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» December 31 2016 - #Geopolitics #WorldEconomy #EnergyPolicy § 2017 Annual Forecast. The convulsions to come in 2017 are the political manifestations of much deeper forces in play. In much of the developed world, the trend of aging demographics and declining productivity is layered with technological innovation and the labor displacement that comes with it. China's economic slowdown and its ongoing evolution compound this dynamic. At the same time the world is trying to cope with reduced Chinese demand after decades of record growth, China is also slowly but surely moving its own economy up the value chain to produce and assemble many of the inputs it once imported, with the intent of increasingly selling to itself. All these forces combined will have a dramatic and enduring impact on the global economy and ultimately on the shape of the international system for decades to come. These long-arching trends tend to quietly build over decades and then noisily surface as the politics catch up. The longer economic pain persists, the stronger the political response. That loud banging at the door is the force of nationalism greeting the world's powers, particularly Europe and the United States, still the only superpower. Only, the global superpower is not feeling all that super. In fact, it's tired. It was roused in 2001 by a devastating attack on its soil, it overextended itself in wars in the Islamic world, and it now wants to get back to repairing things at home. Indeed, the main theme of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's campaign was retrenchment, the idea that the United States will pull back from overseas obligations, get others to carry more of the weight of their own defense, and let the United States focus on boosting economic competitiveness [stratfor.com]

» December 28 2016 - #EnergyPolicy #Finance § #ClimatePolicy Paper. Reaching #India's #RenewableEnergy Targets: The Role of Institutional Investors. India has ambitious renewable energy targets of 175GW by 2022. In 2014, the Government of India embarked on an ambitious plan to increase the share of renewable energy in the country's energy mix, setting targets to achieve 175 GW of installed renewable energy capacity by 2022. This includes 100 GW of solar power, 60 GW of wind power, 10 GW of waste-to-energy power and 5 GW of small hydropower by 2022. This is a significant increase from existing capacities of 3.5 GW, 23 GW, 4.4 GW and 4.2 GW, respectively (MNRE, November 2015). In order to meet this target of 175 GW by 2022, the renewable energy sector in India will require $189 billion in additional investment. The USD $189 billion requirement includes $57 billion in equity, and $132 billion in debt. We estimated this using capital expenditure forecasting for renewable energy projects (including solar power, onshore wind power, small hydropower, and waste-to-energy power) between 2016 and 2022. The potential amount of investment in the renewable energy sector in India is more than double the investment required. However, the amount of investment expected falls short of the investment required, by 29% for equity and 27% for debt. The potential for investment up to 2022 is $411 billion. The investment potential for equity is $220 billion - four times the equity investment required - and the investment potential for debt is $191 billion - 45% more than required. This indicates that more than sufficient investment potential is available for financing the renewable energy targets by 2022 [...]

» December 28 2016 - #LowCarbonEconomy #GreenEconomy #BlueEconomy #MarineEmìnvironment § #IMO. The 70th session of the Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) was held from 24-28 October 2016, at International Maritime Organisation (IMO) Headquarters in London. The meeting adopted key decisions which are likely to have a long-lasting effect on the marine environment and would contribute to enhancing the Blue Economy [maritimeindia.org]

» December 23 2016 - #EnergyPolicy #Geopolitics § #EIA, U.S. Crude #Oil and #NaturalGas #ProvedReserves, Year-end 2015. Between year-end 2014 and year-end 2015, U.S. crude oil and lease condensate proved reserves decreased from 39.9 billion barrels to 35.2 billion barrels-a decrease of 4.7 billion barrels (11.8%). Over the same period, proved reserves of U.S. total natural gas1decreased by 64.5 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) (16.6%), declining from 388.8 Tcf in 2014 to 324.3 Tcf. The average West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil spot prices declined almost 50% (from $95 per barrel in 2014 to $50 per barrel in 2015), and the average spot price of natural gas at the Louisiana Henry Hub declined more than 40% from $4.55 per million Btu in 2014 to $2.62 per million Btu in 2015. The significant reduction in prices, which resulted in a more challenging characterization of existing economic and operating conditions that are considered in the definition of proved reserves, led to downward revisions across a broad range of U.S. producers [eia.gov]

» December 22 2016 - #ClimatePolicy #G20 #WorldEconomy #EquityProject § German Advisory Council on Global Change (#WBGU) report. 2015 saw a historic double success for sustainability and climate policy. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement establish a system of ambitious policy goals for the world. The group of twenty major ­industrialized and emerging economies (G20) now needs to resolutely advance implementation of both agreements, seizing the opportunity of this 'Great Transformation' to sustainability as a unique ­modernization project that could offer substantial economic development opportunities. Complete ­decarbonization of the world economy, which is necessary to avoid the gravest climate risks, can only be achieved by profoundly ­transforming energy systems and other high-emissions infrastructures. This transformation could inspire ­Innovation and channel Investment into sustainability and climate protection, and into the kinds of ­sustainable Infrastructures that need to be ­established and expanded. At the same time, the transformation could combat inequality and promote ­Inclusion within societies and globally, thus becoming an equity project [wbgu.de]

» December 21 2016 - #SustainableEnergySystem § #IEA Report. #EnergyEfficiency Indicators Highlights 2016. The report includes country-specific analysis of end uses across the largest sectors - residential, services, industry and transport. It answers questions such as: What are the largest drivers for energy use trends in each country? Was energy saved because of efficiency progress over time? How much energy is used for space heating, appliances or cooking? What are the most energy-intensive industries? Improving energy efficiency is a critical step for governments to take to move towards a sustainable energy system. This report highlights the key role of end-use energy data and indicators in monitoring progress in energy efficiency around the world [iea.org]

» December 20 2016 - #Oil #Opec § #GoldmanSachs Says Saudis Wrong to Rule Out U.S. #ShaleOil Rebound. Saudi Arabia is wrong to think that U.S. shale production won't respond to higher oil prices in 2017, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. While crude may rise to over $60 a barrel if OPEC members and other nations cut production as promised, a rebound in U.S. shale output would bring prices back to $55, the bank's forecast for the first half of next year, it said in a report. Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said on Saturday he didn't expect a big supply response from American shale producers in 2017 [bloomberg.com]

» December 19 2016 - #EnergySecurity #SustainableEconomicGrowth #RenewableEnergy #NaturalGas § #EnergyPolicies of #IEA #Countries - #Italy 2016 Review. Since the last in-depth review in 2009, Italy has made strong progress in the development and implementation of energy policy. The most notable improvement has been the development and implementation of a comprehensive long-term energy strategy. The publication of the National Energy Strategy in 2013 sent a strong signal to stakeholders as to the government's medium- and long-term objectives for the energy sector. It established clear goals: reduce energy costs, meet environmental targets, strengthen security of energy supply and foster sustainable economic growth. Nonetheless, the adoption of the Strategy is only a first step towards achieving the government's ambitions. Monitoring implementation and maintaining momentum will present a challenge for the government. Italy has experienced impressive growth in the renewable energy sector and has been successful in integrating large volumes of variable renewable generation. Containing costs is a priority, and policies need to focus on bringing deployment costs towards international benchmarks. Italy has also continued to progress in terms of market liberalisation and infrastructure development, notably in the electricity market where transmission improvements between north and south, as well as market coupling, have resulted in price convergence throughout the country and wholesale prices tending towards those elsewhere in Europe. Development in the gas sector has been slower, and greater progress is needed if Italy is to be become a southern European gas hub. Furthermore, institutional arrangements within the energy sector remain complex and should be reformed and strengthened. Implementation of the National Energy Strategy provides a timely opportunity to address each of these challenges in a comprehensive way. This review analyses the energy policy challenges facing Italy and provides recommendations for further policy improvements [iea.org]

» December 16 2016 - #EnergyPolicy #ClimatePolicy #US § Rick Perry, the new Energy Secretary of USA. Mr. Perry has been a reliable backer of GOP energy policies, supporting the Keystone XL pipeline and other priorities of the oil and natural gas industries. Perhaps more than other Republicans, though, he has also shown he backs renewable energy, in particular wind [...] Mr. Perry's position on climate change could face renewed scrutiny in light of a memo sent recently by Mr. Trump's transition team to Energy Department officials. Among other things, the memo asked which staffers have participated in meetings on climate change, raising concerns among some environmental groups that it foretells a shift in the department's funding and a hunt for staffers who worked on climate change [wsj.com]

» December 16 2016 - #GreenEconomy #LowCarbonEconomy § #Riskybusiness report. From Risk to Return: Investing in a #CleanEnergyEconomy. It finds reducing the risk posed by climate change is both economically and technically achievable, and would create significant new opportunities for business. The report lays out four pathways for arriving at a clean energy economy in the United States, each providing a distinct energy make-up: high renewables, high nuclear, carbon capture and storage, and a mixed case of all of these. An average of $320 billion in private sector investment is needed through 2050 to build a clean energy economy and achieve the emissions reductions necessary to avoid the worst economic impacts of climate change [riskybusiness.org]

» December 15 2016 - #Energy #ElectricVehicles § BP Speeches. #EVs and future #OilDemand. How significant could EVs be for oil demand and for the growth of CO2 emissions over the next 20 years or so? [bp.com]

» December 15 2016 - #ClimateChange #GlobalWarming § #PBL. Trends in global #CO2Emissions: 2016 Report. In 2015, after three years of slow growth, the growth of global CO2 emissions from fossil-fuel use and from steel and cement production was brought to a standstill. One of the main causes was the 2% global decrease in coal burning and cement production - the largest decrease over the past five decades, apart from recessions. The global decrease in CO2 emissions from coal use was offset by increasing emissions from the combustion of natural gas and oil products [pbl.nl]

» December 14 2016 - #ClimateChange #GlobalWarming § Unprecedented #ArcticWarmth in 2016 triggers massive decline in sea ice, snow. A new #NOAA-sponsored report shows that unprecedented warming air temperature in 2016 over the Arctic contributed to a record-breaking delay in the fall sea ice freeze-up, leading to extensive melting of Greenland ice sheet and land-based snow cover. Now in its 11th year, the Arctic Report Card, released today at the annual American Geophysical Union fall meeting in San Francisco, is a peer-reviewed report that brings together the work of 61 scientists from 11 nations who report on air, ocean, land and ecosystem changes. It is a key tool used around the world to track changes in the Arctic and how those changes may affect communities, businesses and people [noaa.gov]

» December 13 2016 - #Oil #Geopolitics § #OPEC's oil output set another record high in November ahead of a deal to cut production [...] helped by higher Iraqi exports and extra barrels from two nations exempted from cutting supply - Nigeria and Libya. The latest rise in supply means the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries will have a bigger task in complying with a plan to cut supply starting in 2017 - its first production-reduction deal since 2008. Supply from OPEC increased to 34.19 million barrels per day (bpd) in November from 33.82 million bpd in October [...] Based on the November survey, OPEC is pumping 1.69 million bpd above the 32.50 million bpd production target that it agreed last week to adopt from January 2017, following an outline agreement reached in September [reuters.com]

» December 13 2016 - #ClimatePolicy #INDCs #Coal § The Paris Agreement is a milestone in international climate diplomacy. The global community agreed to "holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels", and to a new architecture with mitigation commitments from all Parties. At the same time, coal expansion seems to continue unabated, and some of the countries putting forward their climate commitments under the UNFCCC are planning and constructing new coal-fired power generation capacity at large scale (Global Coal Plant Tracker, 2016). This paper looks at how these coal plans and related national energy strategies link to the submitted INDCs, and analyses the implications for achieving stated commitments [current-future.org]

» December 13 2016 - #EnergyMarkets #US #Greentechmedia Report § The Economics of Commercial #EnergyStorage in the U.S.: The Outlook for Demand Charge Management. Commercial energy storage has been the fastest-growing storage segment in the U.S. over the last two years. While the bulk of this growth occurred in California, other markets have started to crop up in recent months, driven in large part by a single value stream - demand charge management [greentechmedia.com]

» December 12 2016 - #Oil § Vienna Ministerial Meeting, #OPEC and #nonOPEC convinced of the necessity to jointly cooperate to help stabilize the oil market, reached the following: i) OPEC maintains its decision made on 30th November 2016, whereby arrangements were recorded following the extensive understanding of OPEC's adjustment; ii) Azerbaijan, Kingdom of Bahrain, Brunei Darussalam, Equatorial Guinea, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mexico, Sultanate of Oman, the Russian Federation, Republic of Sudan, and Republic of South Sudan commit to reduce their respective oil production, voluntarily or through managed decline, in accordance with an accelerated schedule. The combined reduction target was agreed at 558,000 barrels a day for the aforementioned producers; iii) That two participating non-OPEC countries shall join the OPEC Ministerial Monitoring Committee, consisting of oil ministers, chaired by Kuwait with the Russian Federation as alternate chair and assisted by the OPEC Secretariat; iiii) To strengthen their cooperation, including through joint analyses and outlooks, with a view to ensuring a sustainable oil market, for the benefit of producers and consumers; and To regularly review at the technical and ministerial levels the status of their cooperation [opec.org]

» December 10 2016 - #ClimatePolicy #ClimateEconomics § #i4ce Report. Landscape of #ClimateFinance in #France, 2016 Edition. Investments are made in three key areas of the energy transition. The 2016 Edition of the Landscape of Climate Finance tracks up to €32bn of climate investment in 2014. This corresponds to approximately 10% of all material investment that occured in France in 2014. From this total: €12.8 was invested in energy efficiency, mainly in the building sector; €6.5bn was invested in renewable energies; €10.6bn was invested in sustainable infrastructure, such as railways and mass urban transport. An additional €2.1bn went to the nuclear sector. Since 2013, the stability of overall investments hides variations in end-uses. Between 2011 and 2013, investments increased by €2.3bn to reach €32bn. This amount remained stable in 2014 and 2015. This overall stability, however, hides variations in the different end-uses. After a 50% increase from 2011 to 2013, investment in sustainable infrastructure declined through 2014 and 2015. Meanwhile, investment in energy efficiency and renewable energy increased by 14% and 10% respectively, contributing to the overall stability of investment. 59% of investment is made by households and private companies. Households invested €9.5bn in favour of climate mitigation in 2014. Most of this investment was made in the building sector. Private companies, including special purpose vehicles (SPVs), invested €9.6bn or 30% of total investment in favour of climate mitigation in 2014. However, public-driven finance represented 55% of the total of investments [i4ce.org]

» December 9 2016 - #ClimatePolicy #LowCarbonEconomy #Decarbonisation #EU § IDDRI's Study. State of the #LowCarbonEnergyUnion: Assessing the EU's progress towards its 2030 and 2050 climate objectives. In order to assess the adequacy of the EU and its Member States policies with the 2030 and 2050 decarbonisation objectives, this study goes beyond the aggregate GHG emissions or energy use figures and analyse the underlying drivers of emission changes, following a sectoral approach (power generation, buildings, industry, and transport). Historical trends of emission drivers are compared with the required long-term deep decarbonisation pathways, which provide sectoral 'benchmarks' or 'corridors' against which to analyse the rate and direction of historical change for each Member State and the EU in aggregate. This approach allows the identification of the necessary structural changes in the energy system and policy interventions to reach deep decarbonisation, and therefore the comparison with the current policy programs at European and Member State level [iddri.org]

» December 9 2016 - #ClimatePolicy #INDC #LowCarbonEconomy #EU § A model-based analysis of the European #IntendedNationallyDeterminedContribution. This paper aims at: i) providing a summary of the key elements of the European INDC as submitted for the Paris COP21 and ii) examining the energy, economic, climate and social implications of the implementation of the European INDC up to 2030 and the long-term objectives towards a low-carbon economy by 2050, for which no detailed policies are yet in place. Results from quantitative model-based assessments show that the restructuring of the EU energy system towards a low-carbon economy implies significant changes in the energy mix away from Reference scenario trends and has impacts on the production and employment in all economic sectors [iddri.org]

» December 7 2016 - #NaturalGas #Geopolitics § #EU council agrees 40% gas contracts threshold. Long-term gas contracts providing 40% or more of annual gas consumption in any member state will be notified to the competent authority [...] The competent authority and the EU Commission will also be able to request relevant information, except on price, concerning other gas contracts even if they do not meet the 40% threshold. But they also agreed that any exchange of information on such contracts should not become over-bureaucratic and that the confidentiality of commercially sensitive information be preserved. The 40% threshold will primarily affect eastern European countries, where Russian giant Gazprom remains the dominant supplier [naturalgasworld.com]

» December 7 2016 - #EnergyStorage § #US Energy Storage Monitor, the U.S. saw 16.4 MW of energy storage deployed in the Q3 2016 across all segments. The U.S. annual energy storage market will grow to 260 MW in 2016, up from 226 MW in 2015 [greentechmedia.com]

» December 7 2016 - #Coal #India § #Australia, #Queensland, #Adani coal mine project approved. Once operating, the project will become Australia's largest coal mine. Adani is India's biggest solar power producer and top coal-fired generator. The project is expected to commence in 2017, and will produce as much as 60 million tonnes of coal per year from the site [worldcoal.org]

» December 6 2016 - #RenewableEnergy #PV § #GTM Research's latest solar report, Global Solar Demand Monitor: Q4 2016, the global solar market will contract 7 percent next year, and then post 9 percent compound annual growth through 2021 [greentechmedia.com]

» December 5 2016 - #Oil #Opec #Geopolitics § Agreement in Vienna: Will It Hold? [...] Turning now to what it means from here, it is highly likely that at least some form of compliance will occur, which is positive in terms of addressing the significant overhang of crude and refined products in the market today. On past form, Saudi will stick to their word with near full support from UAE and Kuwait and lower levels of compliance from other member countries. On average the compliance to total agreed December 2008 cuts was around 66% in the first half of 2009, representing one of the strongest periods of OPEC alignment. In 2001/2002 there were reductions post 9/11, led by the core of OPEC (Saudi, UAE and Kuwait) with limited participation from others, beyond declines or supply disruptions, while in 1998 it took three rounds of agreements to finally achieve a reasonable level of compliance, despite oil prices languishing around $10/bbl in the wake of the Asian Financial Crisis [macrogeo]

» December 5 2016 - #Energy #ClimatePolicy #Geopolitics § Germany took over the G 20 presidency, infoportal "G20 in Focus", articles and infographics about #GreenFinance, #RenewableEnergies and #FossilFuelSubsidies in G 20 countries [boell.de]

» December 2 2016 - #LowCarbonEconomy #EnergyEfficiency #RenewableEnergy #ElectricityMarket #EnergyUnion #EcoDesign #EU #InnovationPolicies § Commission proposes new rules for consumer centred #CleanEnergyTransition. The European Commission today presents a package of measures to keep the European Union competitive as the clean energy transition is changing global energy markets. The Commission wants the EU to lead the clean energy transition, not only adapt to it. For this reason the EU has committed to cut CO2 emissions by at least 40% by 2030 while modernising the EU's economy and delivering on jobs and growth for all European citizens. Today's proposals have three main goals: putting energy efficiency first, achieving global leadership in renewable energies and providing a fair deal for consumers. Consumers are active and central players on the energy markets of the future. Consumers across the EU will in the future have a better choice of supply, access to reliable energy price comparison tools and the possibility to produce and sell their own electricity. Increased transparency and better regulation give more opportunities for civil society to become more involved in the energy system and respond to price signals. The package also contains a number of measures aimed at protecting the most vulnerable consumers [...] The Commission's "Clean Energy for All Europeans" proposals are designed to show that the clean energy transition is the growth sector of the future - that's where the smart money is. Clean energies in 2015 attracted global investment of over 300 billion euros. The EU is well placed to use our research, development and innovation policies to turn this transition into a concrete industrial opportunity. By mobilising up to 177 billion euros of public and private investment per year from 2021, this package can generate up to a 1% increase in GDP over the next decade and create 900,000 new jobs. The Clean Energy for All Europeans legislative proposals cover energy efficiency, renewable energy, the design of the electricity market, security of electricity supply and governance rules for the Energy Union. In addition the Commission proposes a new way forward for eco-design as well as a strategy for connected and automated mobility.nThe package also includes actions to accelerate clean energy innovation and to renovate Europe's buildings. It provides measures to encourage public and private investment, promote EU industrial competitiveness and mitigate the societal impact of the clean energy transition. We are also exploring ways in which the EU can show further leadership in clean energy technology and services to help non-EU countries achieve their policy goals [ec.europa.eu]

» December 2 2016 - #ClimatePolicy #ClimateEconomics #Geopolitics § The Climate-#Energy Nexus and the #G20: Compatible or mutually exclusive? Commitment to global climate action is stronger than ever before, with the Paris Agreement entering into force on 4 November and fresh advances at COP 22 in Morocco. The pledge to achieve global decarbonisation could prove to be a game changer in both the climate and energy policy arenas. Yet, climate protection still receives little attention within some major international fora dealing with a broad range of key global issues. The G20 is one crucial example. In 2016 there have been some promising developments under the Chinese presidency on addressing the climate and energy nexus. Germany's upcoming G20 presidency provides a chance to translate the ambition of the Paris Agreement into a roadmap for the phase-out of fossil fuels over the coming decades [adelphi.de]

» December 1 2016 - #Oil § #OPEC 171st Meeting concludes [...] in line with the 'Algiers Accord', the Conference decided to implement a new OPEC-14 production target of 32.5mb/d, in order to accelerate the ongoing drawdown of the stock overhang and bring the oil market rebalancing forward. The Agreement will be effective from January 1, 2017. The Conference also decided to establish a High-level Monitoring Committee, consisting of Oil Ministers, and assisted by the OPEC Secretariat, to monitor the implementation of the Agreement. Member Countries, in agreeing to this decision, confirmed their commitment to a stable and balanced oil market, with prices at levels that are suitable for both producers and consumers [...] In line with recommendations from the High-level Committee of the 'Algiers Accord', the Conference also agreed to institutionalize a framework for cooperation between OPEC and non-OPEC producing countries on a regular and sustainable basis. The Conference underscored the importance of other producing countries joining the Agreement [opec.org]

» December 1 2016 - #ClimateChange #COP21 § #ClimatePolicy Article. Effective and geographically balanced? An output-based assessment of #NonStateClimateActions. At COP21 in Paris, governments reiterated the importance of 'non-Party' contributions, placing big bets that the efforts of cities, regions, investors, companies, and other social groups will help keep average global warming limited to well under 2°C. However, there is little systematic knowledge concerning the performance of no-state and subnational efforts. We established a database of 52 climate actions launched at the 2014 UN Climate Summit in New York to assess output performance - that is, the production of relevant outputs - to understand whether they are likely to deliver social and environmental impacts. Moreover, we assess to which extent climate actions are implemented across developed and developing countries. We find that climate actions are starting to deliver, and output performance after one year is higher than one might expect from previous experiences with similar actions. However, differences exist between action areas: resilience actions have yet to produce specific outputs, whereas energy and industry actions perform above average. Furthermore, imbalances between developing and developed countries persist. While many actions target low-income and lower-middle-income economies, the implementation gap in these countries remains greater. More efforts are necessary to mobilize and implement actions that benefit the world's most vulnerable people [tandfonline.com]

» December 1 2016 - #ClimateChange #ClimatePolicy § #GranthamResearchInstitute on Climate Change and the Environment, #LSE, Assessing the consistency of #NationalMitigationActions in the G20 with the Paris Agreement. New study finds six #G20 countries are failing to take action in line with their Paris Agreement pledges. Argentina, Australia, Canada, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United States have not been undertaking sufficient domestic efforts to match their pledged nationally determined contributions to the Paris Agreement [...] The results are based on an assessment of the consistency of past and present climate action by members of the G20 with the key requirements of the Paris Agreement. Six G20 countries (Brazil, China, France, Germany, Italy and the UK), together with the European Union as a bloc, were found to have undertaken action that is either completely or mostly consistent with the Paris Agreement [lse.ac.uk]

» November 30 2016 - #FossilFuel #UK § Two-thirds of #Oil and #Gas firms cut jobs last year. There's been no slowdown in the number of oil and gas job cuts, with two-thirds of businesses having laid off staff in the last year, according to a new report. #AberdeenGrampianChamberOfCommerce has published its latest Oil and Gas survey, revealing that operators have cut headcounts by an average of 15% this year, and contractors 7%. However, there's optimism the crisis could be reaching a turning point - six months ago operators were predicting a 17% cut in staff numbers, which has fallen to 5% [originalfm.com]

» November 30 2016 - #NaturalGas § #BP (BP.L) has agreed to buy 10 percent of #Eni's (ENI.MI) Shorouk concession offshore Egypt, which includes the giant #ZohrGasField, for $375 million, joining other oil majors in increasing bets on the growing gas market. The deal gives Eni much-needed cash as part of its 5 billion euro divestment plan to continue investing and paying dividends despite weak oil prices. The companies also agreed BP could purchase another 5 percent of the field before the end of next year, when the Zohr field is slated to start production, under the same terms and that BP would reimburse Eni around $150 million in past expenditure [reuters.com]

» November 30 2016 - #Oil § #OPEC oil production agreement will be for 6 months. OPEC rivals Saudi Arabia, Iran and Iraq on Wednesday signaled their willingness to compromise on an output deal, but did not offer any specific details, as any individual country production cuts are still being negotiated [platts.com]

» November 28 2016 - #Energy #Geopolitics #WorldEconomy § The Economist's Report. Breaking the habit. The future of #Oil. The world's use of oil is approaching a tipping-point. But don't expect it to end imminently [economist.com]

» November 28 2016 - #Energy § Deal or no deal: Is Vienna meet last chance for #OPEC #Oil deal? Global energy industry stakeholders, which includes some of the world's leading countries as well as major oil companies will be keenly watching the OPEC deliberations in Vienna on November 30 as the producing countries seek to find a consensus on output and try to boost prices. The contentious issue before OPEC and non-OPEC strategists when they face on Wednesday will be on how to share the burden of cuts agreed upon at the meeting in Algiers on September 28 during the International Energy Forum [alarabiya.net]

» November 25 2016 - #Energy § #IEA expects #Oil investment to fall for third year in 2017. Investment in new oil production is likely to fall for a third year in 2017 as a global supply glut persists, stoking volatility in crude markets [...] "Our analysis shows we are entering a period of greater oil price volatility (partly) as a result of three years in a row of global oil investments in decline: in 2015, 2016 and most likely 2017," IEA director general Fatih Birol said at an energy conference in Tokyo. "This is the first time in the history of oil that investments are declining three years in a row," he said, adding that this would cause "difficulties" in global oil markets in a few years. Oil prices have risen to their highest in nearly a month, as expectations grow among traders and investors that OPEC will agree to cut production, but market watchers reckon a deal may pack less punch than Saudi Arabia and its partners want [...] U.S. shale oil producers will increase their output if oil prices hit $60 a barrel, meaning OPEC will have to walk a fine line if it curtails production to prop up prices [reuters.com]

» November 25 2016 - #ClimateChange #GlobalWarming § Earth's Future paper. The global warming hiatus: Slowdown or redistribution? Global mean surface temperatures (GMST) exhibited a smaller rate of warming during 1998-2013, compared to the warming in the latter half of the 20th Century. Although, not a "true" hiatus in the strict definition of the word, this has been termed the "global warming hiatus" by IPCC (2013). There have been other periods that have also been defined as the "hiatus" depending on the analysis. There are a number of uncertainties and knowledge gaps regarding the "hiatus." This report reviews these issues and also posits insights from a collective set of diverse information that helps us understand what we do and do not know. One salient insight is that the GMST phenomenon is a surface characteristic that does not represent a slowdown in warming of the climate system but rather is an energy redistribution within the oceans. Improved understanding of the ocean distribution and redistribution of heat will help better monitor Earth's energy budget and its consequences. A review of recent scientific publications on the "hiatus" shows the difficulty and complexities in pinpointing the oceanic sink of the "missing heat" from the atmosphere and the upper layer of the oceans, which defines the "hiatus." Advances in "hiatus" research and outlooks (recommendations) are given in this report [onlinelibrary.wiley.com]

» November 24 2016 - #ClimateChange #ClimatePolicy § The ESRC Centre for #ClimateChangeEconomics and Policy and the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment held an international meeting to mark the 10th anniversary of the publication of The Economics of Climate Change: The Stern Review. Keynote lecture by Nicholas Stern: The Criticality of the Next 10 Years-Delivering the Global Agenda and Building Infrastructure for the 21st Century [cccep.ac.uk]

» November 23 2016 - #OilMarket #Finance § #Lithium and the next #FossilFuel crisis. According to a study by #FitchRatings, the lithium batteries powering electric cars have the potential to throw the petroleum industry into crisis [...] [China] Public transport is only the tip of the iceberg that is the wider market of electric vehicles, in which private cars still take the lion’s share. In 2015 alone, over 331,000 zero-emissions vehicles were sold in China, enabling the country to overtake the United States as global leader. The most recent five year plan issued by Beijing calls for doubling this figure by 2025, offering consumers a package of incentives covering up to 60% of the purchase cost [...] Such a scenario is foreseen by Fitch Ratings, which recently published a report that for the first time examines the financial consequences for the oil market in the case of a rapid development of lithium battery technology. The most extreme scenario, but not the most unrealistic, forecasts one fourth of European fossil fuel demand simply evaporating, if electric cars were to reach a market share of 50% within ten years. The consequence for oil companies would be that major investors, anxious about assets considered technologically obsolete, would start gradually but inexorably selling off shares. The threat is all the more serious considering that in 2014 as much as 55% of global oil output was consumed by the transport sector [...] Even as battery performance improves, an infrastructure capable of supporting this new form of mobility has to be built. At the current time, the costs look anything but competitive. "In our report we tried to simulate broadly the cost of a recharging infrastructure that more or less duplicates the existing conventional one in the United States. The cost would amount to 70 billion USD, but it's not a given that the process undertaken will be that one. In any case, small and large distributors will have to pay out anywhere between 100,000 and 175,000 USD for every charging point. At these costs, utilities could fund the new stations jointly with the retailers or open their own brand, but it's hard to say which business model will end up prevailing." The report's conclusion invites oil, energy and auto companies to be warned. Disruptive battery technology could spread havoc on sectors that issue one quarter of global stocks, amounting to 340,000 billion USD. The picture painted by Fitch isn't here yet, but the price to pay for those who don't adapt could be dire [abo.net]

» November 22 2016 - #NaturalGas #Turkey #Russia #Geopolitcs § Pipeline Politics. At this latest meeting, the parties agreed to rejuvenate the #TurkishStream pipeline project, which had been shelved for the past year [...] Looking at the equation strictly from the quantitative point of view, hydrocarbons from the Caspian Sea are transited through Turkish territory by two pipelines: Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (oil pipeline) and Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum (natural gas). A new pipeline - #Tanap is in the process of construction, which will connect South Caucasus Pipeline (running from Azerbaijan and Georgia to Turkish border) to the other pipeline to be built in the western border of Turkey, and the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline. These three pipelines together will form the #SouthernGasCorridor (SGC), which will deliver 16bn m³/yr to Europe from Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz gas field (Phase II) in the Caspian Sea. 6bn m³/yr of this volume is intended for Turkey, the rest is destined to reach consumers in Europe. It should be noted that, apart from being a transit country, Turkey is a huge consumer of natural gas. Turkey imports nearly 99% of the natural gas it consumes. Over the last decade, Turkey has been the second country, after China, in terms of natural gas demand growth. In 2015, Turkey imported around 48.4bn m³ of natural gas. 55.3% of this import is from Russia, followed by Iran (16.2%), Azerbaijan (12.7%) and LNG from Algeria (8.1%) and Nigeria (2.6%) [...] As Turkey's rapprochement with Russia will bring back the Turkish Stream project, so Tanap will continue to be a major strategic project that Turkey will be looking at. Tanap, and the SGC in general will not deliver massive volumes of gas to Turkey and further to Europe compared with Russia. It is clear that these two projects are not intended to compete with each other in their current setting [naturalgasworld.com]

» November 22 2016 - #Oil #SaudiArabia #Geopolitics § #Aramco to publish audited #OilReserve figures. Saudi Aramco has long contended that it has reserves of about 260bn barrels of oil. The exact size of the Kingdom's oil fields have heretofore never been released and investors have had to rely on the government's official statistics. "Everything that Saudi Aramco has, that will be shared, that will be verified by independent third parties", Khalid al-Falih, Saudi Arabia's energy minister [arabianoilandgas.com]

