The bad news is that upcoming climate and energy legislation in the EU will almost certainly be postponed as a result of Brexit, writes Brook Riley of Friends of the Earth Europe. But the good news is that Brexit will provide an opportunity to make it clear to EU citizens that ambitious climate and energy policies are key to a better future. … [Read more...]
“Paris Climate Agreement requires huge economic turnaround in Europe”
The targets agreed to at the Paris climate summit in late 2015 imply a radical change to our economies, a new report by consultancy CE Delft shows. CO2-prices will need to rise to €250/ton in 2050 (compared to some €6 per ton now) and most of the existing industrial installations and infrastructure will need to be replaced. CE Delft compares the scale and impact of the transformation to the one that occurred in Eastern Europe post-1989. … [Read more...]
A practical solution to windfall profits in the EU carbon market
This is a rare moment for climate policy making in the EU, writes Emil Dimantchev, senior carbon market analyst at Thomson Reuters. Lawmakers in Europe have begun a process to redesign the EU carbon market with new rules that will take effect after 2020. According to Dimantchev, they should follow the example of California and introduce a dynamic allocation system of CO2 permits. It is the most practical and politically feasible way to end … [Read more...]
Energy crops have been a major flop with farmers – here’s why
In only a few years, biomass has become a major UK power source, supplying 3% of the total electricity supply. However, despite government incentives, UK farmers are largely unwilling to grow the feedstock for the biomass plants. Most of it has to be imported. Charles Warren, Senior Lecturer Geography and Sustainable Development at the University of St. Andrews, tried to find out why – and came to some very instructive conclusions. Courtesy The … [Read more...]
Europe can retrieve its lost clean energy leadership by moving away from subsidizing renewables
Europe can win back its lost clean energy leadership by moving away from subsidy-powered renewables, writes Christopher Burghardt, Vice-President Business Development Europe at First Solar and a member of the Board of Directors of Solar Power Europe. Rather than subsidizing renewables, Burghardt argues, Europe should stimulate utility-scale energy production by independent power producers, just as other markets around the world are … [Read more...]
TTIP and energy security: do Europeans still want US LNG?
When TTIP talks were launched in 2013, Europeans were keen to tap into the United States oil and gas bonanza resulting from the country’s shale revolution to help reduce prices and shake off the continent’s too-heavy reliance on Russian hydrocarbons. But now US shale gas is arrriving in Europe, regardless of TTIP, writes Iana Dreyer, editor of Borderlex, an independent newsletter on EU trade policy. According to Dreyer, national politics in … [Read more...]
Torpedoing the 2030 energy efficiency target
The European Commission, in preparing a new proposal on an EU energy efficiency target, has adopted somewhat more realistic assumptions than it did last time around, writes Brook Riley of Friends of the Earth Europe. But according to Riley, voices inside the Commission still seem to want to torpedo more ambitious efforts: they are aiming for a simple least-cost scenario, without regard for the many benefits of energy efficiency. “That’s daft!” … [Read more...]
Leading by example? Impacts of a domestic French carbon price floor
If enacted, France’s plan for a domestic carbon price floor will lower CO2 emissions and increase power prices in France, but it will only have a marginal impact on total EU CO2 emissions and European carbon prices, write Hæge Fjellheim, Yan Qin and Emil Dimantchev, senior analysts at Thomson Reuters. They surmise that for the French government the plan is a way to lead by example. It will also bring in extra government revenues and improve the … [Read more...]
Greener in Europe? Four reasons the EU can’t be trusted on the environment
Those in favour of Britain’s continued membership of the European Union – although strangely not the UK government’s official campaign to remain in – are increasingly highlighting the contribution Brussels has made to protecting the natural environment. There is some justification for this, writes Professor Steffen Böhm of the University of Exeter, but in several key areas the influence of the EU on UK's environmental policy has been negative … [Read more...]
Brexit likely to lead to higher not lower UK energy prices
If the UK electorate votes to leave the EU on 23rd June, will British households then face higher or lower energy bills? Nobody knows for sure, writes Stephen Tindale, Director of the Alvin Weinberg Foundation: it would depend on decisions taken by a post-Brexit government and the impact of a Leave victory on British politics. But according to Tindale claims from Brexiteers that leaving the UK would lead to lower energy prices are misleading. The … [Read more...]
Interview Joan MacNaughton, World Energy Council: “Policy is key – you can’t allow a free for all”
Focused, well-designed energy policy in a robust regulatory environment is key to achieve energy security, sustainability and affordability. That’s the major conclusion from the 2016 World Energy Trilemma report of the World Energy Council, presented at the Clean Energy Ministerial in San Francisco on 1 June. According to Joan MacNaughton, Executive Chair of the study, “it’s still hard for most countries to balance all three aspects of the energy … [Read more...]
ETS reform: how will it affect CO2 price? [PREMIUM CONTENT]
The MEP in charge of reforming the EU Emission Trading Scheme (ETS) has finally revealed his thinking. MEP Ian Duncan’s proposals open the door to more ambitious emissions cuts in the wake of the Paris climate deal and beef up a new Innovation Fund. But his most significant suggestion is a “tiered” approach to carbon leakage, which would give some industries more free allowances than others. So what does it all mean for the carbon price? … [Read more...]
Nord Stream 2: Trust in Europe
The prospect of building the Nord Stream 2 pipeline between Russia and Germany is dividing the EU into two camps. By following geopolitical considerations, both sides are neglecting the concept of a liberalized natural gas market and are overlooking Europe’s favorable position in current international gas trade, writes Severin Fischer, Senior Researcher in the Global Security Team at the Center for Security Studies (CCS), ETH ZĂĽrich. … [Read more...]
The fight over the EU’s nuclear ambitions – and what it means for European energy research
A leaked “strategy paper” in the German media has thrown  up fresh questions over what Europe intends to spend its innovation budget on. In the paper the European Commission and member states set out broad goals for the nuclear industry, including developing small modular reactors. Nuclear opponents reacted furiously. In her new Brussels Insider column, for the Energy Post Weekly premium newsletter, Sonja van Renssen investigates the fight over … [Read more...]
European researchers: include consumers in the EU Emission Trading Scheme
The EU Emission Trading Scheme should not only be applied to industrial producers of CO2, but also to their consumers, proposes Karsten Neuhoff, Head of the Climate Policy Department at the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin). This would provide sufficient incentives to all market players to reduce their emissions and would do a lot to clarify the structure of free allowance allocation, providing long-term certainty for … [Read more...]
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