Cooling represents over 6% of the worldâs total final energy consumption, and growing. Of the 2.8bn people living in hot tropical regions only 8% have air conditioners (ACs) - itâs 90% in the US and Japan. With growing affluence, most will buy cheap entry-level ACs, with their low efficiency and polluting refrigerants. To cope, India will need 600GW of new power generation capacity by 2050 â equivalent to the installation of 1,200 coal power … [Read more...]
EU plans first satellite fleet to monitor CO2 in every country
The speed and policies required for a successful transition depend on our ability to measure emissions accurately and globally. Thatâs why Europe is readying a new fleet of three satellites to monitor CO2 emissions at every point on earth, creating the first worldwide system capable of measuring at city and even power plant level in close to real time, reports Karl Mathiesen at Climate Home News. It will mean, for example, a city can measure how … [Read more...]
Solar intermittency: upbeat âannualâ carbon reduction estimates miss the âhourlyâ reality
There is a maximum speed at which solar capacity can expand. You know youâve passed it when insufficient storage means solar curtailment, or selling the daytime excess means curtailment of other clean energy generators. As solar grows, so too will this problem. Vincent Xia, at the Precourt Institute for Energy, Stanford University, reports on a new Stanford study which says emissions predictions are not taking this into account, thus … [Read more...]
The Clean Hydrogen revolution: how, by whom, when?
Hydrogen rivals oil and gas for storage and hard-to-decarbonise sectors (industry, heavy and long distance transport). But it isnât all carbon free. âGreyâ hydrogen â the cheapest at âŹ1.50/kilo - is made from gas. âBlueâ hydrogen depends on the fortunes of carbon capture technology. âGreenâ hydrogen is CO2 free, but needs further cost reductions in the green electricity used in the electrolysis process. NoĂ© van Hulst, at the Netherlandâs Ministry … [Read more...]
UK oil & gas keeps rising. Clean Energy blueprint can reverse it
In the UK the ÂŁ2.3bn (=$2.9bn / âŹ2.6bn) in new oil and gas subsidies introduced since 2014 will state-fund the addition of twice as much carbon as its coal phaseout saves, says a new report âSea Change: Climate Emergency, Jobs and Managing the Phase-out of UK Oil and Gas Extractionâ. Can the UK call itself a climate leader if its existing policies push it over its emissions limits? It can, if you consider this: the UK took 16 years to become the … [Read more...]
UKâs net-zero ambition: counting all emissions, not just in-country
The UKâs Committee on Climate Change (CCC) has advised its government to go zero-carbon by 2050. But, say Joe Blakey and Marc Hudson of the University of Manchester, counting all emissions means counting the carbon footprint of imports too. Including these (and excluding emissions from exports) the UKâs footprint is 70% higher than the figure used by the CCC. The same is likely true for all high income economies. And the cost of successful … [Read more...]
Carbon Capture: Can CO2-EOR really provide carbon-negative oil?
Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) injects CO2 into oil reservoirs, increasing the pressure and forcing the oil out. 20% of global oil production uses EOR. But if that CO2 doesnât stay underground it hasnât been captured. If it was itself extracted from natural underground CO2, there is no benefit â or worse. Ideally, it should come from already captured CO2. But most oil wells are nowhere near a CCUS (carbon capture, usage and storage) facility: in the … [Read more...]
IEA: Renewables growth worldwide is stalling
Itâs bad enough that 2018 net capacity additions did not exceed 2017âs after two decades of strong growth. It is far more troubling that nobody saw it coming, says the IEA, who have laid out the data and main cause: stop-go policies. 2018's 180 GW is only 60% of what needs to be added each year to meet climate goals. China, the EU, India and Japan all fell back. Only emerging economies, developing countries and the US (slightly) saw growth. … [Read more...]
50% Hydrogen for Europe: a manifesto
Electricity has well known limitations, mainly for bulk and long-range transport, industrial processes requiring high temperature heat, and the chemicals industry. To entirely replace fossil fuels we need hydrogen, say Frank Wouters and Prof. Dr. Ad van Wijk. It has an energy density comparable to hydrocarbons. There's more: Europeâs electric grid canât cope with 100% electrification, yet hydrogen would use the existing gas pipe networks. The … [Read more...]
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW – GCCA’s Claude Lorea: âHow can we provide the world with the concrete it needs in a sustainable way?â
Concrete is, after water, the most consumed resource on the planet and no other man-made material is more widely used. Without it, there are no buildings, bridges, dams or roads â no Sydney Opera House, no Hoover Dam or Golden Gate Bridge, no Pantheon in Rome. It is no surprise, then, that it has significant environmental impacts. More than 4bn tonnes of cement, the main ingredient of concrete, are produced every year leading to between 5 and 8% … [Read more...]
Thereâs a limit to raising CO2 taxes. Re-focus on energy innovations to reverse emissions
Stop obsessing about raising CO2 taxes, says Severin Borenstein at the Energy Institute at Haas. Itâs good, but not enough. Why? Textbook economics says if you tax something bad, innovators are incentivised and rewarded for coming up with something better. Thatâs true for cigarettes (vaping), plastic wrapping (recyclables, biodegradables), traffic (public transport). But thereâs a limit with CO2 taxes, says the author. In developing countries … [Read more...]
Leaked German govt report: emissions target will be missed despite on-target renewables
A leaked draft of Germanyâs Energiewende Progress Report 2019, due to be released by the economy ministry in May or June, predicts the country will miss its targets for reducing energy use and greenhouse gas emissions by wide margins. This is despite the inevitable emissions reductions due to the 2009 recession and being on track for renewables. If no other measures are taken Germany will reduce emissions by 33% by 2020, falling short of the … [Read more...]
Children today must emit eight times less CO2 than their grandparents
No wonder young people have taken the reins of the climate demonstrations away from the adults. Zeke Hausfather at Carbon Brief shows that the global budget for avoiding warming of 1.5C or 2C has already been mostly used up. To put that in numbers, if children emit like their parents theyâll exhaust their carbon budget in just 9 years. Itâs why emissions must peak in the next few years and then rapidly decline to hit the Paris targets. Thatâs … [Read more...]
Global âsectoralâ treaties, legally binding corporate targets can turn around emissions rise
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change started with a top-down legally binding Kyoto Protocol and ended up with a bottom-up âself-determinedâ voluntary Paris Agreement, says Chandra Bhushan. As a result, nobody has the tools to drive global collective action to combat climate change. The author says thatâs why emissions are at record levels. He recommends international âsectoralâ treaties to achieve real transition in energy, … [Read more...]
German task force agreement on traffic emissions 1/3 off target
During what was billed as the decisive meeting, the German transport commission charged with proposing emissions cuts for the sector could only reach consensus on measures that will lower emissions by around two thirds of the necessary amount. Pro-climate activists, disappointed with the results, nevertheless welcomed the recommendation to look into the introduction of a CO2 price. Meanwhile emissions have actually increased. And VW, siding with … [Read more...]
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