» November 21 2016 - #Energy #NaturalGas #RenewableEnergy #Oil #Coal § #IEA #WorldEnergyOutlook 2016 sees broad transformations in the global energy landscape. As a result of major transformations in the global energy system that take place over the next decades, renewables and natural gas are the big winners in the race to meet energy demand growth until 2040, according to the latest edition of the World Energy Outlook, the International Energy Agency's flagship publication. A detailed analysis of the pledges made for the Paris Agreement on climate change finds that the era of fossil fuels appears far from over and underscores the challenge of reaching more ambitious climate goals. Still, government policies, as well as cost reductions across the energy sector, enable a doubling of both renewables - subject of a special focus in this year's Outlook - and of improvements in energy efficiency over the next 25 years. Natural gas continues to expand its role while the shares of coal and oil fall back. [...] This transformation of the global energy mix described in WEO-2016 means that risks to energy security also evolve. Traditional concerns related to oil and gas supply remain - and are reinforced by record falls in investment levels. The report shows that another year of lower upstream oil investment in 2017 would create a significant risk of a shortfall in new conventional supply within a few years. In the longer-term, investment in oil and gas remain essential to meet demand and replace declining production, but the growth in renewables and energy efficiency lessens the call on oil and gas imports in many countries. Increased LNG shipments also change how gas security is perceived. At the same time, the variable nature of renewables in power generation, especially wind and solar, entails a new focus on electricity security. Global oil demand continues to grow until 2040, mostly because of the lack of easy alternatives to oil in road freight, aviation and petrochemicals, according to WEO-2016. However, oil demand from passenger cars declines even as the number of vehicles doubles in the next quarter century, thanks mainly to improvements in efficiency, but also biofuels and rising ownership of electric cars. Coal consumption barely grows in the next 25 years, as demand in China starts to fall back thanks to efforts to fight air pollution and diversify the fuel mix. The gas market is also changing, with the share of LNG overtaking pipelines and growing to more than half of the global long-distance gas trade, up from a quarter in 2000. In an already well-supplied market, new LNG from Australia, the United States and elsewhere triggers a shift to more competitive markets and changes in contractual terms and pricing. The Paris Agreement, which entered into force on 4 November, is a major step forward in the fight against global warming. But meeting more ambitious climate goals will be extremely challenging and require a step change in the pace of decarbonization and efficiency. Implementing current international pledges will only slow down the projected rise in energy-related carbon emissions from an average of 650 million tonnes per year since 2000 to around 150 million tonnes per year in 2040. While this is a significant achievement, it is far from enough to avoid the worst impact of climate change as it would only limit the rise in average global temperatures to 2.7°C by 2100. The path to 2°C is tough, but it can be achieved if policies to accelerate further low carbon technologies and energy efficiency are put in place across all sectors. It would require that carbon emissions peak in the next few years and that the global economy becomes carbon neutral by the end of the century. For example, in the WEO-2016 2°C scenario, the number of electric cars would need to exceed 700 million by 2040, and displace more than 6 million barrels a day of oil demand. Ambitions to further limit temperature gains, beyond 2°C, would require even bigger efforts [iea.org]

» November 21 2016 - #COP22 #ClimatePolicy § Countries commit to put Paris deal into action by 2018 but much work remains to be done [...] The rules of the game. In order to track actions and progress by all countries involved, the Paris agreement will need a robust transparency and accountability system covering NDCs, finance and technical transfers. The APA Ad Hoc Working Group on the Paris Agreement) is in charge of developing common rules, procedures and guidelines to enhance the UNFCCC's current Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) system by 2018. At COP22 delegates mostly discussed the degree of flexibility for requirements developing and poorer countries should comply with, reflecting "their different capabilities and national circumstances". No significant news emerged in Marrakech about the modalities and procedures of the compliance committee that will be in charge of facilitating the implementation of the Paris agreement's provisions [climateobserver.org]

» November 20 2016 - #FossilFuels § #Oil Majors and #ClimateRisk: What Investors Need to Know. Recent media reports suggest that investigations by the New York Attorney General into ExxonMobil on climate change are now considering present-day disclosures such as how its reserves may be impacted by climate risk issues. This report examines the ten largest integrated oil and gas majors in North America and Europe and looks at how thoroughly they are disclosing on some key climate-related metrics likely to have a major impact on the future shape and value of their businesses. Exxon, Occidental and Chevron are at the bottom of the table, suggesting these three warrant particular investor scrutiny. The key risk issue is the proliferation of zero emission vehicles (ZEV) and hybrids resulting in descreasing demand for petroleum products used in road vehicles, which on average provide at least 35% of gross revenue of the oil majors. The research found scant disclosure by the oil and gas majors on their precise projections for ZEV penetration and impact on gasoline/diesel sales. Oil Production (m BOE/yr) 2015 - Gas Production(tn cf3/yr) 2015 - Renewable Generation (GWH/yr) 2015: ExxonMobil 762 | 3.8 | 0; Royal Dutch Shell 553 | 3.1 | N/A; BP 684 | 2.6 | 4,424; Total 632 | 2.2 | N/A; Eni 531 | 1.6 | N/A; Chevron 332 | 1.9 | N/A; Statoil 193 | 1.6 | 440; Conoco Phillips 159 | 1.5 | 0; Occidental 151 | 0.2 | 0; Suncor Energ 377 | N/A | N/A [influencemap.org]

» November 17 2016 - #Oil #Shale #US § USGS Estimates 20 Billion Barrels of Oil in Texas' Wolfcamp Shale Formation. This is the largest estimate of continuous oil that USGS has ever assessed in the United States. The Wolfcamp shale in the Midland Basin portion of Texas' Permian Basin province contains an estimated mean of 20 billion barrels of oil, 16 trillion cubic feet of associated natural gas, and 1.6 billion barrels of natural gas liquids, according to an assessment by the U.S. Geological Survey. This estimate is for continuous (unconventional) oil, and consists of undiscovered, technically recoverable resources. The estimate of continuous oil in the Midland Basin Wolfcamp shale assessment is nearly three times larger than that of the 2013 USGS Bakken-Three Forks resource assessment, making this the largest estimated continuous oil accumulation that USGS has assessed in the United States to date [...] Although the USGS has assessed oil and gas resources in the Permian Basin province, this is the first assessment of continuous resources in the Wolfcamp shale in the Midland Basin portion of the Permian. Since the 1980s, the Wolfcamp shale in the Midland Basin has been part of the "Wolfberry" play that encompasses Mississippian, Pennsylvanian, and Lower Permian reservoirs. Oil has been produced using traditional vertical well technology. However, more recently, oil and gas companies have been using horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, and more than 3,000 horizontal wells have been drilled and completed in the Midland Basin Wolfcamp section. The Wolfcamp shale is also present in the Delaware Basin portion of the Permian Basin province, but was not included in this assessment. The Permian Basin province includes a series of basins and other geologic formations in West Texas and southern New Mexico. It is one of the most productive areas for oil and gas in the entire United States. Continuous oil and gas is dispersed throughout a geologic formation rather than existing as discrete, localized occurrences, such as those in conventional accumulations. Because of that, continuous resources commonly require special technical drilling and recovery methods, such as hydraulic fracturing. Undiscovered resources are those that are estimated to exist based on geologic knowledge and theory, while technically recoverable resources are those that can be produced using currently available technology and industry practices. Whether or not it is profitable to produce these resources has not been evaluated. USGS is the only provider of publicly available estimates of undiscovered technically recoverable oil and gas resources of onshore lands and offshore state waters. The USGS Wolfcamp shale assessment was undertaken as part of a nationwide project assessing domestic petroleum basins using standardized methodology and protocol [usgs.gov]

» November 17 2016 - #ClimatePolicy #ClimateMitigation #CarbonMarket § #WorldBank Report. State and Trends of #CarbonPricing 2016. This report provides an up-to-date overview of existing and emerging carbon pricing instruments around the world, including national and subnational initiatives. Furthermore, it gives an overview of current corporate carbon pricing initiatives. Another key focus of the report is on the importance of aligning carbon pricing with the broader policy landscape. The analysis provides lessons for policymakers on how maximize synergies between climate mitigation and other related policies, while managing potential tensions and tradeoffs. It also provides new modelling analysis to demonstrate the crucial benefits that an international carbon market established under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement could provide in reducing the costs to countries of achieving their emission reduction targets. An international carbon market could thus enable greater ambition in taking steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to a level consistent with the 2°C climate stabilization goal [worldbank.org]

» November 16 2016 - #Oil #NaturalGas #Shale #Fracking § #US Chamber of Commerce's Institute for 21st Century Energy. New Energy Institute Report Finds that U.S. Could Lose Nearly 15 Million Jobs If Hydraulic Fracturing is Banned. The fourth installment in the Energy Institute's Energy Accountability Series details the devastating economic impacts that America could face if the "Keep in in the Ground" movement succeeded in banning hydraulic fracturing for oil and natural gas. The Energy Accountability Series takes a substantive look at what could happen if energy proposals from candidates and interest groups were actually adopted. The latest report asks the question, "What If Hydraulic Fracturing Was Banned?" The answer? By 2022, 14.8 million jobs could be lost, gasoline prices and electricity prices could almost double, and each American family could see their cost of living increase by almost $4,000. [...] Without fracking, the U.S. would surrender our status as a global energy superpower [...] Additionally, the Energy Institute's report looks specifically at the economic impacts of a fracking ban on Colorado, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas. In all these states, the impact could be severe. 1.6 million Texans could lose their jobs, while Pennsylvania could lose $50 billion a year in state GDP. Colorado could lose 215,000 jobs, and the average Ohio household could see costs rise by $4,000 a year [...] Using the IMPLAN model, the report modeled changes to the U.S. economy, including real labor income, energy prices, air transportation costs, and energy extraction jobs. The report also breaks down three types of economic shock-higher residential energy costs, higher business energy costs, and upstream production losses. Seventeen separate economic sectors-many of which have little to do with the oil and gas sector-would experience hardship as a result of higher prices. Among the most vulnerable are retail and wholesale sectors of the economy. The mission of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Institute for 21st Century Energy is to unify policymakers, regulators, business leaders, and the American public behind a common sense energy strategy to help keep America secure, prosperous, and clean [...] The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is the world's largest business federation representing the interests of more than 3 million businesses of all sizes, sectors, and regions, as well as state and local chambers and industry associations [energyxxi.org]

» November 16 2016 - #ClimateChange #ClimatePolicy #ClimateFinance § #CARE, #ActionAid, and #WWF Report. Global Goal on #Adaptation: From Concept to Practice. This report contains recommendations in order to significantly advance action under the Global Goal on Adaptation by 2018, a key international climate policy moment; this is essential to build resilience for the poorest and most vulnerable people, communities, ecosystems, and countries. Amongst others, the report introduces the concept of the Global Goal on Adaptation and recommends a set of actions in the areas of National Adaptation Planning, climate finance, and capacity building. The Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA) was established in the Paris Agreement with the aim of "enhancing adaptive capacity, strengthening resilience and reducing vulnerability to climate change, with a view to contributing to sustainable development and ensuring an adequate adaptation response in the context of the global temperature goal." The establishment of the GGA was widely supported as part of the strategy to increase focus on adaptation in the Agreement [careclimatechange.org]

» November 16 2016 - #ClimateEconomics #ClimateFinance § UNESCAP Report. The #Economics of #ClimateChange in the #AsiaPacific region. Higher temperatures, sea level rise, and extreme weather events linked to climate change are having a major impact on the Asia-Pacific region, harming its economies, natural and physical assets, and compounding developmental challenges, including poverty, food and energy security and health. Many countries in the Asia-Pacific region are geographically vulnerable and highly exposed to the damaging impacts of climate change. Without climate-driven development, climate change could force more than 100 million people into extreme poverty by 2030, wiping out the gains in poverty reduction achieved over the last decades. Climate change is the result of a massive market failure. Taking into account the urgency of the climate change challenge and the focus on implementation now that the Paris Agreement (PA) has entered into force, this paper identifies the five key priority areas for the Asia-Pacific region, and the economic policies and instruments that can be used to achieve them [unescap.org]

» November 15 2016 - #ClimatePolicy #ForestClimatePolicy § Insights from the ground level? A content analysis review of multi-national #REDD+ studies since 2010. The REDD program ("Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation") was launched in 2007. Two years later it was modified into REDD+. Since then, numerous sub-national initiatives have implemented REDD + or REDD+-like mechanisms. Now, shortly before the COP (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Conference of the Parties) in Paris 2015 it is timely and necessary to analyze insights and to draw upon lessons learned. This study reviews multi-national REDD+ studies by applying qualitative content analysis using the UNFCCC Warsaw Framework for categorization. Experiences with the implementation of core REDD+ topics like institutional responsibility and results-based financing are mostly not encouraging. Monitoring systems require further development, and guidance for jurisdictional approaches is lacking. Experiences with reference levels, permanence and leakage have hardly been reported. More general topics like stakeholder participation, tenure clarification and biodiversity co-benefits are in turn more advanced. But these are not necessarily effects of REDD+ components in the projects. The projects obviously offer a platform to advance classical development issues. We conclude that financial signals from the upcoming COP in Paris are essential to encourage further development and implementation. This supports conclusions in accordance with the UNFCCC session in Bonn 2015 stating that methodologies are now complete and implementation must begin. Additional conclusions are drawn for specific topics of the Warsaw Framework. Authors claim that REDD+ should stimulate and support transformational change [sciencedirect.com]

» November 14 2016 - #ClimateChange #GlobalWarming § #WMO Press Release. 2016 is set to break even the temperature records of 2015. It is very likely that 2016 will be the hottest year on record, with global temperatures even higher than the record-breaking temperatures in 2015. Preliminary data shows that 2016's global temperatures are approximately 1.2 Celsius above pre-industrial levels, according to an assessment by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Global temperatures for January to September 2016 have been about 0.88° Celsius (1.58°F) above the average (14°C) for the 1961-1990 reference period, which is used by WMO as a baseline. Temperatures spiked in the early months of the year because of the powerful El Nino event of 2015-16. Preliminary data for October indicate that they are at a sufficiently high level for 2016 to remain on track for the title of hottest year on record. This would mean that 16 of the 17 hottest years on record have been this century (1998 was the other one). Long-term climate change indicators are also record breaking. Concentrations of major greenhouse gases in the atmosphere continue to increase to new records. Arctic sea ice remained at very low levels, especially during early 2016 and the October re-freezing period, and there was significant and very early melting of the Greenland ice sheet [wmo.int]

» November 14 2016 - #Energy § Can Trump Really Revive The U.S. #Coal Industry? A key point in the Trump campaign's energy and economic plan was the rejuvenation of the American coal industry. This position was a component of Trump's broader attempt to appeal to white working class American voters. But can he deliver? As many analysts have observed over the last year, coal is in trouble. Rising production costs, environmental regulations and heavy competition from cheap natural gas has cratered coal profits. The largest coal companies in America, including Peabody Energy, have filed for bankruptcy. American coal production in 2016 was 746.5 million short tons, down from over a billion in 2014 according to the EIA. Coal consumption fell over the same period from 917 to 736.9 million short tons, while coal exports fell by 50 percent, from 97 to 57.9 million short tons. If forecasts hold, 2016 will be the worst year for US coal production since 1978. The EIA has predicted that production will grow in 2017, however, by 3 percent [...] But can he deliver on his promise? Coal has been stuck in a decline that even a pro-coal president, with assistance from Congress, may not be able to reverse. In 2015 some 80 percent of energy retirements were of coal-burning power plants. Environmental regulations have led to the closure of older, smaller coal plants or driven their conversion to natural gas, which has become abundant and cheap in the wake of the fracking boom. Trump has vowed to loosen all regulation on oil and gas production, opening up federal lands to drillers and freeing up pipeline and offshore projects. But to do this would only increase the competition to coal and make it more difficult to retake market share in electricity production [oilprice.com]

» November 14 2016 - #Energy #OilMarket § With Trump Elected, What's Next For #Oil? Overall, the effect of Trump's victory on the oil market won't be clear until he takes office and considers these plans further. For now, traders should expect more wild gyration and increased volatility for oil and equity markets. In the long term, though, the safest decision that still offers a profitable opportunity for oil investors is to bet on America and the American Energy industry. There have been many times in the last 250 years where the country and the oil markets face unprecedented conditions, and throughout that time the overall direction has always eventually been upwards. Recessions, crises, and even depressions all occur periodically, but companies and markets always find a way to move forward [oilprice.com]

» November 14 2016 - #ClimateChange § Germanwatch Report. Global #ClimateRisk Index 2017. Who suffers most from extreme weather events? Weather-related loss events in 2015 and 1996 to 2015. The Global Climate Risk Index 2017 analyses to what extent countries have been affected by the impacts of weather-related loss events (storms, floods, heat waves etc.). The most recent data available - from 2015 and 1996-2015 - were taken into account. The countries affected most in 2015 were Mozambique, Dominica as well as Malawi. For the period from 1996 to 2015 Honduras, Myanmar and Haiti rank highest. This year's 12th edition of the analysis reconfirms that, according to the Climate Risk Index, less developed countries are generally more affected than industrialised countries. Regarding future climate change, the Climate Risk Index may serve as a red flag for already existing vulnerability that may further increase in regions where extreme events will become more frequent or more severe due to climate change. While some vulnerable developing countries are frequently hit by extreme events, there are also some others where such disasters are a rare occurrence [germanwatch.org]

» November 11 2016 - #Energy #WEC § The #WorldEnergyCouncil's Energy Trilemma Index tool, produced in partnership with Oliver Wyman, ranks countries on their ability to provide sustainable energy through 3 dimensions: #EnergySecurity, #EnergyEquity (accessibility and affordability), #EnvironmentalSustainability. The ranking measures overall performance in achieving a sustainable mix of policies and the balance score highlights how well a country manages the trade-offs of the Trilemma with "A" being the best. Use this interactive Index to assess the sustainability of national energy policies[trilemma.worldenergy.org]

» November 11 2016 - #EnergyPolicy #EU § #Capgemini's European #EnergyMarkets Observatory report. #Utilities need to quickly adapt their business models and embrace innovation to address the new market realities [...] As highlighted at COP21 in Paris, the urgent focus for world governments is to limit the rise in the planet's temperature to 2ºC (or less) by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The European Union has set a target of a 40% reduction in Greenhouse Gases by 2030, this has subsequently given rise to large investments into renewable energies. The increase of renewables in the electricity mix has caused electricity market destabilization. This raises a number of questions on alternative ways that could have been chosen, leading to the same results, but that might have mitigated the impact on utilities [...] The fall in renewable energy prices has continued with further to go [...] The wholesale electricity markets remain very unsettled and their low prices challenge the health of Utilities, which must accelerate their transformation to grow profitable revenue streams [...] Through the energy transitions, new decentralized production and consumption models are emerging and creating challenges for network managers [...] [capgemini.com]

» November 10 2016 - #Energy #Geopolitics #IEA #Oil Market Report § If the #OPEC countries do implement their Algiers resolution the resultant production cut will see the market move from surplus to deficit very quickly in 2017, albeit with a considerable stock overhang that will take time to deplete. On the other hand, if no agreement is reached and some individual members continue to expand their production then the market will remain in surplus throughout the year, with little prospect of oil prices rising significantly higher. Indeed, if the supply surplus persists in 2017 there must be some risk of prices falling back [iea.org]

» November 10 2016 - #Coal #ClimateChange #Oil #RenewableEnergy #Opec § What Will President Trump Do About #Energy? First, don't expect him to move on many of his promises, like restoring coal jobs. Like many previous candidates, once in office, reality will set in and the fact that the president doesn't determine energy markets will become abundantly clear and quickly. More likely, he'll work with staff to provide some kind of assistance, such as job retraining (more money for community colleges!) and infrastructure jobs [...] On climate change, abandoning the Paris Treaty would be primarily of symbolic importance, since implementation has always been the biggest obstacle. China's announcement of a 19% increase in coal capacity over the next five years demonstrates just how little committed many of the signers are. Possibly, President Trump will try to reduce federal support for renewables, but since that would cause the loss of many jobs and Congress has already extended the Production Tax Credit for five years, it's not clear that much will be done, or at least not very quickly [...] Probably the biggest uncertainty concerns his threat to renegotiate existing trade deals such as NAFTA, which could result in enough economic uncertainty to tip the U.S., and the world, into recession. Needless to say, that would mean weaker energy demand and send oil prices especially down, possibly as much as $10 a barrel. But it could also mean that OPEC will get more united around a production cut, which would support prices at close to the current level [forbes.com]

» November 9 2016 - #ClimateChange #GlobalWarming #ClimatePolicy § The Global Climate 2011-2015. #WMO Report. The World Meteorological Organization has published a detailed analysis of the global climate 2011-2015 - the hottest five-year period on record - and the increasingly visible human footprint on extreme weather and climate events with dangerous and costly impacts. The record temperatures were accompanied by rising sea levels and declines in Arctic sea-ice extent, continental glaciers and northern hemisphere snow cover. All these climate change indicators confirmed the long-term warming trend caused by greenhouse gases. Carbon dioxide reached the significant milestone of 400 parts per million in the atmosphere for the first time in 2015, according to the WMO report which was submitted to U.N. climate change conference. The Global Climate 2011-2015 also examines whether human-induced climate change was directly linked to individual extreme events. Of 79 studies published by the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society between 2011 and 2014, more than half found that human-induced climate change contributed to the extreme event in question. Some studies found that the probability of extreme heat increased by 10 times or more[wmo.int]

» November 9 2016 - #ClimatePolicy #ClimateRisk #Geopolitics #WorldEconomy § Credit rating agency #Moody's issues guide to how #ClimateChange will affect states' ability to repay their debts. Map shows how climate change will hit the economies of the world's poorest countries hardest. [independent.co.uk]

» November 9 2016 - #Energy #ClimatePolicy #Geopolitics § Donald #Trump is the 45th President of the United States: a man who says climate change is a Chinese hoax, plans to pull the US out of the Paris climate deal, cut funding for clean energy and boost domestic coal production is months away from taking charge of the planet's second largest greenhouse gas polluter. What does this mean for global efforts to tackle climate change? How will it impact the UN climate talks in Marrakech? How will the world's other major emitters react to the news? [climatechangenews.com]

» November 9 2016 - #RenewableEnergy § Innovation Outlook: #Offshore #Wind. IRENA Report. Offshore wind power has the potential to grow from just 13 gigawatts (GW) in 2015, to 100 GW in 2030. Technology innovation will be a key driver of the offshore wind boom. The report highlights upcoming innovations that will enable sector development, including next generation wind turbines with larger blades, and floating turbines, which will open up new markets in deeper waters. These advancements, combined with other sector developments, will reduce average costs for electricity generated by offshore wind farms by 57% over time [irena.org]

» November 8 2016 - #Energy #Opec § World #Oil Outlook 2016. Opening Remarks by OPEC Secretary General [...] "It is essential that all producers, both OPEC and non-OPEC, take coordinated action to help return sustainable stability to the market. This is not only vital for the short-term, but the long-term too, as our industry looks to fund investment in new exploration and production, arrest decline rates in existing fields, expand midstream and downstream capacity, and hire, train and support the people that will continue to drive this industry forward in the years ahead. The impact of the current industry cycle on investments has been unmistakeable in both 2015 and 2016. While global spending on exploration and production by oil and gas producers is expected to fall slightly less this year, when compared to 2015, the combined amount over the two years equates to a loss of more than $300 billion. Looking ahead, this will likely impact not only new projects coming onstream, but new discoveries too" [...] "In general, the WOO 2016 underlines the increasingly complex nature of the oil industry, both in the upstream and downstream; the market adjustments that have taken place since the price drop that began in mid-2014; the continued interdependence of all nations; how security of supply and security of demand are very much interlinked; and the need to better understand the market drivers, challenges, uncertainties, as well as opportunities, we face." Some specific highlights from this year's publication include: Total primary energy demand is set to increase by 40% in the period to 2040; Combined, oil and gas are expected to supply around 53% of the global energy demand by 2040; The outlook for the long-term global economic growth rate to 2040 is at 3.5% per annum, the same as the WOO 2015; Medium-term oil demand is revised upward by 1 million barrels a day (mb/d), compared to the WOO 2015, rising above 99 mb/d by 2021; Long-term oil demand is revised slightly downwards by 0.4 mb/d, with total demand at over 109 mb/d by 2040; Developing countries will continue to lead demand growth, increasing by close to 25 mb/d, to reach over 66 mb/d by 2040; Long-term demand growth comes mainly from the road transportation (6.2 mb/d), petrochemicals (3.4 mb/d) and aviation (2.8 mb/d) sectors; Oil demand in the road transportation sector is driven by the increasing car fleet in Developing countries and declining oil use per vehicle in the OECD region; Non-OPEC liquids supply is expected to drop from close to 57 mb/d in 2020 to just below 56 mb/d in 2017, before recovering slowly to just over 58.5 mb/d in 2021; In the long-term, non-OPEC liquids output is anticipated to see a slow rise to just under 61.5 mb/d by 2017, before dropping to just under 59 mb/d by 2040; The demand for OPEC crude expands to 41 mb/d by 2040, with the estimated share of OPEC crude in total liquids supply increasing to 37%, from 34% in 2015; New refining capacity continues to follow demand growth to developing regions, led by the Asia-Pacific, which is projected to add 9.5 mb/d by 2040; Capacity rationalization remains a long-term requirement, with some 2.5 mb/d of net refinery closures expected by 2040, an estimated 4 mb/d by 2025, and a further 5 mb/d are indicated as needed by 2040 if refining regions are to maintain utilization rates of at least 80%; The primary trend in long-term oil trade is expanding crude imports into the Asia-Pacific from the Middle East, with an expected addition of 6.5 mb/d by 2040; At the global level, oil-related investment required to cover future demand for oil over the forecast period 2016-2040 is estimated at almost $10 trillion (in 2015 dollars); and The future tightening of climate change policies will likely lead to reduced energy demand and a further shift in the energy mix towards renewables [opec.org]

» November 8 2016 - #ClimatePolicy § #GreenhouseGas #Mitigation scenarios for major #EmittingCountries: Analysis of current climate policies and mitigation pledges. #NewClimateInstitute, #PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, #IIASA Report. This new study provides an overview of projected greenhouse gas emissions in 25 major emitting countries and regions up to 2030 based on currently implemented climate policies [newclimate.org]

» November 7 2016 - #Oil #Geopolitics #Opec #Russia § With #OilPrices trading near multiweek lows, analysts believe next year won' t be much better. A survey of 14 investment banks by The #WallStreetJournal predicts that oil prices will stay below $60 a barrel in 2017. Last summer, many of the same banks were predicting oil prices would rise to more than $70 a barrel this year-a level that has now been deferred to 2018 [...] Opec Output Deal? Oil dropped after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries failed to agree on country quotas in talks on Oct. 28-29 in Vienna. Non-members such as Russia and Brazil took part in the second day of discussions. The failure to come to an agreement raised doubts about whether OPEC can implement the first supply cuts in eight years at its Nov. 30 summit. Rising production will make it more difficult for oil exporters to fulfill the pact to curb output [...] Output will need to be cut 1 million barrels a day because of higher output in Libya and Nigeria. OPEC members said they would trim output to a range of 32.5 million to 33 million barrels a day, which is due to be finalized at the next meeting. The 14-member group pumped a record 34.02 million barrels a day in October, according to a Bloomberg News survey of analysts, oil companies and ship-tracking data [bloomberg.com]

» November 7 2016 - #ClimatePolicy #ClimateFinance #LowCarbonEconomy § Statement from #WorldBank. Build climate ambition into the development plans of every country: Over the next 15 years, infrastructure investments around the world will amount to over $90 trillion. Most of this will be in developing countries. Making sure these investments are low-carbon and climate-resilient can promote sustainable economic growth, which is key to achieving our goals of ending extreme poverty and boosting shared prosperity. Countries can now use the Paris Agreement to drive climate-smart policy action, like carbon pricing, to attract the right infrastructure investments. In the post-Paris world, growth cannot come at any cost. Accelerate the transition to cleaner energy: Last week, the International Energy Agency boosted its five-year growth forecast for renewables because of strong support in key countries and sharp cost reductions. In fact, renewables surpassed coal last year to become the largest source of installed power capacity in the world. Building on this momentum, we need to focus special attention and action on Asia, where energy demand is growing and some countries continue to look to coal as the solution. Shifting those countries toward low-carbon energy paths, combined with action on phasing down hydrofluorocarbons, could make all the difference. We need to help countries make the right choice between high-carbon energy sources and renewable alternatives. We must 'follow the carbon.' That means we have to direct concessional finance where it will make the greatest difference. Help countries build resilience to climate shocks: As we said in Paris, without climate action at scale, more than 100 million people could fall back into extreme poverty by 2030. That's why we need to build the resilience of communities, economies, and ecosystems. We have a good idea of what is needed-more efficient water supply, climate-smart agriculture, early warning systems, disaster risk reduction, and better social protection. We have a choice to make. Otherwise, the poverty reduction gains we've made together will be lost. Green the finance sector: We need a global financial system that's fit for purpose to factor in climate risks and opportunities. This is vital if we are to mobilize the trillions of dollars in private capital needed to address climate change. More and more, we are seeing major institutional investors incorporating climate considerations into their decision making. Still, many developing countries will continue to need significant amounts of concessional finance to make good on their climate plans. Donor countries made a strong commitment in Paris. And now we must turn those commitments into action [worldbank.org]

» November 4 2016 - #ClimatePolicy #Coal § Climate Promises Can't Kill #Asia's Coal Addiction. #BNEF Presentation. Asia's demand for coal is likely to increase for years to come even though countries including #China, #Japan and #India have agreed on steps to limit fossil-fuel pollution damaging the climate [...] With envoys from 190 nations gathering next week in Morocco to advance the emissions-curbs agreed to at a landmark United Nations conference in Paris last year, the BNEF findings show that the world remains far from its goal of reining in the threat of global warming. At the same time, clean-energy investment is set to drop [bloomberg.com]

» November 4 2016 - #ClimatePolicy #LowCarbonTech § the #Oil and #Gas Climate Initiative (#OGCI) - BP, CNPC, Eni, Pemex, Reliance Industries, Repsol, Saudi Aramco, Shell, Statoil and Total - announced an investment of $1 billion over the next ten years, to develop and accelerate the commercial deployment of innovative low emissions technologies [...] Through discussions with stakeholders and detailed technical work, the OGCI has identified two initial focus areas: accelerating the deployment of carbon capture, use and storage; and reducing methane emissions from the global oil and gas industry in order to maximize the climate benefits of natural gas. The OGCI believes that these are areas where the oil and gas industry has meaningful influence and where its collaborative work can have the greatest impact. Beyond this, OGCI CI will make investments that support improving energy and operational efficiencies in energy-intensive industries. OGCI CI will also work closely with manufacturers to increase energy efficiency in all modes of transportation [oilandgasclimateinitiative.com]

» November 4 2016 - #Energy #Oil #Canada #Geopolitics § The National Energy Board (#NEB) has updated its long-term energy outlook, lowering both the future price of crude and the estimated increase in Canadian oil production by 2040. Canada's Energy Future 2016: Update incorporates rapidly evolving energy market conditions and policy developments over the past year. The report suggests that energy use, including energy derived from fossil fuels, will continue to increase but at a slower pace compared to the NEB's last projections and at a much slower pace than Canada has seen over the last 25 years [gc.ca]

» November 4 2016 - #NaturalGas #Geopolitics § Research study expects #EU gas supply mix to change fundamentally - European production will decline but EU remains in a strong strategic position. Research by #ewi Energy Research & Scenarios, Cologne and the European Centre for Energy and Resource Security (#EUCERS), at King's College London. Despite a projected decline in European gas production, the European Union (EU) is in a strong position to diversify its gas imports and ensure its gas security. Mapping out gas supply over the next 20 years, the report states that the EU maintains multiple options to diversify its gas imports in the near-term as well as in the longer-run [ewi]

» November 4 2016 - #Energy § Innovation Outlook: Advanced Liquid Biofuels. IRENA Report. To achieve the goal of reducing global #CO2Eemissions and averting irreversible #ClimateChange, the world must look into advanced liquid biofuels to provide a practical fossil fuel alternative for powering airplanes, ships, and heavy freight trucks. IRENA's latest report provides a detailed overview of the promising technological developments for advanced biofuel production to the year 2045 [irena.org]

