In the 30 years since the founding of EUROSOLAR, many extraordinary successes and advances in the proliferation of renewable energy have been made: the powerful feed-in tariffs; the rise of 100 % renewable buildings, communities and regions; the broad march of solar and wind into many countries’ power mixes; the revolution of national policies to embrace energy transitions; and the rise of renewable energy investment – which has long become the dominant mode in annual capital expenditures in new power generation capacity world-wide.

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Press release, Bonn 14 December 2015

Last Saturday the 'climate negotiating parties’ in Paris achieved consensus on a binding set of agreements aiming at a maximum of 1.5 to 2 degrees temperature increase as target range. This was stated with such confidence that one could forget for a moment that the Earth's atmosphere has no thermostat: No one can control or assure an outcome, certainly not with resolutions alone, nor when there is already a greenhouse gas concentration far too high for the kind of relative climatic stability that has made human evolution possible. Methane venting from melting permafrost and destroyed rain forests and moorlands adds to the still rising greenhouse-gas stream from the combustion of coal, oil and gas. A 1.5-2 degrees Celsius target without a firm limit on emissions and an unwavering and bold commitment to 100% renewables is impossible to achieve. The Paris pledges are likely to put us above 2, if not 4 or 5 degrees.

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The World Council for Renewable Energy (WCRE) endorses the action of more than 1000 people who protest against Europe's biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions, the Rhineland coald fields.

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Since this week Liechtenstein may officially call itself a Solar World Champion. Brigitte Schmidt, Preben Maegaard, Wolfgang Hein and Hans-Josef Fell from the Solar Super State Association awarded the country with the Solar Super State Prize in its capital Vaduz on 29 June 2015. With 481 watts of installed PV capacity per head, the country with only 36,000 inhabitants has passed Germany (473 Watt) in the rankings. Italy, Belgium and the Vatican City are positioned on the following ranks.

"It is crystal clear that we are nowhere near the goal of reaching a 100% solar super world”, explains Peter Droege, EUROSOLAR president and author of the model "Renewable Liechtenstein". The ranking of the Solar Super State Association lists all 197 states and their total production of solar and wind power. The large gaps in the ranking show the importance of the common struggle against the 'incumbent interests' of the fossil and nuclear industries and their political representatives.

A recent report from the Liechtensteiner Vaterland can be found here (in German language).