A new study measures the effect of the Russia-Ukraine war on household energy costs worldwide. Itâs nearly doubled, explain Klaus Hubacek, Jin Yan and Yuru Guan at the University of Groningen and Yuli Shan at the University of Birmingham. Their study sums the costs of direct energy like heating, cooling, lighting and mobility, as well as the indirect costs through the energy used to produce goods and services. That doubling translates into an … [Read more...]
Coal phase-out: Developing world targets are unfeasible. Rich nations must cut emissions faster
Developing nations like China, India and South Africa are being asked to phase out coal more than twice as fast as any comparable energy phase-out in history, for the world to meet the Paris climate goals. Thatâs simply unrealistic say James Price and Steve Pye at UCL who present the results of their new study. Instead, rich nations will have to reduce significantly their oil and gas to compensate for the shortfall. An oil and gas peak isnât good … [Read more...]
Wellbeing peaks at just 75GJ per capita: a reachable target for poorer nations to rise to (and rich ones to fall to)
Energy consumption is strongly linked to health and wellbeing, in particular life expectancy, infant mortality, happiness, food supply, access to basic sanitation services and access to electricity. But as Josie Garthwaite at Stanford University explains, new research is saying that those improvements cease above a certain number of gigajoules per person per year. Knowing that number will make understanding and setting targets much easier. For a … [Read more...]
Lifting 3.6bn people out of poverty would raise global emissions by 18%
One criticism of the energy transition is that efforts made by the rich world will be negated by the rise in wealth and consumption in the developing world. A new study puts figures on that expected increase in emissions. Eradicating all âextreme povertyâ â by raising hundreds of millions above the US$1.90 per day threshold â would drive up global carbon emissions by less than 1%. Lifting 3.6 billion people over the poverty line of US$5.50 per … [Read more...]
Will Wind & Solar confront its 10 challenges? If not, we need Nuclear, CCS, and more
Wind and solarâs impressive cost declines have seen its welcome and rapid emergence. But currently they account for a mere 2â4% of global energy. So these variable renewable energy sources (VREs) must now address 10 big challenges if they are to dominate the energy sector, explains Schalk Cloete in this data-led review. Their cost declines will be confronted and even cancelled by new costs theyâve not yet faced during their low-hanging-fruit … [Read more...]
Eradicate global poverty, meet climate goals, by avoiding rich-world energy consumption patterns
There is concern that eradicating poverty in the global south means their growing wealth and energy consumption will make our climate targets too hard to meet. Here, Jarmo Kikstra and Narasimha Rao, writing for Carbon Brief, explain that the energy needed to eradicate poverty is compatible with climate goals, provided that policymakers focus on delivering decent living standards, and not copying the affluence and habits of rich countries. Most … [Read more...]
End Fossil Fuel subsidies by shifting them to poorer households
In May, the environment ministers of the G7 agreed to end fossil fuel subsidies within this decade. Around $650 bn/year is spent worldwide on subsidising all energy sources, with the majority ($450bn) going to fossil fuels despite the climate crisis. But simply removing the subsidies has proven difficult. They keep energy costs low for consumers. Itâs why public protest resisted the change in Ecuador and France in 2019. And developing nations … [Read more...]