» November 4 2016 - #ClimateFinance #ParisAgreement § #MarketMechanisms under the Paris Climate Protection Agreement. Discussion Papers from the #GermanEnvironmentAgency. The discussion papers focus on the following three key topics: Market Mechanisms in the Paris Agreement - Differences and Commonalities with Kyoto Mechanisms. This discussion paper analyses Article 6 of the Paris Agreement and compares the Paris approaches with those of the Kyoto Protocol. In addition, it specifies valuable experience from the Kyoto mechanisms for the implementation of Article 6. Robust Accounting of International Transfers under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. This paper presents preliminary results about key issues and options for a strict balancing of international transfers under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. Categorization of INDCs in the light of Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. This discussion paper analyses the various aspects of the 163 climate protection contributions submitted that are important for a strict balancing of international transfers. This includes for example, the type of target, the reference year or period, the target year or period, the sectoral and geographical coverage of the target or the intended use of market mechanisms. This paper summarises for each country what kind of climate protection contributions they have submitted and what their global greenhouse gas emission proportions are.[dehst.de]

» November 3 2016 - #ClimateChange #ParisAgreement § #UNEP, #TheEmissionGapReport. World must urgently up action to cut a further 25% from predicted 2030 emissions. World is still heading for temperature rise of 2.9 to 3.4°C this century, even with Paris pledges. 2030 emissions will be 12 to 14 gigatonnes above levels needed to limit global warming to 2°C. Opportunities include enhanced pre-2020 action building on Cancun pledges, cost.effective energy efficiency and stimulating action by cities, companies and civil society. The world must urgently and dramatically increase its ambition to cut roughly a further quarter off predicted 2030 global greenhouse emissions and have any chance of minimizing dangerous climate change [...] Made public the day before the Paris Agreement comes into force, the report finds that 2030 emissions are expected to reach 54 to 56 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent - far above the level of 42 needed to have a chance of limiting global warming to 2°C this century. One gigatonne is roughly equivalent to the emissions generated by transport in the European Union (including aviation) over a year. Scientists agree that limiting global warming to under 2°C this century (compared to pre-industrial levels), will reduce the likelihood of more-intense storms, longer droughts, sea-level rise and other severe climate impacts. Even hitting the lower target of 1.5 °C will only reduce, rather than eliminate, impacts. The predicted 2030 emissions will, even if the Paris pledges are fully implemented, place the world on track for a temperature rise of 2.9 to 3.4 degrees this century. Waiting to increase ambition would likely lose the chance to meet the 1.5 °C target, increase carbon-intensive technology lock-in and raise the cost of a global transition to low emissions [unep.org]

» November 3 2016 - #ClimatePolicy § The #ParisAgreement and #ClimateGeoengineering Governance: The Need For a #HumanRights Based Component. #CIGI's paper suggests a framework for achieving the objective of protecting human rights in the context of climate change response measures. It focuses on one suite of emerging potential measures that fall under the general rubric of "climate geoengineering," which is defined as efforts to effectuate large-scale manipulation of the planetary environment through technological options in order to counteract the manifestations of climate change [cigionline.org]

» November 3 2016 - #Energy, #ClimateChange and #Environment: 2016 Insights § #IEA publication for free download. The historic #ParisAgreement on climate change sets the course for a fundamental transformation of the global economy over the next decades. The Agreement's overarching goal of limiting global average temperature rise to "well below 2C" will entail profound changes in the global energy system. Achieving the deep cuts in global carbon emissions that this vision requires is no small task given the enormous challenge of implementing - and eventually exceeding - current country climate pledges. This publication examines key sectors, technologies, and policy measures that will be central in the transition to a low-carbon energy system. It addresses the following questions: What are the roles of coal and gas in meeting the stringent decarbonisation requirements for the power sector consistent with IEA modelling of global climate goals? What are moderate carbon prices accomplishing in the electricity sector, and how can they be helpful as part of a package of other policies? Where are the opportunities for expanding renewables and energy efficiency, and what policies and regulatory frameworks are needed to boost these low-carbon energy sources? How can state-owned companies, which produce a large share of global GHG emissions but are also major developers of clean energy, be encouraged to play a more effective role in the energy transition? [iea.org]

» November 2 2016 - #Oil #WorldEconomy #Geopolitics § Royal Dutch #Shell Plc, the world's second-biggest energy company by market value, thinks demand for oil could peak in as little as five years, a rare statement in an industry that commonly forecasts decades of growth. "We've long been of the opinion that demand will peak before supply," Chief Financial Officer Simon Henry said on a conference call on Tuesday. "And that peak may be somewhere between 5 and 15 years hence, and it will be driven by efficiency and substitution, more than offsetting the new demand for transport." Shell's view puts it at odds with some of its biggest competitors. Exxon Mobil Corp., the largest publicly traded oil company, said in its annual outlook that "global demand for oil and other liquids is projected to rise by about 20 percent from 2014 to 2040." Saudi Arabia, the biggest producer, with enough reserves to last it 70 years, has said demand will continue to grow, boosted by consumption in emerging markets [bloomberg.com]

» November 2 2016 - #ClimatePolicy #WorldEconomy § Just 90 companies are accountable for more than 60 percent of #GreenhouseGases [...] now it's possible to identify the contributions of individual companies, thanks to the work of researchers such as #RichardHeede. What he found is revealing: A handful of companies bear a lot more responsibility for climate change than others, having pumped much more carbon into the atmosphere [...] Some of the results were astonishing, such as that the number of companies responsible for the majority of the carbon in the atmosphere was so small that "[Y]ou could take all the decision-makers and CEOs of these companies and fit them on a couple of Greyhound buses." He's found that although there are thousands of oil, gas, and coal producers around the world, just 90 entities are responsible for 63 percent of all the industrially produced carbon dioxide and methane being emitted into our atmosphere [thebulletin.org]

» November 2 2016 - The Future of #NaturalGas: #Markets and #Geopolitics § IAI (Istituto Affari Internazionali) - OCP Policy Center Report. Energy is at the core of the remarkable current transitions in the global economy and geopolitics, and natural gas plays a crucial role in these processes. In this context of rapidly evolving trends at the market level and developing dynamics between regional and global actors, The Future of Natural Gas aims at analysing the role of natural gas in the future energy mix by considering several key factors: the ambitious climate policies agreed by the international community, cost issues, and the role of technological innovation in the broader global gas picture. Starting from this analysis, the volume adopts a geographical approach to take into account the significant variability in the global perspective for gas markets. Focusing on major developments in the main supplying and consuming regions and countries, it considers geological factors, the development of internal policy and regulatory frameworks, the evolution of gas consumption patterns, as well as export and import strategies elaborated by key regional and global gas players. The Future of Natural Gas is thus an in-depth analysis of some of the fastest moving gas markets, attempting to define the trends of a resource that will have a decisive role in shaping the global economy and modelling the geopolitical dynamics in the next decades [ocppc.ma]

» November 1 2016 - #ClimatePolicy § Leonardo DiCaprio's three-year journey exploring the subject of #ClimateChange, #BeforetheFlood, free on all platforms the same day it premieres on the National Geographic Channel [YouTube]

» November 1 2016 - #SolarEnergy #PV § The research study Global #PerovskiteSolarCell Industry offers strategic assessment of the Global Perovskite Solar Cell market. The industry report focuses on the growth opportunities, which will help the Global Perovskite Solar Cell industry to expand operations in the existing markets [...] The study assess new product and service positioning strategies in the Global Perovskite Solar Cell market. Furthermore, the new and evolving technologies and their impact on the Perovskite Solar Cell market is analyzed in detail in this report [..] Perovskite Solar Cell industry development policies as well as plans are discussed and manufacturing processes as well as cost structures for Perovskite Solar Cell market. This report “Worldwide Perovskite Solar Cell Market” also states import/export, supply and consumption figures and Perovskite Solar Cell market cost, price, revenue and Perovskite Solar Cell market’s gross margin by regions (United States, EU, China, Japan, South America, Africa), as well as other regions can be added in Perovskite Solar Cell Market area.[chollywood.info]

» October 28 2016 - #FossilFuels #ClimatePolicy #Geopolitics § #ClimateChange, equity, and #StrandedAssets. Oxfam America Report. [...] There are inescapable equity issues surrounding the stranding of fossil fuel assets. Such issues raise unavoidable questions, including: Whose fossil fuels are to be left in the ground? What criteria should we employ to decide who has the best case for using the fossil fuels that may be used? Is compensation owed to those who leave their fossil fuels in the ground? If so, who pays? In addition, the equity issues that arise can be approached from within the framework that affirms the principle of Common but Differentiated Responsibility and Respective Capabilities. In short, this paper confirms the "hypothesis that there are equity concerns regarding stranded assets which are currently not accounted for in climate negotiations, but which could reasonably fall within the logic of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities." [...]

» October 28 2016 - #ClimateChange #Geopolitics #EconomicDevelopment § What Future for the #EU in International #ClimatePolicy? Institute for European Studies (#IES) policy brief [...] The recent EU crises constitute serious and perhaps even perilous challenges both for the EU's domestic and international climate and energy policies. They tend to push climate and energy down the policy agendas across Europe and reduce the attractiveness of the climate transformation as it implies further change easily considered unattractive in times of crisis. Brexit and the rise of populist parties, which lean toward combining Euro-scepticism with climate scepticism, weaken support for climate ambition within the EU. Especially support for the deployment of renewables has been axed in several member states in the wake of the intertwined economic and fnancial crises (including the Euro crisis and the sovereign debt crisis), contributing to the EU falling behind in renewables investment in international comparison [ies]

» October 27 2016 - #ClimatePolicy #ClimateGovernance #VCS § Orchestrating Experimentation in #NonStateEnvironmentalCommitments. A striking development in climate governance is the emergence of systems for non-state actors to make voluntary commitments alongside state undertakings. Because these commitments involve diverse actors carrying out diverse activities in diverse settings, they provide unprecedented opportunities for experimentation and learning. Yet voluntary commitment systems (VCS) rarely promote experimentation and provide few systematic learning mechanisms. I argue, based on work with Duncan Snidal, for a more strongly experimental approach. First, VCS should encourage designed, controlled policy experiments consistent with scientific standards. Second, even where formal experiments are infeasible, VCS should treat commitments as informal experiments, orchestrating them to promote innovation, comparability, analysis and systematic learning. Collaborative initiatives and other actors can act as orchestrators, encouraging and supporting formal and informal experimentation through persuasion, technical and material assistance, recognition, third-party assistance and other incentives [papers.ssrn.com]

» October 27 2016 - #NaturalGas #Geopolitics § The share of #LNG in international gas markets will continue to grow. While the volume will remain much less than pipeline trading, its capacity to disrupt the old order has already caused a major upset, the secretary-general of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum told NGW, ahead of the forum's 18th ministerial meeting in Doha, Qatar on November 17 [...] the share of LNG in gas market is increasing. The other thing is that spot contracts for LNG supply are also increasing although they will remain less than half the overall gas market. Most of US gas exports will be LNG, the flexibility and versatility of the market to some extent is determined by the amount of gas coming out of the US. The main change in gas trade is determined by few phenomena which are not exactly compatible with the traditional market dynamics. There is competition among some Asian countries to develop hubs and it is yet to be seen how that would affect the market. So, pricing by itself is a new challenge for gas trading. But again, we believe that the traditional pricing mechanism is a support for investments in and sustainability of the market. The other things that gas exporting countries are discussing are short-term and spot market contracts [naturalgasworld.com]

» October 26 2016 - #JobVacancy § The Institute for #SustainableDevelopment and #InternationalRelations (#IDDRI) is seeking a Research Fellow "High Seas Policy" [Julien Rochette]

» October 26 2016 - #NaturalGas #EU #Russia #Geopolitics § EU Approves Increased #Gazprom Use of #Opal Pipeline. The WallStreet Journal [...] The European Commission on Tuesday authorized Russia's PAO Gazprom to ship more gas through a key connector pipeline in Germany, two people familiar with the matter said, a sign that Russia and the European Union are mending their business relationships despite growing tensions over Moscow's bombing campaign in Syria [...] It shows that Russia and the EU are taking pragmatic steps to ease some of their business ties, especially on the energy front, where Russia remains the dominant supplier of natural gas for many of the bloc's member states [...] Opal stretches some 470 kilometers (292 miles) from the German Baltic Sea coast to Brandov on the Czech-German border. It is the one link between Gazprom's Nord Stream pipeline, which ships gas directly from Russia to northern Germany, and Central and Eastern Europe, markets it the company can otherwise only reach via Ukraine. Since its completion in 2011, Gazprom has been able to use just 50% of Opal's 36 billion cubic meter of annual capacity, because of EU rules that force the owners of pipelines to open their transmission networks to competing suppliers. The remaining 50% capacity of Opal have stood empty. Under the agreement approved by the commission Tuesday, Gazprom gets to keep the 50% exclusive capacity it already has, but has to open up 10% to 20% of the remaining capacity to other suppliers, the people familiar with the deal said. The remaining 30% to 40% would be auctioned off, with Gazprom allowed to bid for these volumes [wsj.com]

» October 26 2016 - #NaturalGas #EnergyPolicy § Gas demand in #EU rises for the first time in four years, according to new #Eurogas data. This rise was mirrored by an increase in liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports highlighting further diversification of supply. Initial estimates for 2015 suggest that gas consumption in the EU-28 was 4603.6 terawatt-hours gross calorific value (TWh GCV), equivalent to 426.3 billion cubic metres (bcm) or 356.3 million tonnes of oil equivalent net calorific value (mtoe NCV). One contributory factor has been the weather. Temperatures in 2015 were closer to the average than in 2014. Residential demand for gas in heating saw net increases in a number of countries. Heating capacity was reinforced in Germany, for example, where half of new-build residential construction was fitted with gas heating appliances. The capacity of the gas grids to handle the fluctuations in demand for heating, and in some countries cooling, once again highlights the flexibility of gas as a fuel. This overall return to more normal average temperatures accounted in large part for the increase in gas demand across the EU. However, at the national level, the effect varied from country to country, as well as season to season. Several other factors, aside from the weather conditions, were also at play in 2015. Countries such as the Czech Republic, France and Slovakia, for example, witnessed some economic recovery last year, which is reflected in an increase in industrial gas demand in these EU member states, while other countries continue to see decreases in this sector. Changes in demand in the power sector also varied with some countries seeing gas gaining market share due to its decrease in price (e.g. United Kingdom) and demand for cooling (e.g. Italy, Greece), while others experienced a decline in gas demand due to various factors such as tax regimes discouraging gas consumption (e.g. Finland). Still others saw continued, though slight, share loss due to the continued favour won by coal (e.g. Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands). LNG made up the largest share of gains in imports for some countries. In the Netherlands, for example, LNG imports roughly doubled, and Italian LNG imports increased by some 34% year-on-year. Development in the compressed natural gas (CNG) market took noticeable advance in the Czech market where CNG consumption increased by 46% year-on-year [eurogas.org]

» October 26 2016 - #Oil #Geopolitics § Global #OffshoreOilProduction (including lease condensate and hydrocarbon gas liquids) in 2015 was at the highest level since 2010, and accounted for nearly 30% of total global oil production. Offshore oil production increased in both 2014 and 2015, reversing consecutive annual declines from 2010 to 2013. Production from onshore tight oil plays has increased faster over the past several years and accounts for an increasing amount of total oil production. More than 27 million barrels of oil were produced offshore in 2015 in more than 50 different countries. Global oil production is expected to remain high in 2016, as many oil-producing nations continue to increase production. A significant amount of global offshore production is concentrated in a few countries. In 2015, five countries provided 43% of total offshore oil production: Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Mexico, Norway, and the United States [eia.gov]

» October 26 2016 - #CO2 #Emissions From #FuelCombustion Highlights 2016 § #IEA Report. In 2014, global CO2 emissions reached 32.4 GtCO2, an increase of 0.8% over 2013 levels. This was much lower growth than in 2013 (1.7%), and far below the average annual growth rate since 2000 (2.4%). In absolute terms, the emissions growth in 2014 (0.25 GtCO2) was one of the smallest observed since 2000. Emissions in non-Annex I countries continued to increase (2.5%), although at a slower rate than in 2012 (3.1%), while emissions in Annex I countries decreased (-1.8%) due to modest declines in emissions from coal (-3.2%) and natural gas (-2.6%). In absolute terms, global CO2 emissions increased by 0.3 GtCO2 in 2014, driven by increased emissions from coal and (to a lesser extent) oil and natural gas in non-Annex I countries [...] Increasing demand for energy comes from worldwide economic growth and development. Global total primary energy supply (#TPES) increased by almost 150% between 1971 and 2014, still mainly relying on fossil fuels. Despite the growth of non-fossil energy (such as nuclear, hydropower and other renewable sources), considered as non-emitting, the share of fossil fuels within the world energy supply is relatively unchanged. In 2014, fossil sources accounted for 82% of the global TPES. Growing world energy demand from fossil fuels plays a key role in the upward trend in CO2 emissions. Since the Industrial Revolution, annual CO2 emissions from fuel combustion have dramatically increased from near zero to over 32 GtCO2 in 2014 [iea.org]

» October 26 2016 - #Energy #ClimateChange § #RenewableEnergy reached an important turning point last year with record new installations of emissions-free power surpassing sources that burn fossil fuel, according the International Energy Agency (#IEA). New installations of renewable energy overtook conventional power for the first time in 2015, the Paris-based agency said Tuesday in its Medium-Term Renewable Energy Market Report. Global green power rose by a record 153 gigawatts, equivalent to 55 percent of newly installed capacity last year. Total installed capacity exceeded coal for the first time [...] The IEA raised its estimate of the amount of green energy on power grids by 13 percent, revising its forecast to 42 percent by 2021. About 500,000 solar panels were installed each day across the globe in 2015, according to the report. Renewables capacity will be supported by falling costs, according to the agency. Solar panels are projected to be a quarter cheaper over the five year forecast period ending in 2021. Onshore wind-turbine prices may drop 15 percent. Much of the growth will be driven by four countries, the IEA said, identifying China, the U.S., India and Mexico as clean-energy hotspots over the next five years. Growth rates in the European Union, an early policy supporter and adopter of clean-energy technologies, may decline [bloomberg.com]

» October 25 2016 - #ClimateFinance #LowCarbonEconomy #ParisAgreement § Boosting climate action through innovative debt instruments. Perspectives Policy brief. The development of new financial instruments is crucial to create investment incentives and trigger new financial flows to bring economies on low greenhouse gas and climate resilient development pathways. This concept note assesses two innovative instruments, namely "Debt for Climate Swaps" and "Climate Policy Performance Bonds" (CPPB). While debt for climate swaps are building on the debt for nature swap concept that has been applied for over 20 years as an instrument to relieve countries burdened by high amounts of debt, CPPBs are a new idea to incentivize governments to adhere to stringent emissions commitments. The potential of these two instruments to mobilize resources for climate change mitigation and adaptation projects is illustrated in this concept note. Moreover, we introduce the concept of "Debt for Climate Policy Performance Swaps" (DCPPS) - an innovative combination of the features of the two debt instruments climate swaps and CPPBs. Here, the bond's interest rate depends on the achievement of a national greenhouse gas emission target, e.g. the target specified in a coutnry's Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement. If the target is achieved, the interest rate will decrease, while it will increase if the target is missed. In combination, the two concepts can become a highly effective way to tackle debt burdens of highly indebted countries while at the same time incentivizing governments to promote climate change mitigation [perspectives.cc]. Enhancing Green Bond Transparency through CDM. Perspectives Policy brief. Green bonds play a crucial role for unlocking and channeling capital to finance the lowcarbon transition of countries required to reach the ambitious targets of the Paris Agreement. 2015 constituted the fourth consecutive record issuance year, with green bonds of a total value of over USD 45 billion being issued. There have, however, been growing concerns regarding "greenwashing" and the environmental integrity of the green bond market. Asset managers criticize that there is no accepted industry standard, comparing the green bond market with the "wild, wild west". Investors need transparent and accepted standards and procedures to ensure credibility and in turn sustained growth of the asset class. Moreover, as the Paris Agreement has established that all countries report on their respective nationally determined contributions (NDC) to greenhouse gas mitigation, transparent and comparable reporting on the climate impacts of the underlying assets becomes increasingly important [perspectives.cc]

» October 25 2016 - #ClimateChange #CarbonMarket #CarbonTrading #NDCs § Ensuring the environmental integrity of market mechanisms under the #ParisAgreement. #SEI Pubblication. Article 6 of the Paris Agreement includes provisions for international carbon market mechanisms, allowing countries to use international units to meet their nationally determined contributions (NDCs) and establishing a new crediting mechanism under UNFCCC authority. International rules governing Article 6 are now being negotiated under the UNFCCC. How these rules evolve could have considerable impact on the environmental integrity of market mechanisms under the Paris Agreement. A new SEI policy brief identifies key issues and explores options for safeguarding the environmental integrity of market mechanisms under the Paris Agreement, drawing on lessons from the mechanisms established under the Kyoto Protocol [sei-international.org]

» October 25 2016 - #EnergyPolicy #Germany #Nuclear #EU #Coal § The #Energiewende is running up against its limits. German transmission system operator Tennet recently announced an 80% increase in its transmission fees because of the high construction costs of new power lines to accommodate renewable energy. A study of the Dusseldorf Institute for Competition Economics found that by 2025 costs of the Energiewende could exceed €25,000 for an average four-person household [...] the Energiewende is running up against its limits - but may be saved by imported by coal power from Central Europe [energypost.eu]

» October 24 2016 - #ClimateChange #GlobalWarming § Globally Averaged #CO2 Levels Reach 400 parts per million in 2015. the #WMO World Meteorological Organization's annual Greenhouse Gas Bulletin. Globally averaged concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere reached the symbolic and significant milestone of 400 parts per million for the first time in 2015 and surged again to new records in 2016 on the back of the very powerful El Nino event [...] CO2 levels had previously reached the 400 ppm barrier for certain months of the year and in certain locations but never before on a global average basis for the entire year. The longest-established greenhouse gas monitoring station at Mauna Loa, Hawaii, predicts that CO2 concentrations will stay above 400 ppm for the whole of 2016 and not dip below that level for many generations. The growth spurt in CO2 was fuelled by the El Nino event, which started in 2015 and had a strong impact well into 2016. This triggered droughts in tropical regions and reduced the capacity of "sinks" like forests, vegetation and the oceans to absorb CO2. These sinks currently absorb about half of CO2 emissions but there is a risk that they may become saturated, which would increase the fraction of emitted carbon dioxide which stays in the atmosphere, according to the Greenhouse Gas Bulletin. Between 1990 and 2015 there was a 37% increase in radiative forcing - the warming effect on our climate - because of long-lived greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide (N2O) from industrial, agricultural and domestic activities. "The year 2015 ushered in a new era of optimism and climate action with the Paris climate change agreement. But it will also make history as marking a new era of climate change reality with record high greenhouse gas concentrations," said WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas. "The El Nino event has disappeared. Climate change has not." "The recent agreement in Kigali to amend the so-called Montreal Protocol and phase out hydrofluorocarbons, which act as strong greenhouse gases, is good news. WMO salutes the commitment of the international community to meaningful climate action," said Mr Taalas. "But the real elephant in the room is carbon dioxide, which remains in the atmosphere for thousands of years and in the oceans for even longer. Without tackling CO2 emissions, we can not tackle climate change and keep temperature increases to below 2C above the pre-industrial era. It is therefore of the utmost importance that the Paris Agreement does indeed enter into force well ahead of schedule on 4 November and that we fast-track its implementation." he said. WMO and partners are working towards an Integrated Global Greenhouse Gas Information System to provide information that can help nations to track the progress toward implementation of their national emission pledges, improve national emission reporting and inform additional mitigation actions. This system builds on the long-term experience of WMO in greenhouse gas observations and atmospheric modelling. WMO is also striving to improve weather and climate services for the renewable energy sector and to support the Green Economy and sustainable development. To optimize the use of solar, wind and hydropower production, new types of weather services are needed [wmo.int]

» October 24 2016 - #ClimateChangePolicy #EnergyPolicy #LowCarbonEnergy § #CSIS Commentary. #India's #Decarbonization matters not only from a numbers/atmospheric perspective but also from a strategic perspective. It is critically important to the future of climate change policy that we prove a large, developing economy can develop in a way that is less carbon intensive. If every developing country left on earth has to go through the energy-intensive and heretofore carbon-intensive period of their development, then the world is surely going to miss its carbon-reduction goals. In this way, India is an important proving ground-we know it can be done on a small scale, we know it can be done at higher levels of development, but can it be done as a country goes through the transition to a middle-income country? This case was not proven in China, as it was too far along an emissions-intensive development path. But high-level and coordinated engagement with China has been successful and a very important element of progress toward developing and deploying low-carbon energy. The political momentum created by China being able to mass produce solar panels, build new nuclear capacity, and expand wind capacity was transformational both in terms of technology cost reduction and expanding the clean energy market. Strategic engagement with India can and should play a similar role in showing how a combination of policies, international support, and political attention can help them crack the code as well. The international community should rally around India for this reason. To date, engagement with India on these issues has increased considerably. For example, India has a number of bilateral partnerships that cover this topic. The United States and India have a broad level of engagement on clean energy, energy security, and the environment and a range of other issues all aimed at facilitating low-carbon growth. The European Union also engages with India on clean energy and climate as do some individual EU members. Japan also includes cooperation on energy and climate change within the framework of it partnership with India. The Indian central government, state and local governments, private-sector and industry players are all involved in international groupings and initiatives, like the Clean Energy Ministerial, the G20, Mission Innovation, the International Solar Alliance, the C40 Climate Leadership Group, and many more. Moreover, India itself is undertaking some remarkable domestic reforms and initiatives designed to better prepare itself for a changing climate and reduce its own impact on global emissions[csis.org]

» October 24 2016 - #ClimateChange #GlobalWarming #Climatology § Relative impacts of #Mitigation, #Temperature, and #Precipitation on 21st-century #MegadroughtRisk in the American Southwest. Science Advances, 2016, Vol. 2, no. 10, Article. Megadroughts are comparable in severity to the worst droughts of the 20th century but are of much longer duration. A megadrought in the American Southwest would impose unprecedented stress on the limited water resources of the area, making it critical to evaluate future risks not only under different climate change mitigation scenarios but also for different aspects of regional hydroclimate. We find that changes in the mean hydroclimate state, rather than its variability, determine megadrought risk in the American Southwest. Estimates of megadrought probabilities based on precipitation alone tend to underestimate risk. Furthermore, business-as-usual emissions of greenhouse gases will drive regional warming and drying, regardless of large precipitation uncertainties. We find that regional temperature increases alone push megadrought risk above 70, 90, or 99% by the end of the century, even if precipitation increases moderately, does not change, or decreases, respectively. Although each possibility is supported by some climate model simulations, the latter is the most common outcome for the American Southwest in Coupled Model Intercomparison 5 generation models. An aggressive reduction in global greenhouse gas emissions cuts megadrought risks nearly in half [advances.sciencemag.org]

» October 24 2016 - #EnergyPolicy #Globalization #GlobalFinance § Fueling Growth and Financing Risk: The benefits and risks of #China's development finance in the #GlobalEnergy sector. CEGI Report [...] In just over a decade Chinese policy banks have emerged as global leaders in development finance in general and in finance for energy projects in developing country governments in particular. Moving forward, China has founded or co-founded two new multi-lateral development banks (MDBs) and at least 13 regional and bilateral funds that will increase Chinese development finance abroad by orders of magnitude. Such a stepwise increase in global development finance arrives just in time, as the world faces major infrastructure and energy gaps and has just committed to increasing finance for sustainable development on a global scale [bu.edu]

» October 24 2016 - #EnergyPolicy #Globalization #GlobalFinance § Globalizing #China's Energy Companies: The Role of State Finance. CEGI Report. This study examines the extent to which the Chinese state has facilitated the globalization of Chinese energy companies. In just over a decade, Chinese energy companies have fast become household names across the world, either through trade, foreign direct investment, or through development bank loans. In terms of exports, China's largest sectors are petroleum, photovoltaics, and coal but with respect to foreign investment Chinese energy companies are overwhelmingly concentrated in oil and gas. Despite the fact that China's energy firms are increasing their use of domestic and global capital markets, we find that state finance has been the primary driver of the globalization of Chinese energy firms, with the China Development Bank and the Export Import Bank of China playing the leading role on the globalization of China's global oil and gas companies. In arriving at these findings, we explain the dynamics of the Chinese financial system and how it supports the globalization of China's energy companies [bu.edu]

» October 22 2016 - #WorldEnergy #Oil § OliPrice Intelligence Report. The top oil officials and executives gathered in London this week for the Oil & Money conference, jointly hosted by the New York Times and Energy Intelligence. Several headlines came out of the conference. ExxonMobil's CEO Rex Tillerson said that he does not see a supply shortage several years from now even though so many voices are warning about the shortfall in investment today. "I don't necessarily have the view that we are setting ourselves up for some big collapse in supply within the next three, four, five years," Tillerson said. That comes despite warnings from the IEA and even Saudi energy minister Khalid al-Falih. In fact, the diverging perspectives about future supply is turning out to be one of the hottest debates right now. OPEC's Secretary-General Mohammed Barkindo said that the global oil industry will need around $10 trillion in investments through 2040 to meet oil demand, but the low levels of investment today because of low oil prices poses a "serious threat." If investment continues to fall "then the global community-not only the industry-should really take this seriously and join hands in order to ensure the much needed security of supply going forward," Barkindo said. Others at the conference echoed his worries about future supply shortages. Oil drops on dollar strength and potential new supply. The European Central Bank kept its quantitative easing program intact, and Mario Draghi said that the ECB has not discussed altering the stimulus. The comments pushed up the dollar and putting downward pressure on oil prices as a result. Separately, the chief of Russia's Rosneft, Igor Sechin, hinted at the fact that his company could boost production "significantly." He said that Russia has the ability to add roughly 4 million barrels of oil per day at some point in the future if there is enough demand. Also, Nigeria slashed the price that it is selling its crude for by $1 in order to offload a glut of cargo. Altogether, these developments pushed down oil prices by more than 2 percent on Thursday[oilprice.com]

» October 22 2016 - #WorldEnergy #Oil § Healthier #OilMarket Conditions at Hand. HE Khalid A. Al-Falih Speech, Oil&Money, London [...] #Opec's objective per its statute is "to ensure stable oil prices, secure fair returns to producing countries and investors in the oil industry, and provide a steady petroleum supply to consumers." Therefore intervention to mitigate short-term events is a rational policy with the aim of ensuring security of supply or reducing market volatility, such as adding supplies to counteract the effects of production disruptions or withholding them due to temporary economic dislocations -- like the Asian financial crisis. However -- as was the case two years ago -- we should let the market itself deal with the situation [...] During the past decade, significant production from several Opec countries left the market. This, combined with robust demand growth, helped oil prices to stay above $100 per barrel from the period of early 2011 to the third quarter of 2014. These healthy prices attracted enormous investments into expensive, marginal resources. That influx, alongside technological advancements, helped US oil production to soar, reaching a peak of 12.7 million b/d last year. In fact, US and Canadian oil production combined to increase an average of a million b/d per year, over a seven-year period. However, toward the end of that period and as expensive barrels continued to pour into the market, there was no additional Opec production involuntarily leaving! Supply-demand trajectories continued to diverge and prices crashed in 2014. At that point, one option posed by many for Opec was to cut production to support prices. Now consider if Opec had cut production to maintain supply-demand balances. The effect would have been to encourage continued investments in expensive resources like shale, oil sands, deep sea and the Arctic, etc. This process would have continued ... with Opec having to successively cut production year after year [...] Market forces are working. After a testing period of sub-$30/bbl prices, the fundamentals are improving and the market is rebalancing due to both the supply and demand sides of the equation. On the supply side, rapid non-Opec production growth has reversed into decline due to major cuts in upstream investments and the steepening of decline rates. Without investment, that trend is likely to accelerate with the passage of time -- to the point that many analysts are now sounding warning bells of future supply shortfalls. Turning to the consumption side of the ledger, oil demand is expanding at a reasonably healthy clip despite continued sluggish global economic growth. In our view, China's oil demand is mostly "evolving" as opposed to "slowing," as demand growth moves from manufacturing to consumption by the growing number of Chinese middle-class households. And we see first-hand the Indian economy on a high expansion trajectory, with large latent potential supporting continued demand growth. In fact, between 2015 and 2017 we expect to see more than 4 million b/d of cumulative incremental crude oil demand across the world. But even though the market continues to correct, it has proven to be a slower process than many had anticipated. The reason for this is the lag time between investment decisions and production response, which has resulted in the extended build-up of inventories. The recent Opec accord in Algiers was thus designed to further reinforce the already improving fundamentals I just outlined: accelerating the ongoing trend of natural rebalancing, and reducing the time required to achieve greater market stability [energyintel.com]

