The European Commission has proposed changing the Gas Market Directive to include import pipelines from third countries. This would make EU regulations, such as unbundling and third-party access rules, applicable to Nord Stream 2. According to Severin Fischer, Senior Researcher at the Center for Security Studies (CSS) at ETH Zurich, the Commission’s approach to Gazprom’s pipeline project risks getting lost in legal inconsistencies. Fischer … [Read more...]
Archives for November 2017
It is time for the UN climate process to tackle fossil fuels
The word “fossil fuels” does not appear in the Paris Climate Agreement, write Georgia Piggot and Peter Erickson of the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI). They call on leaders to start addressing not just greenhouse gas emissions, but coal, oil and gas production as well. Courtesy Climate Home News. … [Read more...]
What climate change policy puts America first?
The Trump Administration has ordered federal agencies to use a “social cost of carbon” that only takes into account domestic consequences of climate change, writes Meredith Fowlie, Assistant Professor of Agriculture and Resource Economics at the University of California at Berkeley. That translates into a cost of $1-$6 per ton, instead of the $45 per ton that was under the Obama Administration. Fowlie explains the reasoning behind the policy … [Read more...]
Wind, solar costs continue to fall and fossil fuels can’t stop them
The latest update for energy technology costs put together by global investment bank Lazard has been released and shows a growing advantage for wind and solar technologies over fossil fuels such as coal, gas and nuclear, writes Giles Parkinson of Reneweconomy.com. Original post. … [Read more...]
Is the Paris climate deal legally binding or not?
“Like hell it’s non-binding,” Donald Trump has said of the 2015 UN deal to cut carbon pollution. Is he right, ask Timmons Roberts and Angelica Arellano? The answer is not black or white. Article courtesy Climate Home News. … [Read more...]
Five things that should happen at the Bonn climate talks but probably won’t
If the Paris agreement is to be anything other than a farce, there are five things that should happen at the climate convention that has just started in Bonn, write Matthew Paterson and Marc Hudson of the University of Manchester. Chances are, however, that they won’t. Courtesy The Conversation. … [Read more...]
How Romania can become a key player in the European gas market
Romania has the third largest natural gas reserves within the European Union (EU) and new reserves are still being discovered. With domestic gas production within the EU declining, the country could play an important role in the regional market. But for this to happen, interconnections need to be expanded and the liberalization of the market needs to be completed, write Ramona Visenescu and Henry Bartelet of the independent international think … [Read more...]
Value-added electricity services: who should supply them and how?
Berkeley Lab has released a new report that discusses who should supply the new value-added services that are emerging in the electricity market - and what policies and regulations are needed to nurture this new market. The report applies to the U.S., but includes lots of lessons for Europe as well.  … [Read more...]
US shale oil: the limits to growth
With technological progress slowing down and financiers becoming more reluctant to invest, estimates of future US shale oil production are becoming more conservative, writes geophysicist Jilles van den Beukel. By the early 2020s, the ability of US shale oil to provide a ceiling on oil prices will be significantly diminished. … [Read more...]
World greenhouse gas levels make unprecedented leap
Global average carbon dioxide concentrations rose by 0.8% during 2016, the largest annual increase ever observed, write researchers Paul Fraser, Paul Krummel and Zoe Loh of Australia’s national science agency CSIRO. Courtesy The Conversation. … [Read more...]
Shell, BP climate disclosures ‘just a marketing tool’, says ShareAction
Two years after BP and Shell shareholders resoundingly passed resolutions requiring the oil majors to factor climate change risks into their corporate strategy and accounting, the two companies are disclosing no more than bare minimum, a new report from a U.K.-based NGO has found. Article by Kyla Mandel of DeSmog. … [Read more...]