The IEA has released the 143-page “Renewables 2023”, the latest edition of its annual report on the sector. The world added 50% more renewable capacity in 2023 than in 2022 and the next 5 years will see fastest growth yet. Under current policies and market conditions, global renewable capacity is already on course to increase by two-and-a-half times by 2030: great news but still short of the tripling we need. A key reason for the gap is the lack … [Read more...]
EU Elections 2024: the Green Deal can be an emblem of what Europe is for
It’s a European election year, which means all of us - not just the politicians and policy-makers – need to get our heads around what the EU is for. SĂ©bastien Treyer at the IDDRI lays out the challenges faced in a moment of climate crises, war and high inflation, when voters are prone to polarisation and manipulation. He asks the difficult questions over economic security, inequalities between Member States, global influence, engagement with … [Read more...]
16 innovative firms driving Aviation’s transition to net-zero
The Sustainable Aviation Challenge has identified 16 innovative firms that can accelerate the development and adoption of sustainable aviation fuel and other propulsion solutions. Aviation accounts for 2% of global emissions and, so long as lightweight compact clean aviation fuels are unavailable, this number is likely to increase along with air travel projections. Gianluca Gygax at the World Economic Forum lists the 16 firms, who will now be … [Read more...]
Chemicals Industry needs Sustainable Feedstocks to complete their net-zero journey
The chemicals industry is crucial to decarbonisation because it’s a major supplier of products to other industries. Many are very high profile - such as automotive, construction, food, and personal-care – so scrutiny will be high. It’s why two-thirds of Europe’s largest chemical end users in Europe are committed to reducing greenhouse-gas emissions by 2030, and over a third have pledged net-zero targets by 2050. But although chemicals industry … [Read more...]
2023: a year of climate backlash? Or a show of Europe’s green resilience
Looking at the mainstream media 2023 seemed to be a year of climate backlash, but the real story was Europe’s green resilience, writes William Todts at T&E. Though support in the German coalition for 100% electric vehicles by 2035 started to unravel, it didn’t: allowing combustion cars to keep running after 2035 on 100% e-fuels should change little given there’s no way such vehicles, if they ever get built, could compete with EVs, says Todts. … [Read more...]
Buying carbon allowances while decarbonising: what’s the best strategy for an EU industrial firm?
EU industrial companies affected by the big changes to their carbon costs that come from the new EU ETS rules and the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) must create strategies to deal with them, if they haven’t started already. Otherwise they will fall behind those that have. Pablo Ruiz at Rabobank summarises their analyses and conclusions. Ruiz presents a map for each of the different starting positions. The study looks at the critical … [Read more...]
Can the EU and US end their dependence on Russia’s nuclear energy industry?
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine resulted in the EU and the US quickly imposing sanctions on imports of Russian oil and gas. But sanctions on Russia’s nuclear exports have been far lighter because alternatives are hard to find. Ihor Moshenets at the Central European University takes a deep dive into the current situation. He takes a close look at the EU and the US’s actual level of dependence, as well as moves by both to develop and enlarge their own … [Read more...]
Clean energy forecast map tells firms where to build their facilities to minimise emissions
For companies that are serious about their net-zero targets, where you run a facility affects your results. Building a new facility in a region where renewables are ramping up will keep your emissions low. Connor O'Neil at NREL explains how analysts there, in partnership with Amazon, are building out datasets that take a forward look at where clean energy is growing. The “Cambium” data sets contain modelled hourly emission, cost, and operational … [Read more...]
China didn’t sign the global pledge to triple Renewables and double Efficiency. Why?
Announced at COP28, a total of 123 countries committed to tripling renewable power capacity and doubling energy efficiency by 2030. China didn’t. Why? Quoting experts, Lin Zi at China Dialogue explains that the bundling together of the two targets is the problem. Tripling renewables is very achievable; in fact China may well exceed that target. But reducing energy intensity is not easy, even though China has a good record: among the G20 members, … [Read more...]
Global inflation: high borrowing costs threaten the continued growth in Renewables. What must be done?
Over the last decade, investors and governments got used to two supportive trends: relatively cheap capital from low interest rates, and steadily falling costs. However, this changed as the world emerged from the Covid pandemic and into the global energy crisis. In a new era of high interest rates, the impressive growth in renewables deployment is under threat, explain Tim Gould, David Fischer, Paolo Frankl and Heymi Bahar at the IEA. Renewables … [Read more...]
Scaling Hydrogen financing in Emerging Markets and Developing Countries
To meet the global target for clean hydrogen of 10-15% of energy use by 2050 we need to produce 40m tonnes by 2030. The rich OECD countries simply do not have the renewables resources to do it alone. So there must be a global effort to actively support hydrogen production in Emerging Markets and Developing Countries (EMDCs), explain Carolina Lopez Rocha and Dolf Gielen at the World Bank Group and Ignacio de Calonje at the IFC. They summarise the … [Read more...]
Building and financing the expansion of Europe’s electrical interconnection market
In the first of a series of four articles covering the expanding market for electrical interconnections in Europe, Jean-Baptiste Vaujour at the Emlyon Business School sets the scene by presenting the main points and current developments around the difficulties of building and financing these assets. Interconnectors allow power to be sent across borders to meet the shortfall where supply is not meeting demand. For example, European electricity … [Read more...]
Fuel Cells and Electrolysis: nanoparticle catalyst electrodes can advance clean power and Hydrogen production
Fuel and electrolysis cells both involve electrochemical reactions (one is the reverse of the other), and their efficiency depends on the catalysts used on the electrodes. Conventional metal catalysts coarsen at high temperatures, reducing activity and durability. Elizabeth Thomson at MIT describes new research there that uses ion irradiation to precipitating metal nanoparticles onto the surface of the electrode. The process allows close control … [Read more...]
Another good year for Renewables. But can we triple Wind and Solar by 2030?
COP28 saw a calling for a tripling of renewable capacities by 2030, off the back of positive signs. In 2022, 80% of incremental power demand and 12% of electricity generated worldwide came from solar and wind. And the IEA believes solar generation can grow at 25% to 2030. But, as Ramnath Iyer at IEEFA explains, specific challenges must be met to ramp up successfully. The non-financial barriers include a lack of policy clarity, permitting, and … [Read more...]
Four net-zero opportunities for 2024: wind, solar, lab-grown meat, positive tipping points
Will de Freitas at The Conversation draws attention to four reasons to celebrate 2023 and their implications for our drive to tackle climate change. Most will be familiar with the continued progress made with wind and solar, though they deserve repeating given its immense significance. Wind turbines now stand more than a quarter of a kilometre high, and will get taller. At that size, one turn of the blade will power an average home in the … [Read more...]
- « Previous Page
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- …
- 193
- Next Page »