China cuts coal at home but new data show that Chinese state owned companies and banks drive new coal expansion overseas, despite top level promises of green growth for developing countries, writes Beth Walker for China Dialogue. Article courtesy of China Dialogue. … [Read more...]
Chinese national oil companies: giants built on shaky foundations
Chinese state-owned enterprises, Chinaâs national oil companies foremost among them, have incurred phenomenal debts â higher than the countryâs total GDP. So far they have been bailed out by the government, but this just shifts the problem one level up,  to China Inc as a whole, writes geophysicist  (ex-Shell) Jilles van den Beukel. Van den Beukel explains how Chinaâs national oil companies Sinopec, CNPC and CNOOC got into this fix and why the … [Read more...]
Will Trumpism, Brexit, and geopolitical exceptionalism sink the planet?Â
The future pace of climate change will be determined as much by geopolitical factors as by technological developments in the energy sector, writes energy expert and author Michael T. Klare. While immense progress is being made in bringing down the price of wind and solar power, the political will to turn such developments into meaningful global change may be diminishing. Article courtesy of Tomdispatch.com. … [Read more...]
Energy policies of the U.S. presidential candidates
âThere is still much that needs to be investigated in the field of âclimate changeââ, says one. âWhen it comes to climate change, the science is crystal clearâ, says the other. âSave the coal industryâ, says one. âQuickly move to make a bridge from coal to natural gas to clean energy,â states the other. Allan Hoffman, author of the blog Thougts of a Lapsed Physicist, investigates the positions of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton on climate and … [Read more...]
Success of EU foreign policy hinges on climate and energy security
Europe's global strategic interests have become inseparable from managing climate risk and the global energy transition, write Luca Bergamaschi, Nick Mabey, Jonathan Gaventa and Camilla Born of the independent climate and energy think tank E3G. In a new report, EU foreign policy in a changing climate, they set out how Europe can make these themes a central thread in its foreign policy. "The new energy economy is now at the heart of Europeâs … [Read more...]
Paris deal, rapid transition means deepening doldrums for energy incumbents
Even as the earth is heating up, established oil, gas and nuclear companies are increasingly feeling the heat of the energy transition, writes famous author and entrepreneur Jeremy Leggett. Signs are everywhere that the fossil fuels game is almost up. This article was republished from Leggett's blog. … [Read more...]
The Age of the Lithium Barons has arrived
We've gone electric, and there's no going back at this point, writes James Stafford of Oilprice.com. Lithium is our new fuel, which will power pretty much everything on which our economy is built. But like fossil fuels, the reserves we're currently tapping into are finite. Those who start tapping into them now will be extremely well positioned in the future. … [Read more...]
Interview Sir John Scarlett, advisor Statoil, ex-head MI6:Â âThe role of old-fashioned geopolitics will become less important in energyâ
Thanks to new energy policies, technologies and market trends the potential to use energy for political purposes has decreased in recent years, says Sir John Scarlett, former Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service MI6 and now Chairman of the Strategy Advisory Council at Statoil, in an interview with Energy Post. At the same time he notes that instability in North Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe has grown and energy security should … [Read more...]
Christoph Frei, World Energy Council:Â âGrand transitionâ requires new vision of energy security
The energy sector is going through a âgrand transitionâ that will radically change the way energy security should be approached, says Christoph Frei, Secretary General of the World Energy Council, on the eve of the ONS Summit, a high-level meeting on energy security in Stavangerâ on August 28-29, hosted by the Munich Security Conference and the ONS Foundationâ. In particular, the role of gas in the European energy system will change, says Frei. … [Read more...]
The elusive gas connection between Spain and France
The French energy regulator has recently said that a long-awaited gas interconnector between Spain and France, which the European Commission says would help reduce Europeâs dependence on Russian gas, is not needed and too costly in the current market environment. Juan Vila, President of the Spanish company Gasindustrial, disputes the CREâs assumptions and calls its viewpoint short-sighted. âThe people and industries in Spain and Portugal need to … [Read more...]
Ukrainian crisis can be solved – with an Energiewende
A Ukrainian Energiewende could go a long way to resolving the current geopolitical crisis around the country, writes Oleg Savitsky of the National Ecological Centre of Ukraine in a new report for the Succow Stiftung. According to Savitsky, it would reduce Ukraineâs dependence on Russian gas and uranium as well as on coal from the breakaway regions, while at the same time reducing pollution, greenhouse gas emissions and the risk of a nuclear … [Read more...]
The USâs multi-trillion-dollar bridge to nowhere in the Greater Middle EastÂ
The US finds itself fighting multiple wars across the Greater Middle East, but no one in Washington asks the questions that really matter, writes historian Andrew Bacevich: do these wars make sense? What is their goal? When will they end? Are they even winnable? This article was first published on TomDispatch.com and is republished here with permission. It is more than about energy - it's about the future of our planet - which defines much of the … [Read more...]
Hinkley Point C delay: how to exploit this attack of common sense in energy policy
Without Hinkley Point C, the potential to have a real and considered debate about the future shape of the electricity system has loomed into view, writes Bridget Woodman, Course Director, MSc Energy Policy, at the University of Exeter. According to Woodman, the UK governmentâs decision to delay a final go-ahead on the project makes it possible to start debating the sorts of options being considered widely around the world, with measures to … [Read more...]
Oil price downturn sets markets up for dramatic price spike
Another oil price downturn threatens to deepen the plunging levels of investment in upstream oil and gas production, which could create a more acute price spike in the years ahead, writes Nick Cunningham of Oilprice.com. Analysts are not expecting a rebalancing of the market until 2018, but according to Cunningham, the swing from surplus to deficit could be more dramatic than many think. … [Read more...]
Iraq: what happened to the oil after the war?
Oil accounts for 99% of Iraqâs government revenue â and the country has the largest unexplored oil reserves in the world. But the future of the Iraqi oil sector is uncertain, with a National Hydrocarbon Law still awaiting parliamentary approval nine years after it was drawn up, writes Robert Smith, Lecturer in International Relations at Coventry University. According to Smith, the chaos in the sector mirrors the chaos in the new state that the US … [Read more...]
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