France’s energy efficiency ambitions for buildings are well off target. Buildings account for 28% of the nation’s emissions and they’ve hardly reduced since 1990 – only by 3%. It’s because of the lack of development of the buildings renovation sector, explains Andreas Rüdinger at IDDRI. Without it, there’s little chance of renovating 500,000 housing units per year and bringing the entire housing stock up to the "low-energy building" (BBC) … [Read more...]
EU ETS: The Market Stability Reserve should focus on carbon prices, not allowance volumes
The Market Stability Reserve (MSR) aims at providing carbon price stability for the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS). But serious questions are being asked about how much stability – if any – it provides, say Michael Pahle at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and Simon Quemin at the LSE's Grantham Research Institute. They argue that the MSR rules are too complex, have difficulty accommodating changing EU and national policies, … [Read more...]
Waste Heat Recovery can help replace Poland’s District Heating coal
Three quarters of all district heating in Poland comes from burning coal. So the country is looking for ways to reduce this. It’s why subsidies are provided for combined heat and power (CHP) plants that burn either coal, gas or biomass, which all have lower emissions. But a report by IEEFA authored by Gerard Wynn, Arjun Flora and Paolo Coghe says that waste heat recovery (WHR) – currently unsubsidised – is both emissions free and can be … [Read more...]
2019’s grid storage additions fell for the first time since 2013. Why?
Globally, new installations of grid storage fell year-on-year in 2019 for the first time since 2013. This IEA summary of the landscape is taken from its latest series of Tracking Clean Energy Progress reports. The IEA’s recommendations reflect the fact that grid storage is new and complex, needing changes to existing regulations and market rules that are unviable in the age of transition. The policy goal is to monetise the value of storage in … [Read more...]
17 GtCO2 avoided, $5tn saved: Rising U.S. car fuel efficiency since 1975
Since the 1970s, fuel-economy improvements in U.S. “light-duty” vehicles, with a contribution from rising gasoline prices, have saved 17bn tonnes of CO2, according to a new study reviewed by Josh Gabbatiss at Carbon Brief. That makes rising fuel efficiency’s impact on emissions reductions second only to that of coal-to-gas. New cars, vans and light trucks get about twice as many miles to the gallon as 1975 models. The amount of gasoline therefore … [Read more...]
Designing the Covid-19 stimulus: what the 2008 crisis can teach us
Policy makers around the world are hearing a lot of advice on how to design their stimulus packages. This comes from the IEA where Fatih Birol lays out five fundamental lessons we can learn from the stimulus packages that came out of the 2008 global financial crisis. His main headings are: Build on what you already have – and think big (e.g. feed-in tariffs, production tax credits); Choose technologies that are ready for the big time (e.g. wind, … [Read more...]
Stimulus opportunity: Hand all carbon taxes to households
Governments worldwide now have the opportunity to radically rethink how household consumption can be stimulated, and where that money can come from. And every serious politician knows a radical change in fiscal policy is a rare opportunity to shape perceptions and values. This could be that moment for carbon taxes. Gerard Wynn at IEEFA first notes the success they have had in reducing emissions in the EU. With a rise in the CO2 price on the … [Read more...]
Will China build more Coal to stimulate the economy?
Could China ramp up coal generation – of the order of hundreds of GW by 2030 - as part of its efforts to stimulate its economy and recover from the coronavirus slump? The thinking is that building a coal plant converts faster into economic growth than the equivalent spent on renewables. In the previous decade, building coal plants was an effective part of China’s economic growth plan that secured its place as the world’s second largest economy. … [Read more...]
Utilities can help their central banks, “loaning” electricity during the slump
The coronavirus slump is forcing governments around the world to inject large amounts of cash into the hands of consumers and businesses, until this is all over. In the U.S. it’s $2tn. Catherine Wolfram at the Haas School of Business suggests a way to cut that bill, easing the pressure on central bankers. Utilities (electricity, water, gas) should allow customers to defer payment (instead of using valuable bailout money to pay the utilities). The … [Read more...]
Covid-19 and the EU car industry: any support should lock in EV targets
The coronavirus slump has come suddenly and hit hard. The deep thinking has already begun on the economics needed to turn around that slump without damaging our rising emissions ambitions. Julia Poliscanova at Transport & Environment looks at the car industry. Some have called for the new CO2 standards coming in 2020 to be postponed (though, notably, VW and BMW still support them). She explains that total car sales were already declining in … [Read more...]
Germany’s drive to decarbonise its prized heavy industry: an overview
Sören Amelang at Clean Energy Wire runs through their collection of factsheets, analyses, reports and interviews that have tracked German industry’s attempts to grapple with decarbonisation. The very high energy intensity required by industries like steel, chemicals and cement makes a simple switch to clean electricity – short of a total redesign of processes – impossible. But Germany wants to maintain, even extend, its world leadership in … [Read more...]
Europe needs its own EV battery recycling industry
Europe needs its own battery recycling industry, and the EU’s European Battery Alliance should make it happen, says Raphaël Danino-Perraud writing for the IFRI Centre for Energy & Climate. For economic, strategic and environmental reasons, today’s overwhelming dependence on outsourcing – in this case to Asia - for battery manufacture and recycling needs to change. To start with, Asia provides over 90% of global car battery output, half coming … [Read more...]
Grid Battery tech on track. It now needs re-designed markets, monetisation
The rapid expansion of variable renewable electricity generation is making cost effective storage more urgent. Sure enough, in Europe several electricity storage projects are under construction and new ones are announced almost on a weekly basis. The battery technology seems to be on track, with estimates of $156/kWh in 2019 dropping to $61/kWh by 2030. But progress is hampered by the lack of a market that recognises and rewards the true value of … [Read more...]
New EU Industrial Strategy focuses on emissions, but is it enough?
This month the European Commission released its new EU Industrial Strategy to set the direction of travel for the EU economy in the context of the European Green Deal. Energy-intensive industries - like steel, cement, aluminium, paper and chemicals - account for roughly 17% of EU emissions and have struggled to reduce them in recent years. But Johanna Lehne at E3G doubts the strategy is enough to meet the ambition of becoming the first … [Read more...]
Construction emissions: “mass wood” prototypes halve CO2, rapid modular deployment, 18 stories
Building and construction emissions account for two-thirds of the global total, with one tenth coming from the construction phase alone. David Chandler at MIT reviews their research, in collaboration with a range of specialist companies, into wooden buildings. Their construction emissions should be as low as half that of concrete or steel. The key is the development of large scale, cross-laminated “mass wood”. Factory built modules can be … [Read more...]
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