Théo van der Vaeren

Interest in Belgium's energy transition & innovation, avocate of sustainable development, tweets are my own.

[Théo van der Vaeren @Theo_vdv]

@MLiebreich @PikettyWIL @CleaningUpPod I wish I could but I’m just a fan of your show. I found this new report spot on for an in-depth analysis of yet a new kind of climate reset based on global equality for all.

[Théo van der Vaeren @Theo_vdv]

I would love to have @MLiebreich hosting @PikettyWIL on @CleaningUpPod !!! Would be very nice episode 🤩

[Thomas Piketty @PikettyWIL]

The world today is characterized by large-scale inequalities. And a climate crisis is looming over us.

We urgently need a new vision for global progress in the 21st Century. One that grounds human development and equality in planetary habitability.

What would it take to achieve high prosperity and equality while remaining within planetary boundaries?

The World Inequality Lab is very excited to launch the #GlobalJusticeReport.
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[Thomas Piketty @PikettyWIL]

One week after the launch of the #GlobalJusticeReport, we've received a wide range of reactions. We're grateful for the many comments, critiques, and questions we've received so far, and we hope the discussions continue in the weeks ahead. We see the report as a contribution to a broader public debate.

Here are three common criticisms we'd like to address:

1) “The report proposes a radical de-growth agenda”
2) "The report uses an unrealistically pessimistic 4.5°C warming scenario."
3) "The report is a utopian dream."
🧵

[Matthew Todd 🌏🔥 @MrMatthewTodd]

Respectfully @rburgessbbc please can @bbcnews cover this?

https://t.co/YlCZAuKi8V

Please can the BBC tell the public that one of our leading climate scientists Prof @HayleyJFowler has warned the public that the U.K. could at any time see a catastrophic 2/3 of a years rainfall in one day, enough to drown the tube system and wash homes and cars away

[Théo van der Vaeren @Theo_vdv]

Belgium has to fix this before requesting people to shift to heat pump… so long overdue

[Gerard Govers @gerardgovers]

Komaf maken met die absurde prijsverhouding tussen gas en elektriciteit zou prioriteit n°1 moeten zijn als we de energietransitie willen versnellen.

[Chris Gloninger, CCM, CBM @ChrisGloninger]

James Hansen, the NASA scientist who first warned Congress about climate change in 1988, published a new paper this morning. His conclusion: 2026 is forecast to be the hottest year ever recorded in the entire history of instrumental temperature measurement. Not second hottest. The hottest. And he says 2027 will be hotter still, because the rate of global warming has literally doubled since 2015. The last time a monster El Niño hit the whole world simultaneously was 1877. Florence Nightingale wrote to the Lord Mayor of London calling it "the most hideous record of human suffering the world has ever seen." That was a natural event on a cooler planet with zero fossil fuel emissions baked into the baseline. We are not on that planet anymore.

#ClimateChange #GlobalWarming #ElNino #ClimateScience

[Tod Hale @todhale]

The AMOC will drastically slow in the coming decades and head to total collapse. The world changes for many thousands of years, our sliver of stable climate gone. Your grandkids will inherit chaos; you should be angry. Exxon knew, they all knew.

[Nicolas Fulghum @nicolasfulghum]

At a global level, renewables have overtaken coal power for the first time in 100 years.

The rise of solar and wind pushed renewables to 33.8% of global electricity generation.

Coal fell to 33.0% and made up less than a third of global generation for the first time in history.

[Prof Michael E. Mann @MichaelEMann]

AMOC collapse seems increasingly to be one of the more likely "tipping point" responses under continued warming:

[Prof. Stefan Rahmstorf 🌏 🦣 @rahmstorf]

New study: most climate models underestimate the decline of the Atlantic overturning circulation #AMOC. The AMOC is on course to slow by more than 50% by the end of the century.
Very likely the AMOC will then be past the tipping point for full shutdown. 😨
https://t.co/aFIA4KO6YJ

[Cleaning Up Podcast @CleaningUpPod]

Going net zero by 2050 will cost Belgium around 3.5% of GDP – roughly 0.1% of growth lost per year. Governor Pierre Wunsch of National Bank of Belgium breaks down the numbers with @MLiebreich on Cleaning Up. Out now: https://t.co/wmIFnLhCKR

[Give A Shit About Nature @giveashitnature]

A zoo in Belgium turned its parking lot into one of the largest solar power plants in the world.

