The topic of ‘energy’ has gradually moved over the last decades to the very top of the international political agenda. Renewable energy, in particular, has received high attention as a potential ‘win-win’ option in both the environment and development arenas. Combined with growing attention, a rapid expansion and development of renewable technologies, finance possibilities, policies and targets is occurring. As a result, information and knowledge exchange about ongoing renewable energy development on national, regional and global scales is desirable for further advancement.

An international panel of scientists has found with near certainty that human activity is the cause of most of the temperature increases of recent decades, and warns that sea levels could conceivably rise by more than three feet by the end of the century if emissions continue at a runaway pace.

The scientists, whose findings are reported in a draft summary of the next big United Nations climate report, largely dismiss a recent slowdown in the pace of warming, which is often cited by climate change doubters, attributing it most likely to short-term factors.