» October 21 2016 - #ClimatePolicy #NDCs #ParisAgreement § #WorldBank #NDCPlatform, a comprehensive resource on the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) developed by countries in the run-up to and since the Paris Agreement of December 2015 setting out national targets and actions on #ClimateMitigation and #Adaptation. Originally submitted as Intended Nationally Determined Contributions, or INDCs, these become binding Nationally Determined Contributions when a country ratifies the Paris Agreement. The NDC Platform provides a full data snapshot of climate commitments, implementation, and self-reported cost estimates from countries that have submitted INDCs. Developed by the World Bank since COP21, the platform also includes quick facts about NDCs, interactive maps that allow for visualization of NDC commitments and associated costs, and a detailed adaptation/ mitigation database. Visit the NDC Platform to: Identify what countries intend to do in particular sectors and sub-sectors, and where available, at what cost. Download summary NDC country briefs. Visualize, map, and compare aggregated data [worldbank.org]

» October 20 2016 - #ClimateFinance #SDGs #GreenEnergy #FossilFuelSubsides #CarbonPricing § Roadmap to US$100 Billion. #AustralianGov Report. Public finance alone cannot bring about the transformation required. An estimated US$90 trillion of infrastructure investment is required globally over the next 15 years. All actors - governments, international organisations, non-government organisations, sub-national actors including cities, and the private sector - need to play their part to ensure this is low greenhouse gas emission and climate resilient shift, in line with Article 2.1(c) of the Paris Agreement. This broader transformation, and implementing the Sustainable Development Goals, will require actions to mainstream climate considerations into everyday investment and planning decisions within both the public and private sectors and to mobilise both domestic and international sources of public and private capital. The transformation has already begun, and investors are increasingly aware of the accompanying opportunities for economic and social growth. Actions in this area include phasing out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies; carbon pricing, notably through the Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition; ambitious regulations; long-term planning and target setting; increasing volumes of green bonds; voluntary carbon markets and shadow-pricing; carbon and climate-related risk assessments; divestments from assets with high carbon potential; preferential trade and investment settings for green energy; improved mainstreaming of climate change considerations in investment decisions, for example through the Voluntary Principles to Mainstream Climate Action within Financial Institutions; greening of the finance and investment sectors, for example through the Financial Stability Board (FSB) Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures and the G20's Green Finance Study Group; investor-focused initiatives such as the Montreal Carbon Pledge and the Portfolio Decarbonization Coalition; and initiatives that support development and deployment of new technologies, for example Mission Innovation and the Africa Renewable Energy Initiative [dfat.gov.au]

» October 20 2016 - DEVELOPMENT IMPLICATIONS OF #CLIMATECHANGE AND #MIGRATION IN THE PACIFIC § Cosmin Corendea (United Nations University, Institute for Environment and Human Security). In the years to come, climate-related shocks and trends will amplify the challenges and risks of displacement for the people of the Pacific. In this context, this paper analyses the opposite perceptions of the migration process in the Pacific from the main receiving countries in the region (Fiji, Australia and New Zealand). This is explored through a hybrid approach employed in the postulation of a legal framework, which would attempt to create a balance of interest between the migrants and the receiving countries articulated on socio-economic and environmental parameters. Applicable international instruments and relevant measures of international organizations are explored and analysed with a view to resulting gaps and shortcomings [climatelawgovernance.org]

» October 19 2016 - #Coal #UK #Germany § #INSIGHT-E Report. Impacts of a UK and German coal #PhaseOut on the electricity mix and #CO2Emissions in #Europe. What are the intended and unintended effects of phasing out coal? They can vary across countries and have different levels of impact on energy diversification, electricity prices and carbon emissions. A new report by INSIGHT-E examines how coal phase outs in the UK and Germany can alter domestic and pan-european energy systems, provides impact assessments on the price of electricity, and looks at the implications on the EU's climate change objectives [insightenergy.org]

» October 18 2016 - #Energy #LowCarbonEconomy #Decabonisation #EU § #EEA, European Environment Agency Report. Transforming the EU power sector: avoiding a carbon lock-in. The report illustrates that the prolong operation of inflexible, carbon-intensive power plants, along with the planned construction of new fossil fuel capacity, could result in fossil fuel overcapacity compared to the EU's best-case decarbonisation scenarios as set out in the Energy Roadmap 2050, leading to higher costs for decarbonising Europe's power sector [eea.europa.eu]

» October 18 2016 - #ClimateGovernance #USEconomy § How the #UnitedStates Can Do Much More on #Climate and #Jobs. #CIGI Policy Brief. Climate change is getting more dangerous every year. We urgently need more ambitious steps to confront it. The 2017 US administration and Congress should work to pass a carbon-fe-and-dividend (CFD) law. It would enact a rising fee on coal, oil and gas production and imports, and send the revenue to American households through equal monthly dividends. By the twentieth year these dividends would equal almost $400/month (in 2012 dollars) for a household of two adults and two children. This proposal would expand, not harm, the US economy and improve Americans' health. And by the twentieth year, it would cut US carbon emissions by twice as much as promised in the 2015 US pledge to the United Nations. New legislation is possible, despite the headlines. Business and the public have shifted. The kernel of a winning bipartisan coalition has emerged in each house of Congress. The proposed law embodies core values of both conservatives and progressives. Most economic sectors will benefit. Partisan distrust is strong in Washington, but such situations have occurred before. Leaders have reached agreements on particular issues while continuing to fight over others. Executive and congressional leaders can get it done by working with a broad coalition of economic, environmental, health, and faith organizations to support a historic bill [cigionline.org]

» October 18 2016 - #GreenEconomy #SmartCities #UrbanEnergySystems #ClimateChange § IRENA Report. Renewable Energy in Cities, released today on the sidelines of the Habitat III Conference in Quito, explores potential for urban communities to scale-up renewables by 2030, based on the estimated energy use of 3,649 cities around the world. It finds that every city has massive potential to cost-effectively boost renewable energy use at the local level. The report outlines three priority areas where cities can take action: renewable energy in buildings (for heating, cooling, cooking, and appliances); sustainable options for transport (electric mobility and biofuels); and creating integrated urban energy systems. By highlighting the best practices from cities around the world, this report examines the policies and technologies by which cities can bring about a renewable energy future and mitigate climate change. It provides concrete examples of how municipal leaders and administrators can accelerate the switch to renewable energy at the local level by acting as planners, regulators, financiers and operators of urban infrastructure [irena.org]

» October 18 2016 - #Energy #Economics #Finance § Extraction #Oil & #Gas #IPO Is a Winner. Last time there was an oil-and-gas industry IPO, oil was more than double the price. Investors flocked to the first initial public offering for a U.S. oil and gas explorer in more than two years, signaling there is still demand for shares of new energy companies despite an extended period of low oil prices [wsj.com]

» October 18 2016 - #SDGs #SmartTerritories #ParisAgreement #GlobalConsensus § GOLD Report IV. Since the publication of its first edition in 2008, the Global Report on Local Democracy and Decentralization (GOLD) has become an international benchmark in the analysis of local and regional governments worldwide. The fourth edition, GOLD IV, examines the challenges and issues that local and regional governments face in our current urban age through three main chapters on metropolitan areas, intermediary cities, and territories (including regions, small towns and rural municipalities) as well as the solutions that can be devised to co create the sustainable, inclusive, safe, and resilient cities of the future, as advocated in Goal 11 of the SDGs. GOLD IV studies the role that local and regional governments can play within the emerging new global consensus. Through key international agreements such as the 2030 Agenda, the Paris Agreement on Climate and the New Urban Agenda, the international community has finally committed to leave ineffective, exclusionary and unsustainable development models behind. Against this backdrop, local and regional governments can be empowered to catalyze an inclusive process that is consistent with principles of local democracy and the Right to the City to co-create the future of our cities and territories. For this purpose, GOLD IV presents the foundations of the Global Agenda of Local and Regional Governments for the coming decade; a set of policy recommendations for all actors and stakeholders in the local and regional governance system. This agenda for metropolises, cities and territories is UCLG's legacy and contribution to the global debate - as embodied by Habitat III, the 2016 UN Conference on Human Settlements - and an invitation to take the next step and foster a truly global and inclusive alliance for our urban future [gold.uclg.org]

» - #Energy #ClimateChange #LowCarbonEconomy § #FossilFuelSupply and #ClimatePolicy - #SEI International Conference. From investors to activists and world leaders, there is growing interest in whether and how climate policy should seek to limit the supply of fossil fuels in addition to reducing demand. Research suggests a large share fossil fuel reserves will need to stay in the ground to keep warming below 2C - but achieving this will be a daunting challenge. For many countries fossil fuel extraction and trade are central to energy security and economic development. And despite growing insights into environmental impacts of fossil fuel extraction and the financial risks of further investment in fossil fuel development, the options for supply-side climate policies and actions, their potential role and effectiveness all remain underexplored. SEI international conference in Oxford aimed to fill that gap. It brought together academics and practitioners to discuss how to enable policies, plans and investment decisions on further fossil fuel extraction and trade to be more consistent with long-term global climate and sustainability goals. See the YouTube playlist with all the sessions [Stockholm Environment Institute]

» October 18 2016 - #NaturalGas #Offshore #Israel § New regulatory framework should advance Israeli projects. Investment measures could spur export pipelines [...] The #Tamar field, estimated to contain 10 tcf of gas, was discovered in 2009 and started production in April 2013. It now generates more than half of Israel's domestic electricity production. The #Leviathan field (estimated at 22 tcf) was discovered in 2010 and is close to starting development. #Tanin and #Karish are much smaller fields, both still to be developed [offshore-mag.com]

» October 17 2016 - #SustainableFinance #ClimateFinance #SDGs #JobVacancies § #AdaptationFinance Fellowship Programme. #FrankfurtSchool and #TDRI are proud to present the IDRC funded Adaptation Finance Fellowship Programme (#AFFP) - Linking Research, Policy and Business. The programme supports and promotes 18 exceptional individuals from developing and emerging countries who are active in climate adaptation finance, either in the academia, public or private sector. This interdisciplinary exchange contributes to building leadership in adaptation finance across sectors for enhanced knowledge and sharing good practices in adaptation finance [frankfurt-school.de]

» October 17 2016 - #ClimateFinance #GreenClimateFund #CDM § Linking the Clean Development Mechanism with the Green Climate Fund: Models for scaling up mitigation action. Linking the #GCF and #CDM is becoming increasingly important for policymakers and project developers, however there is still no common understanding on how to operationalize linkages between them. The findings of this study offer a contribution to the debate, notably by examining the compatibility of CDM activities with GCF investment criteria and the operational modalities of both institutions, proposing financial and non-financial engagement models. This publication is part of a BMUB-supported project to strengthen the CDM pipeline in Africa produced by Climate Focus, Perspectives and the AERA Group. The objective of the project is to provide support aimed at identifying suitable pilot activities in Africa and enabling their access to climate finance. Furthermore, the project discusses the practical linkages between CDM and GCF at country level, and provides contributions to the public debate on linking market mechanisms and climate finance [climatefocus.com]

» October 17 2016 - #SustainableFinance #ClimatePolicy #SDGs § #BrookinksReport. Links in the chain of sustainable finance: Accelerating private investments for the SDGs, including climate action. The ambitious goals of Agenda 2030 and the Paris Agreement on climate change have not yet been matched by an equally ambitious financing plan that will get the right resources to the right places at the right time. Despite articulation of a global financing framework in the U.N.'s 2015 Addis Ababa Action Agenda, both public and private financing for sustainable development are underperforming relative to expectations and needs [...] Private finance, the focus of this policy brief, is also indispensable for sustainable development. It is more plentiful than public finance, but operates independently of intergovernmental processes and responds instead to real-time market signals, guided by the need to maximize expected return within existing policy and regulatory frameworks. Mobilizing and orienting private finance frames one of the most important SDG challenges: shaping the risks, returns, and other incentives facing market actors to ensure private financing supports achievement of the Goals. This is the challenge of "sustainable finance" [brookings.edu]

» October 14 2016 - #Oil #Russia #Opec § Rosneft (Russia's state controlled energy giant) will not cap oil production as part of a possible agreement with OPEC. I. Sachin - Russia's most influential oil executive and the head of Rosneft - comments underline how difficult it is for Russia to get its oil companies to freeze or cut output as part of a potential deal with the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries designed to support oil prices. [...] Rosneft planned this year to raise its oil production, already the world's largest among listed producers, above the 203 million tonnes (4.1 million barrels per day) it produced in 2015 [reuters.com]

» October 14 2016 - #NaturalGas #LNG #Germany #MarineFuel § Liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplier Bomin Linde LNG has secured the largest LNG bunker supply vessel of its kind to date with a capacity of 7,500 m3. A time-charter contract with ship owner Bernhard Schulte was signed on September 30th, 2016. The vessel is chartered by a joint venture, established in November 2015, in which Bomin Linde LNG holds 90 percent. The remaining 10 percent are held by Klaipedos Nafta, the owner and operator of the Klaipeda LNG import terminal. Commissioning of the vessel is scheduled for late 2018. Bomin Linde LNG will be using the LNG bunker supply vessel to supply marine customers and small-scale LNG terminals along the Baltic Sea coast. For Klaipedos Nafta, the vessel secures a flexible LNG transport service to their onshore LNG reloading station [yourindustrynews.com]

» October 13 2016 - #EconomicGrowth Revitalisation of #LocalEconomy by development of #RenewableEnergy (REvLOCAL) § IEA RETD Report. Renewable energy can contribute to the creation or revitalisation of local economies, by creating new jobs and services. But what is the exact nature of these benefits, how can they be realised, and what policies could support this? The REvLOCAL report, carried out by the Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP), explored good practices and lessons learnt in revitalisation of local economies, by addressing (i) how to increase and/or maintain employment in the local economy induced by the development of renewable energy projects, (ii) what type and conditions of employment and new business can it create, and (iii) how to divide policy roles between national and local governments to achieve successful revitalisation of the local economy. The project includes six detailed case studies as well as high-level policy recommendations to stimulate local and regional RES deployment strategies.[iea-retd.org]

» October 12 2016 - #Energy #RenewableEnergy #GHG #EconomicGrowth § The new World Energy Resources report launched at the 23rd World Energy Congress on 12 October reveals that the unexpectedly high growth in the renewable energies market, in terms of investment, new capacity and high growth rates in developing countries, is a key factor in this notable shift. It has contributed to falling prices and the increased decoupling of economic growth and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions [worldenergy.org]

» October 12 2016 - #Oil § #SEC Probes Exxon Over Accounting for #ClimateChange. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating how Exxon Mobil Corp. values its assets in a world of increasing climate.change regulations, a probe that could have far.reaching consequences for the oil and gas industry. The SEC sought information and documents in August from Exxon and the company's auditor, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, according to people familiar with the matter. The federal agency has been receiving [wsj.com]

» October 11 2016 - #Energy § #IEA #ENERGYEFFICIENCY MARKET REPORT 2016. Over the last 15 years, our economies have grown, our populations have risen, and vehicle use has increased. Had efficiency levels not improved, energy demand in IEA member countries would have been 12% higher than 2000 levels - surpassing the 2007 peak in 2015 [iea.org]

» October 11 2016 - #ClimatePolicy #Economics § #IATP Report. The #ClimateCost of #FreeTrade How #TPP and trade agreements undermine the #ParisClimateAgreement. How trade rules already conflict with climate goals, and dig into the TPP more deeply to project how the proposed deal creates barriers for countries trying to meet their Paris climate pledges. Along the way, we will review a variety of trade reform proposals designed to address our dysfunctional and climate-damaging trade regime[iatp.org]

» October 11 2016 - #NaturalGas § #Turkey and #Russia signed the #TurkishStreamNaturalGas project to ship more Russian gas to Turkey under the #BlackSea. The project will have two strands which will combined ship 31.5bn m3/yr, making it about twice the size of Gazprom's Blue Stream line, its first ever direct route to its major growth market, Turkey [...] Russia is ready to cooperate with Turkey in military matters and that the building of the Akkuyu nuclear power plant [...] Turkish Stream, according to the South Stream Transport BV, the Netherlands-registered Gazprom subsidiary which is developing the project, will consist of two parallel lines, each with a capacity of 15.75bn m3/yr and each running 900 km across the Black Sea from the Russian port of Anapa. It will come ashore at Kiyikoy, in Turklsh Thrace, and then continue as an underground line to Ipsala on the border with Greece. This will first give it, at Luleburgaz, a connection to the existing Trans-Balkan line, which carries Russian gas down through Ukraine and the eastern Balkans to Istanbul. At Ipsala, which lies just opposite the Greek town of Kipoi, it will be in a position to connect to the planned junction at Ipsal--Kipoi of the TransAnatolian pipeline (Tanap) and TransAdriatic pipeline (TAP), adjacent links of the Southern Gas Corridor project to carry, from western Turkey onwards, some 10bn m3/yr of Azerbaijani gas to Europe [naturalgasworld.com]

» October 11 2016 - #ClimateChange #LowCarbonFuture #SmartCity § #Climathon Cities 2016. City sets up local climate change challenge reflecting their local urban challenges in areas including: Urban Planning, Infrastructure, Housing, Water Use, Waste Removal, City Satellite Data and more. Participants come with their ideas & develop them during 24 hours Or ideate with coaches on the day & develop their solutions. 24 intense hours of collaboration, excitement and solution-finding. Jury of relevant local stakeholders will select best idea in each city. Become part of a global community [climathon.climate-kic.org]

» October 8 2016 - #EnergyPolicy #ClimatePolicy #GreenEconomy #GameTheory #InternationalEnvironmentalAgreements #Lobbying #StrategicCooperation § Domestic politics and the formation of international environmental agreements. We investigate the effect of domestic politics on international environmental policy by incorporating into a classic stage game of coalition formation the phenomenon of lobbying by special-interest groups. In doing so, we contribute to the theory of international environmental agreements, which has overwhelmingly assumed that governments make decisions based on a single set of public-interest motivations. Our results suggest that lobbying on emissions may affect the size of the stable coalition in counterintuitive ways. In particular, a powerful business lobby may increase the government's incentives to sign an agreement, by providing it with strong bargaining power with respect to that lobby at the emission stage. This would result in lower total emissions when the number of countries involved is not too large. We also show that things change radically when lobbying bears directly on the membership decisions, suggesting that both the object and timing of lobbying matter for the way in which membership decisions, emissions and welfare are affected [Journal of Environmental Economics and Management - sciencedirect]

» October 8 2016 - #SDGs #G20 § Implications Of The G20 Summit In #Hangzhou, #China For #ClimateChange, #GreenFinance And Sustainable Development Goals. Steps Forward and Back. It was encouraging that the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were highlighted in a number of speeches at the summit in Hangzhou as well as discussed in the Communique. However, the actual text of the Communique generally put more emphasis on conventional growth priorities. Moreover, even on SDGs, the Communique put more emphasis on traditional development issues and less on environmental issues. Thus, overall, while the G20 Communique took some important steps forward, it also took some steps back [iges.or.jp]

» October 7 2016 - #ClimateChange #ClimatePolicy #SDGs § The #Economics of #ClimateChange: The Stern Review, 10th anniversary of the publication. The Stern Review was officially launched in October 2006. It will take stock of the extraordinary changes taking place in the global economy and seek to guide the research and policy that will deliver the global agenda created by the Paris Agreement (December 2015) and Sustainable Development Goals (September 2015) [lse.ac.uk]

» October 6 2016 - #CCS #LowCarbonPower § Why #CarbonCapture is no panacea. Scientists showed that carbon dioxide injected more than 1,000 feet underground into formations of basalt rock-which much of Iceland is made of-reacted very quickly with the minerals present in the rock to form new minerals that remain stable essentially forever. Chemically speaking, they turned carbon dioxide (CO2) into calcite (CaCO3), the principle constituent of marble and limestone. Or, at the risk of oversimplifying, the researchers converted gas into stone, using what is essentially soda water. At first glance, this approach promises to achieve a long-sought goal: to remove carbon dioxide emissions-one of the chief greenhouse gases behind global warming-from the atmosphere, and lock them away deep underground in a carbon "sink," where they can do no more harm. Known as carbon capture and sequestration, or CCS, the work in Iceland with basalts marks an important technical advance in a line of attack that scientists have long pursued. The timing couldn't be better. For years, many scenarios used in the computerized simulations of carbon emissions mitigation have called for a big contribution from CCS. Indeed, the models used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) require the large-scale deployment of this technology, while the Paris Agreement specifically calls for "removals by sinks of greenhouse gases in the second half of this century." This language stems from the growing recognition that the world is likely to overshoot the carbon budget required to hold the increase in global average surface temperatures to "well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels" and avoid the problems of rising sea levels, droughts, extinction events, mass migrations, and other disastrous consequences of climate change. As a matter of fact, of the 400 IPCC scenarios that keep warming below the Paris agreement target, 344 involve the deployment of negative emissions technologies, wrote Kevin Anderson in Nature Geoscience [thebulletin.org]

» October 5 2016 - #LowCarbonEconomy #CarbonTax #Canada unveils #CarbonPrice § Canada's federal government vowed to bring in a minimum price on carbon emissions by 2018, prompting one energy-producing province to threaten legal action and another to demand approval of an oil pipeline in return. Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who took power last November promising to do more to protect the environment, said carbon pollution would cost C$10 a tonne in 2018, rising by C$10 a year until it reaches C$50 in 2022. Trudeau said the 10 provinces - which have traditionally resented what they see as federal heavy handedness - could either implement a carbon tax or a cap-and-trade market by then. Those that do neither will have a price imposed by Ottawa [reuters.com]

» October 5 2016 - #FossilFuels § #Iran to develop 4 #Oil fields based on new contract model. Iran is to develop four of its oil fields using models based on new oil contracts (IPC). This is the first time the Iranian Petroleum Ministry is using the IPC for its projects [...] The IPC is a framework that lays out the basic structure - and some details - regarding all future petroleum contracts in Iran. It was earlier announced that the country plans to boost oil production to 5.7 million barrels a day and gas output to 1.4 billion cubic meters a day by 2021. Iran's current oil production is estimated to be around 2.8 million barrels per day of which about one million barrels are exported. By holding 157.8 billion barrels of recoverable crude oil reserves, Iran possesses the world's fourth largest reserves of crude oil. The Islamic Republic also holds 34 trillion cubic meters of proven gas reserves, sharing 18.2 percent of total global gas reserves [irna.ir]

» October 5 2016 - #JobVacancy #ClimateServicesProjects Project manager position at #Acclimatise § Acclimatise is looking for an experienced project manager. The project manager will assist initially in the set up and delivery of our work packages in two major EU Horizon 2020 climate services projects. More broadly, he/she will also undertake business development, proposal management and project management for Acclimatise's public and private sector clients globally [...] This post will be in located in Cardiff (UK) [acclimatise.uk.com]

» October 5 2016 - #RenewableEnergy #PV #LowCarbonPower #FinancingCleanEnergyInitiatives #ISA #WB #BRICS § Although the levelized cost of SPV has reduced from $0.285 to $0.126 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) (2015 prices) and is almost comparable to electricity generated from fossil fuels, the range of costs varies across countries of the world and depends on the scale of the plants. This reduction in cost is helping to make SPV technology more attractive, and investments in the sector have been increasing since the beginning of the decade. Investment in solar energy has grown from $104 billion (2010) to $161 billion (2015) and 56% of the current global investment in renewable energy flows to solar energy technologies. However, it is estimated that $1 trillion in clean energy investment is needed per year in low-carbon power supply until 2030 compared with a business-as-usual scenario. The International Energy Agency predicts that in the new policies scenario, global investment in the energy sector will be around $68 trillion from 2015 to 2040. Of the investment in electricity-generation capacity, more than 60% is likely to be in renewables. While developed countries committed to provide $100 billion a year to developing countries for mitigation and adaptation in the COP 21 agreement, a part of which would go to SPV, these funds may only be available from 2020 onward. Financing, both public and private, is therefore critical for deployment of SPV, and the gap between the current and required investments needs to be filled quickly [...] Multilateral financial institutions, such as the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, African Development Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, European Investment Bank, and the International Finance Cooperation, play a major role in financing clean energy initiatives. In line with the increased focus of the World Bank Group (WBG) on climate-related issues, WBG President Jim Yong Kim committed to seek an increase in its climate-related financing from the current level of 21% to 28% by 2020. New development finance institutions, such as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the New Development Bank announced by the BRICS countries-Brazil, the Russian Federation, India, the People's Republic of China, and South Africa-are also likely to have a large portfolio in renewable energy projects. The Global Commission on the Economy and Climate recommends that multilateral and national development banks need to scale up their collaboration with governments and the private sector as well as increase their own capital commitments to provide easy financing for renewable energy projects. India, though a latecomer, is emerging as a big player on the solar scene. India announced a goal of obtaining 40% of its electricity from nonfossil fuels by 2030 at the Paris climate change summit and shepherded the international community to form an International Solar Alliance (ISA) of 121 countries that lie between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. To stimulate the growth of SPV, the WBG signed an agreement with ISA on 30 June 2016 on increasing solar energy use, with an end goal of mobilizing $1 trillion in investments by 2030 [adbi.org]

» October 4 2016 - #EnergyTransition #WorldCitiesSociety #Urbanization #ClimateChange § WBGU Report. The momentum of urbanization and its impacts are so massive that we must face up to this trend. In view of the existing cognitive, technical, economic and institutional path dependencies, a policy of business as usual - i.e. an unstructured, quasi-automatic urbanization - would lead to a non-sustainable "world cities society". Only if cities and urban societies are sufficiently empowered can they make use of the opportunities for sustainability and successfully follow the urban transformation pathways. The success or failure of the Great Transformation will be decided in the cities. The WBGU discusses the relevant conditions for the success of this transformation in this report. Humanity on the move: Unlocking the transformative power of cities, is a notable breath of fresh air at a time when shallow platitudes seem the order of the day. It is bold, meticulously crafted through argument (as opposed to assertion) and evidence, and rooted in a highly original conceptual framework that is both global in scope and differentiated. The report asserts the centrality of cultural and institutional change and does not shy away from being specific and programmatic at a moment when it seems that political discourses are increasingly disconnected from our highly fractious, unsustainable, violent and intolerant times [wbgu.de]

» October 3 2016 - #CircularEconomy #LowCarbonEconomy #ClimateChange #GlobalEconomicProspect § On the 2nd December 2015 the European Commission adopted the Circular Economy Package to address the growing challenge of the excessive use of resources and, in a long term, to develop a sustainable, low carbon, resource efficient and competitive economy in Europe [...] The idea behind the Circular Economy lies in closing the loop in a life cycle of a product. Currently, our economy is based on the following linear sequence: extraction of resources ->production of goods ->use-of those goods -> disposal of waste generated in the production and consumption process (approach known as 'from cradle to grave'). In this approach, there is a substantial gap where valuable resources and materials get wasted and a tremendous amount of waste is generated, directly leading to environmental damage and climate change. If we close the loop, we will arrive to the following circular sequence: production of goods -> use-of those goods -> waste management -> re-use of waste in another production circuit (approach known as 'from cradle to cradle'). The focus of circular economy is, therefore, on the re-use of waste generated in the life cycle of a product, decrease in the extraction and use of raw materials and limitation of the amount of disposed waste. [...] Circular Economy in Horizon 2020. The transition to Circular Economy requires substantive efforts in research and innovation as well as major investments. From this perspective, Horizon 2020 is the excellent tool to provide incentives for the economic actors to develop and enhance the circular economy system. Indeed, the European Commission has committed over €725 million of Horizon 2020 funding for circular economy calls in Work Programmes 2016-17[ncps-care.eu]

» September 30 2016 - #Oil #Gas #Biofuels #CarbonCaptureStorage #Nuclear #Electricity #FossilFuelSubsidies #CarbonMarkets #States, #Markets, and #Institutions: Integrating International #PoliticalEconomy and Global #EnergyPolitics § This is the introductory chapter to the Palgrave Handbook of the International Political Economy of Energy. The Handbook is the first volume to analyse the International Political Economy, the who-gets-what-when-and-how, of global energy. Divided into five sections, it features 28 contributions that deal with energy institutions, trade, transitions, conflict and justice. The chapters span a wide range of energy technologies and markets - including oil and gas, biofuels, carbon capture and storage, nuclear, and electricity - and it cuts across the domestic-international divide. Long-standing issues in the IPE of energy such as the role of OPEC and the 'resource curse' are combined with emerging issues such as fossil fuel subsidies and carbon markets. IPE perspectives are interwoven with insights from studies on governance, transitions, security, and political ecology. The Handbook serves as a potent reminder that energy systems are as inherently political and economic as they are technical or technological, and demonstrates that the field of IPE has much to offer to studies of the changing world of energy [papers.ssrn.com]

» September 30 2016 - #EnergyDemand, #Generation and #Resilience under a Changing #Climate" #GSEP Webinar. The energy sector is undergoing a major transformation. A steadily increasing share of power supply from variable renewable energy (RE) sources, such as wind and solar, is being fed into the grid. Demand variability is also increasing as a result of the widespread use of embedded small-scale generation (e.g., rooftop solar) and air-conditioning and can further change in response to price signals, and to an ever-changing climate. At the same time, the cost of batteries has started to noticeably decrease, making electrical storage increasingly economically viable. This transformation in the energy sector is taking place against a variable and changing climate. Given the weather-and climate-dependency of both RE and demand (even in the case of large storage uptake), it is important to understand how weather and climate variations can and does affect, energy demand and generation. Climate variability and change - through extreme weather events, rising average temperatures, and hydrological changes - poses also risks to energy systems, and thereby energy security, by altering energy demand, disrupting energy supply and damaging energy infrastructure. This webinar will consist of two presentations, followed by a Q&A period. The first presentation will provide some background on these wide-ranging issues. The second presentation will then delve into some specific and informative case studies about the use of climate data for energy applications [globalelectricity.webex.com]

» September 29 2016 - #Oil #OPEC #SaudiArabia #Iran #Russia OPEC agreed to the outline of a deal that will cut production for the first time in eight years, surprising traders who had expected a continuation of the pump-at-will policy the group adopted in 2014 at the instigation of Saudi Arabia. Oil jumped more than 5 percent in New York after ministers said the group agreed to limit production to a range of 32.5 to 33 million barrels a day [...] The agreement was possible because Iran will be exempt from capping production, a major concession by Saudi Arabia, the group's dominant producer. Still, many of the details remain to be worked out and the group won't decide on targets for each country until its next meeting at the end of November. The lower end of the production target equates to a nearly 750,000 barrel-a-day drop from what OPEC said it pumped in August - more than half the forecast increase in global oil demand this year [bloomberg.com]

» September 29 2016 - #Energy #Coal #ElectricityWar #WetlandWar: #Electricity in #Bangladesh A self-imposed deadline expires today for Bangladesh's government to explain to UNESCO why it wants to build a massive coal-fired power plant on the edge of the world's largest mangrove forests. The Sundarbans, parts of which have been UNESCO heritage sites since 1997, cover 10,000 square kilometres straddling Bangladesh and India. The Bangladeshi government has touted the Indian-backed, 1,320 megawatt plant-a project called "Maitree" (friendship)-as a symbol of closer economic co-operation and an economic necessity: 40% of Bangladesh's 160m people have no access to electricity. Critics say the project is environmental madness and violates an international treaty for the conservation of wetlands, which Bangladesh has signed [economist.com]

» September 28 2016 - #RenewableEnergy #EU #Decarbonization THE POTENTIAL OF #ENERGYCITIZENS IN THE EUROPEAN UNION. With an increasing share of renewable energy sources (RES) in the European Union (EU), the role of energy consumers as active participants in the energy system is bound to expand, as the developments in an increasing number of EU Member States demonstrate. A growing number of households, public organizations and small enterprises are likely to produce energy, supply demand-side flexibility or store energy in times of oversupply. So far, however, the extent of this prosumer potential in the EU is unknown. Global and EU-wide decarbonisation scenarios typically model increasing RES capacities, but do not go into the details of how this is achieved, and what role prosumers, also referred to as energy citizens, could play in these developments. This study therefore aims to create more insight into the potential of energy citizens in the EU: how many energy citizens could there be in 2030 and 2050 throughout the EU and what is their potential contribution to renewable energy production and demand side flexibility? [cedelft.eu]

