Europe has done well in pivoting away from Russian gas imports. After painful energy prices rises in 2022 they have fallen steadily this year. LNG imports and the infrastructure to support them is growing. And Europeâs gas storage levels hit 90% capacity three months ahead of the November target. But the challenge is far from over, explains Michael Bradshaw at Warwick Business School. European gas prices remain 50% above their pre-invasion … [Read more...]
Does Nuclear slow down the scale-up of Wind and Solar? France and Germany canât agree
France and Germany lead the camps in disagreeing on the future of nuclear in Europe. Camille Lafrance and Benjamin Wehrmann at CLEW take a deep dive into the reasons why, quoting experts and politicians. Germanyâs vision of a fully renewables-based EU is at odds with Franceâs unwavering support for low-carbon nuclear energy. European-wide agreement on targets matter because they drive future investment in the targeted technologies and the design … [Read more...]
Draft EU rules on Battery lifecycle decarbonisation: close the loopholes!
Draft rules mean battery manufacturers selling into Europe will have to report the productâs entire carbon footprint, from mining to production to recycling, as early as July 2024. That data will then be used to set a maximum CO2 limit for batteries to apply from the end of 2027. This is a big step forward, says T&E, addressing concerns over battery carbon footprint and recycling, and it also covers environment and human rights. But T&E … [Read more...]
Nuclear power capacity is growing globally. Where, how and why
Ewan Thomson at the World Economic Forum summarises the state of nuclear power worldwide. In 2020 it made up 10% of global electricity generation, more than all the wind and solar PV combined. Itâs the second-largest source of low-emissions electricity. But many advanced countries are no longer backing nuclear, citing safety and cost concerns, and instead are pushing the growing number of alternative clean energy technologies. Nevertheless, … [Read more...]
Will U.S. become the Global Gas Marketâs source of flexibility and security of supply?
The U.S. will take the lead in offering flexibility and security of supply to the global gas market, and at prices linked to its wholesale gas market, the most liquid in the world, argue Kong Chyong and Ira Joseph at the Center on Global Energy Policy. Itâs because the U.S. leads in the three key sources of gas trade flexibility, critical to meeting unexpected supply and demand gaps: natural gas storage systems, spare capacity in production and … [Read more...]
Can the U.S. export its Nuclear plants to Europe, starting with Poland?
The exclusion of Russia from Europeâs energy future opens a door for the U.S. to export its nuclear plants, explain Matt Bowen and Sagatom Saha at the Center on Global Energy Policy. Thatâs why, in April, the U.S. announced financing of up to $4bn to deploy U.S. small modular reactors (SMRs) in Poland. A successful deployment there could lead to the same in Romania, Slovakia, Estonia, the Czech Republic and Ukraine, all of which have coal plants … [Read more...]
Lookahead to 2024 27-nation EU Parliamentary elections: will ambitious climate policies win or lose votes?
In June next year Europeans from 27 nations will elect a new EU Parliament that will shape the blocâs energy and climate policy in the years leading to the 2030 climate target deadline. Itâs not clear whether rising prices, energy security and heatwaves will steer votes towards parties pushing for more rapid decarbonisation, or whether the cost and disruption of transition will do the exact opposite. At the last election in 2019 climate concerns … [Read more...]
Steel, Aluminium: 20% of emissions reductions target must come from Recycling. How?
Recycling is needed to achieve 20% of the emissions reductions targets for the steel and aluminium sectors. Itâs an integral part of the 1.5°C climate-aligned decarbonisation pathways in many metal sectors, explain Sravan Chalasani, Wenjuan Liu and Lachlan Wright at RMI. For aluminium products, the share that comes from post-consumer scrap needs to increase from 21% in 2020 to 46% by 2050. Recycling is already a reality, but reporting and … [Read more...]
Five charts on the Energy Transition: the 2020s is the decade of maximum disruption. By 2030 the endgame will be clear
Sam Butler-Sloss and Kingsmill Bond at RMI present a succinct summary of why the energy transition matters, how the 2020s is the era of maximum disruption, and how by 2030 the transitionâs endgame will be apparent (though far from complete). Four key technologies are already entering the exponential growth stage: solar, wind, EVs and heat pumps. As early as 2030 their cheapness will flush away the fossil equivalents in succeeding decades, say the … [Read more...]
How can Europe stop U.S. and China dominance of cars and batteries without being protectionist?
European and Chinese car and battery makers are making plans to set up plants in the U.S. to take advantage of their big new âmade in the USAâ subsidies. They can then ship their vehicles to Europe to sell into its very large and generously subsidised company car market. This puts electric vehicle production in Europe at a serious disadvantage. As William Todts at T&E explains, the EU must respond, instead of effectively assisting the U.S. … [Read more...]
Europe: preventing a âcarbon wallâ between the West and the ten Central and Eastern EU nations
Diana-Paula Gherasim at the IFRI Centre for Energy & Climate summarises her 36-page data-rich report on the progress and challenges for the ten Central and Eastern EU (CEECs) countries in decarbonisation. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has focussed all minds on energy security and the best solutions: less fossils, efficiency gains and clean energy made in the EU. Gherasim says that vitally important progress is being made in avoiding a … [Read more...]
CO2 emissions from Land Use: country-level data for turning âemittersâ into âsinksâ
Until carbon capture technologies take off (if at all!), the worldâs CO2 removals depend entirely on nature. Clemens Schwingshackl, Wolfgang Obermeier and Julia Pongratz at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, writing for Carbon Brief, review the latest data on âcarbon fluxesâ which measure whether the land is a net âsourceâ of carbon or a âsink.â Flux measurements are categorised: deforestation, forestation, wood-harvest emissions, removals … [Read more...]
Record clean-power growth in 2023: is Coal and Gas decline now structurally embedded?
Last year, wind and solar reached a record 12% of global electricity generation, according to think tank Emberâs latest global electricity review. The overall share of all forms of low-carbon electricity rose to almost 40% of total generation. Josh Gabbatiss at Carbon Brief goes through the Ember review which heralds this as the moment fossils began their permanent decline. Ember calls it âstructuralâ and âenduringâ because previous declines only … [Read more...]
Renewables âcost of capitalâ in Europe lower than oil, gas, coal. What the U.S. and China can learn
The ultimate price of anything is highly dependent on the cost of capital needed to put it in place. That cost reflects the risks financial markets perceive. And policy certainty reduces risk. Gireesh Shrimali, Christian Wilson and Xiaoyan Zhou at Oxford University, writing for WEF, summarise their global study which shows the cost of capital for different energy technologies, and therefore which ones will trend upwards and dominate. They cover … [Read more...]
IEAâs global âCO2 Emissions in 2022â report: by sector, fuel, region, heating +more
The IEA has published âCO2 Emissions in 2022â, giving estimates of CO2 emissions from all energy sources and industrial processes globally. Emissions from energy combustion increased by 423 Mt, while emissions from industrial processes decreased by 102 Mt. Emissions from various sources (sector, fuel, region, heating, etc.) are broken down, with reasons for why the change happened. The report is part of the IEAâs first global stocktake of the … [Read more...]
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