Turmoil across the Middle East and North Africa has refocused attention on the impact that political tensions or interference can have on the price and availability of energy imports. Against consumer fears of gasprice hikes, energy security ranks high on many western governments

Till we can produce sufficient solar and wind power, coal, gas and nuclear power will remain our mainstay

When parts of Japan were devastated recently by an earthquake and subsequent tsunami, news of the human toll was quickly overshadowed by global fears of radioactive fallout from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The concern was understandable: radiation is very frightening.

Political rhetoric has shifted away from the need to respond to the

ON THE eastern edge of Kolkata, Dulu Bibi, a 25-year-old mother of four, worries about the cost of treating her two sick boys. Her husband earns . 80-90 ($1.90) a day. The family

ADVOCATES of drastic cuts in carbondioxide emissions now speak a lot less than they once did about climate change.

FOR the better part of a decade, I have upset many climate activists by pointing out that there are far better ways to stop global warming than trying to persuade governments to force or bribe their citizens into slashing their reliance on fuels that emit carbon dioxide.

SINCE the Copenhagen climate summit

THOUSANDS of politicians, bureaucrats and environmental activists have arrived in Copenhagen for the COP15 global climate summit with all the bravado

MEDIA organisations in wealthy countries regularly send forth reporters to find

Our current approach to solving global warming will not work. It is flawed economically, because carbon taxes will cost a fortune and do little, and it is flawed politically, because negotiations to reduce CO2 emissions will become ever more fraught and divisive. And even if you disagree on both counts, the current approach is also flawed technologically.