The introduction of renewables auctions in Germany, replacing administratively set feed-in premiums, has led to considerably lower prices and very high realization rates. However, community participation was very low in the first solar PV auctions. Now a new rule favouring community projects in onshore wind auctions turned out to be so attractive that most bidders created community projects to profit from them. This is turning the market upside … [Read more...]
The geo-engineering taboo
A new book by David Hone, Chief Climate Change Adviser at Shell, takes the reader on a journey through the transition in the energy system that must be undertaken to address the climate change issue. The book, Putting the Genie Back: Solving the Climate and Energy Dilemma, deals with a wide range of topics, including carbon pricing, electric cars and solar power, and even ventures into areas such as the somewhat taboo subject of geo-engineering. … [Read more...]
Interview bio-energy expert AndrĂ© Faaij: “So much nonsense has been told – high time for the real story”
“An enormous amount of nonsense” has been told about bio-energy, says AndrĂ© Faaij, scientific director of Energy Academy Europe and professor Energy Systems Analysis at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. According to Faaij, it is high time for the real – scientifically validated – story. “The bio-based economy is indispensable for our climate policy and can mean huge progress for agriculture and nature in developing countries”. … [Read more...]
EU’s Mediterranean neighbours struggle with energy transition
Taking a cue from the EU, members of the Arab League have adopted renewable energy and energy efficiency plans and targets. But they lack incentives and a stable policy framework to drive growth. “There are local initiatives, but no process to underpin an energy transition”. … [Read more...]
To slow climate change, India joins the renewable energy revolution
India has embarked on a remarkable renewables revolution, made possible by falling prices of solar power, writes Arun Agrawal, Professor of Natural Resources and Environment at the University of Michigan. According to Agrawal, what is needed above all to make the energy transition succeed, is robust grids and careful land use planning. Courtesy The Conversation. … [Read more...]
Climate change (II): overcoming the difficulty of acting to reduce emissions
Why is the climate change problem so hard to fix, asks energy and climate change economist Adam Whitmore? In the second of a two-part series, he addresses the political, social and psychological barriers to action. But he also identifies a number of trends that give grounds for optimism. … [Read more...]
Climate change (I): How did we get here, and why is it so hard to fix?
Why is the climate change problem so hard to fix, asks energy and climate change economist Adam Whitmore? The answer in a nutshell: activities that cause emissions are ubiquitous, diverse and deeply embedded in modern life. The world’s energy system is huge and long-lived. In addition, there are considerable political and psychological barriers. Whitmore addresses both these aspects in a two-part series. … [Read more...]
The Petro-Powers vs. the Greens: is Trump launching a New World Order?Â
There may be more method behind Donald Trump’s madness than people think, writes energy expert and author Michael Klare. His attempts to forge alliances with Russia and Saudi Arabia show that Trump is laying the foundations for a new world order, in which fossil-fuel powers will contend for supremacy with post-carbon, green-energy states. If we let him get his way, warns Klare, the world may soon be divided into two camps: the carbonites versus … [Read more...]
Interview David Hone, Chief Climate Change Advisor Shell: “Net zero emissions are achievable. The timing is challenging”
EU climate and energy policy is “reasonably effective”, but it could achieve more for the climate if it focused purely on reducing CO2-emissions, says David Hone, Chief Climate Change Advisor at Shell, in an interview with Energy Post. “There are too many goals and too many targets.” Hone also argues that first generation biofuels are needed to make advanced biofuels work and that a “new approach” towards CCS is urgently needed. Globally, Hone … [Read more...]
Brussels should stick with its proposal to remove barriers to demand response schemes: the U.S. is doing the same
Energy suppliers are lobbying against a proposal from the European Commission to remove barriers to demand response schemes, writes Philip Baker, Senior Adviser at the Regulatory Assistance Project, an independent consultancy. According to Baker, the Commission should stick with its proposal. Demand response, he argues, will bring great savings to energy consumers. What is more, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in the United States … [Read more...]
UK Election 2017: What the manifestos say on energy and climate change
On 8 June, the UK will head to the polls for the third time in as many years. In an election dominated by Brexit, Carbon Brief tracks the climate change and energy content of parties’ manifestos, as they are launched. Courtesy Carbon Brief. … [Read more...]
Donald Trump shows us how disturbed our world has become
We owe Donald Trump a small bow of thanks and a genuine debt of gratitude, writes Tom Engelhardt, editor of Tomdispatch.com. According to Engelhardt, Trump is teaching us just "how deeply disturbed our American world actually is". A withering analysis of a leader "without fixed boundaries, definitions, or history, which is why nothing he says has real meaning. And yet he couldn’t be more meaningful.” Courtesy Tomdispatch.com. … [Read more...]
Forbidden questions: 24 key issues that neither the Washington elite nor the media consider worth their botherÂ
The truth may now “be more important than ever”, as the New York Times proclaims, but finding it requires looking in the right places and raising fundamental issues, writes historian and author Andrew J. Bacevich. According to Bacevich, the foreign policy debate in the U.S. consistenly avoids the questions that really matter. Courtesy TomDispatch.com. … [Read more...]
The US quitting the Paris climate deal will only make things worse
Some argue that the U.S. leaving Paris would be beneficial to global climate policy, others believe it would be harmful. In this article, Jonathan Pickering of the Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance at the University of Canberra argues that the US quitting Paris will make matters worse. In another article, Luke Kemp, Lecturer in International Relations and Environmental Policy at Australian National University, takes the … [Read more...]
The world would be better off if Trump withdraws from the Paris climate deal
Some argue that the U.S. leaving Paris would be beneficial to global climate policy, others believe it would be harmful. In this article, Luke Kemp, Lecturer in International Relations and Environmental Policy at Australian National University, argues the world would be better off if Trump withdraws from Paris. In another article, Jonathan Pickering of the Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance at the University of Canberra takes … [Read more...]
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