientists suggest we are looking at 4-5 degrees of warming; others say we could even reach 5-6 degrees.  …

Presidential hopeful Donald Trump’s energy policies have already been dismissed by environmentalists as devastating to the biosphere .  But Trump is unlikely to care, not least because a large part of his support comes from climate change deniers.  Far more damaging is the criticism from energy insiders that Trump’s policies are …

Financialisation of an industry or sector of the economy occurs when there is more money to be made out of the debts it carries than the goods and services it produces.  The housing sector, for example, has been financialised since deregulation began in the mid-1980s.  More recently, the hydraulic fracturing …