Clean energy
To prevent further economic and social damage from climate change, fossil fuels need to stay in the ground. The price for coal, oil and natural gas direct after extraction needs to become so low, that it is not profitable anymore to search for new wells and to exploit existing ones. This is a tremendous challenge, because large economic interests are at stake. Main route is to make renewable energy cheaper than the costs of fossil energy including the strongly needed carbon taxes. In an intermediate period carbon capture and storage can help the transition to a fossil free energy sector, without further adding to the concentration of CO2 in the global atmosphere. So, clean energy is the core of energy and climate policy.
Publications
All new trucks electric from 2035 onward!
Electric trucks are in 2030 cheaper to use than ones on diesel (TCO). The cost advantage is twenty percent for a truck trailer combination driving 400 kilometers a day. Including… Read More
Does the Dutch court case against Shell have consequences for National Road Authorities?
Last year the Dutch court in the Hague ordered Shell to reduce its CO2 emissions by at least 45% by the end of 2030[1]. The ruling includes emissions from the… Read More
Airline industry should ask for goverment regulation
What would the airline industry do if they were serious about achieving carbon free flying in 2050? First, they will ask for government regulation. Voluntary agreements do not work, nor… Read More
Sustainable mobility: illusions and successes
Efforts to achieve sustainable mobility saw many illusions and only few successes. Fortunately, the successes were large. In shorthand: policies to force the use of cleaner vehicles and energy, have… Read More
A right to fly zero-carbon!
A travel agency wants to offer zero-carbon flights to New York. They asked me where to purchase the green kerosene and what the price would be. This started my surprising… Read More
Green transition FFWD
We humans are part of the wider living nature on earth. We cannot survive without other organisms. We need clean air, water and fertile soils. At the same time, we… Read More
The Kremlin versus the Green Deal
The recent hike in the price of natural gas has been a wake-up call for many. Opinions differ, however, on how to react. The fivefold increase of the gas price… Read More
How to make people travel less by car and plane?
This is the million-dollar question for many advocates of sustainable mobility. T&E - European Federation for Transport & Environment - invited me to present my insights and discuss these during… Read More
Decarbonizing aviation: comparing nine policies
Aviation needs to bring its CO2 emissions down to zero not far beyond 2050. To achieve this, a wide range of technologies and policies is considered. Among these are taxes,… Read More
Reduce social security contributions for schools, care and police
Employing people is too expensive and polluting the environment too cheap. A green tax shift is needed and is most effective when applied at the production side of the economy.… Read More
Clean energy is the crowbar in the energy transition
The shift towards energy without CO2 is technical feasible and affordable as well. Mandates for clean energy are key for the energy transition. See my slides for some main lines.… Read More
Tax shift from labour to energy
Already in the early nineties a broad Dutch coalition of unions, consumer organisations, churches and environmental NGO’s, advocated for a tax shift from labour to energy use. In 1996 the… Read More
Oil Security Europe
Europe imports 88% of the oil it uses, mainly from rather unstable regions. This paper gives an overview of the security and economic risks associated with our oil dependency. Large… Read More
The Paris goals for mobility: no time for illusions
At the Dutch National Climate Summit in October 2016, I dealt with the question: Are the ambitious Paris goals for mobility achievable? My answer is: YES WE CAN. Thirty years… Read More
70% less CO2 from transport
A European Task Force set up by the Centre for European Policy Studies developed pathways and policies to achieve a tremendous reduction in transport greenhouse gases by 2050. This Task… Read More
Climate Change: Solution in Sight
Is it necessary to drastically reduce the amount of greenhouse gases into the global atmosphere and is it possible to achieve this? The answer on both questions was already in… Read More
A European aviation charge
In my book ‘New Mobility – Beyond the car era’ I predict that people in Western-Europe will in 2015 fly on average more kilometres than they travel by car. The… Read More