Stark predictions around the unprecedented economic challenges facing Europe (and the world) are starting to take shape. The possible solutions must keep pace with them. Here, Marc-Antoine Eyl-Mazzega at the IFRI Centre for Energy & Climate lays out those challenges and robust policy answers that can keep us on a net-zero emissions track while stimulating economies, creating jobs, and maintaining social justice. Itâs no surprise that there is … [Read more...]
Designing the Covid-19 stimulus: what the 2008 crisis can teach us
Policy makers around the world are hearing a lot of advice on how to design their stimulus packages. This comes from the IEA where Fatih Birol lays out five fundamental lessons we can learn from the stimulus packages that came out of the 2008 global financial crisis. His main headings are: Build on what you already have â and think big (e.g. feed-in tariffs, production tax credits); Choose technologies that are ready for the big time (e.g. wind, … [Read more...]
How do we accelerate EU decarbonisation now?
The economic stimulus needed to overcome the current pandemic requires significant resources. But it comes at a time when we need to accelerate the energy transition, which is currently part of the European Green Deal and will also require an increase in resources. Andrei Marcu at ERCSTÂ examines how the transition will be funded, what are the sources of funding and how they relate to and will be impacted by the current health situation. A range … [Read more...]
Coronavirus: economic stimulus plans open a door for clean energy
Weâre facing an unexpected global economic slump thanks to the coronavirus sweeping across the world. In response, governments everywhere are tabling stimulus packages to get us through what is a temporary but severe drop in economic activity. That stimulus could be used, as it usually is, to get us back on the same path. But it should be used to steer us further and faster onto the new path of clean energy, says Fatih Birol, Executive Director … [Read more...]
Defining green investments, ending greenwash: the EUâs new Taxonomy Regulation
When the EU Commissionâs new Taxonomy Regulation is approved, expected in March, it will provide the legal framework to define what is a truly âgreenâ investment. As Luca Bonaccorsi at Transport & Environment explains, right now asset managers and national authorities are free to define what is green, allowing some to greenwash investments in things like oil and pesticides. The Taxonomy's purpose is to reduce ambiguity and therefore increase … [Read more...]
The cost of climate inaction: putting a $ price on 4.5°C warming
Oriana Tannenbaum and Rushad Nanavatty at Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) have gathered data that puts a price on not making the necessary investments in tackling climate change. For the U.S., a 4.5°C warming scenario (by 2050) will cost $5.2tn. At a more drastic 6°C the cost is $17tn. These projections are hard to do when treating the climate as an âinfrastructure assetâ, though proven methodologies do exist for tradition assets, and the authors … [Read more...]
$7tn investor BlackRock announces Coal divestment, but not across all funds
BlackRockâs decision to divest from coal, as the world's largest asset manager with a long shareholder history of voting against climate action, sends a powerful signal. By mid-2020 BlackRockâs $1.8tn of actively managed funds will divest from any firm generating more than 25% of revenue from thermal coal. Further reviews of sectors heavily reliant on thermal coal will also take place. Tim Buckley, Tom Sanzillo and Melissa Brown at IEEFA welcome … [Read more...]
DNV-GL: energyâs shrinking share of growing global GDP shows how we can afford Transition
At the current rate of progress higher energy efficiency, more renewables, and carbon capture will not be enough to keep the global temperature rise to well below 2°C. So to point the way, DNV-GL has condensed its Energy Transition Outlook 2019 into 10 ways technology can meet the COP21 targets. This article gives figures on how much solar and wind we really need, battery production, annual investment in grids, and energy efficiency. It further … [Read more...]
Non-energy firms lead investments in clean energy start-ups
Investments in innovative âblue skyâ companies tell us where the bets are being placed on the energy sectorâs future. Such investments leaped in 2016, mostly directed at clean energy technology. This analysis by Simon Bennett at the IEA usefully includes a long list of firms and their investments. Digital sensors, batteries, electric vehicles and smart algorithms are among the main recipients this year. Other fascinating categories include … [Read more...]
Private finance must invest in carbon asset retirement, not just clean energy
The Climate Finance Leadership Initiative (CFLI) is laying out concrete plans for the private sector to finance the low-carbon transition, say Tyeler Matsuo and Lucy Kessler of Rocky Mountain Institute. One important insight of their new report âFinancing the Low-Carbon Futureâ is that itâs not enough to back clean energy. Climate finance also needs to accelerate the retirement and transformation of the carbon assets that are responsible for 78% … [Read more...]
IEA: Big energy firms cannot ignore the Transition
Alessandro Blasi and Alberto Toril of the IEA look at how oil and gas majors are still investing very little - of the order of a single percentage point - in clean energy projects. What they are doing in response to new anti-fossil climate policies is increasing investment in short cycle projects that generate cash and returns quickly, minimising risk. This is a questionable strategy, given the fundamental shift away from thermal power and fossil … [Read more...]
New EU green investment rules to make conservative German savers bite
Germanyâs past renewables successes have been underpinned by government and public funds and guarantees. Its future will depend more and more on private investment, which means citizens and small investors must opt to put their money into green investments and take on risk. The good news is that surveys show citizens are very willing. The bad news is that few are actually doing it. Is it because the banks arenât promoting sustainable investments, … [Read more...]
2018 investment in renewables 12% down on 2017
At $272.9bn, 2018 investment in renewables capacity was 12% down on the previous year. Despite this, renewablesâ investment was three times the total for coal and gas-fired generation capacity combined in 2018. Over the last decade, $2.6tn was invested in renewables (half going to solar), quadrupling capacity to 1,650GW. Consequently, renewablesâ share of electricity generation reached 12.9%, up from 11.6% in 2017. This avoided an estimated 2bn … [Read more...]
Member States must decide: cash for climate or cash for carbon?
Over 3 billion euros of EU money meant for Europeâs poorer regions could be up for grabs by the fossil fuel industry if EU Member States do not change their current position on 25 June. The funding, which is part of the 374 billion Euro âCohesion Policyâ pot, was - in the European Commissionâs proposal - meant to go to sustainable economic activities. Yet if EU Member States get their way, a significant portion of the funding would be made … [Read more...]
Coal exit: top Asian banks join Europe, U.S.
Around the world, cheaper renewables, improved technology, and risks over reputation, financial performance and the environment are driving finance away from coal. In the early days it sometimes looked like âgreenwashâ, but over time commitments have ratcheted up to make it a reality. Europe and the U.S. have already made a good start, and Asia is now catching up. As renewables get cheaper nobody wants to be left holding billions in stranded … [Read more...]