Green Options

The French government announced today that it has earmarked a massive €400 million ($549 million) in state support for the development of electric and hybrid cars.

High-performance diesel engines, BluePerformance, and a hybrid oh my!  BMW is set to roll out the green at the Paris Auto show this year.  As the European Union tightens its emissions restrictions, everyone is expected to do their share to help clean up.

Unique, clever and straight-forward engineering has resulted in three Volvo models ready for the road.

These fuel-sipping marvels feature a 1.6 litre diesel engine along with aerodynamicly reduced air resistance, new Michelin tires that lower rolling resistance, and the new European cyclGearbox with altered ratios for third, fourth and fifth gears.  Volvo says the new gearbox configuration alone results in a 1.5% reduction in fuel consumption without affecting the driveability of the car.

Peugeot has announced plans to debut an all-new performance hybrid concept at the Paris motor show in October. According to the French manufacturer, the car, known for now as the RC Clubs, (but whose final name will be confirmed at the show), will be a four-door, four seat GT Coupe with “highly innovative hybrid architecture.”

Peugeot claim that the car boasts 313bhp, with combined CO2 emissions of 109g/km. If true, this would make the RC Clubs easily the most powerful model in production by the French outfit, yet also one of the greenest. Moreover, when running at low speeds, the RC will be powered solely by an electric motor, meaning zero emissions at source, much the same as the Toyota Prius and the Honda Civic Hybrid.

When you think of Americans who have done a lot for Climate Change, current president George W. Bush doesn’t spring to mind. The guy he beat for the current spot, Al Gore, definitely springs to mind; I like to think of GBW as the anti-Gore.

Over the past week rumors and rumblings about a climate plan underway in the current and fading Whitehouse have emerged. Thankfully, it all seems a bit “disappointing.”

Seventeen nations have come together in Paris for two days in the latest round of climate warming talks, under the heading of the Major Emitters Meeting. The South African delegation was the one to label Bush’s proposals – to halt a rise in U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 2025 – as disappointing. “There is no way whatever that we can agree to what the U.S. is proposing,” South African Environmental Affairs Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk said in a statement.

The stage was set with a single podium, and beside it were two flags. The first flag was colored red white and blue, no stars and stripes, but three bands of red white and blue. The second flag was blue, and in its center was a circle of yellow stars. The keynote speaker stepped up to the mike. He was there to present a revolution. "A revolution in our way of thinking and in

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The French postal service (La Poste) has ordered up 10,000 electric delivery vehicles.

La Poste will phase in the electric vehicles over a five year period and will get their first shipment of 500 in 2008. They've been testing eight electric models in Paris and in Bordeaux since 2005 (which must have gone really well considering the order). Manufacturers expected to bid on the request include French transport groups

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