» September 28 2016 - #LowCarbon #Coal #Renewable #EnergyInvestment. The long road from Paris: the #CarbonImpact of new #PowerGeneration. Over the next decades, the planet's energy challenge will be resolving how hundreds of millions of people can gain access to electricity while meeting climate targets. To do so, means cutting the carbon emission intensity of power plants - that is, reducing the amount of CO2 that is spewed out for each megawatt generated. Antiquated so-called subcritical coal-fired power plants have an emissions intensity of just under 1,000 kg of CO2 per megawatt-hour. Because they are cheap, these plants are still being built, particularly in the developing world and emerging economies. More modern, highly efficient coal-fired power plants have an intensity of around 800. A natural gas turbine can reach about 350, while a coal plant equipped with carbon capture - such as the innovative Boundary Dam CCS project in Canada - can release less than 130 kg of CO2 per megawatt-hour. At the very end of the spectrum, renewable sources like wind and solar have zero emissions. Taken altogether, the current average intensity of power generation today is just over 500 kg of CO2 per megawatt-hour. In 2015 the average intensity of new power generation coming online was 420 - signalling an improvement of the average. Yet this is still far from where we need to be to reach our climate goals: a global average of 100 kg of CO2 per megawatt hour from all generation by the late 2030s. The good news, highlighted in IEA-s World Energy Investment 2016, is that a major shift in investment towards low-carbon sources of power generation is underway. New low-carbon generation - renewables and nuclear - from capacity coming online in 2015 is expected to exceed the entire growth of global power demand that year. Renewable electricty investment, primarily in wind, solar PV and hydropower, was almost $290 billion [iea.org]

» September 27 2016 - #McKinsey #Energy Insights predicts #OilMarket oversupply into 2017 McKinsey Energy Insights (MEI), the data and analytics specialist that provides distinctive insight and support to the global energy industry, forecasts that it will take more than six months for the oil markets to fully rebalance. In its latest research, MEI suggests that the pace and timing of an oil price recovery depends on four key drivers in the short-term: GDP growth, decline in producing fields, slowdown in US light tight oil (LTO) production and OPEC Gulf state behaviour, in particular, Iran and Saudi Arabia. MEI modelled four scenarios - fast recovery, slow recovery, under-investment and supply abundance - and the latest trends point towards a slow market recovery scenario. In this case, the market will take another six months for oversupply to disappear and another 6-12 months to burn excess inventories. In the long-term, continuous cost compression efforts could reduce average marginal costs to 65-75 USD per barrel, driven by deep-water and LTO plays [ouroilandgasnews.com]

» September 27 2016 - #ClimateGovernance #ParisAgreement Open access journal Politics and Governance special issue; Conference Diplomacy: The Making of the Paris Agreement; The Paris Agreement: Destined to Succeed or Doomed to Fail?; What the Framework Convention on Climate Change Teaches Us About Cooperation on Climate Change; Paris: Beyond the Climate Dead End through Pledge and Review? Unilateral or Reciprocal Climate Policy? Experimental Evidence from China; Predicting Paris: MultiMethod Approaches to Forecast the Outcomes of Global Climate Negotiations; The Paris Agreement: Consequences for the EU and Carbon Markets? From Paris to the End of Oil; The Paris Agreement: Short-Term and LongTerm Effectiveness; The Paris Climate Agreement and the Three Largest Emitters: China, the United States, and the European Union [cogitatiopress.com]

» September 27 2016 - #ClimateChange #JobVacancies #Economics #DisasterRiskManagement GIZ, Assignment period; 24.10.2016 - 23.04.2017, monthly stipend of € 1.463 (gross pay). For headquater in Germany/Eschborn, GIZ is looking for a Intern (m/w) in the field Financial Systems Development and Insurance. Climate change has a negative impact on human habitat and nature. In this context the need for integrated management strategies for the prevention and mitigation of climate risks in order to reduce the financial consequences of extreme weather events increases. The lack of adequate risk transfer mechanisms is a major reason for societies not being able to achieve and maintain achieved Millennium Development Goals. Climate change induced catastrophes, or even increased weather variability can undo progress reached in poverty reduction, threaten food security and often require liquidating investments; they reduce employment, force migration of wage earners as well as disenrollment of school going children. Large-scale events such as severe droughts or floods can affect entire societies, thereby posing an extra-budgetary strain, quasi-fiscal liabilities and reduced macro-economic performance, in addition to the social impacts. Therefore, better and widely accessible indirect and direct insurance and risk transfer products on that respond to the needs and capacities of developing country populace as well as governments are key for stable economic development and poverty reduction. For further information, please contact [Mr. Packmohr]

» September 26 2016 - #PV As #China adds record amounts of #RenewableEnergy, a #SolarFarm under construction in the Ningxia region of the country's northwest takes efforts to a new level. The project, being developed in phases by the clean energy unit of China's biggest private investment group, will cover 4,607 hectares, or slightly more than 7,000 U.S. east coast city blocks. It will boast capacity of 2 gigawatts when complete, surpassing the scale of photovoltaics in place in Thailand at the end of 2015. The 15.6 billion-yuan ($2.34 billion) plant will need about 6 million panels and will be the biggest the world has ever seen. All this from a company that didn't exist two years ago. Minsheng New Energy's Ningxia plant is emblematic of China's clean-energy ambitions. China's solar installations more than doubled to 50 gigawatts in the two years through 2015. More growth is in store, with Bloomberg New Energy Finance estimating installations will more than double again to 109 gigawatts by the end of 2018. By comparison, the U.S. is expected to have about 41 gigawatts of solar by the end of this year [bloomberg.com]

» September 26 2016 - #Solar #PV Poised to Boom in #Africa Thanks to Declining Costs IRENA's Report. The business case for solar photovoltaics (PV) in Africa is stronger than ever thanks to rapidly declining technology costs. Solar PV in Africa: Costs and Markets, estimates that installed costs for power generated by utility-scale solar PV projects in Africa have decreased as much as 61% since 2012. Today, installed costs for these projects are as low as USD 1.30 per watt in Africa, compared to the global average of USD 1.80 per watt. These cost reductions, coupled with vast solar potential on the continent, present a huge opportunity for Africa to increase energy access, improve quality of life and mitigate climate change. Mini-grids utilising solar PV and off-grid solar home systems also provide higher quality energy services at the same or lower costs than the alternatives, finds the report. Stand-alone solar PV mini-grids have installed costs in Africa as low as USD 1.90 per watt for systems larger than 200 kW. Solar home systems - which have tripled in Africa between 2010 and 2014 - provide the annual electricity needs of off-grid households for as little as USD 56 per year, less than what they currently pay for poor quality energy services [irena.org]

» September 26 2016 - The State of #Canada's #Forests Annual Report 2016 This annual report offers a national snapshot of the social, economic and environmental status of forests and forestry in Canada. In this edition, The State of Canada's Forests features a series of articles outlining the effects of climate change on forests, adaptation strategies within the forest sector and the role that forests and forest products have in climate change mitigation. It also presents current information on trends and statistics related to sustainable forest management in Canada and provides comprehensive data sources and information [nrcan.gc.ca]

» September 23 2016 - #ClimateChange Introducing the Transnational #ClimateImpacts Index: Indicators of country-level exposure - methodology report. Climate change mitigation is widely regarded as a global problem, but climate change impacts and adaptation are typically described as regional or local issues. This reflects the locationspecific nature of physical impacts, but it fails to recognize the many interconnections among countries and regions, particularly in an increasingly globalized economy [weadapt.org]

» September 23 2016 - #ClimateChange Defining #LossAndDamage: The #Science and #Politics around one of the most contested issues within the #UNFCCC. This discussion brief examines four key traits associated with loss and damage in policy discussions, considering the relevant science as well as key political and value-based judgements involved. The global response to climate change first focused entirely on mitigation - reducing greenhouse gas emissions to limit warming and its impacts. As it became clear that climate change was happening already, adaptation emerged as another priority. Small Island Developing States recognized early on that even with adaptation, some severe climate change impacts would be unavoidable - such as sea-level rise that could submerge much of their territory. Out of this recognition grew what some see as a third level of response to climate change: addressing loss and damage [sei-international.org]

» September 22 2016 - #RenewableEnergy #ElectricitySystems. Variable Renewables integration in electricity systems: how to get it right. In the light of the growing importance of renewables and especially Variable Renewable Energy Sources (VRES) all over the world, policymakers and the industry need to address emerging issues to ensure continued growth of variable renewables and their successful integration in electricity systems. Renewable Energy Sources (RES) offer many benefits such as CO2 emissions mitigation, fossil fuels import requirement reduction and new jobs creation, just to name a few. At the same time, the recent expansion of variable renewables-based generation (wind and solar PV) also poses certain challenges, both technical and economic and they require short and long-term solutions. The report identifies these challenges and offers solutions drawing on the experience of the industry operators from around the world based on 32 country case studies covering five continents [wec-italia.org]

» September 21 2016 - Behind the price of #Oil There are few pieces of economic data more closely watched than the price of a barrel of crude oil - and its sharp decline in late 2014 and behaviour since then has sent a powerful signal about the changing balance of supply and demand in global energy markets. Analysts are largely in agreement about the forces at play - in particular the increases in production from US shale fields combined with a downturn in demand from China. But amid the tumult of market pressure, it takes a cool head to see beyond these immediate shocks [ft.com]

» September 20 2016 - #JobVacancy Database Development Intern, #IRENA. Working as part of the #RenewableEnergy Statistics Team, the intern will assist with the development of a database for the collection, storage and reporting of global renewable energy statistics [IRENA]

» September 20 2016 - #ClimatePolicy Global #GreenEconomy Index (#GGEI). United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) and Climate Week. This new GGEI (5th Edition) is a data-driven assessment of how 80 countries and 50 cities perform in the global green economy, as well as how experts evaluate that performance. The GGEI is unique because it provides an integrated view of national green performance, highlighting how the environment, investment, green innovation and efficiency sectors like buildings, transport and energy can be improved to achieve climate goals like the ones set at the recent COP21. The perceptions captured through the GGEI are also valuable, showing where climate-related opportunities are recognized globally, and where they are being missed [..] The 2016 GGEI is being published as the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) and Climate Week in New York City take place. As many nations will ratify their commitments to the recent climate agreement from the COP21 this week, attention must now turn to implementation [dualcitizeninc.com]

» September 19 2016 - #Oil #SaudiArabianOil Co. is poised to choose an adviser from a list of boutiques for what could be the biggest initial public offering ever, a major coup for one of the smaller banks in an otherwise sluggish year for listings. #Aramco, as the kingdom's state-owned oil giant is known, met banks including Rothschild & Co., Lazard Ltd. and Moelis & Co. in recent weeks and may select a winner this month, the people said, asking not to be identified as the information is private. No final hiring decisions have been made, the people said. The IPO could value Aramco, the world's largest oil company, in the trillions of dollars and the government hopes to raise about $100 billion from the sale. A role on the deal is a sought-after trophy for bankers in a year when the largest IPO globally raised about $3 billion. Aramco's already appointed some advisers, including JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Michael Klein, the former Citigroup Inc. investment banker who runs his own advisory firm, people familiar with the matter said in April [bloomberg.com]

» September 19 2016 - #Oil Staying Below $50 as Surplus Lingers Two years into an oil rout that saw West Texas Intermediate oil fall to about $26 a barrel in February, the risk is "to the downside" because there aren't any clear catalysts to push up prices [...] For the next 12 months oil is likely to trade in the $45-$50 range. In May, Goldman cut its 2017 forecast for oil prices to $53 a barrel from $58 as producers became more efficient and Saudi Arabia, Russia and Iran boosted output more than expected. A "modest" supply deficit in the market is forecast to turn to a surplus early next year [...] It really looks similar to the period of the early 1990s, when we were at $20 oil [...] Is $45 to $50 the new $20? I am not ready to say we are in this new equilibrium environment, but it sure does feel like we're moving in that direction [bloomberg.com]

» September 19 2016 - #ClimateChange #GlobalWarming Second lowest minimum for #ArcticIce. The sea-ice extent on 10 September stood at 4.14 million sq km, some way short of the 3.39 million sq km record low in 2012. Arctic sea-ice cover grows each autumn and winter, and shrinks each spring and summer. It has long been regarded as a sensitive indicator of change to the Earth's climatic system. The ice extent has been tracked by the US National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) in Boulder, Colorado, using satellite measurements. However, the centre cautioned that the figures were preliminary, adding that changing winds could still push the ice extent lower. Ted Scambos, NSIDC lead scientist, commented: "It really suggests that in the next few years, with more typical warmer conditions, we will see some very dramatic further losses." This year's minimum is seen as something of a surprise as scientists believed that the low atmospheric pressure and cloudy skies in June and July had slowed down the melt [bbc.com]

» September 16 2016 - #Oil #SaudiArabia has retaken the position of the world's top oil producer from the U.S., according to the International Energy Agency [...] While Saudi Arabia added 400,000 barrels a day of output from low-cost fields since May, about 460,000 barrels a day of "high-cost" production was shut down in the U.S. America has been the world's largest producer of crude and other liquid hydrocarbons since April 2014 following the shale oil boom. U.S. output in August stood at 12.2 million barrels a day, including natural gas liquids, according to the IEA. That compared with Saudi Arabian production of 12.58 million barrels a day the same month [bloomberg.com]

» September 16 2016 - #Oil #GlobalOilDemand growth is slowing at a faster pace than initially predicted, the newly released #IEA Oil Market Report (#OMR) for September informs subscribers. For 2016, a gain of 1.3 mb/d is expected - a downgrade of 0.1 mb/d on our previous forecast due to a more pronounced 3Q16 slowdown. Momentum eases further to 1.2 mb/d in 2017 as underlying macroeconomic conditions remain uncertain. Meanwhile world oil supplies fell by 0.3 mb/d in August, dragged lower by non-OPEC. At 96.9 mb/d, global oil output was 0.3 mb/d below a year ago, but near-record OPEC supply just about offset steep non-OPEC declines. Non-OPEC supply is expected to return to growth in 2017 (+380 kb/d) following an anticipated 840 kb/d decline this year. OPEC crude production edged up to 33.47 mb/d in August - testing record rates as Middle East producers opened the taps. Kuwait and the UAE hit their highest output ever and Iraq lifted supplies. Output from Saudi Arabia held near a record, while Iran reached a post-sanctions high. Overall OPEC supply stood 930 kb/d above a year ago. The anaemic outlook for refining throughput extends further amid downward revisions to our 2H16 forecast. Refinery runs in 2016 are set to grow at the lowest rate in a decade. OECD total inventories built by 32.5 mb in July to a fresh record of 3 111 mb. As refinery activities reached a summer peak, crude oil inventories refused to decline until an exceptional storm-related draw hit the US in late August. Oil prices rallied in early August, rising from four-month lows near $42/bbl to briefly above $50/bbl amid peak summer demand for crude oil, which is expected to lead to the first quarterly crude stock draw in more than two years [iea.org]

» September 15 2016 - #JobVacancies #EnergyModelling #LowCarbon Two vacancies with UCC's #EnergyPolicy and Modelling Group (Cork, Ireland). Salary: €33,975.00 - €42,394 per annum. The Energy Policy and Modelling Group in UCC has been engaged in energy policy and energy modelling research for over 17 years. The results of this research have been published in journal papers, conference proceedings and reports and have directly informed the development of national energy and climate mitigation policy. The research focus is on i) integrated energy systems modelling, ii) low carbon opportunities and iii) energy policy. The group has strong international engagement and recently hosted the International Energy Workshop 2016 conference. The group currently has vacancies for two post-doctoral researchers for two separate projects. Closing date for applications is September 30th 2016 [position 1] [position 2]

» September 15 2016 - #Unconventional #Oil #Gas #LatinAmerica #Shale #TightOil. #ARPEL Report. The most significant aspects relating to the exploration and exploitation of unconventional hydrocarbons (shale/tight oil/gas), as well as proposals for the development of these resources in Latin America and the Caribbean to take place in a sustainable manner and for the benefit of the countries in the Region. Between 2005 and 2015, the Latin American and Caribbean region experienced a growth of its Gross Domestic Product of approximately 3.5% per year and unconventional hydrocarbons offer a historic opportunity to supply to the region the energy that is required to continue along that path [arpel.org]

» September 14 2016 - #ClimateChange #Decarbonization #GlobalWarming #ParisAgreement Creating Legal Pathways to a #ZeroCarbon Future. This paper provides an overview of the challenge of achieving a zero carbon future, as well as the way in which sustainable development would frame the decision-making process for doing so. It then reviews major reports by the #DeepDecarbonizationPathwaysProject and the #WorldBank that describe overall approaches at the global and national levels for meeting the zero carbon objective. Finally, using the United States as an example, it describes ways to identify and create legal pathways to that objective for the U.S., building on the insights of these two reports. Creating possible legal pathways could help accelerate the transition the transition to a sustainable energy future for the U.S. and other countries [ssrn]

» September 14 2016 - #Energy Five and a half years after #Fukushima, 3 of #Japan's 54 #Nuclear reactors are operating. Since the accident at Fukushima Daiichi in March 2011 and the subsequent shutdown of nuclear reactors in Japan, five reactors have received approval to restart operations under the new safety standards imposed by Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA). Only three of those reactors are currently operating. Applications for the restart of 21 other reactors, including 1 under construction, are under review by the NRA. Some reactors that meet the new NRA safety standards and have been approved to restart continue to face legal or political opposition that may delay or forestall their restart. After the Fukushima accident, all 54 of Japan's reactors were shut down. Twelve reactors totaling 7.2 gigawatts (GW) were permanently closed. Restart applications for 20 previously operating reactors (totaling 19.5 GW) and 1 new reactor under construction (the 1.4 GW Oma Nuclear Power Station) have been filed with the NRA. The remaining 17 reactors (16 GW) have yet to submit restart applications. There is still uncertainty about whether some of these reactors can meet the new NRA safety regulations, particularly regulations regarding the ability to withstand severe earthquakes. In addition to NRA approval, the restart of Japan's nuclear reactors requires the approval of the central government and the consent of local governments or prefectures where the power plants are located. Opposition to reactor restarts has been primarily related to public concerns about seismic risks, the adequacy of NRA regulations, and evacuation plans in the event of an accident. [eia.gov]

» September 13 2016 - The #WorldEnergy Perspective report The road to #Resilience - managing #CyberRisks. How cyber risks can best be managed, taking into account the changing nature of the energy industry and energy infrastructure. The report recommends actions that energy decision makers and stakeholders can take - individually and collaboratively - to improve the sector's response to rising cyber threats, as part of a wider move towards resilience. The World Energy Council has partnered with Swiss Re Corporate Solutions, Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc., and the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development. Combined with the Council's annual energy trilemma analysis on political and regulatory risks, "The road to resilience" series provides decision makers with an encompassing understanding of the risks involved in financing resilient energy infrastructures [wec-italia.org]

» September 13 2016 - #ClimateChange The #ParisAgreement and the New Logic of International #ClimatePolitics. International Affairs 92(5), September, pp. 1107-1125. A first cut analysis of the new global governance approach enshrined in the Paris Agreement, focusing on the mitigation challenge. It begins by examining (in the first section) the changing context of international climate politics between the 2009 Copenhagen Accord and the 2015 Paris conference. The second section reviews the main elements of the Paris Agreement, and the third section analyses how the new logic of the climate regime can work and what its limitations are. The final section sums up the argument and offers an outlook on the next steps in the international climate process [Falkner 2016]

» September 12 2016 - #JobVacancies #Energy #ClimateChange. Postdoctoral Fellowships at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Laxenburg, Austria for researchers in: Natural and Social Sciences, Mathematical Sciences and Modelling, Interdisciplinary and Sustainability Sciences, Integrated Assessment, Management and Policy [iiasa.ac.at]

» September 12 2016 - #Geopolitics Geostrategic Implications of Unconventional #Oil and #NaturalGas U.S. oil and gas production is on the rise due to the remarkable surge in unconventional oil and gas development. The widespread realization of the economic, technological, and commercial viability of these tremendous oil and gas resources within North America and the potential for transferring this production success to other parts of the world with similar resources may alter the global energy landscape in several important ways. Speculation about the full extent of the geostrategic implications of this newly realized resource endowment runs the gamut: some analysts suggest that it will fundamentally change the geopolitical dimensions of energy that have prevailed over the last forty years, while others posit that the revolution will be short-lived both in terms of its production potential and resulting geostrategic impacts. There is even less consensus about what potential changes in energy relationships might mean more broadly for key international relationships and geopolitical dynamics. Despite this uncertainty, more rigorous thought should be put toward examinations of possible futures and their resulting implications. Such exercises, while admittedly speculative, will help to clarify the areas in which policymakers should focus their attention, and in which they may be able to take actions to shape possible outcomes more favorably or to hedge against potential vulnerabilities [csis.org]

» September 10 2016 - #ClimateChange #ClimateWeek NYC 2016 With the landmark Paris Agreement signed and the US election on the horizon, the world is at a critical turning point in its journey to address climate change. The extent to which we embrace the immense opportunities of a net zero emissions future will depend greatly on the actions of the United States in the coming five to ten years. Its capacity for innovation in technology, finance and business is unrivaled. It has shaped every industrial revolution of the last 100 years, and can do so again as we enter the next. The choices the next Administration make on climate and energy are vital. They will help decide our collective future, determining whether the world can achieve net zero emissions by or shortly after 2050. The new President and Congress have the opportunity to create a cleaner, healthier, more prosperous America. And much is at stake for leading businesses, states, and regions that have already taken action to realize this future. Climate Week NYC 2016 takes place from September 19-25 [climateweeknyc.org]

» September 9 2016 - #ClimateChange #ExtremeEvents #DisasterRiskReduction The Handbook of #Drought Indicators and Indices. the WMO/GWP Integrated Drought Management Programme. Following publication of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report on extreme events (IPCC, 2012), the issue of quantifying loss and damage from extreme climate events such as droughts has become important for policy implementation, especially with regard to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change agenda. In addition, due to the magnitude of associated disaster losses, improved drought monitoring and management will be fundamental to implementing the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals. This handbook will make an important contribution to these efforts. The purpose of this handbook is to cover some of the most commonly used drought indicators/indices that are being applied across drought-prone regions, with the goal of advancing monitoring, early warning and information delivery systems in support of risk-based drought management policies and preparedness plans. These concepts and indicators/indices are outlined in what is considered to be a living document that will evolve and integrate new indicators and indices as they come to light and are applied in the future. The handbook is aimed at those who want to generate indicators and indices themselves, as well as for those who simply want to obtain and use products that are generated elsewhere. It is intended for use by general drought practitioners and aims to serve as a starting point, showing which indicators/indices are available and being put into practice around the world [droughtmanagement.info]

» September 8 2016 - #ClimatePolicy #ParisAgreement #Adaptation. Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst. The ratification of the Paris Agreement by China and the US may be a giant step in the world of political realities, but it is a small one for those who will bear the brunt of climate impacts. The Agreement fails to prepare us (and especially the most vulnerable) adequately for impacts that we are very likely to face. The Kyoto experience should have taught us at least one lesson: hope for the best, but prepare for the worst. However, the PA provisions on adaptation, loss and damage and finance do not prepare us for the worst, even as the Agreement recognises the insufficiency of current action. Meanwhile, a flood of optimism once again threatens to obliterate "real world" assessments of the PA, just as it did of the Kyoto Protocol [Precaution and post-caution in the Paris Agreement]

» September 8 2016 - #JobVacancy #Energy #CleanEnergy #InnovationManager Salary: From £44,789 (depending on experience). Location: Near Rugby, Warwickshire with International Travel. #PracticalAction is growing our clean energy access team: we are currently accepting applications for a new post: Senior Energy Access Partnership and Innovation Manager. The position will be part of a vibrant team and will work to further consolidate and enhance Practical Action's role as a change agent, facilitator and broker in the global energy for development space. We are looking for a dynamic individual to join us in forging strong partnerships with a wide range of stakeholders to provide decentralised, pro-poor approaches to energy access provision, market systems support and functioning regulatory and financial services. The role will be UK based but involve substantive travel. Please click here for more information and to apply to this position [blueoctopus.co.uk]

» September 7 2016 - #Oil #Economy #Markets #OilDiscoveries at 70-Year Low Signal Supply Shortfall Ahead. Explorers in 2015 discovered only about a tenth as much oil as they have annually on average since 1960. This year, they'll probably find even less, spurring new fears about their ability to meet future demand. With oil prices down by more than half since the price collapse two years ago, drillers have cut their exploration budgets to the bone. The result: Just 2.7 billion barrels of new supply was discovered in 2015, the smallest amount since 1947, according to figures from Edinburgh--based consulting firm Wood Mackenzie Ltd. This year, drillers found just 736 million barrels of conventional crude as of the end of last month. That's a concern for the industry at a time when the U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates that global oil demand will grow from 94.8 million barrels a day this year to 105.3 million barrels in 2026. While the U.S. shale boom could potentially make up the difference, prices locked in below $50 a barrel have undercut any substantial growth there [...] Producers will replace little more than one in 20 of the barrels consumed this year [...] Global spending on exploration, from seismic studies to actual drilling, has been cut to $40 billion this year from about $100 billion in 2014. Moving ahead, spending is likely to remain at the same level through 2018 [...] Exploration is easier to scratch than development investments because of shorter supplier-contract commitments. This year, it will make up about 13 percent of the industry's spending, down from as much as 18 percent historically [...] The result is less drilling, even as the market downturn has driven down the cost of operations. There were 209 wells drilled through August this year, down from 680 in 2015 and 1,167 in 2014 [...] That compares with an annual average of 1,500 in data going back to 1960 [...] Ten years down the line, when the low exploration data being seen now begins to hinder production, it will have a "significant potential to push oil prices up" [...] Oil prices at about $50 a barrel remain at less than half their 2014 peak, as a glut caused by the U.S. shale boom sent prices crashing. When the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries decided to continue pumping without limits in a Saudi-led strategy designed to increase its share of the market, U.S. production retreated to a two-year low [bloomberg.com]

» September 7 2016 - #ClimateChange #Energy #ParisAgreement #Economy #Oil #RenewableEnergy #Geopolitics State of The Transition [...] the flow of the Carbon War [...] The figures for US electricity generation from renewables came out: 16.9% of the national electricity mix, up from 13.7% in 2015. A new front opened, as the first offshore wind turbine was installed. There will be hosts more. Sixteen cities have now targeted 100% of their power from renewables, and four have achieved it already: Aspen, Colorado; Burlington, Vermont; Columbia, Maryland; Greensburg, Kansas. In the cloudy UK, renewables set a new quarterly generation record of 25.1% of the national mix on the back of solar growth. The new government approved the world’s largest offshore windfarm, the $7.8bn 1.8 gigawatt Hornsea 2 project. It will be installed by a former oil and gas company, now a mostly-renewables company, Dong Energy. The pace of development in storage, that vital partner for renewables, continued to amaze. Notable this month was an exhuberant survey of growth and technical advances in both batteries and renewables [...] On the point about EVs and oil displacement, Nissan announced that charging points will outnumber petrol stations in the UK by 2020, at current rates of growth and decline, respectively. Meanwhile, the Dutch are so enthusiastic about EV prospects that the government seems to be on the brink of completely banning new petrol-powered cars by 2025. The deciding vote will be held on October 13th [...] Everywhere in the theatre of the Carbon War we see evidence of incumbency players rethinking. This includes grid operators. In August, National Grid slashed its forecasts for big new UK power plants. In 2012, it had thought 33 gigawatts would be needed by 2021. Now it says 12 [...] Among the utilities U-turning away from incumbency business models is RWE, and this month the German giant joined the list of peers acquiring renewables companies, buying one of Europe's biggest downstream solar players, Belectric Solar and Battery. Those utilities endeavouring to defend the status quo and resist change are finding life increasingly difficult. In Hawaii, for example, solar advocates report increasing ease of grid disconnection in fighting utility pushback. Investors continue to awaken to the smell of energy-transition coffee, albeit not fast enough. The evidence might be clearer to them, were they not so constrained by short-termism. A new index, the "Clean 200", contains giants on the frontiers of the energy transition. Its top 20 performers include Toyota (1st), Siemens (2nd), Vestas (7th), Dong (11th), and First Solar (19th). It has grown in value by 22% in the last 10 years. An index of fossil-fuel companies, the "Underground 200", has grown only 8% in that time [...] The big oil companies evidently disagree. They continue to "binge on debt", as the Wall Street Journal put it on 24th August, hoping against hope that the oil price will rise to just the right level for their business models - not too high, not too low. Their combined debt is now $184 billion, double their 2014 level. In 2015, they spent more than 100% of their profits on dividends. In the US shale belt, bottom feeding private equity has begun to move in on debt-distressed oil assets. Bankruptcies among oil and gas companies have risen to 90 and counting. And still, as the Saudis and Russians pump full tilt, the oil price remains too low for most companies to do anything but keep haemorrhaging cash. Saudi oil production rose to a record level of 10.67 million barrels per day in July, a distressingly large amount of it being required to to satisfy air conditioning loads in power plants. This is surely a candidate for the most dysfunctional use of fossil fuels in the world today. Meanwhile, investment in exploration has plummeted, unsurprisingly, since the oil price began its fall in mid 2014. And so to the inevitable: oil discoveries hit a 70 year low this month. Oil demand in 2016 so far has been 94.8 million barrels a day on average. That is 34.6 billion barrels per year. Oil discovered last year: 2.7 billion barrels [jeremyleggett.net]

» September 6 2016 - #Energy #GHGEmissions #FossilFuelSubsidies #G20 Leaders' Communique Hangzhou Summit 23. In line with the G20 Principles on Energy Collaboration, we reaffirm our commitment to building well-functioning, open, competitive, efficient, stable and transparent energy markets, fostering more effective and inclusive global energy architecture to better reflect the changing realities of the world's energy landscape, and shaping an affordable, reliable, sustainable and low greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions energy future while utilizing energy sources and technologies. We stress that continued investment in energy projects and better regional interconnection, particularly in sustainable energy projects, remains critically important to ensuring future energy security and preventing economically destabilizing price spikes. We endeavor to work with Sub-Saharan and Asia-Pacific countries to improve universal access to affordable, reliable, clean, sustainable and modern energy services, particularly by addressing barriers to electricity access. We encourage members to significantly improve energy efficiency based on the specific needs and national circumstances of each member and promote energy conservation through appropriate lifestyle changes. We will explore innovative collaborative arrangements for international cooperation on energy efficiency. We endorse the G20 Voluntary Collaboration Action Plan on Energy Access, the G20 Voluntary Action Plan on Renewable Energy and the G20 Energy Efficiency Leading Programme issued by the G20 energy ministers and ask them to meet regularly to follow up on the implementation of these plans. 24. We reaffirm the importance of energy collaboration towards a cleaner energy future and sustainable energy security with a view to fostering economic growth. We welcome the progress on the voluntary international collaboration on energy efficiency in six key areas, taking into consideration the policies outlined in the Energy Efficiency Leading Programme and in line with national circumstances, including in heavy duty vehicles, and improving the efficiency of these vehicles. We also reaffirm our commitment to rationalize and phase-out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies that encourage wasteful consumption over the medium term, recognizing the need to support the poor. We welcome G20 countries' progress on their commitments and look forward to further progress in the future. Further, we encourage G20 countries to consider participating in the voluntary peer review process. Given that natural gas is a less emission-intensive fossil fuel, we will enhance collaboration on solutions that promote natural gas extraction, transportation, and processing in a manner that minimizes environmental impacts. We stress the importance of diversification of energy sources and routes [g20.org]

» September 6 2016 - #ClimateChange #G20 reaffirms climate commitments but dodges deadlines. Leaders back rapid implementation of the Paris agreement and ramping up of green finance, but fail to set timeline for phase-out of #FossilFuelSubsidies [theguardian.com]

» September 6 2016 - #Geopolitics #G20 #SaudiArabia, #Russia sign strategic #Oil pact. The world's two largest oil producers, Russia and Saudi Arabia, agreed to act together to stabilize global oil output. Energy ministers Alexander Novak and Minister Khalid Al-Falih met Monday on the sidelines of the Group of 20 nations' summit in China. A joint statement released by Russia said both ministers "recognized the need to restrain an excessive volatility of the oil market" and agreed to act together "in order to stabilize the oil market." [arabnews.com]

