The EU is unlikely to change its commitment to 40% CO2-reduction by 2030, notes journalist Hughes Belin in this Vieuws video, in which he discusses the implications of the Paris climate agreement for the European energy sector. … [Read more...]
Buying Vattenfall’s lignite business could be a risky bet
Vattenfall is currently looking for a buyer for its German lignite assets. However, any potential investor faces a high risk that they will find themselves forced to wind down the business before earning back their investment, write Julian Schwartzkopff and Sabrina Schulz of international environmental organisation E3G. In this article, a shortened version of their new report Vattenfall’s Lignite Business – a Risky Bet for Investors, they explain … [Read more...]
Twilight of the Gods of Oil
For most of the past 40 years OPEC, the association of Big Oil exporters, and the Big International Oil Companies controlled our lives, but they have started on an inevitable decline, writes solar pioneer Peter F. Varadi. Competition from renewables and smaller players as well as tighter climate polices will make their business model obsolete. According to Varadi, their corporate culture makes it unlikely they will be able to adapt. … [Read more...]
Why the Paris climate deal is a win for energy companies
The historic climate deal signed in Paris on 12 December 2015 has been embraced by many campaigners as a turning point in the fight against climate change. But energy companies should also be rejoicing. The unanimously adopted agreement provides the certainty of a long-term goal with the flexibility of carbon markets, takes a significant step towards creating a global level playing field, and promises billions in new subsidies to drive business … [Read more...]
Paris emission cuts aren’t enough – we’ll have to put carbon back in the ground
With the Paris climate deal, the world has created the mother of all take-back schemes, writes Myles Allen, Professor of Geosystem Science at the University of Oxford. According to Allen, fossil fuel companies don’t necessarily have to stop producing CO2 – they just need to be required to ensure it doesn’t end up in the atmosphere. #takebackCO2 – start tweeting it now! Courtesy of The Conversation. … [Read more...]
Historic Paris climate pact – experts react
After two weeks of negotiations in Paris, the world’s nations have reached a global deal to tackle climate change (read the text here). The agreement commits 196 countries to help limit global warming to “well below 2℃ above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5℃”. In this article, experts associated with The Conversation react to the agreement. … [Read more...]
What Paris means for the energy sector: start of a whole new clean economy
As the UN climate talks in Paris are nearing completion, the implications for the energy sector are becoming clear. The 186 national action plans that will form the basis of an agreement really amount to clean energy investment plans, observers say. “A whole new economy will be created.” What this means for fossil fuels is uncertain. Although the term decarbonisation has been replaced by a much vaguer “emissions neutrality”, few believe that a 2 … [Read more...]
The electricity network is changing fast – here is where Australia is heading
The Australian electricity sector is changing extremely fast, writes Paul Graham, Chief Economist CSIRO Energy at CSIRO (the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation) in Australia. CSIRO Energy sees solar and storage costs still dropping rapidly. According to Graham, scenarios under which a third of people may be leaving the grid and 25-45% of electricity will be generated on-site are “plausible”. … [Read more...]
German grid operator can handle 70% wind, solar before storage needed
Reneweconomy.com The company responsible for more than one-third of Germany’s electricity grid says there is no issue absorbing high levels of variable renewable energy such as wind and solar, and grids could absorb up to 70 per cent penetration without the need for storage, writes Giles Parkinson of Reneweconomy.com. … [Read more...]
New: renewables can now play important role in industrial development
Thanks to massive cost reduction, renewable energy can now be used by developing countries in their industrial growth strategies, which was unthinkable until recently, writes John Mathews of Macquarie University in Australia in a new publication from UNIDO, "Promoting Climate Resilient Industry". Mathews notes that renewables can help countries expand manufacturing and create jobs, reduce local pollution, increase energy security and reduce … [Read more...]
COP21: a deal is in the making
As we enter the second week of the world’s make-or-break UN climate conference, the elements of a new global climate agreement are falling into place. It will provide energy companies the world over with the certainty of a long-term climate goal and of a push from governments to make them pay for their greenhouse gas emissions. But it will also recognise that the world has changed since the Kyoto Protocol and that emerging economies like China … [Read more...]
The Autowende has begun
In the next 60 months the automotive industry will see more change than in the last 60 years, writes entrepreneur Michiel Langezaal. He notes that Asian and US manufacturers are putting massive resources into developing batteries, electric drive trains and solar cells. Nothing like this is happening on a similar scale in Europe. European car and energy companies need to go all-out for the Autowende or Europe will miss out on the next trillion … [Read more...]
Apocalypse when?
Global warming is a slow-motion apocalypse that might end civilization as we know it, writes author Tom Engelhardt of Tomdispatch.com. According to Engelhardt, to prevent such an outcome, “successful negotiations in Paris can only be the start of something far more sweeping when it comes to the forms of energy we use and how we live on this planet” . … [Read more...]
Why corporate sustainability won’t solve climate change
In the run-up to the much-anticipated COP21 international climate summit in Paris, business leaders worldwide have shown substantial support for action on greenhouse gases, writes David L. Levy, Director of the Center for Sustainable Enterprise at the University of Massachusetts Boston. But according to Levy, voluntary corporate efforts won’t solve the climate problem. We need massive structural changes in our energy and transportation systems. … [Read more...]
Why Nordstream 2 risks failure
The Nordstream 2 gas pipeline that Gazprom and a number of major European energy companies, have agreed to build, faces formidable political, legal and economic obstacles that may make the project undeliverable, writes Alan Riley, professor at City Law School in London and nonresident Senior Fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Center. According to Riley, the overarching problem Gazprom and its partners Shell, Engie, Wintershall, OMV … [Read more...]
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