Archive by category | Financial Crisis

EU ITER funding proposals set to stir budget row

The European Commission today released proposals on the funding of the ITER nuclear fusion research project from 2014 to 2020 that seem certain to set the stage for a showdown with the European Union’s 27 member states next year, when discussions of future EU budgets enter their negotiating phase.

How the financial crisis barely dented carbon emissions

How the financial crisis barely dented carbon emissions

Carbon dioxide emissions always sag at times of major economic crisis, as the world’s industry pauses for breath. The oil crisis of the late 1970s, the recession of the early 1980s, the collapse of the former Soviet Union in 1991 — all of them dampened global CO2 output. The global financial crisis of 2008–2009 was no exception. But as an analysis published today in Nature Climate Change and also at the Global Carbon Project’s website notes, carbon emissions have already rebounded as if the crisis never happened. The recovery has been more rapid than from any other economic downturn in the past half-century (see chart, adapted from Nature Climate Change).

Amid political storm, Chu defends Solyndra decision

Amid political storm, Chu defends Solyndra decision

When it rains it pours on the US Department of Energy. First Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry says he wants to dismantle it (though he couldn’t quite remember that at the crucial moment in a recent Republican debate). Then the department’s own inspector general releases a report recommending a large-scale restructuring of the agency (details below). And today, director Steven Chu found himself on Capitol Hill for more than three hours defending the agency’s investment in the failed solar concern, Solyndra Corporation.  Read more

Neglected diseases funding continues to rise

Neglected diseases funding continues to rise

Funding for research on neglected diseases reached $3.26 billion in 2009. But the author of a new report on the subject is warning that governments appear to have given priority to funding their own researchers over the public-private partnerships which attempt to turn research into useable products.

Bill Gates joins California climate law war

Silicon Valley’s richest barons are lining up to fight for California’s climate change laws, as the good, the bad and the ugly all pick sides in the fight over ‘Prop 23’.

Voters in California are deciding on 2 November whether to pass Proposition 23, which would suspend laws clamping down on greenhouse gas emissions.