» September 6 2016 - #Oil #Geopolitics. #Iran is ready to raise its #Oil production to 4 million barrels per day (bpd) in the next two to three months depending on market demand, the director for international affairs at #NIOC said on Monday [...] Iran's plans to return output to pre-sanctions levels of more than 4 million bpd comes just ahead of an informal meeting later this month among members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (#OPEC) in Algeria, where they are expected to seek to revive a deal on freezing global output [nioc.ir]

» September 5 2016 - #ClimateChange #G20 Climate Finance Study Group, G20 Outlook on Mainstreaming Climate Change Considerations into Development Assistance and Climate Finance Programs. The G20 Climate Finance Study Group - CFSG decided in 2016 to share experiences on the topic of Mainstreaming climate change considerations into international public finance with a view to maximizing sustainable development & climat co-benefits. In this context, the Group invited CFSG country members to present their views and experiences on the following key issues identified by the CFSG on this topic: [g20.org]

» September 1 2016 - #Oil #OPEC members' net oil export revenue in 2015 drops to lowest level since 2004. Members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) earned $404 billion in net oil export revenue in 2015, according to U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates. These earnings represent a 46% decline from $753 billion earned in 2014. Although these net export earnings include Iran's revenues, the net export revenue is not adjusted for possible price discounts that Iran may have offered its customers between late 2011 and January 2016, when nuclear-related sanctions targeting Iran's oil sales were in place. OPEC members' net oil export revenue has fallen as crude oil prices have declined. The monthly average Brent spot price dropped from $112 per barrel (b) in June 2014 to $38/b in December 2015. Based on EIA price forecasts, which are subject to a wide range of uncertainty, OPEC revenue is expected to fall to $341 billion in 2016 before rising to $427 billion in 2017. OPEC members' 2015 net oil export revenue was at the lowest level since 2004, with significant implications for the fiscal condition of member countries that rely heavily on oil sales to fund social programs and to import other goods and services. In inflation-adjusted terms, OPEC net oil export revenue totaled $606 per person in 2015, down 83% from the 1980 level of $3,500 per person. [eia.gov]

» September 1 2016 - #ClimateChange #FoodSystem Techniques and Agricultural Practices. Future of Food: Journal for Food, Agriculture and Society, Volume 4. Number 2 ( Summer 2016). Effects of climate change will become increasingly apparent and global food systems are increasingly menaced by different stresses. Many food production systems are unsustainable, the global food system will continue to degrade the environment and compromise the world's capacity to produce food in the future, as well as contributing to climate change and the biodiversity destruction. The food system must become sustainable, whilst adapting to climate change and substantially contributing to climate change mitigation [issuu.com]

» August 31 2016 - #ClimateChange How Did Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (#INDCs) Address #CapacityBuilding? Implications For Future Communication By Parties On Capacity Building Under The #ParisAgreement. This #IGES paper surveys a sample of INDCs and assesses how capacity building is identified and mentioned in the context of their pledges towards the Paris Agreement. The paper suggests that it is necessary to improve prior information on capacity building gaps and needs to enhance clarity, transparency and understanding, and to ensure that Parties identify those gaps and needs so that international support can be delivered effectively through the Paris Committee on Capacity-building (PCCB) [iges.or.jp]

» August 31 2016 - #EnergyEfficiency #EU #EnergySavingOptions #Epsol Policy Brief. The cost recovery mechanisms and options of EEO schemes are determining factors for the public acceptance and the efficiency of such schemes. There is a great variety of cost recovery options in the EU, and also abroad, where experience is gained and different options apply to different circumstances. The parameters that influence that decision (which has to be flexible and easy to adapt in case market standards change over the time) are: obligated party (suppliers and/or distributors), obligation on all or selected energy carriers, openness of the market (expressed in number of companies) and expectations for newcomers, links of the EEO scheme to either funding mechanism (such as a certificate market) or other tools (such as subsidies, tenders and others), and availability of low cost energy saving options [enspol.eu]

» August 30 2016 - #ClimateFinance #LowCarbonEconomy #Asia The Asian Development Bank (#ADB) has raised $1.3 billion to help finance climate change mitigation and adaptation projects with the issue of dual-tranche 3-year and 10-year green bonds, following its inaugural green bond issue in 2015 [...] Last year, ADB announced that it will double its annual climate financing to $6 billion by 2020, up from $3 billion in 2015. ADB's spending on tackling climate change will rise to around 30% of its overall financing by the end of this decade. Out of the $6 billion, $4 billion will be dedicated to mitigation through scaling up support for renewable energy, energy efficiency, sustainable transport, and building smart cities, while $2 billion will be for adaptation through more resilient infrastructure, climate-smart agriculture, and better preparation for climate-related disasters. Proceeds of the green bonds will support low-carbon and climate resilient projects funded through ADB-s ordinary capital resources and used in its non-concessional operations [adb.org]

» August 25 2016 - #ClimateChange #Geopolitics #ClimateSecurity The Secure and the Dispossessed. How the #Military and #Corporations are shaped a climate-changed world. Pluto Press, Transnational Institute book. What if government and corporate elites have given up on the idea of stopping climate change and prefer to try to manage its consequences? The Secure and the Dispossessed shows how the military and corporations plan to maintain control in a world reshaped by climate change. With one eye on the scientific evidence and the other on their global assets, dystopian preparations by the powerful are already fuelling militarised security responses to the unfolding climate crisis. The implications for social and environmental justice are disturbing. Adaptation to a climate-changed world is desperately needed, but it must protect the rights of all, not just provide security to the few. The authors unveil the dangerous new security agenda, and put forward inspiring alternatives that promise a just transition to a climate-changed world. [climatesecurityagenda.org]

» August 24 2016 - #GreenEconomy #RenewableEnergy The Renewable Route to #SustainableTransport. #IRENA Report. Energy use in transport accounts for around one-third of global final energy consumption, and demand is growing rapidly, at about 1% annually. Transport has the lowest renewable energy share of any sector, making progress in this area crucial for the global transition to a sustainable energy system. Recognising the sector's importance, the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) put together a Transport Action Team consisting of more than 200 experts from private companies, academic institutions, government and international organisations. This working paper, drawing on engagement with those experts, expands on the transport findings published in IRENA's report REmap: Roadmap for a Renewable Energy Future, 2016 Edition. REmap - IRENA's roadmap for a renewable energy future - examines ways to scale up renewables in the global energy mix. The global roadmap identifies significant renewable energy potential in the transport sector [irena.org]

» August 23 2016 - #Norway #Oil production climbs to five-year high after Goliat startup. The startup of the giant Goliat project boosted Norway's oil output to a five-year high in July. The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate said on Wednesday that Norway's oil production volume rose to 1.728 million barrels in July, the largest monthly total since March 2011. That production level represented a 10 percent year-over-year increase and was nine percent above the NPD's forecast for the month [...] The NPD said Goliat was the fourth largest oil producer in July. The Eni operated Goliat field came online in March and is set to produce 100,000 barrels of oil per day. [petroglobalnews.com]

» August 23 2016 - #JobVacancy #BioEconomy #EnvironmentalFootprints Post-doctoral researcher position (50%) Political scientist/development scientist. The Center for Development Research (ZEF), University of Bonn, Germany, invites applications for a 50% postdoctoral researcher position for a political scientist/development scientist starting from October 1^st 2016. The selected candidate will work in the new project "Sustainable trade and innovation transfer in the Bioeconomy" (STRIVE) funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The project aims at developing a better understanding of how and under what conditions bio-based transformation can lead to reducing environmental footprints with a particular focus on socio-economic and environmental conditions in selected regions in Sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, and South America [zef.de]

» August 23 2016 - #ClimateChange The #SustainableDevelopmentGoals in the #UK inquiry. The Environmental Audit Committee launch an inquiry into the domestic implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The 17 SDGs were adopted by the General Assembly on 25 September 2015. The SDGs cut across all areas of Government - from ending poverty and achieving gender equality through to tackling climate change and using resources sustainably [parliament.uk]

» August 22 2016 - #ClimateChange #FoodSecurity #Africa More than 60 million people, two-thirds of them in east and southern Africa face food shortages because of droughts linked to El Nino. Even as the first Africa drought conference at Windhoek, Namibia from August 15-19, 2016 is expected to set in motion the strategic framework for enhancing resilience to drought, members of this forum are requested to see this interactive on Climate change, drought and the state of food security in Africa [indiaenvironmentportal.org.in]

» August 18 2016 - #Oil #Gas Nearly $110 billion of debt associated with already-strained oilfield services and drilling (OFS) companies will mature or expire over the next five years, with speculative-grade companies accounting for 65% of all maturities and expirations, according to a newly issued Moody's report. Estimates for 2018 show the maturity wall growing dramatically to more than $21 billion, almost three times the total debt burden in 2017. The debt burden continues to edge higher into 2021, when nearly $29 billion of issuance and revolvers is scheduled to come due [moodys.com]

» August 16 2016 - #EIA #ShaleGas production drives world natural gas production growth. In the U.S. Energy Information Administration's International Energy Outlook 2016 (#IEO2016) and Annual Energy Outlook 2016 (#AEO2016), natural gas production worldwide is projected to increase from 342 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) in 2015 to 554 Bcf/d by 2040. The largest component of this growth is natural gas production from shale resources, which grows from 42 Bcf/d in 2015 to 168 Bcf/d by 2040. Shale gas is expected to account for 30% of world natural gas production by the end of the forecast period. Although currently only four countries-the United States, Canada, China, and Argentina-have commercial shale gas production, technological improvements over the forecast period are expected to encourage development of shale resources in other countries, primarily in Mexico and Algeria. Together, these six countries are projected to account for 70% of global shale production by 2040 [eia.gov]

» August 13 2016 - #Oil #Iran #Russia. #SaudiArabia told #OPEC that it pumped a record 10.67 million barrels of oil a day in July to meet a summer surge in domestic demand, an increase that will do nothing to endear the group's leading exporter to other members seeking output limits to shore up prices [...] The output beat the previous all-time production high of 10.56 million barrels a day in June 2015, according to OPEC submissions. The group confirmed the figure later Wednesday in its monthly report. Oil fell as much as 1.6 percent to $42.08 a barrel, before recovering to $42.56 at 8:08 a.m. in New York trading [...] Russia, Saudi Arabia and other major oil exporters met in Doha in April in a bid to stabilize markets by putting caps on output. The effort collapsed after Saudi Arabia demanded that rival Iran be a part of the deal. At the time, Iran had ruled out any limits on its output as it ramped up after the lifting of international sanctions [bloomberg.com]

» August 9 2016 - #OilAndGas #EnergyLaw and the #SustainableCompany. #Innovation and #corporateSocialResponsibility. Routledge. Focusing on innovation, technology transfer and the use of intangible assets, Energy Law and the Sustainable Company features case studies from the oil and gas sector, to illustrate how to develop a sustainable business. The book also discusses how companies have reported on their sustainability strategy and considers how technology transfer and intangible assets may play a part in addressing global sustainability [routledge.com]

» August 4 2016 - #ClimateChange How is #SeaIce in the #Arctic and #Antarctic changing? The Royal Meteorological Society briefing. Since 1979, satellite surveys have provided reliable, continuous, year-round measurements of sea ice extent. This long, unbroken record hows that sea ice is constantly changing, with variations over seasons, years, and decades. Arctic sea ice typically covers an area roughly the size of Australia in summer (about 7 million km2) and grows to an area roughly the size of Russia by late winter (about 16 million km2). Similarly, Antarctic sea ice covers an area roughly the size of India in the summer (3 million km 2) and grows to nearly twice the size of Antarctica in the winter (17 to 20 million km2). In addition to these seasonal variations, satellite surveys have revealed decades-long trends in both Arctic and Antarctic sea ice. Over the period 1979-2012, Arctic sea ice extent decreased by about 4% per decade, and perennial sea ice (i.e. sea ice that is more than one year old) decreased at a little over 10% per decade. A record low September sea ice extent occurred in 2012. Between 1980 and 2008, the average winter sea ice thickness within the Arctic basin decreased (likely between 1.3 and 2.3 m), and the total volume of Arctic sea ice has also decreased [rmets.org]

» August 3 2016 - #ClimateChange #CarbonEmissions #EarthOvershootDay Global Footprint Network, in collaboration with WWF and more than 30 partners, is marking Earth Overshoot Day this year on August 8. By August 8, humanity will have used up nature's budget for the entire year. This is possible because we emit more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than our oceans and forests can absorb, and we deplete fisheries and harvest forests more quickly than they can reproduce and regrow. Consequences include climate change, biodiversity loss, and fishery collapse. Carbon emissions are the fastest growing contributor to ecological overshoot, with the carbon Footprint now making up 60% of humanity's demand on nature, which we call its Ecological Footprint. If we adhere to the goals set by the Paris climate agreement adopted by nearly 200 countries in December 2015, the carbon Footprint will need to gradually fall to zero by 2050. This calls for a new way of living on our one planet [overshootday.org]

» August 1 2016 - #Economy #ClimateChange: A Good Investment. #ADB #CMCC #UKgov #JapanGov Report. Curbing greenhouse gas emissions is economically attractive: the benefits outweigh the costs. In fact, mitigating climate change can be seen as an investment in the future of a whole Region. These are the outputs of an Asian Development Bank (ADB) technical assistance project, co-financed by the Government of the United Kingdom and the Government of Japan. This project was conducted with the scientific support of the CMCC Foundation – Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change, that provided #WITCH and #ICES, the two global dynamic economy-energy-environment models used in the study. [cmcc.it]

» August 1 2016 - #ClimateFinance #CarbonPricingPolicy #LowCarbonEconomy #Canada. Ecofiscal research. More stringent carbon pricing policy leads to greater emissions reductions. This report seeks to provide governments with a common, consistent framework for comparing the stringency of provincial carbon pricing policies. It considers five metrics of stringency, including two new metrics that seek to account for design differences between provincial policies. These metrics can support efforts to benchmark the contributions of existing provincial carbon pricing policies. They can also support efforts to coordinate provincial policies nationally. We find that considering multiple metrics of stringency is useful, however we also conclude that a trade-adjusted­ coverage carbon price is a practical and flexible means of comparing stringency across provincial policies that could be especially useful in efforts to coordinate provincial policies [ecofiscal.ca]

» August 1 2016 - #ClimateChange #ClimateFinance #LowCarbonEconomy #CarbonCredit. What is a carbon credit worth? Investing in climate and development projects is a powerful way to contribute the transition to a low-carbon, climate secure world. However it can seem complex - especially answering what seems to be a simple question of how much you should pay for a carbon credit. Why is one carbon credit - representing one tonne of carbon dioxide prevented from entering the atmosphere -- be more expensive than another? While your carbon credit provider can guide you through the process, we hope to provide some clarity in how carbon credits are valued, taking into account significant differences among the projects that issue them [goldstandard.org]

» July 29 2016 - #Energy #Africa #Geopolitics. #China building 10% of sub-saharan capacity. IEA Report, Boosting the Power Sector in Sub-Saharan Africa. Lack of energy access and frequent electricity shortages are major impediments to economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa. The region needs increased investment in the power sector. Chinese-built power projects and financial support from China are contributing to power sector development, extending energy access and facilitating economic growth. This report analyses China's engagement in the sub-Saharan Africa power sector, including the key drivers underlying Chinese investments. An overview of Chinese projects (generation, transmission and distribution) during the 2010-20 period is provided in this first-ever consolidated effort to map them. The report identifies the key Chinese stakeholders and assesses their impact on policies affecting energy access, economic development and financing modalities. Two case studies examine Chinese investment at the country level in Ghana and Ethiopia [iea.org]

» July 29 2016 - #RenewableEnergyGovernance #UNCCC #SDGs #MDBs #EconomicDevelopment #InternationalTrade #EU #IRENA #IEA Mapping out the international and European governance of #RenewableEnergy. Queen Mary University of London. The aim of this article is to map out the governance of renewable energy and argues that effective renewable energy governance at the international and European level has become a major challenge of public international law and European Union (EU) law. The article first analyzes renewable energy governance in the context of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. It then examines the various international energy bodies that deal with the governance of renewables and deals with renewables in specific sectors of international/supranational law and policy, namely the sustainable development goals and multilateral development banks in the context of economic development, the G7 and the G20, international trade and, lastly, the European Union's renewables legislation and policies, as examples of the most committed region in the world to renewable energy. This article concludes with a number of questions for further legal research resulting from the broad array of activity concerning renewables in EU law, international law, and international organizations [papers.ssrn.com]

» July 29 2016 - The #DominicanRepublic can increase the share of modern #RenewableEnergy in its energy mix from 9 to 27 per cent by 2030, according to a new report launched by the International Renewable Energy Agency (#IRENA). Renewable Energy Prospects: Dominican Republic, finds the country could increase the share of renewables in the power sector alone from 12 to 44 per cent by 2030 [irena.org]

» July 28 2016 - #StripperWells accounted for 11% of U.S. #NaturalGas production in 2015. Stripper wells, also known as marginal wells, individually produce small volumes of natural gas or oil but in aggregate have provided 11% to 15% of total U.S. oil and natural gas production over the past decade. Natural gas stripper wells (so called because they are stripping the remaining natural gas out of the ground) are characterized as producing no more than 90,000 cubic feet per day over a 12-month period. EIA estimates that there were about 456,000 stripper gas wells in the United States operating at the end of 2015, compared with about 122,000 nonstripper gas wells [eia.gov]

» July 28 2016 - #ClimateChange The important insights about #ClimateChangePolicy from #Sociology An article, the third in a series, about the important insights that sociologists have made about why the United States and some other countries have not responded adequately to climate change, who is behind the climate disinformation campaign, how has it been organized, who funded it, what techniques has it used to undermine mainstream climate science, what needs to be done to create and sustain a social movement on climate change, why simply improving messaging about climate change or even motivating changes in individual behaviror by economic incentives will not likely lead to widespread social change on climate change that is so urgently needed unless people understand what is wrong with the dominant cultural understanding of climate change, and why sociological insights and obvious ethical and moral problems with the arguments of climate policy opponents have largely been missing from most climate literature [ethicsandclimate.org]

» July 28 2016 - #ClimatePolicy How Did Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (#INDCs) Address Capacity Building? Implications For Future Communication By Parties On #CapacityBuilding Under The #ParisAgreement. The paper addresses the necessity to improve prior information on capacity building gaps and needs to ensure that Parties identify those gaps and needs so that international support can be delivered effectively through the Paris Committee on Capacity-building (PCCB). Key messages: 1. This paper surveys a sample of INDCs and assesses how capacity building is identified and mentioned in the context of their pledges towards the PA. Overall, the paper found that capacity building was a common element of developing country INDCs. 2. Parties provided different levels of detail in information on national capacity limitations and needs, illustrating the possibility that some Parties may have a capacity building plan or strategy along with their INDC, while others do not have such a plan yet. 3. The paper suggests that it is necessary to improve prior information on capacity building gaps and needs to enhance clarity, transparency and understating, and to ensure that Parties identify those gaps and needs so that international support can be delivered effectively through the PCCB [...]

» July 27 2016 - #Geopolitics #Iraq: what happened to the #Oil after the war? Once upon a time "Arab oil for the Arabs". Opponents of the Iraq war often highlight the importance of oil when explaining why the invasion took place. While leaders at the time denied it was a motivation there is no doubt the country's huge oilfields did offer possible post-conflict opportunities for the Iraqi industry and international corporations. However what is missing from the post-Chilcot Report discussions and debates is a sense of what Iraqi oil sector is actually like today. So, even if the war really was "all about oil" ... did it succeed on those terms? For Iraqis dealing with the aftermath of invasion, the development of its oil and gas sector after 2003 is analogous to the nation as a whole: the vaulting ambition of the American occupation; the dysfunctional institutions they bequeathed; and Iraq's internal rivalries that may lead to its partition. Oil is central to Iraq's present and future. It accounts for 99% of all government revenue. Along with existing reserves of 143 billion barrels (5th in the world) it is estimated there are 50 to 200 billion barrels yet to be discovered making it the largest unexplored market in the world. For decades before the invasion, the industry had been in the hands of the state-owned Iraq National Oil Company. "Arab oil for the Arabs" was one of the most popular slogans of the Baathist era (1968-2003), and nationalisation in 1972 was the enactment of a policy that had first been demanded in the 1950s. But if American post-war planners were aware of this history they appeared to ignore it. Away from Iraq, they planned to open up the nationalised oil industry to international investors and owners, and to the benefits of liberalisation. Problems with privatisation [theconversation.com]

» July 27 2016 - #Geopolitics #Oil #Iraq #UK The Iraq Inquiry Report. In 2003, for the first time since the Second World War, the United Kingdom took part in an invasion and full-scale occupation of a sovereign State. That was a decision of the utmost gravity. Saddam Hussein was undoubtedly a brutal dictator who had attacked Iraq's neighbours, repressed and killed many of his own people, and was in violation of obligations imposed by the UN Security Council. But the questions for the Inquiry were: whether it was right and necessary to invade Iraq in March 2003; and whether the UK could - and should - have been better prepared for what followed. We have concluded that the UK chose to join the invasion of Iraq before the peaceful options for disarmament had been exhausted. Military action at that time was not a last resort [iraqinquiry.org.uk]

» July 27 2016 - #GreenEconomy #PostCarbonEconomy #EU #China #LowCarbonUrbanDevelopment. #POCACITO Policy Brief. The project Post-Carbon Cities of Tomorrow (#POCACITO), a research project funded by the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme. The objective of the project is to facilitate the transition of EU cities to a forecasted sustainable or "post-carbon economic model, eventually leading to an evidence‐based EU 2050 post-carbon city roadmap.To understand better the strong dynamic in China towards low-carbon urban development, by getting an overview of the country’s planned responses to its rapid urbanisation [pocacito.eu]

» July 26 2016 - #ClimateChange #ClimateFinance: towards a #LowCarbon, #ClimateResilientEconomy. International Center for Climate Governance,#ICCG's video-lecture given by: Christopher Knowles, Head of Climate, European Investment Bank. Which are the main instruments and policies to redirect investments from high carbon to low-carbon infrastructures? In this video lecture, Christopher Knowles replies to this and other relevant questions and talks about measures investors can adopt to influence climate change positively, such as due diligence, decarbonization of investment portfolios, carbon accounting, disclosure, valuation of carbon stranding [...]

» July 26 2016 - #GreenEconomy #LowCarbonDevelopment Can a City Be Sustainable? State of the World (2016). Worldwatch Institute Report. Cities are the world's future. Today, more than half of the global population-3.9 billion people—are urban dwellers and that number is expected to double by 2050. There is no question cities are growing; the only debate is over how they will grow. Will we invest in the physical and social infrastructure necessary for livable, equitable, and sustainable cities? In the latest edition of State of the World, the flagship publication of the Worldwatch Institute, experts from around the globe examine the core principles of sustainable urbanism and profile cities that are putting them into practice. Can a City Be Sustainable? first puts our current moment in context, tracing cities in the arc of human history. It also examines the basic structural elements of every city: materials and fuels; people and economics; and biodiversity. In the book's City Views, professionals working on some of the world's most inventive urban sustainability projects share their first-hand experience. Success stories come from places as diverse as Ahmedabad, India; Freiburg, Germany; and Shanghai, China. In many cases, local people are acting to improve their cities, even when national efforts are stalled. The book also examines cross-cutting issues that affect the success of all cities. Topics range from the nitty-gritty of handling waste and developing public transportation to civic participation and navigating dysfunctional government. Throughout, readers discover the most pressing challenges facing communities and the most promising solutions currently being developed. The result is a snapshot of cities today and a vision for global urban sustainability tomorrow [worldwatch.org]

» July 25 2016 - #GlobalWarming Eastern Hemisphere's All-Time #TemperatureRecord: Kuwait Fries in 54°C (129.2°F) Heat It was a historic day in the annals of meteorology on Thursday, July 21, 2016 in the Middle East, where the temperature in Mitribah, Kuwait soared to an astonishing 54°C (129.2°F). If verified, this would be Earth's hottest temperature ever reliably measured outside of Death Valley, California, according to wunderground's weather historian Christopher C. Burt [wunderground.com]

» July 25 2016 - What science can tell us about the links between #GlobalWarming and massive #HeatWaves The #UnitedStates is witnessing a massive, dangerous heat wave, as a huge system of high pressure covers the central part of the country. It's a big enough deal that yesterday President Obama even tweeted about it, including a map showing the maximum heat index in some parts of the Midwest and Southeast reaching 110 or 115 degrees on Saturday. Here in Washington, temperatures could break 100 degrees Friday or over the weekend [washingtonpost.com]

» July 25 2016 - #ClimateChangeMitigation #LowCarbonDevelopment #Sufficiency, Liberal Societies and #EnvironmentalPolicy in the Face of #PlanetaryBoundaries. GAIA Paper (Ecological perspectives for science and society). Sufficiency or, as it is often understood, consumption reduction, is an important topic when dealing with climate change mitigation. However, it is usually not made explicit what exactly is meant by sufficiency and how this may be put into action [...] Sufficiency is not a goal of environmental policy-making as is efficiency. In view of the planetary boundaries, this paper instead proposes that sufficiency should amend the notion of liberal society. The classic vision of liberal societies has been based on the core values of individual freedom, the no-harm principle and social justice together with the related virtues of courage, prudence and justice. By adding sufficiency, we introduce a fourth core value, one which is necessary for dealing with planetary boundaries. Temperance, the virtue linked to sufficiency, becomes an important part of this [oekom.de]

» July 25 2016 - #ClimateChange #JobVacancy #DisasterRisk Management Specialist, #WorldBank Group. The Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR), established in 2006, is a multi-donor partnership and grant-making financing mechanism. The Facility provides on-the-ground technical assistance to help developing countries integrate disaster risk management (DRM) and climate change adaptation into development strategies, policies and investment programs, including post-disaster recovery and reconstruction. GFDRR draws upon a wide range of sector-specific expertise, and has an extensive geographic and operational presence. In fiscal year 2015, GFDRR helped leverage over $3 billion in financing from the World Bank Group, catalyzing resilient recovery in 12 countries and supporting disaster risk management capacity in 89 countries. The current portfolio of projects under implementation consists of 280 grants worth approximately $216 million, with Sub-Saharan Africa being the largest recipient. Five pillars of action provide GFDRR's operational framework: (1) risk identification; (2) risk reduction; (3) preparedness; (4) financial protection; and (5) resilient recovery. GFDRR's work is structured around three programs supported by various trust funds: (i) country programs; (ii) thematic programs; and (iii) advocacy, partnership and knowledge programs. In addition, GFDRR is responsible for managing and administering two special programs: the Japan-World Bank Program for Mainstreaming Disaster Risk Management in Developing Countries - financed by Japan - and the African, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP)-European Union (EU) Natural Disaster Risk Reduction Program - financed by the EU. The GFDRR Secretariat is hosted by the World Bank in Washington D.C. with satellite offices in Brussels and Tokyo. The Secretariat is responsible for awarding and managing grants, reporting on results, and carrying out outreach and partnership development. It also acts as the support hub for a decentralized network of DRM experts in the World Bank and provides a global platform for knowledge-sharing and capacity building. GFDRR is seeking a Disaster Risk Management Specialist who help to carry out the work of the Resilient Recovery thematic program. The incumbent will work under the direct supervision and oversight of the GFDRR Resilient Recovery Team Leader, in close coordination with other GFDRR teams, and with regional experts forming the DRM Community of Practice [.worldbank.org]:

» July 23 2016 - #Oil #NatGas #Renewables #Coal #Electricity #CleanPowerPlan #EIA, the future is tinged with green. $220 billion less spent on oil capex in 2015 as compared to 2014, a record cut. Natgas falls through 2021. Natgas and Renewables surpass Coal in Electric generation by 2030. Coal continues to face downward pressure in electricity generation even without Clean Power Plan implementation. [abo.net]

» July 23 2016 - #OilIndustry #Geopolitcs The epicentre of #Kuwait's #Oil sector. Abdulla AlSumait, deputy CEO, South and East Kuwait, Kuwait Oil Company (KOC): Burgan oil field is at the very centre of Kuwait's oil industry. It plays a fundamentally strategic role as a supergiant oilfield due to its huge reserves, which enables the sustainability of Kuwait as an oil producer on the world energy stage. Historically, Burgan has acted as a swing producer to meet the market requirement for Kuwait, guaranteeing those are systematically met, which has established and maintained Kuwait's high reputation as a reliable supplier. We make sure to take care of Burgan with a reservoir management approach, as it provides the most important volume of oil produced from all assets of the Kuwait oil sector: up to 60 per cent of all production of KOC. I would highlight that it is precisely the discovery of oil back in the 1930's and 1940's in Burgan that brought the world's attention to Kuwait's huge oil reserves, launching our story as an oil producing country. The modern era of our country literally started with the discovery of Burgan [...] We are currently producing 1.73 MMBOPD, and our targets follow Kuwait Petroleum Corporation guidelines, ensuring sound practices of reservoir management. The resources of oil and gas in supergiant Burgan, are distributed across many reservoirs. With new technologies we will be able to unlock even more reserves and incremental production for a long while. Additionally, exploration and appraisal activities continue to find new opportunities which when evaluated may further expand our resource base [...] Our challenges keep changing as we go through the life cycle of the different reservoirs in the field. Parts of the field are relatively mature and the main challenge is to access the remaining oil and to manage the increasing volumes of produced water. Other parts are still at an early stage and require further appraisal to fully access their reserves. We also have medium mature reservoirs that have not been fully exploited and require water injection to support their pressures in order to produce significant volumes. The combination of managing a giant field at multiple stages in it life cycle is both challenging and interesting. If life did not have variety, it would be very boring. Being a mature field we face the normal issues of surface congestion and a need for a continuous programme of facility and network upgrades to meet the challenges of increasing water. Further reservoir developments also need construction of new facilities for massive injection plants and a parallel infrastructure of injection manifolds and flow lines. We are also increasing production from our sour crude reservoirs and these need specialised facilities, infrastructure and management systems. As mentioned earlier we are managing new developments alongside maturing reservoirs and it is all about smart and timely integration of subsurface, drilling and surface challenges. One of the first things I did was to create an organisation where integration of our business is central to everything we do. We call it the 'Integrated Business Management' (IBM). It is only as we go beyond the boundaries that we build around us, that we really make a difference [pipelineme.com]

» July 22 2016 - #EnergyPolicy #NaturalGas as a #TransitionFuel: A bridge too far? [...] What exactly does a "bridging" process entail? The label of "bridge fuel" or "transition fuel" suggests that natural gas is capable of both cutting coal-based greenhouse gas emissions and giving way to an emissions-free future. To serve as a bridge, natural gas must completely replace coal-something that is already happening. But how long natural gas will be needed, and how it will be phased out in the transition to a renewables-only future, is still up in the air. When viewed through a long-term economic lens, natural gas is not going to facilitate the transition to an emissions-free future, for two reasons: the economic disadvantages of renewables-compatible gas power plants compared with other gas plants, and the economic challenges that come with locking in an energy infrastructure. There are possibilities for natural gas infrastructure to continue operating in a carbon-neutral world, but they rely on the advent of viable biofuel and carbon capture and storage technology [thebulletin.org]

» July 22 2016 - #ClimateFinance #StrandedAssets #FossilFuels #NDCs. New policy-driven investments will be directed to support the transition towards a low-carbon global economy. As a consequence, carbon intense projects and investments are likely to face an increasing risk of stranding. Stranded assets are those that lose value or turn into liabilities before the end of their expected economic life. Assets may be stranded not only by stricter climate change regulation, but also by economics, such as a fall in oil prices, energy innovation, implementation of energy efficiency measures and advances in renewables and electricity storage, or by consumer behavior, product labelling and certification schemes. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recently suggested that 65% of our carbon budget compatible with keeping the temperature below 2°C has already been used. The 'unburnable carbon' debate has made it clear that to meet a 2°C scenario with 50% probability (hence a relatively less ambitious target than the 1,5°C reached in the Paris Agreement), about 90% of coal, 35% of oil (up to 60% in the Middle East) and 50% of gas reserves worldwide should not be extracted, unless new carbon capture and storage (CCS) or re-use technologies (CCU) are developed to burn fossil fuels without emitting GHGs. [...] According to a study conducted by the Carbon Tracker Initiative in cooperation with the Grantham Research Institute (LSE), an estimated 60-80% of publicly listed companies' current reserves cannot be burnt unmitigatedly. Citigroup has estimated that the value of 'unburnable' fossil fuel reserves could amount to over USD 100 trillion from now to 2050 (again without CCS or CCU). Oil-producing Countries are therefore likely to promote and implement a substantial fossil fuel subsidies' reform in order to keep fossil fuel revenues for their national oil companies at an acceptable level, and to guarantee a diversion of funding from fossil fuel to green energy investment. According to Climate Policy Initiative, USD 391 billion were invested in climate finance in 2014, less than government subsidies for fossil fuel consumption, which reached around USD 490 billion in the same year. However, climate finance is still falling short of the USD 13.5 trillion investment required over the next 15 years (about 900 billion per year) in energy efficiency and low-carbon technologies to implement the national climate pledges (NDCs). The objective is therefore to more than double resources invested in climate finance [carlocarraro.org]

