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Energy Post

The best thinkers on energy

“Options to Reform the EU ETS”: coping with price volatility and speculation (event summary)

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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...]

Aviation, Steel, Shipping CEOs ask COP26 to back their decarbonisation pathways

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The seven “hardest to abate” industries together account for 30% of global greenhouse gas emissions. They are aviation, steel, shipping, cement, aluminium, trucking and chemicals. John Matson at RMI explains how a growing number of sector-leading corporates in aviation, steel and shipping are now openly backing net-zero pathways. He quotes CEOs and top executives (ArcelorMittal, United Airlines, Trafigura) on what they say they are determined to … [Read more...]

China: decoupling GDP growth from rising emissions

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To set up this week’s important online event (Tuesday 13th & Wednesday 14th April) “China: Carbon Neutral by 2060 -EFFICIENCY FIRST” we have an overview of China’s energy transition. Everyone agrees its performance is critical for the world to achieve the global goal of limiting warming to 1.5C by 2050. China made significant progress in 2020 with policy frameworks, renewable capacity additions and EVs, but it also added 38 GW of new … [Read more...]

An EU ETS that lifts carbon prices too high can make clean energy transitions harder

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This coming Friday 19th March, 11.00 to 12.30 CET, we have an online panel discussion plus audience Q&A on "The Role of the EU ETS in Decarbonisation to 2030". All are invited. We will dig into how the EU ETS is being shaped to ensure it meets its primary objective, the decarbonisation of Europe. To help set it up, Wanda Buk, Vice-President for Regulatory Affairs at PGE Group answers questions that are being asked of Poland’s position and its … [Read more...]

Climate Neutral Cities can be the key to winning public support for the European Green Deal

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The EC is currently considering a mission proposal to achieve “100 climate neutral cities by 2030 – by and for the citizens”. Arguing for its endorsement and the proposed umbrella governance, Simon Skillings and Eleonora Moro at E3G explain why cities are an ideal laboratory for tackling the big unanswered question: which European Green Deal (EGD) pathways will win genuine public support. No one should doubt that the EGD will be disruptive. So … [Read more...]

SMEs key to Europe’s decarbonisation efforts

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  The Horizon 2020 funded project, LEAP4SME – Energy audit policies to drive energy efficiency – aims to enhance effective policies for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to undergo energy audits and implement cost-effective, recommended energy-saving measures. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), SMEs account for at least 13% of global final energy consumption annually and energy efficiency improvements are to … [Read more...]

Is Blockchain a disruptor? Or the solution to an already-disrupted energy sector

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The global energy sector is already facing multiple, concurrent disruptions that are fundamentally transforming electricity markets around the world: digitalisation, decarbonisation, decentralisation, and electric mobility. It’s creating residential prosumers, with their solar panels, electric vehicles, smart thermostats (the list is growing) and a predicted global installed distributed energy resources (DERs) capacity of 530 GW by 2026, … [Read more...]

Decarbonisation of Transport: Options and Challenges – free Brussels debate and report launch

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Decarbonisation of transport remains one of the most challenging aspects of the transition to a sustainable energy system. Focussing on road transport, the European Academies' Science Advisory Council (EASAC)'s upcoming report contains detailed recommendations for actions on the part of all major stakeholders. The report will be officially launched at what promises to be a fascinating event featuring a high-level panel discussion with speakers … [Read more...]

Too “low-hanging fruit” is not sweet enough (and eventually neither clean nor cheap)!

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At a lunch debate organised by the European Heat Pump Association (EHPA) on “The costs of a low level of ambition in greening the heating and cooling sector” and hosted by EUFORES President MEP Jeppe Kofod on 30 January, representatives from industry, civil society, the European Commission (EC) and MEPs from several countries and political groups (Jeppe Kofod, Bendt Bendtsen, Theresa Griffin, Jo Leinen, Gesine Meissner and Paul RĂźbig) … [Read more...]

Making deep decarbonisation a reality

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While the final agreement of the Clean Energy Package represents a critical step forward for the energy industry, I have some bad news. There is still a lot more work to do. Whilst it might be tempting to think of the design of energy regulations and markets as a path from ‘bad’ to ‘good’, this is not the case. It is a never-ending journey driven by changes in context, people and technology. Ten years ago, I helped produce the landmark … [Read more...]