Paris’ public transport operator announced it has ordered up to 800 new electric buses for the capital city, replacing older diesel buses in the process.
With all the planned bans on petrol and diesel cars announced lately, we are starting to witness different levels of government and jurisdictions outdoing themselves. For example, Scotland announced a phase-out of new petrol and diesel cars by 2032 while the UK is aiming for 2040.
Now Paris announces that it is only going to allow electric cars as soon as 2030 ahead of France’s 2040 goal. Expand
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Paris, the city that pioneered the huge bike share Vélib’ system a decade ago and more recently began offering Small electric cars to rent via its Autolib’ program looks like it will begin offering an in-between electric scooter renting program operated by Cityscoot company. The company is said to offer 1000 of the quiet mopeds around Paris available to anyone over 20 with a moped license… Expand
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With the Paris climate talks taking place this week, I thought it fitting to share an idea I came up with a few years ago while visiting the French capital. ‘Moulin Eiffel’ is taking the 130-year old Eiffel Tower, the iconic symbol of Paris, and outfitting it with a vertical axis wind turbine. The idea is that the tower seen around the whole world would genuinely (not BS) become energy neutral and a symbol for a sustainable energy future.
I had originally considered the option of placing a traditional “windmill” on top of the tower like you increasingly see in farms around the world, but with all of the equipment located up there already plus factoring changing wind patterns and the all important aesthetics, the vertical model works the best. This is how:
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On the margins of the UN conference on climate change in Paris, Elon Musk was at the Pantheon-Sorbonne University yesterday for a talk about what can be done to curb CO2 emissions, which he followed with a Q&A with students.
The main point Musk was trying to make during the talk was that the fundamental problem with carbon emission is that companies are currently incentivized to use fossil fuels rather than sustainable energy. He argued that to end the incentives, you need to attach a price to carbon emissions, and the best way to that is to introduce a carbon tax. Expand
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A group of activists called “Brandalism” installed hundreds of “fake ads” in Paris to protest against corporate greenwashing. The action is taking place during the climate talks in the French capital, which are being held at an airport and sponsored by an airline as well as energy companies, car manufacturers and banks. Expand
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Sky News staged a race between Nissan’s battery-powered LEAF and Hyundai’s hydrogen fuel cell ix35 SUV. The race started at Sky’s studios in London and the finish line was in Paris for the COP21 Conference. Spoiler alert: the ix35 won.
The 270-mile journey was well within the 369-mile range of the ix35, but with the LEAF’s 84-mile range, it needed to stop to charge its 24 kWh battery pack. Expand
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