» July 22 2016 - #ClimateChange #GlobalWarming NOAA Global Analysis - June 2016. Warmer to much-warmer-than-average conditions dominated across much of the globe's surface, resulting in the highest temperature departure for June since global temperature records began in 1880. This was also the 14th consecutive month the monthly global temperature record has been broken-the longest such streak in NOAA's 137 years of record keeping. The June 2016 combined average temperature over global land and ocean surfaces was 0.90°C (1.62°F) above the 20th century average, besting the previous record set in 2015 by 0.02°C (0.04°F). June 2016 marks the 40th consecutive June with temperatures at least nominally above the 20th century average. The last time June global land and ocean temperatures were below average was in 1976 (-0.07°C / -0.13°F). June 2016 tied with March 2015 as the ninth highest monthly temperature departure among all months (1,638) on record. Overall, 14 of the 15 highest monthly temperature departures in the record have all occurred since February 2015, with January 2007 among the 15 highest monthly temperature departures. June 2016 also marks the 378th consecutive month with temperatures at least nominally above the 20th century average. The last month with temperatures below the 20th century average was December 1984 (-0.09°C / -0.16°F). The majority of the world's land surface had warmer to much-warmer-than-average temperatures during June 2016, with the largest temperature departures observed across much of north-central Russia, the Russian Far East, and northern Australia where temperature departures were 3.0°C (5.4°F) or higher. Record warmth was sporadically across parts of the southwestern contiguous U.S., southern Mexico, northeastern Brazil, northeastern and southwestern Africa, the Middle East, northern Australia, and Indonesia. The only land area with cooler-than-average conditions during June 2016, according to the percentiles map, was central and southern South America. No land areas had a record cold temperature during June 2016. According to NCEI's Global Regional Analysis, five of six continents had at least a top five warm June, with North America observing a record high average temperature for June [ncdc.noaa.gov]

» July 21 2016 - #ClimateChange #EU #ClimatePolicy Factsheet on the Commission's proposal on binding #GreenhouseGasEmissionReductions for Member States (2021-2030). Clear rules for the modernisation of a low-carbon economy in Europe. The collective efforts of all Member States will be required to modernise the economy and ensure a successful transition to a low-carbon economy. This is a shift that will provide jobs, growth and investment opportunities for Europe while mitigating dangerous climate change. Such a transition requires changes in business and investment behaviour and incentives across the entire policy spectrum. The modernisation of the economy will stimulate investment and innovation in new technologies and ensure the EU can remain a world leader in renewable energy and be competitive in markets for goods and services such as low-emission vehicles and energy efficiency. Following up on the agreement reached by Heads of State or Government of the European Union in October 2014 and later confirmed in March 2016, today's proposal, the "Effort Sharing Regulation", sets binding annual greenhouse gas emission targets for Member States for the period 2021–2030 for the sectors of the economy not regulated under the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS). These sectors include buildings, agriculture, waste management, and transport accounting for almost 60% of total EU emissions in 2014. Setting the national emissions reduction targets is based on fairness, solidarity, cost-effectiveness and environmental integrity. Together with July's 2015 proposal for the revision of the EU ETS and today's proposal on how to include the land use sector in the 2030 climate and energy framework, this will ensure the achievement of the commitments by the European Union and its Member States under the Paris Agreement on climate change. In October 2014, EU Heads of State or Government set a binding economy-wide domestic emissions reduction target of at least 40% by 2030, compared to 1990. All Member States and all sectors should contribute to achieving these emission reductions. To do so in a cost-effective manner, the industrial and power sectors covered by the EU emissions trading system (ETS) should reduce emissions by 43% by 2030 compared to 2005. Other sectors of the economy (the so-called non-ETS sectors) should reduce emissions by 30% by 2030 compared to 2005. Fair and cost-effective distribution of the 30% emission reduction target between all EU Member States [...] New one-off flexibility to access allowances from the EU Emissions Trading System [...] New flexibility to access credits from the land use sector [...] Maintain existing flexibilities: banking, borrowing, buying and selling [...] Emissions Trajectory and Starting Point [...] Clear rules for reporting and following up progress [...] Tools for Member States to meet their national targets [...] The EU on track to meet its 2020 target [europa.eu]

» July 21 2016 - #GreenEconomy #GreenFinance #UnitedNations Sustainable #StockExchanges (#SSE) Policy Brief In response to interest from stock exchanges and investment community stakeholders, the SSE announced at the dialogue that they will be launching a new work stream to further investigate what specifically stock exchanges and their regulators can do to better support the financing of a global transition to green economies [...] This new global work stream on green finance will provide an opportunity for the nearly 60 stock exchanges that are members of the SSE, as well as other key stakeholders from the investment community and civil society, to collaborate on this important topic. The announcement was made with the support of the Climate Bonds Initiative, Standard and Poor's and Blue Orchard Finance, which have helped to kick off the discussion by collaborating with the UN to produce a Policy Brief for the SSE Executive Dialogue on Green Finance. The work stream will seek to follow up on the key questions raised at the SSE Executive Dialogue at the World Investment Forum and the SSE Leaders Luncheon that took place alongside the 2015 "COP21" Climate Negotiations in Paris [sseinitiative.org]

» July 21 2016 - #EnergyTransition #lowCarbonEconomy #EU #LowCarbonTEchnologies. Many research projects perform case studies on local and regional transitions [...] THE EU FP7 project PATHWAYS has created such a database, which allows for sharing information of previously done European case studies in order to foster reuse of the knowledge gained in previous studies. In PATHWAYS, the possibilities for transitions to a low-carbon, sustainable Europe are explored by combining the insights of different scientific approaches: integrated assessment modelling, socio-technical transition analysis, and initiative-based learning [pathways-project.eu]

» July 21 2016 - #ClimateChange #Decarbonization Paving the way for #Renewable #PowerToGas (RE-P2G) #IEA-RETD Report. The #TransportSector is a major contributor to #CO2Emissions, accounting for 23% of CO2 emissions worldwide in 2013, with 75% of these emissions coming from road transportation. An array of alternative technologies to conventional fossil fuels internal combustion engines will be needed to decarbonise the sector. Among them, power-to-hydrogen and power-to-SNG represent relevant technical solutions if the power used is produced from renewable energies. They also represent an opportunity for large scale storage of renewable electricity in a context of high penetration of renewables in the electric grid. Should power-to-gas technology be pursued as an option for decarbonising the transport sector and if so, how can policy makers economically promote its development? To answer this question, non-individual transport sector market segments were first evaluated qualitatively to assess their potential for renewable power-to-gas. City and Inter-Urban Buses (i.e. short and long distance city buses), Captive Light Duty Vehicle fleets and City Delivery Trucks segment were found to be the most promising in terms of attractiveness, overall potential for CO2 reduction, power of public authorities, competition and development status of the fuel cell mobility option and selected for further analysis. A detailed modelling of the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) on those market segments, including costs of vehicles, infrastructure, fuel, electricity (etc.), was carried out and TCOs were compared with those of other competing options (diesel, CNG, biomethane and battery electric vehicles). Finally, a selection of the most suited policy instruments was made and the amount of public funding required to launch power-to-gas technologies on those market segments was evaluated [iea-retd.org]

» July 21 2016 - #CO2Emissions #Health and #ClimateImpacts of ocean-going vessels in #EastAsia #NatureClimateChange. East Asia has the most rapidly growing shipping emissions of both CO2 and traditional air pollutants, but the least in-depth analysis. Full evaluation of all pollutants is needed to assess the impacts of shipping emissions. Here, using an advanced method based on detailed dynamic ship activity data, we show that shipping emissions in East Asia accounted for 16% of global shipping CO2 in 2013, compared to only 4-7% in 2002-2005. Increased emissions lead to large adverse health impacts, with 14,500-37,500 premature deaths per year. Global mean radiative forcing from East Asian shipping is initially negative, but would become positive after approximately eight years for constant current emissions [nature.com]

» July 20 2016 - #ShaleGas production in #England #PublicHealthAssessment of unconventional shale gas production in England. Medact's new report summarises the findings of a public health assessment of unconventional shale gas production in England. In 2015 Medact published its first report on this subject, Health and Fracking, which outlined the potential impacts on health of fracking in the UK. Since the release of that report over 350 academic papers have been published, examining the impacts of high volume hydraulic fracturing (HVHF) for shale gas on air and water quality, health, climate change, social wellbeing, economics, noise and light pollution, and seismic events. This new report updates the findings of a review of the more recent evidence [medact.org]

» July 19 2016 - #China #India #Japan #INDCs - supporting high efficiency, low emissions (#HELE) #Coal technology. Prior to COP21, countries were invited to submit their national pledges to address global emissions on a UNFCCC portal. Based on national priorities, circumstances and capabilities, the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) included: national context, mitigation, adaptation, planning process and means of implementation. Given the broad parameters of guidance the INDCs vary dramatically in approach and content. A striking link between the pledges, however, is the focus of efficiency, which includes support for high efficiency, low emission (HELE) coal-fired power technology. China and India provide the most high-profile examples and were supported by the World Coal Association following their submission. However, Beijing and Delhi are certainly not alone. Other key Asian economies have identified the ongoing importance of coal to their energy mix. For example, Japan's energy challenges following the Fukushima incident are well-documented. Over the coming decades, Japan's INDC suggests coal will act as a guarantor of energy security providing 26% of power generation. In order to meet its emission obligations, Japan states it will pursue 'high efficiency in thermal power generation (USC, A-USC, IGCC etc)' [worldcoal.org]

» July 19 2016 - #INDC the 175GW #Renewables goal - an indian rope trick? #India's #EnergyPolicy [...] When the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced two years ago the target of installing 100 gigawatts of solar capacity in India by 2022, it was seen as reaching into the sky by a country that had been, and still was, wedded to coal. Many commentators scoffed at the number, though their voices have been hushed to some extent since - by the capacity that has actually been built. Solar will certainly be huge in India, but will it be huge enough, combined with other low-carbon technologies, to deflect the country from a coal-intensive development path? It is a vital question not just for India itself, but for the world also. Bloomberg New Energy Finance's latest long-term forecast for world power generation - the New Energy Outlook, or NEO - published in June, showed that the current course could mean Indian emissions trebling between now and 2040, and being the biggest single challenge in the way of global attempts to keep CO2 below the 450-parts-per-million mark. [...] The 100-gigawatts solar target was set in 2014 by the government of Prime Minister Modi. Was this a serious target? Was India trying to be a China? India is the only country, other than China, with a population of over 1 billion, but the two neighbors are very different. Whereas China is a centrally planned economy, with a track record of hitting the targets it sets itself (in multiples sometimes), India has a federal structure where both the central government and the states are responsible for energy policy and often work at cross-purposes. It is messy and littered with bankrupt buyers of power owned by often profligate state governments. This makes investment difficult and change slow to happen. If we had said in 2008 or 2009 that India would have 7,500 megawatts of solar installed by early 2016, we would have been told that it was technically feasible, but impossible. India is often depicted as an elephant. Elephants move with slow, sure steps. They are not exactly agile [...] Enel has so far stayed on the sidelines in the Indian solar market. Last month, Antonio Cammisecra, head of business development for Enel Green Power, told Bloomberg New Energy Finance: "In India, we require a certain rate of return. This reflects the fact that there is no inflation-proofing in the PPAs [power purchase agreements], and there is rupee exposure. Some other companies are OK with a 12 percent return in India, but not Enel." However, when asked what would be the next big market for Enel, after Latin America and South Africa, he voiced optimism: "Well, we hope it will be India. I still think Enel can play a big role there." [...] At the same time, coal production is rapidly picking up pace in India. The new government has set a target to produce 1 billion metric tons annually by 2020 - up from 536 million metric tons in 2015. India's dominant source of electricity is coal and, in theory, the country has a pipeline of as much as 80 gigawatts of coal plants - the largest in the world. Our New Energy Outlook 2016 forecast puts the likely gross addition at 258 gigawatts by 2040, offset to a small extent by 49 gigawatts of decommissioning [...] India is taking steps to try to bend its future in a less carbon-intensive direction. It has a modest but rapidly increasing tax on coal, known as the coal cess — collections are estimated at about $4 billion for the year ending March 2017 — and there is talk of making the washing of coal mandatory before use in power stations. Last year, India submitted its emissions target, or INDC (Intended Nationally Determined Contribution) ahead of the UN climate change conference in Paris, committing the country to reduce the emissions intensity of its GDP by 30-35 percent by 2030, relative to 2005 levels, and to increasing the share of non-fossil-fuel based energy resources to 40 percent of installed capacity by the same year. This would mean stretching its renewable energy target of 175 gigawatts by 2022, to 300-350 gigawatts. The headline on this article asks, cynically, if the country's targets could be an Indian rope trick, in other words a distraction behind which it will go on building more and more coal-fired power stations. Fittingly, one of the explanations for that famous old magic trick is that the rope tended to be thrown upwards in front of the sun, to prevent the audience getting a clear view of what was going on. However, the evidence is building up that India's renewables policy is no optical illusion [bnef.com]

» July 19 2016 - #ClimateChange #JobVacancy Investment lead for #Energy and Infrastructure. Location: Indonesia; Contract Type: Individual Contractor (ICA); Grade: C2; Contract Duration: 36 months; Date to close: 28/07/2016. The Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) supports stakeholders through complementary and integrated workstreams - Green Growth Planning & Implementation and Knowledge Solutions - that deliver comprehensive products designed to assist in developing, financing, and mainstreaming green growth in national economic development plans. The GOI-GGGI Green Growth Program Phase 2 (GGP) (2016-2019) supports Indonesia in achieving green growth that simultaneously achieves poverty reduction, social inclusion, environmental sustainability and resource efficiency [gggi.org]

» July 19 2016 - #LowCarbonDevelopment #ClimateChange #GHGEmissions #EnergyEfficiency Cty-Based #CarbonBudgets for construction. #UNEP-DTU working Paper. The construction of buildings consumes about 50% of all materials produced globally measured by weight. Materials such as cement, ceramic tile and steel are among the most carbon intensive materials to manufacture, and come with a carbon footprint of their own. This is called embodied carbon. Accounting for embodied carbon is a different way of visualizing the emission effect of the consumer rather than the generator of emissions. Bringing the consumer, and the related production value chains, into play can engage powerful market drivers in the combat against GHG emissions. The building sector, with its vast resource consumption, is the ideal place to start. This working paper provides concrete ideas on how to proceed. Currently, there is scant regulation addressing embodied carbon. Cities have great potential influence over the construction industry, as nearly all construction of buildings requires city government approval. Energy efficiency is the usual focus, though recent policy development regarding embodied carbon emissions in buildings has been observed in a number of cities and countries. Moreover, industry has been pushing the development of standards for calculation and reporting of embodied carbon in buildings. Embodied carbon is also addressed by several green building certification schemes. The development, however, needs to speed up. The construction sector and cities together are ideally positioned to establish a local up-scalable regime that will curb greenhouse gas emissions from within. This working paper suggests concretely how to design and implement a model in which cities use existing construction approval processes to allocate a carbon budget that combines emissions from operational and embodied carbon - and make usage permits for buildings constructed under this restriction contingent upon documented compliance - leaving it up to the sector itself to document its carbon footprint [UNEP-DTU]

» July 18 2016 - World Energy Outlook Special Report 2016: #Energy and #AirPollution #IEA Report. Around 6.5 million premature deaths each year can be attributed to air pollution. Energy production and use are by far the largest man-made sources of air pollutants. Technologies to tackle air pollution are well known. Clean air is vital for good health. Yet despite growing recognition of this imperative, the problem of air pollution is far from solved in many countries, and the global health impacts risk intensifying in the decades to come. The scale of the public health crisis caused by air pollution and the importance of the energy sector to its resolution are the reasons why the IEA is focusing on this critical topic for the first time. Based on new data for pollutant emissions in 2015 and projections to 2040, this special report, the latest in the World Energy Outlook series, provides a global outlook for energy and air pollution as well as detailed profiles of key countries and regions: the United States, Mexico, the European Union, China, India, Southeast Asia and Africa. In a Clean Air Scenario, the report proposes a pragmatic and attainable strategy to reconcile the world's energy requirements with its need for cleaner air. Alongside the multiple benefits to human health, this strategy shows that resolving the world's air pollution problem can go hand-in-hand with progress towards other environmental and development goals [iea.org]

» July 15 2016 - #LowCarbonDevelopment #COP21 International #ClimateFinance Investing in ambition: analyzing the financial aspects of Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (#INDCs). More than $4.4 trillion is needed. Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) are a centerpiece of the new global climate regime that was agreed at COP21 in Paris, and form the foundation for the pathway toward low-carbon and climate-resilient development. By March 2016, 188 countries had submitted their Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs). The contributions of developing countries contain both unconditional measures to be realized by the countries themselves as well as conditional ones that rely on external support in the form of financing, technology transfers or the development of capacities. While the submitted INDCs are a significant step toward avoiding dangerous climate change, they are insufficient to reach the objective of limiting global warming to well below 2C or even 1.5C. This implies two main challenges for the international community: firstly, to assure that all INDCs become NDCs through the ratification of the Paris agreement, and that not only unconditional components will be realized, but that the required support for the implementation of additional measures be provided. Secondly, additional ambition needs to be enabled and more stringent goals promoted to ensure the gradual closure of the emissions gap. Comprehensive financing strategies for the implementation of NDCs will play a crucial role in addressing both challenges. The nature of the measures specified in the INDCs of various countries can vary widely: 79% of all submitted INDCs contain measures that the countries intend to carry out independently. The majority of these also contain measures that require external support for implementation. Others only list measures that require external support. The required financing needs can only be estimated up to a certain point due to a dearth of information, clarity and comparability in the submitted INDCs. These lack a clear definition of time frame, base year, currency exchange rates and consideration of inflation. It is nevertheless clear that the financing needed for measures (both unconditional and conditional) in the INDCs submitted to date will amount to more than $4.4 trillion [germanclimatefinance.de]

» July 15 2016 - #EU #EnergyPolicy #ClimateChange ENSPOL 3rd Policy Brief. #EnergyEfficiency policy is expected to play a key role for meeting the EU energy targets using a range of policy instrument combinations. However, most analyses have focused on single-policy measures rather than developing a more generic framework. Based on an assessment of the interaction of policies from MS under their Article 7 notifications, some policies seem to complement others, while in other cases overlaps can hinder the effectiveness of the policy mixes [enspol.eu]

» July 15 2016 - World #NuclearIndustry Status Report #WNISR The year 2016, marking the 30th anniversary of the Chernobyl catastrophe and the 5th year since the Fukushima disaster started unfolding, strangely might go down in history as the period when the notion of risk of nuclear power plants turned into the perception of nuclear power plants at risk. Indeed, an increasing number of reactors is threatened by premature closure due to the unfavorable economic environment. Increasing operating and backfitting costs of aging power plants, decreasing bulk market prices and aggressive competitors [...] In addition to the usual, global overview of status and trends in reactor building and operating, as well as the traditional comparison between deployment trend in the nuclear power and renewable energy sectors, the 2016 edition of the World Nuclear Industry Status Report (WNISR) provides an assessment of the trends of the economic health of some of the major players in the industry. Special chapters are devoted to the aftermath of the Chernobyl and Fukushima disaster [worldnuclearreport.org]

» July 13 2016 - Clean Restructuring: Design Elements for #LowCarbon Wholesale Markets and Beyond, a 21st Century Power Partnership report. Webinar - July 14th at 4:00 p.m. Central European Summer Time | 10:00 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time. The report describes the movement from a vertically integrated power sector toward a more participatory and clean energy-friendly electricity system. It focuses on the design of competitive wholesale markets that rely increasingly on variable renewable electricity (vRE) sources, demand response, and other flexible, clean energy options [leonardo-energy.org]

» July 13 2016 - #GlobalWarming Evidence for #ClimateChange in the satellite #Cloud record. Clouds substantially affect Earth's energy budget by reflecting solar radiation back to space and by restricting emission of thermal radiation to space. They are perhaps the largest uncertainty in our understanding of climate change, owing to disagreement among climate models and observational datasets over what cloud changes have occurred during recent decades and will occur in response to global warming. This is because observational systems originally designed for monitoring weather have lacked sufficient stability to detect cloud changes reliably over decades unless they have been corrected to remove artefacts. Here we show that several independent, empirically corrected satellite records exhibit large-scale patterns of cloud change between the 1980s and the 2000s that are similar to those produced by model simulations of climate with recent historical external radiative forcing. Observed and simulated cloud change patterns are consistent with poleward retreat of mid-latitude storm tracks, expansion of subtropical dry zones, and increasing height of the highest cloud tops at all latitudes. The primary drivers of these cloud changes appear to be increasing greenhouse gas concentrations and a recovery from volcanic radiative cooling. These results indicate that the cloud changes most consistently predicted by global climate models are currently occurring in nature [nature.com]

» July 12 2016 - #California #Beginning a #Nuclear phase-out California's #Renewables Portfolio Standard (RPS) requires 50% of utility retail sales derive from renewable sources by 2030. This includes ramping up efficiency, storage and renewable infrastructure, especially rooftop solar projects. A major California utility, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) is addressing the RPS requirements in part by announcing the retirement of the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant by 2025 with production to be replaced by renewables and improved energy storage. Although carbon-free, nuclear power is not classified as a renewable energy source under California's 50% mandate and as a result, the state is beginning a nuclear phase-out [ourenergypolicy.org]

» July 11 2016 - #Oil #PeakOil #HotellingsTheory How The Abnormal #OilPrice Became The Norm. Oil has become the new corn. Three prominent economists, armed with reams of data and decades of observations, assessed the causes and outlook for crude price volatility before a packed house at the recent KPMG Global Energy Conference [...] "Oil is going to be much more like an agricultural product, meaning when there are disruptions to supply like the fires in Alberta, or the MEND [Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta] attacks in Nigeria, supplies will get cut, prices will go up," said Philip K. Verleger Jr., who served in the Ford and Carter administrations and later played a key role in creating oil futures markets. "But then there will be periods when there are huge crops and you'll see prices go down." If that appears to contradict what has long been accepted about the economic fundamentals of the oil business, that's because it does. The mindset was defined by Harold Hotelling, an economist whose paper, The Economics of Exhaustible Resources, was published by the University of Chicago Press in 1931. Hotelling's theory was that producers of nonrenewable resources like oil will only produce a limited supply of their product if it generates more profit than bonds or interest-bearing financial instruments. Therefore, longterm prices will rise year after year at the prevailing interest rate-in theory. But two years ago, the leaders of Saudi Arabia found themselves in an existential crisis. They looked at the steps being taken to combat global warming. They saw the success of unconventional techniques in the U.S. like horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, and concluded that, long term, their oil was going to be left in the ground, Verleger said. "What this does for those of us who study resources was essentially turning Hotelling upside down," he said. So much for "peak oil." In this situation, oil as a natural resource is no longer finite, and it put the Saudis in a race with other producers, particularly Venezuela, to pump as much as possible for as long as possible until the market disappeared. Twenty years ago, Venezuela had the upper hand and sought to push Saudi Arabia out of the market. Times have changed and now the Saudis are trying to return the favor. "They are pushing for maximum production," Verleger said. "I think they'll probably try to go for 13 million or 14 million barrels per day [bbl/d] and I don't think that they will ease off." But i'’s not just Saudi production that is fueling glum times. Global energy companies have issued about $400 billion a year of debt since 2014, despite falling prices [downstreambusiness.com]

» July 11 2016 - #ClimateChange #ClimatePolicy #CarbonMechanism #CDM #NDCs The Transition Period. Towards implementation of the #ParisAgreement. The issue deals with the implementation period of the Paris Agreement ahead. Our authors take up the results of the intercessional meeting in Bonn in May and look at the tasks ahead on the road to Marrakech. We also take a renewed look at the question of sustainable development benefits, which has been given greater emphasis in Article 6. Further, we explore ways for the Green Climate Fund to make use of the CDM and report on the support needs of Parties when combining the use of market mechanisms with NDCs [carbon-mechanisms.de]

» July 8 2016 - #ClimateChange #ClimateTechnologies Technology and the #UNFCCC. Building foundation for sustainable development. UNFCCC Report. Over the past 20 years, governments facilitated technology development and transfer to developing countries through the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). These efforts help us to more effectively reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to climate impacts. Moving forward, technology will play an even more significant role as we pursue efforts, through the Paris Agreement, to limit global average temperature rise to 1.5 ° C above pre-industrial levels. To understand how to meet the challenge of climate change, it helps to understand five key milestones that define UNFCCC technology efforts on this issue. What are climate technologies? Technologies that we use to address climate change are known as climate technologies. Climate technologies that help us reduce greenhouse gas emissions include renewable energies such as wind energy, solar power and hydropower. To adapt to the adverse effects of climate change, we use climate technologies such as drought-resistant crops, early warning systems and sea walls. There are also 'soft' climate technologies, such as energy-efficient practices or training for using equipment [unfccc.int]

» July 8 2016 - #ClimateChange #GlobalWarming Check out the anomalies in global temperature for each year (and the months) for 266 years i.e from 1750 to 2016. June 2016 was nonetheless the second warmest June in the satellite temperature record [...] The India Environment Portal shares [...] this interactive which draws on the data from NASA and Berkeley Earth [indiaenvironmentportal.org.in]

» July 8 2016 - #JobVacancies #GlobalGreenGrowthInstitute (#GGGI) Investment Lead (#Energy and Infrastructure) Location: Seoul (Indonesia); Contract Duration: 36 months; Date to close 28/07/2016. The Senior Green Investment Advisor will be known as the key expert and focal point on rebalancing the risk reward profile by lowering the risk level of investing in green sectors and unlocking investment opportunities and be the coordinator on all related efforts including public and private sector stakeholder engagement [gggi.org] #GreenEnergy Lead Location: Seoul (Indonesia); Contract Type: Individual Contractor (ICA); Grade C2; Contract Duration: 36 months; Date to close 18/07/2016. To support program delivery in Indonesia, GGGI seeks to hire a Green Energy Lead who will provide oversight and technical advice to relevant GoI counterparts and lead the Energy Program within the broader GoI-GGGI Green Growth Program. The position reports to the GGGI Principal Program Manager in Indonesia and is part of the global Green Growth Planning and Implementation (GGP&I) team. The position will be based at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources to be part of the 'hybrid team' with government counterparts [gggi.org]

» July 7 2016 - #ClimateChange and #Mining - A #ForeignPolicy Perspective #ADELPHI Report.The growing number and impact of extreme weather events has led to increasing awareness in the extractives industries of the potential negative impacts of climate change. The mining industry has started thinking about their own vulnerabilities and the risks climate change could pose. However, there has been little research and political debate that takes a more comprehensive look at the links between climate change and mining. Climate Change and Mining. A Foreign Policy Perspective tries to fill this gap by shedding some light on these links and providing an overview of the complex challenges around extractive resources in the context of climate change. The report argues that foreign policy makers should pay more attention to the links between mining and climate change because (1) the mining sector is one of the major emitters of greenhouse gases and it produces fossil energy resources that also significantly contribute to global CO2 emissions, (2) mining is a sector that is particularly vulnerable to climate change, (3) mining is a significant contributor to the development of many countries around the world, in particular many developing and emerging economies, and (4) developed, industrialised economies are dependent on functioning supply chains and security of supply of the resources that drive their economies. These links pose significant risks not only for the extractives sector, but also the larger economy that are shared by resource-dependent and resource-rich countries. Against this background, foreign policy should take a more active role in addressing these risks and engage with the extractives sector as part of its climate diplomacy efforts, the authors argue. Based on an analyses of current policy approaches and initiatives, the report provides several recommendations and policy options [adelphi.de]

» July 6 2016 - The 2016 #RenewableEnergy Statistics Yearbook International Renewable Energy Agency (#IRENA). The Report shows data sets on renewable power-generation capacity for 2006-2015, renewable power generation for 2006-2014 and renewable energy balances for 100 countries and areas for 2013 and 2014. Further, it features statistics on investments in renewable energies from 18 major multi-lateral, bilateral and national development financial institutions presented for the period 2009-2014. The renewable power capacity data shown in these tables represents the maximum net generating capacity of power plants and other installations that use renewable energy sources to produce electricity. For most countries and technologies, the data reflects the capacity installed and connected at the end of the calendar year. Pumped storage is included in total capacity but excluded from total generation. The capacity data are presented in megawatts (MW) and the generation data are presented in gigawatt-hours (GWh). The investment data is presented in million United States Dollars (USD million) at current prices. Data has been obtained from a variety of sources, including an IRENA questionnaire, official national statistics, industry association reports, consultant reports and news articles [irena.org]

» July 5 2016 - #Renewable #FossilFuel #MeritOrder #ETS Renewables, Allowances Markets, and Capacity Expansion in #EnergyOnlyMarkets Paper. Central to the problem of renewable capacity expansion is the tradeoff associated with increased renewable generation. Investments in renewables drive fossil fuel plants out of the market, resulting in costly idle capacity. This is the so-called merit order effect. Yet, renewable plants generate rents precisely because their marginal cost is lower than the marginal cost of fossil fuel plants. Which one of the two effects dominates depends on which generation is at the margin. This means that electricity generators might have an incentive to withhold capacity investment in renewable generation. The market structure and the regulatory framework are crucial for determining the extent to which electricity producers withhold capacity investments [...] We propose a simple representation of the capacity expansion decision between fossil fuel and renewable generation where demand is uncertain and electricity generation is subject to environmental regulations. The model allow us to derive the conditions under which producers prefer withholding renewable investments despite being subject to an emission trading system (ETS). These findings have clear policy implications: they call into question the long-term efficacy of an ETS in achieving decarbonisation goals in combination with energy-only markets, and highlight the need for the critical appraisal of the dependence between prices and the capacity expansion problem [papers.ssrn.com]

» July 4 2016 - #ClimateChange #Sustainability #Inequality #Economics Inside the #GreenEconomy - Promises and Pitfalls. Heinrich-Boll-Stiftung Books. The economic and ecological bases of a general prosperity are in danger, the gap be-tween rich and poor is widening. The concept of the Green Economy offers a new model, based primarily on large-scale technological solutions. But the Green Economy cares little about politics, barely registers human rights, does not recognize social actors and suggests the possibility of reform without conflict. It suggests that the world as we know it can continue with green growth. But can efficiency be a solution if it results in even more consumption? Is it possible to save nature by putting a price on the services it provides? Should we rely on magical technological solutions to save us? This book puts the Green Economy to the test, discusses its promises, describes actual consequences and names its blind spots. It is an invitation to embrace radical optimism to find transformative strategies for a liveable future [boell.de]

» July 2 2016 - #ClimateChange #ClimatePolicy Introducing the Transnational #ClimateImpactsIndex: Indicators of country-level exposure. Methodology report. This paper presents a framework for analysing countries' exposure to transnational climate impacts - which occur in one country as a result of climate change in another place. It presents nine indicators, as well as a composite index. Climate change mitigation is widely regarded as a global problem, but climate change impacts and adaptation are typically described as regional or local issues. This reflects the location-specific nature of physical impacts, but it fails to recognize the many interconnections among countries and regions, particularly in an increasingly globalized economy. This paper introduces a new framework for examining climate change impacts and adaptation needs from an international perspective. Based on this framework, the authors develop indicators of country-level exposure to what they call the transnational impacts of climate change: those that occur in one place as a consequence of climate impacts somewhere else. The indicators make it possible to quantify each country's exposure across multiple dimensions. The authors also construct a composite index: the Transnational Climate Impacts Index. The paper explains the rationale and methodology by which indicators were selected, and invites feedback and suggestions from readers on how to further develop this research. There are significant opportunities to strengthen and deepen the quantitative assessment of exposure to transnational climate impacts, including via applications of the framework at the national rather than global level [sei-international.org]

