12 EU countries are on track to miss their 2030 national climate targets by a large margin, according to a study by T&E. That means they will have to buy carbon credits on such a large scale there will be few left for others to buy their way out of missing their own targets (leaving them facing court cases). Germany and Italy are the two worst performing countries, with France on track by a very close margin. Germany will have to pay … [Read more...]
A global breakdown of how the energy sector is paid for: by governments, private firms, households
What are the sources of investment and sources of finance in the energy sector? Cecilia Tam, Paul Grimal, Jeanne-Marie Hays and Haneul Kim at the IEA summarise insights extracted from the IEA’s latest flagship World Energy Investment report which this year has dug much deeper into the subject. They look at the capital structure (debt versus equity) of energy investments in assets and companies. They look at the entities making the investments, … [Read more...]
New “Solar Thermal Trapping” process can generate 1,000°C for steel, aluminium and cement production
Many industries – production of steel, aluminium and cement being the most obvious – require high heat processes that today can only be achieved commercially using fossil fuels. Paige Bennett at EcoWatch, writing for WEF, describes a new process using solar thermal trapping to reach temperatures of a little over 1,000°C, hot enough to smelt metal. Scientists used semi-transparent materials, including synthetic quartz, to capture sunlight that … [Read more...]
To make Clean Industry stick, the United States needs new trade mechanisms
The industrial sector throughout the world needs to decarbonise. At the same time, no one country wants to incur the costs and risk losing market share to rivals who decarbonise slowly (or not at all!) Hence the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) that imposes costs on carbon-intense imports. This protects clean EU industries while incentivising importers to get going with decarbonisation or lose their European customers. Allegra Dawes … [Read more...]
New Concentrated Solar Power system delivers 1,000°C for industrial processes + more
Zach Winn at MIT describes a new method of building high-temperature concentrated solar power systems. The solar receiver heats air to around 1,000°C at atmospheric pressure. The system circulates the hot air with no combustion or emissions to drive a turbine. The system can deliver daytime power and overnight thermal energy storage to provide round-the-clock power. More interestingly, it can provide industrial-grade heat. It’s being … [Read more...]
The EU’s inaugural Hydrogen subsidy auction. What have we learned?
At the end of April, the winners were announced of the first pilot auction to allocate subsidies for EU hydrogen production via the European Hydrogen Bank. The winning bids were between €0.37 and €0.48 per kg, much lower than the €4 – €6 per kg estimated “green premium” cost gap between renewable hydrogen and fossil hydrogen in Europe. The low bids mean companies applied for fewer subsidies than needed to bridge that “green premium” gap because … [Read more...]
Analysis of Clean Technology Manufacturing around the world: solar PV, wind, batteries, electrolysers, heat pumps
For every nation, clean technology manufacturing can bring economic security, employment, and resilience to clean energy transitions, says the IEA. The sector is now so significant that it’s also impacting overall GDP performance: in 2023, clean technology manufacturing alone accounted for around 4% of global GDP growth and nearly 10% of global investment growth. Here, the IEA summarises its first-of-its-kind “Energy Technology Perspectives … [Read more...]
EU Carbon Prices halved in a year. But they should rise again
European carbon allowances (EUAs) are trading at around €60/t. One year ago, it was at an all-time high of €100/t. Hæge Fjellheim at Veyt explains why, and why prices should recover. Economically, the drop is due to two main factors: lower gas prices and shrinking energy demand from industry. Politically, additional supply of EUAs came from the EU’s REPowerEU plan to accelerate the energy transition and break dependency on Russian gas by partly … [Read more...]
The European Green Deal isn’t coping with a turbulent world. What must change?
The European Green Deal was not designed to cope with the extraordinary series of overlapping crises the world has been facing. Though the EU has ultimately been reinforced through crises, that may not continue, explain Marc-Antoine Eyl-Mazzega and Diana-Paula Gherasim at IFRI who summarise their study “How Can the Green Deal Adapt to a Brutal World?” Costs are rising and investment is not keeping pace. Dependence on China and the burst of … [Read more...]
Study: universities worldwide are still producing far more graduates for fossil fuels than for clean energy
Universities worldwide still produce more workers for fossil fuels than for renewable energy industries. Roman Vakulchuk and Indra Overland at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs summarise their new study on the energy transition in global higher education, published by the Energy Research & Social Science journal. The study is based on a review of 18,400 universities in 196 countries. 68% of the world’s energy educational … [Read more...]
The link between global GDP growth and CO2 emissions is weakening rapidly. Will emissions peak well before 2030?
Economic growth has been closely tied to rising greenhouse gas emissions since the industrial age. But data now clearly shows that that GDP growth and CO2 emissions are diverging. Siddharth Singh at the IEA presents the numbers. In advanced economies that divergence now seems locked in, with 2007 marking the moment of peak emissions (and not simply because of offshoring manufacturing). Even in developing economies GDP growth is far outpacing … [Read more...]
Will EU decarbonisation policies shift the Fertiliser industry into making Ammonia for energy (but outside the EU)?
The EU’s fertiliser industry must face up to the region’s ambitious decarbonisation rules, making its carbon-intensive processes much more costly. But a door of opportunity is also being opened: the industry already produces ammonia which is increasingly being seen as an alternative clean fuel, explains Hyung-Ja de Zeeuw at Rabobank. The problem for EU nations is that it will be cheaper for the industry to relocate and make that ammonia somewhere … [Read more...]
EU’s fossil fuel CO2 emissions drop to levels last seen in the 1960s
The EU’s CO2 emissions from fossil fuels (including power generation, industry and transport) dropped 8% in 2023 year-on-year, reaching levels last seen in the early 1960s, reveals an analysis by CREA. More than half of that decline came from an impressive 25% year-on-year reduction in CO2 emissions from power generation. The cleaner electricity mix is thanks to the continuous rise of wind and solar as well as a rebound in hydropower and nuclear. … [Read more...]
EU ETS or national climate targets? We need both
The choice between using the EU ETS or national climate targets to decarbonise is a false dilemma. We need both, explains Chiara Corradi at T&E writing for the Florence School of Regulation. There are plenty of examples where a carbon market and national targets have delivered good results together, as in Germany, Finland, Denmark and Portugal. And, looking ahead over the next few decades, the right policies should be able to cope with ETS … [Read more...]
Chemicals Industry needs Sustainable Feedstocks to complete their net-zero journey
The chemicals industry is crucial to decarbonisation because it’s a major supplier of products to other industries. Many are very high profile - such as automotive, construction, food, and personal-care – so scrutiny will be high. It’s why two-thirds of Europe’s largest chemical end users in Europe are committed to reducing greenhouse-gas emissions by 2030, and over a third have pledged net-zero targets by 2050. But although chemicals industry … [Read more...]
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