About one-quarter of global emissions are, to varying degrees, covered by carbon pricing schemes. They’ve raised over $500bn from polluters to date. Andrew Reid at NorthStone Advisers, writing for IEEFA, summarises his report which says the annual amount raised, now almost $100bn, is set to increase with two-thirds of nations planning to use carbon pricing in their Nationally Defined Contributions. And the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism … [Read more...]
June deadline for EU nations’ NECPs: will this year’s plans show they’re taking the climate seriously?
On June 30th, EU Member States have to submit the final revision of their updated National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs) to the European Commission. NECPs specify their climate and energy targets and trajectories up to 2030, with an outlook to 2040 and the longer term. NECPs must also feature the policies and measures planned to achieve these targets, as well as their funding needs and sources. But, as Federico Mascolo at CAN Europe explains, … [Read more...]
To make Clean Industry stick, the United States needs new trade mechanisms
The industrial sector throughout the world needs to decarbonise. At the same time, no one country wants to incur the costs and risk losing market share to rivals who decarbonise slowly (or not at all!) Hence the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) that imposes costs on carbon-intense imports. This protects clean EU industries while incentivising importers to get going with decarbonisation or lose their European customers. Allegra Dawes … [Read more...]
EU Elections 2024: the Green Deal is being sidelined. What can be done?
In the run-up to the EU elections this June, Andrea Renda at CEPS, writing for IDDRI, says the Green Deal is being ousted from the public debate. Protests against important elements of the Green Deal – including environmental regulations, wind and solar farm installations, a ban on combustion engines – are being used by populists to scare mainstream politicians away from openly championing Europe’s green and clean energy ambitions. Proponents of … [Read more...]
Two years on, how is Russia’s invasion of Ukraine driving energy security and decarbonisation?
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has boosted anxiety and therefore action on energy security and dependence on oil and gas. Sanctioning Russian oil and gas imports is an opportunity to replace fossil fuels with low or no carbon alternatives, an opportunity that is being taken. And renewables like wind and solar are by their nature local and therefore good for energy security (though with notable exceptions). Charles Hendry, Ellen Wald, Olga Khakova, … [Read more...]
Iron Ore miners try different multi-billion strategies to lower emissions for Steel producers
2024 should see a further acceleration in steel’s transition away from coal, with increasing pressure on companies in the value chain to act on their Scope 3 (indirect) emissions, explains Simon Nicholas at IEEFA. Old coal-fired blast furnaces that use low-grade iron ore are already being replaced with the direct reduced iron (DRI) process in Europe and China. That means the “big four” iron ore miners have to ramp up production of high-grade iron … [Read more...]
Will EU decarbonisation policies shift the Fertiliser industry into making Ammonia for energy (but outside the EU)?
The EU’s fertiliser industry must face up to the region’s ambitious decarbonisation rules, making its carbon-intensive processes much more costly. But a door of opportunity is also being opened: the industry already produces ammonia which is increasingly being seen as an alternative clean fuel, explains Hyung-Ja de Zeeuw at Rabobank. The problem for EU nations is that it will be cheaper for the industry to relocate and make that ammonia somewhere … [Read more...]
Just Transition: UK’s Port Talbot steelworks are closing. What can be learnt from the Netherlands and Sweden?
A classic “just transition” story is being played out in the UK, a high income nation and Europe’s second biggest economy. Tata Steel plans to cut almost 3,000 jobs at the UK’s largest steelworks. The location, Port Talbot, is one of the most deprived places in the UK and the steelworks there are its largest private sector employer. Tata is under pressure to decarbonise its steel production, so will switch to an electric arc furnace that recycles … [Read more...]
Chemicals Industry needs Sustainable Feedstocks to complete their net-zero journey
The chemicals industry is crucial to decarbonisation because it’s a major supplier of products to other industries. Many are very high profile - such as automotive, construction, food, and personal-care – so scrutiny will be high. It’s why two-thirds of Europe’s largest chemical end users in Europe are committed to reducing greenhouse-gas emissions by 2030, and over a third have pledged net-zero targets by 2050. But although chemicals industry … [Read more...]
2023: a year of climate backlash? Or a show of Europe’s green resilience
Looking at the mainstream media 2023 seemed to be a year of climate backlash, but the real story was Europe’s green resilience, writes William Todts at T&E. Though support in the German coalition for 100% electric vehicles by 2035 started to unravel, it didn’t: allowing combustion cars to keep running after 2035 on 100% e-fuels should change little given there’s no way such vehicles, if they ever get built, could compete with EVs, says Todts. … [Read more...]
Buying carbon allowances while decarbonising: what’s the best strategy for an EU industrial firm?
EU industrial companies affected by the big changes to their carbon costs that come from the new EU ETS rules and the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) must create strategies to deal with them, if they haven’t started already. Otherwise they will fall behind those that have. Pablo Ruiz at Rabobank summarises their analyses and conclusions. Ruiz presents a map for each of the different starting positions. The study looks at the critical … [Read more...]
Five major outcomes from COP28 (and next year’s is in Azerbaijan, another oil and gas producer)
Mark Maslin, Priti Parikh and Simon Chin-Yee at UCL lay out the five major outcomes from the latest COP28 climate summit in the UAE, a major oil and gas producer. Though in the run up there was great hope for a new climate agreement on the phasing out of all fossil fuels, that never happened. Phase out turned into a “transition away from.” The authors note that the first ever mention of fossil fuels in an international climate agreement was only … [Read more...]
The E-bike revolution is already underway (in developing countries): 280m micro-vehicles on the road and rising
While we’re all still waiting for the tipping point for EVs, it might have already happened for e-bikes – just not in rich countries. Car-owning nations will always struggle to switch to micro-mobility. But in China and other developing nations, owning a moped or bicycle is very common, so the switch is much easier, explain Muhammad Rizwan Azhar and Waqas Uzair at Edith Cowan University. It’s why, globally by 2022, there were over 280m electric … [Read more...]
Most investors still aren’t factoring in climate risks. Oil and Gas firms face virtually no additional borrowing costs
Extreme weather events are becoming more frequent due to climate change. At the same time, global decarbonisation is changing the economics of the energy sector. Yet credit ratings agencies aren’t consistently factoring in the risk of climate-related change into borrowing costs, explains Matt Burke at the University of Oxford. For example, oil and gas firms are facing virtually no additional borrowing costs. It’s a similar story for governments … [Read more...]
Making Fuel Cells cheap enough for mainstream use: can Cobalt nanoparticles replace Platinum as catalysts?
Fuel cells could be a game-changer in decarbonisation. They efficiently convert chemical energy into electricity with only water and heat as byproducts. One of the most promising types is the PEMFC (polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell) because of its applications in transportation, as well as stationary power sources. But it can’t go mainstream until the costs come down, specifically the platinum catalysts. Platinum is scarce and expensive. … [Read more...]
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- Next Page »
![](https://energypost.eu/wp-content/themes/dynamik-gen/images/content-filler.png)