The implications of climate change targets not being met are massive migration, the potential for resource wars and “a further disintegrating of the international order”, according to Richard L. Morningstar, Founding Director and Chairman of the Global Energy Center and David Koranyi, Director of the Eurasian Energy Futures Initiative, both part of the Washington DC based think tank The Atlantic Council. Morningstar and Koranyi see a “direct … [Read more...]
Visions clash at World Energy Congress in Istanbul
The World Energy Council gave out a clear message at the World Energy Congress that took place this week in Istanbul: the world needs to move away from fossil fuels much faster than it is doing today. That contrasted sharply with the message given out by most of the high-level speakers from government and business at the Congress, who stressed that the world needs more oil and gas. Mohammad Barkindo, the new Secretary General of oil cartel OPEC … [Read more...]
Interview Spencer Dale, BP Group Chief Economist: “The energy transition could come faster than we think”
The energy industry faces uncertainties of daunting magnitude on many levels, says Spencer Dale, BP’s Group Chief Economist, in this exclusive interview: the pace of climate change policy, the growth of renewables, the apparent demise of coal, falling energy prices, the role of natural gas in the energy mix, and the likely impact of energy efficiency on demand growth. According to Dale, “it’s possible that we will see forces leading to a faster … [Read more...]
Chinese national oil companies: giants built on shaky foundations
Chinese state-owned enterprises, China’s national oil companies foremost among them, have incurred phenomenal debts – higher than the country’s total GDP. So far they have been bailed out by the government, but this just shifts the problem one level up,  to China Inc as a whole, writes geophysicist  (ex-Shell) Jilles van den Beukel. Van den Beukel explains how China’s national oil companies Sinopec, CNPC and CNOOC got into this fix and why the … [Read more...]
Success of EU foreign policy hinges on climate and energy security
Europe's global strategic interests have become inseparable from managing climate risk and the global energy transition, write Luca Bergamaschi, Nick Mabey, Jonathan Gaventa and Camilla Born of the independent climate and energy think tank E3G. In a new report, EU foreign policy in a changing climate, they set out how Europe can make these themes a central thread in its foreign policy. "The new energy economy is now at the heart of Europe’s … [Read more...]
A reality check on renewable energy potential
On a global level, the potential for renewable energy is more than sufficient, writes researcher Schalk Cloete. However, on a regional level, this is not the case, especially in developing Asia and Africa. Renewable energy technology forcing in these regions can have serious socio-economic consequences. … [Read more...]
Interview Sir John Scarlett, advisor Statoil, ex-head MI6: “The role of old-fashioned geopolitics will become less important in energy”
Thanks to new energy policies, technologies and market trends the potential to use energy for political purposes has decreased in recent years, says Sir John Scarlett, former Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service MI6 and now Chairman of the Strategy Advisory Council at Statoil, in an interview with Energy Post. At the same time he notes that instability in North Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe has grown and energy security should … [Read more...]
It will take more than a share in shale gas profits to sway public opinion on fracking
The UK government has proposed a scheme under which households in communities affected by shale gas production would be paid directly out of a Shale Wealth Fund financed by company revenues. Joseph Dutton, Research Fellow at the Energy Policy Group, University of Exeter, points out it is impossible to estimate how much they would get paid. According to Dutton, in the absence of a social license to operate, the promise of payments will do little … [Read more...]
Ukrainian crisis can be solved – with an Energiewende
A Ukrainian Energiewende could go a long way to resolving the current geopolitical crisis around the country, writes Oleg Savitsky of the National Ecological Centre of Ukraine in a new report for the Succow Stiftung. According to Savitsky, it would reduce Ukraine’s dependence on Russian gas and uranium as well as on coal from the breakaway regions, while at the same time reducing pollution, greenhouse gas emissions and the risk of a nuclear … [Read more...]
As Hinkley Point C put on ice: the UK needs to get over energy megaprojects
The UK needs to get over the idea that megaprojects are the solution to everything, writes David Elmes, Head of Warwick Business School Global Energy Research Network. As the traditional investors in British oil, gas and electricity look smaller and less able to take on large projects, the UK needs an industrial energy strategy centred on a mix of smaller and larger projects. Courtesy of The Conversation. … [Read more...]
Europe increasingly dependent on oil imports, above all from Russia
European dependence on oil imports has grown from 76% in 2000 to over 88% in 2014. The EU spends some €215 bn on oil imports, over 5 times as much as gas imports (€40 bn). Russia is the biggest supplier: dependence on Russia has grown from 22% in 2001 to 30% in 2015.  These are some of the main conclusions of a study from Cambridge Econometrics made for the Brussels-based NGO Transport & Environment (T&E). … [Read more...]
EUGAL: the unknown German branch of Nord Stream 2 will make Germany the key gas hub in Europe
Despite causing great controversy in the EU, plans to build the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline are steadily being implemented, write Agata Loskot-Strachota and Konrad Poplawski of the Centre for Eastern Studies (OSW) in Poland. What is more, in May preparations were started for a German land leg of Nord Stream 2: the EUGAL project, owned jointly by Gazprom and BASF/Wintershall. According to the authors, this huge pipeline will change the European gas … [Read more...]
Europe can retrieve its lost clean energy leadership by moving away from subsidizing renewables
Europe can win back its lost clean energy leadership by moving away from subsidy-powered renewables, writes Christopher Burghardt, Vice-President Business Development Europe at First Solar and a member of the Board of Directors of Solar Power Europe. Rather than subsidizing renewables, Burghardt argues, Europe should stimulate utility-scale energy production by independent power producers, just as other markets around the world are … [Read more...]
TTIP and energy security: do Europeans still want US LNG?
When TTIP talks were launched in 2013, Europeans were keen to tap into the United States oil and gas bonanza resulting from the country’s shale revolution to help reduce prices and shake off the continent’s too-heavy reliance on Russian hydrocarbons. But now US shale gas is arrriving in Europe, regardless of TTIP, writes Iana Dreyer, editor of Borderlex, an independent newsletter on EU trade policy. According to Dreyer, national politics in … [Read more...]
Interview Joan MacNaughton, World Energy Council: “Policy is key – you can’t allow a free for all”
Focused, well-designed energy policy in a robust regulatory environment is key to achieve energy security, sustainability and affordability. That’s the major conclusion from the 2016 World Energy Trilemma report of the World Energy Council, presented at the Clean Energy Ministerial in San Francisco on 1 June. According to Joan MacNaughton, Executive Chair of the study, “it’s still hard for most countries to balance all three aspects of the energy … [Read more...]
- « Previous Page
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- …
- 11
- Next Page »