Is the $100bn a year promised by rich nations to developing ones to assist their climate mitigation plans enough? Almost certainly not, explains Mahlet Eyassu Melkie at Rocky Mountain Institute. That number was pretty much plucked out of the air for political reasons. To come to an evidence-based number, a great deal of assessment, analysis and finally agreement is needed internationally. That process is called the New Collective Quantified Goal … [Read more...]
Implementing Poland’s national Recovery and Resilience Plan
How should Poland implement its national Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP)? Sonia Buchholtz at Forum Energii outlines some important answers. First, a deep analysis of the challenges and assessment of the solutions and reforms must start now. Buchholtz says though the directions set out in the RRP are correct, the details are out-of-date. Policy reforms and more ambitious targets are needed in all the main areas: energy efficiency and heating; … [Read more...]
How the U.S. can meet its target of halving emissions by 2030
Writing for Carbon Brief, John Bistline at the Electric Power Research Institute summarises his co-authored paper “Actions for reducing US emissions at least 50% by 2030”, the target set by the Biden administration. The paper provides detailed projections and actionable insights about the policies and technology deployment needed to achieve this near-term climate goal. Roughly 70-90% of emissions reductions by 2030 must come from the power and … [Read more...]
Net-zero targets delayed by fossil fuel investors suing governments
As nations try to phase out fossil fuels, companies are suing them for compensation. Rachel Thrasher at Boston University, Blake Simmons at Colorado State University and Kyla Tienhaara at Queen's University (Ontario) summarise their latest study of the scale of the payouts. The cases are based on treaties – the Energy Charter Treaty being the most significant - that allow investors to sue governments when policy changes overturn their … [Read more...]
“Options to Reform the EU ETS”: coping with price volatility and speculation (event summary)
Sara Stefanini provides a written summary of our panel discussion held on 31st March 2022, “Options to Reform the EU ETS”. It’s a full summary of the 90 minute discussion (with a link to the video), but it begins conveniently with a summary of the highlights, leading with the role of financial players, who they are, the causes of price volatility, what reforms can create stability, and the cost of decarbonisation. The main concern is speculation … [Read more...]
Energy Charter Treaty: four ways to amend it and enable green investments
The European Green Deal (EGD) aims to mobilise at least €1 trillion in sustainable investments over the next decade. But the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) in its current form - designed to protect cross-border investments, enabling those whose energy projects have been shut down to sue nations – is causing fierce debate. The ECT protects all investment alike, but the result has been fossil (and nuclear) investors suing nations that have curtailed … [Read more...]
Russia-Ukraine crisis: reforming the EU ETS is a matter of energy security, says PGE
European leaders are now rushing to make decisions on how to drastically cut dependence on Russian fossil energy imports. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has exposed Europe’s energy security vulnerabilities like nothing else could have. It also means Europe’s clean energy transition will need an overhaul, and a newly designed optimal pathway created, and fast. Wojciech DÄ…browski, President at PGE Polska Grupa Energetyczna, explains that it must also … [Read more...]
Reducing Europe’s dependence on Russian Oil and Gas: immediate, short and long term strategy
Atlantic Council Global Energy Center experts and associates offer their template for drastically reducing Europe’s dependence on Russian oil and gas. It’s broken down into immediate, short (one to three years) and long term (beyond three years) actions. It’s wide-ranging and comprehensive. Some actions are already in play, including maximising gas storage, ready for next winter. Some are the ramping up of existing plans (clean energy, … [Read more...]
IPCC Report on Adaptation: a rapidly closing policy window for climate change action
We do not know how successful we will be at cutting emissions. So “adaptation” is how we change our behaviour, economies, infrastructure and planning to cope with the consequences of climate change. The IPCC’s 6th and latest report looks at the scientific evidence of climate risk and the adaptation solutions being pursued around the world. Alexandre Magnan at IDDRI summarises the findings. It says that by 2100 climate risk will increase two- to … [Read more...]
Open-source modelling for the energy transition and climate change
Modelling tools are becoming increasingly important to policy makers for creating transition pathways. More detail is required as the pace of change accelerates. Yet complexity is increasing as new technologies and solutions come online. And those models are needed at the local level, not just the national and global. It’s why the EU is funding, through Horizon 2020, a range of projects to not only make those tools a success, but make them freely … [Read more...]
What’s your average lifetime CO2 footprint by year of birth, to achieve net-zero by 2050?
To reach net zero by 2050, babies born today must have CO2 footprints ten times smaller over their lifetimes than their parents and grandparents. In rich countries it’ll be fifteen times, while in emerging economies like India and China it’ll be around four times smaller. Laura Cozzi, Olivia Chen and Hyeji Kim at the IEA summarise how they have calculated the average allowable lifetime CO2 footprint by year of birth. Taking the two extremes, the … [Read more...]
District Heating Roundtable: Policy across RED, EED and EPBD “must take account of conditions in all Member States”
Sara Stefanini provides a written summary of our panel discussion held on 10th February: District Heating under the "Fit for 55" package: challenges and opportunities. Under the “Fit for 55” package, the EC proposed several regulatory changes that, combined, are meant to decarbonise district heating in Europe. But are these options workable for all? The participants raise questions over the support for district heating, whether the multiple … [Read more...]
Critical Raw Materials for the energy transition: Europe must start mining again
A ramp up of the supply of critical raw materials (CRMs) is essential for the world’s energy transition. Wind and solar, batteries, digitalisation, transport and hydrogen cannot meet their targets without it. The EU defines 30 minerals as critical. To give one example, the global deficits in lithium supplies could surge more than 60-fold to 950,000 tons by 2030. Frank Umbach at EUCERS takes a thorough look at the issue. Europe represented just 5% … [Read more...]
Can Carbon Offset loopholes be fixed with better evaluation and rules?
Carbon offset programmes rightly get a lot of criticism. There’s plenty of evidence of offsets not delivering all the GHG emissions reductions they are credited for. Though still on the international agenda, should they be ditched? Or can they be improved with better analysis and evaluation, and making that a pre-condition for creating carbon offset credits, asks Meredith Fowlie at the Energy Institute at Haas. She starts by looking at those … [Read more...]
Net-Zero world: calculating the cost of stranded assets, including wrong-skilled “human capital”
Most calculations of the costs of stranded assets abandoned and replaced by the net-zero economy have been missing the biggest element: human capital. It’s not sufficient just to total up the assets and supporting infrastructure for coal, gas, old-style buildings, machines, vehicles, etc., says Dan Chester at Lancaster University and co-author of the paper “Stranded Human and Produced Capital in a Net-Zero Transition”. Worker output is not only … [Read more...]
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