Danone has pledged to cut its methane emissions by 30% by 2030 in its fresh milk supply. That makes it only one of three of the worldâs top sixty livestock producers to have set a target. Methane has driven 28% of human-caused climate change, with almost a third of that from livestock. The key strategies are âimproving herd and feed management, reducing manure-related emissions, and developing innovative methane inhibitor solutions.â The big … [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...]
U.S. and EU: vastly different approaches to trade and climate put a transatlantic deal at risk
Uncertainty over the results of this yearâs elections in the U.S. and the EU have effectively postponed trade deals between the two blocks. That means when talks restart in 2025 there will be even less time to find the best compromises. As Gautam Jain, Noah Kaufman, Chris Bataille and Sagatom Saha at the Center on Global Energy Policy explain, itâs why this time should be taken to better understand the differences and lay out the possible … [Read more...]
China is still playing the long game with its ânew threeâ: solar cells, lithium batteries, EVs
Chinaâs ânew threeâ â or xin san yang â are solar cells, lithium-ion batteries, and EVs. The term harks back to the concept of its âold threeâ that were once the pillars of its exports: clothing, home appliances and furniture. Chinaâs success is seen in the numbers: it accounts globally for 80%+ of solar cell exports, 50%+ of lithium-ion batteries and 20%+ of EVs. You Xiaoying, writing for China Dialogue, interviews experts and quotes reports … [Read more...]
Nations are on track to meet their NDC targets. The catch is those targets arenât high enough for net zero by 2050
Globally, current Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) targets are within reach thanks to the increasing speed of clean energy transitions around the world. Thatâs as NDCs have, as planned, got more ambitious as nations have updated them every five years. The problem is current NDCs are still not ambitious enough to meet our actual 2050 net zero target. Daniel Wetzel, Gabriel Saive, Luca Lo Re and Alice Latella at the IEA summarise the … [Read more...]
Annual Energy Efficiency improvements must double to meet climate targets. We know how to do it
Global energy intensity â a measure of how efficiently the global economy uses energy â improved by just over 2% in 2022. That needs to double to 4% annually to 2030 to meet global efficiency targets, explains Brian Motherway at the IEA. If achieved, by 2030 one unit of energy used will generate 40% more economic output than today. Thatâs huge, and shows why few other policy areas offer such widespread benefits. More than half of the 150 … [Read more...]
1,500GW of Renewables deployment delayed globally because Grids arenât modernising fast enough
A first-of-its-kind global country-by-country study, âElectricity Grids and Secure Energy Transitionsâ by the IEA finds that electricity grids are not keeping pace with the rapid growth of clean energy technologies. Without greater policy attention and investment, shortfalls in the reach and quality of grid infrastructure puts at risk our climate goals. Worldwide, we need to add or replace 80m kms of power lines by 2040 â an amount equal to the … [Read more...]
Russiaâs war has exposed France and Germanyâs energy policy differences. Can it also bring them together?
France and Germany combined account for 45% of EU GDP and 40% of energy consumption. No wonder they are the most influential EU members. But the Russia-induced energy crisis has forced both Paris and Berlin to expose and admit the differences in their national energy strategies, and that has made a search for a unified voice for Europeâs ambitious climate targets much harder to achieve, explain Camille Lafrance and Benjamin Wehrmann at CLEW. … [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...]
Climate scepticsâ denying of the science is declining. Opposing the policies is the new tactic
In the media, the good news is that those opposed to acting on climate change â sometimes called climate deniers or climate sceptics â are not challenging the science nearly as much as they used to. The bad news is that they are now using âresponse scepticismâ. This means obstructing policies with arguments like âit costs too muchâ, âwhat about Chinaâs emissions?â, âstopping flying is too extreme, do something elseâ, âinfringement on civil … [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...]
What does the âglobal carbon budgetâ mean? Have we got 9 years left?
Piers Forster and Debbie Rosen at the University of Leeds and Robin Lamboll and Joeri Rogelj at Imperial College London, writing for Carbon Brief, look at the carbon budget estimates of the Global Carbon Project and the IPCC, the methodology and the inevitable uncertainties. They compare it to their own latest report from the CONSTRAIN research project. Where the GCP and the IPCC estimate nine years left of carbon emissions at current emission … [Read more...]
EU electricity market reform: completing, not dismantling, the integration is the answer
Leonardo Meeus at the Florence School of Regulation explains why electricity market reform in the EU must be about completing the process of integration, not unwinding it. He breaks down his argument into five categories â Electricity Markets, Contracts for Difference (CfD) and Power Purchase Agreements (PPA), Capacity Remuneration Mechanisms (CRM), Energy Communities, and Demand-side Flexibility â and with each he defines their purpose, looks at … [Read more...]
China: decades of support for innovation is now delivering results
The evolution of Chinaâs clean energy sector used to be based on a technology catch-up approach, which meant secondary innovation based on imported technologies. Daisy Chi at ECECP looks at the IEAâs recent report, âTracking Clean Energy Innovation: Focus on Chinaâ, to conclude that the nation is now a major force in clean energy innovation. Decades of innovation-focussed policies, strong funding support, institutional reforms, big targets and … [Read more...]
Is a Carbon Tax the best way to decarbonise the Grid?
Severin Borenstein at the Energy Institute at Haas and Ryan Kellogg at the University of Chicago question whether carbon pricing is the best way to decarbonise the electricity grid. The authors did an empirical analysis of all of the fossil plants in the US. It shows that a CES (clean electricity standard) or zero-emissions subsidies would close down fossil plants in almost the same order as a carbon tax. So using alternative policy tools can … [Read more...]
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