Pairi Daiza, voted Europe's best zoo, covered 80% of its 7,000 parking spaces with 62,750 solar panels.

The installation produces 20 megawatts of peak power, which is more than the entire zoo consumes.

The surplus charges electric vehicles at onsite stations and sells the rest back to the grid.

It's the largest solar carport in the world, and it was built on land that was already paved, over cars that were already there. Nobody had to choose between wilderness and energy production.

Covering all existing US parking lots with solar panels could generate 1.7 trillion kilowatt-hours of electricity, which would power half the country.

Why aren't we funding this?

[Théo van der Vaeren @Theo_vdv]

If Iran were the EU, they'd call the Strait of Hormuz toll a 'Carbon Release Levy' of ~$2M per tanker, payment in Yuan only.
China would then mandate that every solar panel, EV and battery, it sells worldwide be bought in Yuan too.

Petrodollar? Dead.
Electro-Yuan? Born 🔥

[Gandalv @Microinteracti1]

Zelensky isn’t angry. He is patient in a way that makes it worse.
He is saying that Ukraine is now turning to the Middle East and the Gulf for what Europe has failed to deliver. Ballistic defense. Financing. The things Europe has had four years to coordinate and still cannot because Hungary sits in the room and nobody has figured out how to remove a hostile state from an alliance it is actively sabotaging.
Four years. That is how long the EU has been pissed on by Orban and responded by scheduling another meeting.
And now Zelensky is cutting deals with Gulf states based on shared drone warfare expertise. Ukraine teaches them how to survive modern aerial attack. They help fund Ukraine’s defense. A clean bilateral arrangement that bypasses the entire European bureaucratic apparatus completely.
If that deal gets done, it is the single most embarrassing indictment of EU foreign policy in the institution’s history. Not because Ukraine found partners elsewhere. Because it had to.
Europe built a system so paralyzed by its own consensus rules that a single pro-Kremlin government in Budapest can hold 400 million people hostage for four years while a democracy bleeds out on the continent’s eastern border.

The question is whether Europe is even embarrassed enough to notice.

Gandalv / @Microinteracti1

[Ember @ember_energy]

75% of the world lives in fossil fuel importing countries. Every $10 oil price rise adds $160bn/year to the global import bill.

The single biggest fix: EVs replacing imported oil in transport could save importers $600bn/year.

Read the report:
🔗https://t.co/oarHwiCSv9

[United Nations @UN]

Earth’s climate is more out of balance than ever.

The last 11 years have been the hottest on record, with oceans absorbing massive heat, ice melting & extreme weather impacting millions.

New @WMO's #StateOfClimate report calls for urgent #ClimateAction: https://t.co/VqHVx3Ozcy

[António Guterres @antonioguterres]

In this age of war our addiction to fossil fuels is destabilizing the climate, global economy & global security.

Now more than ever, we must accelerate a just transition to renewable energy.

Renewables deliver climate security, energy security & national security.

[Théo van der Vaeren @Theo_vdv]

@MichaelEWebber EU still looking how did the US do

[Théo van der Vaeren @Theo_vdv]

@WannesDemarcke Hoeveel kWp zonnepanelen en kWh batterij heeft u voor zo’n laag afname?

[Ursula von der Leyen @vonderleyen]

The political agreement reached on the 2040 climate target is great news.

One month after COP30 Europe matches words with deeds.

With a legally binding target of 90% emissions reduction by 2040.

And a pragmatic & flexible plan to make this transition our competitive advantage.