Iran is cautious about supporting Syria

Eyes on nuclear talks, Iran tempers support for Assad, Christian Science Monitor Iran is in a tough spot. It has a decades-long alliance with Syria to uphold, but is seeking to reengage with the US, which is considering strikes against Syria.

By Scott Peterson, Staff writer / August 30, 2013 As an American military strike looms over Syria, Iran is weighing its decades-long alliance with Syria against its own pledges to reengage with the US and the West over its nuclear program and other issues…… the newly elected government of President Hassan Rouhani has struck a far more moderate tone. As a victim of years of chemical weapon attacks during the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s – during which Syria was a lone supporter of Iran’s nascent revolutionary regime – Iranian officials have carefully condemned the use of chemical weapons in Syria by any side and urged a diplomatic solution.

“It is a complex process, but I think Iran can do this, keep [the Syria issue] away from its negotiation with the West and also the US on the nuclear file,” says an Iranian analyst in Tehran who asked not to be named…….

Rouhani’s test The Syria crisis is a first foreign policy test for Rouhani, the centrist cleric who won a surprise victory in mid-June elections and took office earlier this month promising to resolve tensions with the West and bring “more transparency” to stalled nuclear talks.

Noting Iran’s history of being targeted with chemical weapons, Rouhani tweeted this week: “Iran gives notice to [sic] international community to use all its might to prevent use of chemical weapons anywhere in the world, esp. in Syria.”……. http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2013/0830/Eyes-on-nuclear-talks-Iran-tempers-support-for-Assad

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Energy efficiency – theme for July 2019

Energy efficiency represents the single largest potential contributor to global emissions reduction, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA 2017). It should be a key part of the global energy strategy, for several reasons:

It could reduce global electric demand by more than 20 per cent, based on current rates in the U.S. power sector, while maintaining high levels of services such as heating and lighting.
It avoids the need for increased energy, capacity and grid services, making it the least expensive way to decarbonise at scale.
It can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by billions of tonnes.

A dramatic example of the power of energy efficiency is lighting. In 2017 the United States passed the milestone of 1 billion LED and CFL lights installed, avoiding 142 million tonnes a year of carbon dioxide emissions, at a cost of about $7 per ton of avoided carbon dioxide. In contrast, the cumulative installed capacity of rooftop solar reached 8,000 MW in 2017, saving 8 million tonnes a year of carbon dioxide, at a cost of $360 per ton. Lighting efficiency thus yielded almost 18 times the avoided carbon dioxide, at about 2 per cent the cost per ton of rooftop solar.

Google provides another example of the power of energy efficiency. Its data centers now use 50 per cent less energy than the average data center, according to the company. Google also developed an improved chip, the TPU, which performs 83 times better than standard CPUs. The new chip allowed Google to reduce power consumption at its data centers by a factor of 30—far exceeding the effect on Google’s carbon footprint of all of the company’s renewable energy purchases. ” – John Woolard, Eco Business, 10 June 2019

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