In a highly unusual move, the three leaders of the main UK political parties – Prime Minister David Cameron of the Conservatives, Nick Clegg of the Liberal Democrats and Ed Miliband of the opposition Labour party – have signed a joint pledge that they will work together across party lines to tackle climate change. Among other things, they have pledged to end the use of "unabated coal" for power generation. … [Read more...]
Archives for February 2015
North Americanism: the new Republican plan to colonize Mexico and Canada, take on Putin and wreck the climate
Republican leaders in the US have developed a geopolitical strategy, which, according to famous energy author Michael Klare, is “nothing less than a plan to convert Canada and Mexico into energy colonies of the United States, while creating a North American power bloc capable of aggressively taking on Russia, China and other foreign challengers”. He warns that this vision of a “North American energy fortress”, which Republican presidential … [Read more...]
viEUws VIDEO: Brussels Briefing on Energy – special on Energy Union
In this Brussels Briefing on Energy for viEUws.eu, Hughes Belin provides an overview of progress made on the EU’s Energy Union project, ahead of the formal launch of the Energy Union by the European Commission on 25 February. … [Read more...]
European demand for renewable energy surges in 2014
The European market for renewable energy, documented with Guarantees of Origin, increased by 26.5 % in 2014 compared to 2013. For the first time, the demand surpassed 300 TWh, according to statistics from the Association of Issuing Bodies (AIB). This is nearly one tenth of all electricity demand in Europe (ca. 3,300 TWh) and one third of all electricity from renewable sources in Europe (ca. 900 TWh). … [Read more...]
Nations really do go to war over oil
Politicians usually claim they wage war for "idealistic" reasons. Conspiracy theorists usually claim "it's all about the oil" (or other resources). As it turns out, they are more right than the politicians, according to new research that shows that military interventions often have a lot to do with oil. … [Read more...]
Vindication for Allan Hoffman: the US has turned the corner on renewables
It has been 37 years since Dr Allan Hoffman gave President Jimmy Carter the plan that could have started America’s renewable revolution. The idea was shelved after Reagan was elected. Hoffman waited, as administration after administration ignored the potential, until Barack Obama was elected. The retired senior Department of Energy executive views the growth of US renewables during 2014 as a vindication of what he and his colleagues saw decades … [Read more...]
viEUws VIDEO: “We need ILUC factors for biofuels”, says rapporteur Nils Torvalds
Nils Torvalds MEP (ALDE) - the European Parliament’s rapporteur on Indirect Land-Use Change (ILUC) – joins journalist Sonja van Renssen on viEUws.eu to discuss the future of biofuels. … [Read more...]
Global Calculator shows how the world can ‘prosper’ while tackling climate change
The world's population could live a prosperous, European-style lifestyle by 2050 at the same time as avoiding dangerous climate change, according to a new Global Calculator developed by the UK's Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC). Â Simon Evans tests the Calculator against scenarios of Shell and Friends of the Earth and comes to some surprising (or, perhaps not so surprising) conclusions. … [Read more...]
viEUws VIDEO: latest EU news on shale gas, biofuels, emission trading, climate change
In this Brussels Briefing on Environment for viEUws.eu, correspondent Sonja van Renssen provides an overview of the latest EU environment policy developments. … [Read more...]
FutureGen’s demise: another blow to CCS
The demise of the much-touted FutureGen 2.0 carbon capture and storage (CCS) project in Illinois is another blow to CCS. Bob Burton, editor of CoalSwarm and Director of the Sunrise Project in Australia, argues that the fate of FutureGen symptomizes the intractable problems faced by CCS everywhere. In Europe, four large utilities - Vattenfall, RWE, EDF and Gas Natural Fenosa, dropped out of the CCS-organisation Zero Emission Platform (ZEP). … [Read more...]
The Energy Union: “a holistic approach to the energy transition”
The EU’s great new project of an “Energy Union” will represent “for the first time a holistic approach to how we need to achieve the energy transition,” said the man in charge, Commissioner Maroš Ĺ efÄŤoviÄŤ, at a press conference in Brussels last week. His colleague, Climate and Energy Commissioner Miguel Arias Cañete, at a grand Energy Union in Riga on Friday, revealed a long list of actions to be subsumed under the Energy Union concept, but with … [Read more...]
Wood MacKenzie wonder: is solar the next shale?
“Just as shale extraction reconfigured oil and gas, no other technology is closer to transforming power markets than distributed and utility scale solar.” That is the main conclusion of a new report from energy consultants Wood MacKenzie. The report is significant as Wood MacKenzie has a solid reputation in the oil and gas sector. … [Read more...]
Six steps to prepare the European energy system for the future
The European energy system is feeling increasing strain from the effects of the energy transition. New regulatory and business models are urgently needed, in particular to cope with the increasing share of variable energy sources. Pieter Boot of the Netherlands Environment Assessment Agency (PBL) and Jacques de Jong of the Clingendael International Energy Programme (CIEP) offer six practical suggestions to prepare our energy system for a … [Read more...]
India’s energy and climate change challenge
The US and India have signed a deal to "enhance cooperation" on cutting emissions and investing in low carbon energy sources. The agreement is much weaker than the historic pact signed between the US and China last year. But there are a number of good reasons India is reluctant to take strong action to curb its emissions in the short term. Mat Hope of the Carbon Brief describes India's huge energy and climate challenge. … [Read more...]
A “J’Accuse” from an ex-EU official: only a real Energy Union can save the EU energy market
An “Energy Union” in Europe means that an EU-level organisation will balance the flows of electricity, not national transmission system operators. And it means the EU will ensure security of supply - not the national member states. That is the vision of Jean-Arnold Vinois, until recently Director in charge of the internal energy market at the European Commission and co-author of a groundbreaking report from Notre Europe (Jacques Delors Institute) … [Read more...]