» June 30 2016 - #ClimateGoals #SDGs Unlocking #RenewableEnergy Investment: the role of #RiskMitigation and structured #Finance. IRENA Report released on the margins of the G20 Energy Ministers meeting in Beijing provides policy makers, financial institutions and project developers with a range of options to help scale up investment in renewable energy. To meet global climate and sustainable development goals, investment in renewable energy must double by 2020 and more than triple by 2030. The report finds that reaching this level of investment is entirely possible. It will require policymakers and public finance institutions to employ a portfolio of approaches that target different investment constraints facing private finance, which will make up the majority of new investment in renewables. The report analyses various financial instruments and structures and offers an all-in-one guide to scale up renewable energy investment worldwide. Case studies and survey results provide insights on challenges, opportunities and best-practices in different markets. The report identifies five main action areas where policy makers and public finance institutions can address risks and barriers facing renewable energy projects [irena.org]

» June 30 2016 - #JobVacancy #EnergyMarketsAdviser #ClimateChange. Date of expiry: 25th Jul. Salary: £34,000 to £41,000 (depending on experience). Location: Warwickshire, UK. Full/Part time: Full Time. Permanent/temporary: Permanent. Practical Action Consulting (PAC) is part of the Practical Action group - which also includes the international development charity, Practical Answers and Practical Action Publishing. PAC provides independent and professional consulting services in the use of technology for poverty reduction to governments, NGOs, donors and the private sector. PAC works with clients and partners in Africa, Asia and Latin America to deliver projects across the development sector and has particular expertise in energy access and small-scale renewable energy provision; climate change; and participatory market development. We are seeking an international energy markets adviser to join our energy team, which has a strong track record in delivering innovative projects and undertaking strategic research and consulting assignments in the areas of policy development, economics and technology as well as the social and regulatory aspects of energy access provision. In this role you will be responsible for winning and managing delivery of high quality technical consultancy in the international energy and development sector. The role will have a strong focus on energy markets in developing countries, including understanding different financing models for investment, solar home system markets, and power sector reform. The role will involve developing proposals, managing projects, undertaking research and analysis, writing reports and maintaining relationships with associates, partners and clients. You will have a Master's degree or higher in a relevant subject, knowledge of energy markets in developing countries, off-grid energy technologies and at least five years' relevant experience, including in developing countries with international teams and in a commercial environment delivering results to client deadlines. Your communication and influencing skills across cultures will be excellent and you will have a good network of contacts amongst research and consulting firms and understand the requirements of clients and funding agencies. Fluency in English is essential [practicalaction.org]

» June 29 2016 - #LowCarbonTechnologies Carbon Capture and Storage (#CCS). The Global CCS Institute Reports. Introduction to Industrial Carbon Capture and Storage summarises 17 CCS projects across sectors including natural gas processing, fertiliser manufacturing and hydrogen production. The report highlights that one quarter (25 percent) of the world's CO2 emissions, or 8.5 gigatonnes, result from these, and other industrial sectors such as iron and steel, cement production and petrochemicals refining. Understanding Industrial CCS Hubs and Clusters explores the economic benefits of building shared infrastructure for multiple small industrial emitters to reduce emissions using CCS [globalccsinstitute.com]

» June 29 2016 - #ClimatePolicy #ParisAgreement #Agriculture in the new #ClimateActionPlans of #LatinAmerica (#INDCs, Intended Nationally Determined Contributions). Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (#IICA) Report. During recent years, agriculture has played a much more prominent role in the climate negotiations. In the Paris Agreement, the importance of addressing climate change to ensure food security and reduce the vulnerability of food production systems was stated more clearly than ever before. The level of commitment and priorities of each country in support of the Paris Agreement were made explicit in their intended nationally determined contributions (INDCs), submitted to the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). This study analyzes the INDCs submitted by 17 Latin American countries, and examines the way in which agriculture was addressed within them [infoagro.net]

» June 29 2016 - #UNEP #ILO #UNIDO #UNITAR #UNDP ##ITCILO Academy on the #GreenEconomy, 3 to 14 October 2016 in Turin, Italy, organized within the framework of the Partnership for Action on Green Economy (PAGE) [...] The Academy is a two-week capacity building event, which seeks to address the fundamental question: how to achieve inclusive green economies? It thus provides a full in-depth overview and understanding of latest global agendas, as well as practical tools and good practices - from assessments, to stakeholder engagement, policy formulation and strategy implementation - that several countries are adopting in their efforts to transition to environmentally viable and socially inclusive economies. Beyond its specific learning objectives, the overall purpose of this event is to contribute to enhance institutional capacities for transformative change towards greener economies [...] Registration is now open and closes on 8 August 2016 [intranetp.itcilo.org]

» June 28 2016 - #EnergyPolicy #Economics #Russia's #Oil production increased for the seventh consecutive year growing by 1.2% in 2015. Russia became the largest oil exporter in the world in 2015 and remained the largest natural gas exporter. Primary energy production grew by 0.7% in 2015 and accounts for 10% of global energy output. Russian energy consumption declined by 3.3%, yet still accounts for 5.1% of the global total. Oil production reached a new post-Soviet high (11.0 mb/d), while gas output fell (-1.5%) for the second consecutive year [bp.com]

» June 28 2016 - #JobVacancy #EcologicInstitute in Berlin is currently looking to fill a position for an expert in #EU #Agriculture and #Soilpolicy. Deadline for submission of applications is July 26 [ecologic.eu]

» June 28 2016 - Less than 2% of today's #GlobalElectricity is generated by #SolarPhotovoltaics (#PV), but this is set to change. #IRENA Report [...] This figure could grow to 13% by 2030. Letting in the Light: How Solar Photovoltaics Will Revolutionize the Electricity System finds the solar industry is poised for massive expansion, driven primarily by cost reductions. It estimates that solar PV capacity could reach 2,500 gigawatts (GW) by 2030, up from 227 GW today. This would have numerous social, economic and environmental benefits, including reducing CO2 emissions by 3 gigatonnes per year in 2030. Focusing on technology, economics, applications, infrastructure, policy and impacts, the report gives an overview of the global solar PV industry and its prospects for the future. It includes data and statistics on capacity, costs, investment, jobs and the environment [irenanewsroom.org]

» June 27 2016 - #ClimateJustice: The international momentum towards #ClimateLitigation. #ClimateJusticeProgramme and the #HeinrichBollFoundation Report. Climate litigation will dwarf all other litigation in terms of both the number of plaintiffs, and the timeframe over which it can happen. [...] The report documents the growing number of climate litigation cases being taken across the world, looks at how they can be - and are being - replicated, and compares them with tobacco and asbestos lawsuits [climatejustice.org.au]

» June 27 2016 - #ClimatePolicy The #ParisAgreement: The future relevance of UNFCCC-backed #CarbonMarkets for #Africa climdev-africa #PolicyBrief. The Paris Agreement removes policy uncertainty and ensures that carbon market mechanisms will continue to be an important part of the multilateral climate regime after 2020. These mechanisms will evolve along two lines: one with strong international oversight (SDM) and one with a more bilateral character (cooperative approaches, CAs). Africa would benefit if the SDM becomes quickly operationalized, building on the modalities and procedures of the CDM and taking into consideration important reform elements and lessons learned for Africa. In this context, it is crucial that existing CDM projects will be permitted to be transferred to the new SDM. Africa should also demand that the CAs are subject to stringent international rules in order to prevent a race to the bottom and subsequent crowding out of the SDM. Finally, the adaptation levy should also be placed on internationally transferred mitigation outcomes (ITMOs) rather than burdening only the SDM [climdev-africa.org]

» June 24 2016 - #Brexit and #Energy: #Cost, #Security and #ClimatePolicy Implications UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources and UCL European Institute Paper. In the short term, the impact would be limited because EU rules (the acquis communautaire) would remain in place. Post-2020 effects would depend on the extent to which Brexit slowed down the construction of new electricity interconnectors (cables carrying electricity to and from Britain), and on the arrangements the UK negotiated with the rest of the EU. This paper considers the three main scenarios for the case of a Brexit: joining the European Economic Area (EEA, like Norway), entering into a Customs Union (like Turkey), or negotiating a Free Trade Agreement (FTA, like Canada). [...] The Leave campaign appears significantly aligned with desire to weaken environmental policy. A substantial weakening could restrict the terms of energy trade, and would be inconsistent with UK legislation unless the government amended or repealed the 2008 Climate Change Act and repealed UK laws enacting EU legislation such as the Industrial Emissions Directive [bartlett.ucl.ac.uk]

» June 24 2016 - #OilPrices Hammered by #UK Vote to Leave #EU. The British referendum result triggers a selloff across markets. Earlier, the global benchmark, Brent, was down by around 6%, but prices recovered somewhat as volatility in trading continued. Brent was down around 3.8% at $48.96 a barrel. Its U.S. counterpart, West Texas Intermediate, was down 3.8% at $48.21 a barrel. Oil prices are reacting to market volatility based on headlines but oil analysts and traders say Friday's price decline was likely to be short-term [...] Despite the losses, oil prices were still holding within a 20-day average at well above $45 a barrel. A stronger supply and demand outlook has helped elevate prices over the past few weeks, with global outages helping to curb the oversupply which has weighed on Brent and WTI. Analysts say that market fundamentals still point to a long-term recovery later in the year [wsj.com]

» June 24 2016 - Rediscovering the #Energy-#Economy connection The world has experienced profound changes recently regarding energy and the economy. Fossil fuels, while still abundant, are becoming more costly to develop as the most easily-accessible resources become depleted. Many renewable energy technologies are becoming less costly due in part to market forces as well as supportive state and federal energy policies. These technologies however would require massive capital investment to replace fossil fuels at current scale. Global demand for energy continues to climb while advanced economies are becoming less energy-intensive when measured per unit of GDP. Meanwhile, a global financial crisis as well as mounting public and private debt have cast a shadow of lingering uncertainty over the world economy. Conventional thinking suggests an eventual return to "normal." But slowing growth, increasing inequality, and a sense that an apparent recovery remains fragile are driving concerns that the world has entered a new era, where classic economic rules and tools may no longer apply. In his book The End of Normal - The Great Crisis and the Future of Growth, noted economist James Galbraith explores how these trends may be related and converging to define a new normal. He describes how the role of energy in economic activity was well-known in classical political economics, but was essentially forgotten in the growth theories that have dominated economic thinking for the past half-century or more. In particular, the decades immediately following World War II were a time of unparalleled economic growth and increasing income equality. Energy production, consumption, and efficiency all saw significant increases, and energy expenditures as a percentage of GDP steadily declined. But [...] around the year 2000, a 100+ year trend of continually declining energy and food expenditures came to an end. Re-discovering the energy-economy connection is important to making sense of the recent past and the outlook for the future [ourenergypolicy.org]

» June 23 2016 - #ClimateChange #Economics #ClimatePolicy 2015 Climate Think Tank Ranking, The International Center for Climate Governance (#ICCG) The authoritative and worldwide known assessment of the most cutting-edge institutions working in the field of climate change economics and policy. In contrast to other think tank rankings, the ICCG ranking is based on a solid quantitative methodology and analytical data. Think tanks were assessed on a set of 15 indicators structured in three main pillars: Activities, Publications and Dissemination. As in the previous editions, two different rankings were built. The first is the Standardized Ranking, which measures the think tanks' efficiency in per capita/researcher terms, while the Absolute Ranking measures the think tanks' performance regardless of their size. The ICCG's 2015 Climate Think Tank Award for the highest impact think tank working on climate change economics and policy is based on the standardized ranking [...] the Woods Hole Research Center (#WHRC, Falmouth, Massachusetts, USA) is confirmed for the third year in a row as the top "climate think tank", according to the ICCG Climate Think Tank Standardized Ranking. Second comes the #Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), based in Cambridge, MA, USA. Third is the Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC), based in Berlin, Germany. The top think tank in the non-standardized Absolute Ranking is the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), whose headquarters are in Leipzig, Germany. Second comes The Nature Conservancy (TNC), based in Arlington, VA, USA. Third, for the third year in a row, is the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), based in Laxenburg, Austria [thinktankmap.org]

» June 23 2016 - #JobVacancy #ClimateChange #WorldBank #SeniorClimateChangeSpecialist, location, Washington, DC. The World Bank Group (WBG) sees tackling climate change as critical to the pursuit of its mission. The challenge of low carbon development, building resilience into economic growth and development and coping with the impacts of unmitigated climate change will shape the opportunities for all WBG clients now and in the coming decades. Since the mid-2000s the World Bank Group has directly addressed the relationship between development and climate change, has pioneered tools to measure impact of development on climate change and climate change on development. The Climate and Carbon Finance Unit (GCCCF) in the Global Climate Change Cross Cutting Solutions Area (GCC-CCSA) manages 12 carbon funds and facilities with a total commitment value of over $2.5 billion, with participation by around 70 governments and private sector companies. Additional funds and instruments are under development, which aim to demonstrate the value of market-based approaches and result based finance in helping to address climate change and support poverty reduction and sustainable development priorities of our client countries [...] The selected candidate will be part of the PMR Secretariat and Advisory Team of the Climate and Carbon Finance Unit. As such, she/he will focus primarily on supporting the Secretariat and country operations of the PMR and the Unit Management to develop the Advisory business. Duties and responsibilities include [worldbank.org]

» June 23 2016 - #ClimatePolicy #Economics Raising Ambition: State of the Voluntary #CarbonMarkets 2016 #EM Report. Voluntary buyers around the world paid to offset 84.1 million (M) tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e) in 2015, a 10% increase from 2014, led by private-sector buyers taking proactive steps to reduce emissions ahead of regulation, according to a new report from Forest Trends' Ecosystem Marketplace (EM). It shows that while the world's nations prepared for the historic Paris Agreement on climate change last year, individuals, corporations, and state and national governments used voluntary carbon markets to ramp up their own climate action. Produced through an annual survey of hundreds of carbon offset suppliers, the new report provides a global picture of voluntary demand for offsets, with detailed information on offset pricing, emerging buyer preferences, and policy and business developments that could move the market. It is the only freely available report of its kind and has advanced transparency and legitimacy in the voluntary carbon markets for the past decade [forest-trends.org]

» June 23 2016 - #Oil #Geopolitics #SaudiArabia's economic reform #OilPrice volatility has been traditional spur to failed Saudi reforms. This time #ClimateChange and #DemographicPressure make changes more urgent. Sale of Saudi Aramco stake may be less effective than opening market to #OilMajors. Saudi Arabia is once again keeping analysts busy worldwide. This time attention has been drawn by an audacious economic reform rather than by oil policy, although the two are closely intertwined. Some of the development strategy's goals are not new and others are probably unattainable, but there seems to be a stronger will to proceed today than in the past decades. The journey will not be quick, easy or cheap [gisreportsonline.com]

» June 23 2016 - #ClimateChange #Economics #Poverty #Education #SDGs Next month in New York, the United Nations' 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development will have its first global progress review. Adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2015, the agenda represents a new coherent way of thinking about how issues as diverse as poverty, education and climate change fit together; it entwines economic, social and environmental targets in 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as an 'indivisible whole' [nature.com]

» June 23 2016 - #Renewable #Biomass #Biofuels Global #Bioenergy Statistics 2016 #WBA Report. The report provides an overview of global data on all sectors of bioenergy including bioelectricity, heating from biomass, liquid biofuels, biogas, pellets etc. The data is classified into a global, continental and country level. In a post COP21 climate and with the focus on UN Sustainable Development Goals, updated statistics are crucial. At a time when countries are in the process of ratifying the Paris deal, it is more important now than ever to have good data for informed decision making for policy makers. Bioenergy is the largest renewable energy source and this report aims to increase awareness [worldbioenergy.org]

» June 22 2016 - #Renewable #PV Global Market Outlook 2016-2020 #SolarPower Europe Compared to last year's Global Market Outlook 2015-2019, this report foresees a much more positive solar development for all 3 scenarios for the coming years. While the 2015 version assumed between 396 GW and 540 GW with the most likely scenario resulting in 450 GW of total gridconnected solar power by the end of 2019, the GMO 2016 foresees a range between 427 GW and 596 GW, and 516 GW for the most probable scenario. In 2020,total global solar capacity could be between 490 GW and 716 GW, with 613 GW considered the mostlikely scenario. In any case, 2 milestones will be reached in all scenarios - 300 GW solar power in 2017, and around 500 GW by 2020 [solarpowereurope.org]

» June 22 2016 - #EnergyTransition #Economics #Innovation and #Disruption: the energy sector in transition #BIEE Oxford Research Conference. Innovation and disruption are characteristics of current energy industries and markets, nationally and globally. Every part of the energy sector is experiencing rapid change and high rates of innovation, with some examples of managed transitions, but often with disruptive transformation driven by external factors. The British Institute of Energy Economics 11th Oxford research conference will bring together industry leaders, policymakers and academics to explore the big trends and likely discontinuities in energy over the next five to ten years and to look at how innovation will change the future energy mix and the thrust of policy [biee.org]

» June 22 2016 - #Tesla Offers to Acquire #SolarCity Elon Musk proposed combining his #ElectricCar and #SolarEnergy companies, in a bold effort to consolidate his holdings and offer widespread #CleanEnergy products from vehicles to power in homes [wsj.com]

» June 22 2016 - #California #PowerGrid prepares for #Heatwave, possible #NatGas shortage California will have its first test of plans to keep the lights on this summer following the shutdown of the key Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility as temperatures in the Los Angeles area are forecast to hit triple digits this week. With record-setting heat and air conditioning demand expected in Southern California, the state's power grid operator issued a so-called "flex alert," urging consumers to conserve energy to help prevent rotating power outages - which could occur regardless. Electricity demand is expected to rise during the unseasonable heatwave on Monday and Tuesday, with forecast system-wide use expected to top 45,000 megawatts, said the California Independent System Operator (ISO), which manages electricity flow through the state. That compares with a peak demand of 47,358 MW last year and the al--time high of 50,270 MW set in July 2006 [reuters.com]

» June 21 2016 - #ClimatePolicy #ClimateChange Unconventional Options for Enhancing the Predictability of Multilateral #ClimateFinance ##OxfordClimatePolicy #Muller #MpanuMpanu The UNFCCC Long-term Climate Finance website has a useful archive of previous work in the area of long-term climate finance with all presentations and recordings of the UNFCCC workshops and events of the Work Programme on LTF from 2012/13 onwards. A thematic analysis of these events by Laurel Murray reveals two trends. For one it shows that the topical balance between raising resources and deployment of funds has, over time, shifted from 4:1 at the first Workshop on LTF (Bonn 2012) to 0:1 at the recent in-session workshop on LTF in Bonn. Second, as concerns the topic of raising resources, the balance between raising public sector finance and mobilizing private sector finance has also shifted, from 2:1 (Bonn 2012) to 1:3 (in-session workshop on LTF, Bonn 2015). The gradual disappearance of the topic of providing (public sector) funds from the LTF debate is not only regrettable, it is, we believe, contrary to the spirit, if not the letter, of the original terms of reference of that debate, which stipulate that: [T]he aim of the [LTF] work programme - is to contribute to the on-going efforts to scale up the mobilization of climate change finance after 2012; the work programme will analyse options for the mobilization of resources from a wide variety of sources, public and private, bilateral and multilateral, including alternative sources and relevant analytical work on the climate-related financing needs of developing countries; the analysis will draw upon relevant reports including that of the High-level Advisory Group on Climate Financing and the report on mobilizing climate finance for the Group of Twenty and the assessment criteria in the reports, and will also take into account lessons learned from fast-start finance. While the debate on (pathways) of conventional public sector sources through budgetary contributions may have proven to be not the most fruitful way forward, this does not mean that there are no alternative ('unconventional'/'innovative') sources of grant funding that could be usefully tapped - in particular, to enhance the predictability of financial support for climate change activities in developing countries. And the current LTF debate needs to be rebalanced to conform with this original aim, if it is to be of any real use to anyone [oxfordclimatepolicy.com]

» June 21 2016 - #JobVacancy Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (#ATREE), an applied environmental research institute in Bangalore, India, invites applications for an endowed faculty position in its research programme on #ClimateChange #Mitigation and Development [atree.org]

» June 21 2016 - #RenewableEnergy End-of-Life Management: #Solar #Photovoltaic Panels. Report IRENA. It's the first-ever projection of PV panel waste volumes to 2050 and highlights that recycling or repurposing solar PV panels at the end of their roughly 30-year lifetime can unlock a large stock of raw materials and other valuable components. It estimates that PV panel waste, comprised mostly of glass, could total 78 million tonnes globally by 2050. If fully injected back into the economy, the value of the recovered material could exceed USD 15 billion by 2050. This potential material influx could produce 2 billion new panels or be sold into global commodity markets, thus increasing the security of future PV supply or other raw material-dependent products [irena.org]

» June 20 2016 - #Oil Volatility To Increase During #Brexit Week Brexit anxiety dominated markets this week after new polls revealed heightened odds of a Leave vote. From June 9th to June 16th, the GBP weakened considerably and the EUR/USD sank from over 1.14 to below 1.113. The EUR/USD drop dragged WTI Q16 from $52.28 to $46.68 despite a supportive supply/demand forecast from the IEA, a steep drop in U.S. output and continued issues in Nigeria, Canada and Libya [oilprice.com]

» June 20 2016 - #ClimatePolicy The Analysis of Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (#INDCs) #USAID Publication. RALI Project. The post-2020 climate action plans of select developing countries. This analysis helps climate change practitioners understand the status of each country's national climate strategy and make strategic decisions about future activities related to the Paris Agreement. It presents summaries of the INDCs submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) by 37 developing countries, including partner countries of the Enhancing Capacity for Low Emissions Development Strategies (EC-LEDS) program. Each country profile includes information from the INDC on the: Unconditional and conditional greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction targets; Analytical basis for developing the emissions reduction targets; Mitigation actions being undertaken by the country; Adaptation strategies; Existing policy framework of the country's INDC; Financial and technical assistance required [climatelinks.org]

» June 17 2016 - #EnergyEfficiency #UE #SuperMarket #UBA, #KTH, #CIRCE, #DPTU, #IIR, #SuperSmart Project, to achieve both decisive environmental benefits through a fast implementation of efficient heating and cooling solutions, as well as significant economic benefits through reduced energy use in the supermarket sector all across Europe: Remove non-technological barriers to efficient heating & cooling in the European food retail sector; Raise the expertise level for eco-energy supermarkets among technical and non-technical staff members, through promotion and training; Support the introduction of a European Ecolabel for food retail stores, by developing draft criteria for such a label [supersmart-supermarket.info]

» June 17 2016 - The Power to Change: #Solar and #Wind Cost Reduction Potential to 2025. IRENA Report. Increasing economies of scale, more competitive supply chains and further technological improvements will continue reducing the costs of solar and wind power. The same factors will also boost the availability of these key renewable power sources at night and in varying weather conditions. With the right policies in place, the cost of electricity from solar and wind power technologies could fall by at least 26% and as much as 59% between 2015 and 2025, finds this cost-analysis report from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). The global weighted average cost of electricity could fall by 26% from onshore wind, by 35% from offshore wind, by at least 37% from concentrating solar power (CSP) technologies, and by 59% from solar photovoltaics (PV) by 2025, the report finds. In energy markets around the world, rising competitive pressures that will drive continual innovation. While equipment costs will keep declining, reductions in balance-ofsystem, operation and maintenance and capital costs are becoming increasingly important drivers for overall cost reduction [irena.org]

» June 17 2016 - #JobVacancy Sustainable Development Goals (#SDGs) Senior Program Officer. In close collaboration with scientists from #IIASA and its international partners, the Senior Program Officer will manage the Technical Secretariat of a new research initiative "The World in 2050 (#TWI2050)". The World in 2050 (TWI2050) is a new research initiative launched by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), the Stockholm Resilience Center, and the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) to develop long-term pathways for sustainable development including for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The initiative mobilizes leading research institutions from around the world to integrate our understanding of how economic, social, and environmental development - underpinned by good governance - can be promoted in every part of the world. The initiative coordinates closely with the United Nations, other leading international organizations, and governments around the world to support the operationalization of the SDGs [iiasa.ac.at]

» June 16 2016 - #EnergyPolicy #EnergyEconomics Cheaper #Coal and cheaper #Gas will not derail the transformation and #Decarbonisation of the world's power systems. Bloomberg New Energy Finance (#BNEF) - New Energy Outlook (#NEO) 2016. By 2040, zero-emission energy sources will make up 60% of installed capacity. Wind and solar will account for 64% of the 8.6TW of new power generating capacity added worldwide over the next 25 years, and for almost 60% of the $11.4 trillion invested [bloomberg.com]

» June 16 2016 - #ClimatePolicy The #Agriculture Sectors in the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (#NCCs): Analysis #FAO Report. 188 countries have submitted Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) to the UNFCCC. With the adoption of the Paris Agreement in December 2015, the INDCs will guide country-level climate action for the coming years. They include not only targets, but also concrete strategies for addressing the causes and responding to the consequences of climate change. FAO has analyzed the INDCs to assess the role of the agriculture sectors (crops, livestock, fisheries and aquaculture, as well as forestry) in meeting national mitigation and adaptation goals. The results show that in all regions, these sectors will play a pivotal role in accomplishing the intended goals and actions for responding to climate change by 2030. This report aims to provide an overview of how agriculture sectors have been included in the INDCs. It summarizes the aspects and measures related to agricultural production, taking into account the interdependencies characterizing this sector. The analysis should provide a basis to identify priorities for international support for climate action in the agriculture sectors [fao.org]

» June 15 2016 - For #Russia, #NaturalGas Is Losing Its Potency as a Political Weapon NatGas-Stratfor Article. There was a time when Russia could manipulate other countries with its natural gas supplies. It still can, but the threat is less effective than it once was. Ukraine's national natural gas company, Naftogaz, confirmed Wednesday that it will consider negotiating direct natural gas purchases with Russian natural gas giant Gazprom without mediation from the European Union. Ukraine's willingness to deal directly is a sign of growing assertiveness and also of how much Kiev - with help from Brussels - has been able to chip away at Moscow's ability to use gas supplies as a political weapon [naturalgaseurope.com]

» June 15 2016 - #ClimateFinance From climate talks to climate action: Financing #NDCs LEDS GP #Webinar: Wednesday 22nd June Time: 2.00pm to 3.00pm UK time. Implementing INDCs, now NDCs, will require major shifts in legal, policy, and financial frameworks to attract the billions of dollars of investment needed to fulfill the stated ambitions. In this webinar, the Low Emission Development Strategies Global Partnership (LEDS GP)'s Finance Working Group and the Climate Policy Initiative will provide some answers to the following questions: What are the sources for financing NDCs? What are the most effective policies and instruments to spur investments? How can practitioners get things moving on the ground? [ledsgp.org]

» June 15 2016 - #LowCarbonTransition #ClimateEconomics #ParisAgreement Global climate policy and deep #Decarbonization of #EnergyIntensiveIndustries #ClimatePolicy Article. If we are to limit global warming to 2 °C, all sectors in all countries must reduce their emissions of GHGs to zero not later than 2060-2080. Zero-emission options have been less explored and are less developed in the energy-intensive basic materials industries than in other sectors. Current climate policies have not yet motivated major efforts to decarbonize this sector, and it has been largely protected from climate policy due to the perceived risks of carbon leakage and a focus on short-term reduction targets to 2020. We argue that the future global climate policy regime must develop along three interlinked and strategic lines to facilitate a deep decarbonization of energy-intensive industries. First, the principle of common but differentiated responsibility must be reinterpreted to allow for a dialogue on fairness and the right to development in relation to industry. Second, a greater focus on the development, deployment and transfer of technology in this sector is called for. Third, the potential conflicts between current free trade regimes and motivated industrial policies for deep decarbonization must be resolved. One way forward is to revisit the idea of sectoral approaches with a broader scope, including not only emission reductions, but recognizing the full complexity of low-carbon transitions in energy-intensive industries. A new approach could engage industrial stakeholders, support technology research, development and demonstration and facilitate deployment through reducing the risk for investors. The Paris Agreement allows the idea of sectoral approaches to be revisited in the interests of reaching our common climate goals [tandfonline.com]

» June 14 2016 - #Oil Unexpected supply cuts and outages in North America, Africa and South America dampen global production forecasts #IEA Oil Market Report. Outages in OPEC and non-OPEC countries cut global oil supply by nearly 0.8 mb/d in May. At 95.4 mb/d, output stood 590 kb/d below a year earlier - the first significant drop since early 2013. Non-OPEC supply growth is expected to return in 2017 at a modest 0.2 mb/d, after declining by 0.9 mb/d in 2016 [...] OPEC crude output fell by 110 kb/d in May to 32.61 mb/d as big losses in Nigeria due to oil sector sabotage more than offset higher Middle East output. Iran has clearly emerged as OPEC's fastest source of supply growth this year, with an anticipated gain of 700 kb/d. Global oil demand growth in 1Q16 has been revised upwards to 1.6 mb/d and for 2016 growth will now be 1.3 mb/d. In 2017 we will see the same rate of growth and global demand will reach 97.4 mb/d. Non-OECD nations will provide most of the expected gains in both years. The growth rate is slightly above the previous trend, mostly due to relatively low crude oil prices. Commercial inventories in the OECD increased from March levels by 14.4 mb to stand at 3 065 mb by end-April, an impressive 222 mb above one year earlier. As the US driving season kicks off, OECD gasoline stocks stand above average levels and last year in absolute and days of forward demand terms. There is a similar picture in China. Refinery runs in 2Q16 are suffering from deepening outages. Throughput is nearly flat year-on-year, as refiners finally catch up with maintenance postponed from 2015. The seasonal ramp-up to 3Q16 is expected to be the largest on record, surging by about 2.3 mb/d quarter-on-quarter [iea.org]

» June 14 2016 - Compliance of the Parties to the #KyotoProtocol in the first commitment period #ClimatePolicy Article. An ex post analysis of the compliance of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol during the first commitment period (2008-2012) based on the final data for national GHG emissions and exchanges in carbon units that became available at the end of 2015. On the domestic level, among the 36 countries that fully participated in the Kyoto Protocol, only nine countries emitted higher levels of GHGs than committed and therefore had to resort to flexibility mechanisms. On the international level - i.e. after the use of flexibility mechanisms - all Annex B Parties are in compliance. Countries implemented different compliance strategies: purchasing carbon units abroad, stimulating the domestic use of carbon credits by the private sector and incentivizing domestic emission reductions through climate policies. Overall, the countries party to the Protocol surpassed their aggregate commitment by an average 2.4 GtCO2e yr-1. Of the possible explanations for this overachievement, 'hot-air' was estimated at 2.2 GtCO2e yr-1, while accounting rules for land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF) further removed 0.4 GtCO2e yr-1 from the net result excluding LULUCF [tandfonline.com]

» June 14 2016 - #IEA sees major shifts in global #Gas trade over next five years The next five years will bring a reshaping of the global gas trade, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said Wednesday in its 2016 Medium-Term Gas Market Report. New liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies are coming online just as demand growth in some major markets weakens, resulting in major shifts in global gas trade patterns. A weak outlook for Japan and Korea - the world's top two LNG buyers - means that new supplies will need to find other markets. China, India and ASEAN countries will emerge as key buyers [iea.org]

» June 14 2016 - The Future of #Coal in #China #Webinar Wednesday June 15 (10:00 CEST, 16:00 CST) Exploring how to address overcapacity and coal subsidies and transition to a more SustainableElectricity sector in China [iisd.org]

» June 14 2016 - #ClimateChange #ClimateEconomics #ClimateFinance #ClimateInvestments Beyond transparency: unlocking the full potential of #GreenBonds #I4CE Report. 'Green' or 'climate' bonds are a new asset class that has received increasing attention over the past few years as a financial instrument that may help overcome the low-carbon investment challenge. This report explores the current and potential contribution of green bonds to the #LowCarbon transition and different ways to enhance it. The analysis begins by taking stock of the current status of the green bond market, identifying key roles that the market plays for different stakeholders and pin-pointing two key challenges to be addressed. The first challenge - namely the question of environmental integrity of green bonds - explores the stakes related to definitions and procedures and identifies possible approaches to deal with it. The second challenge focuses on how, beyond increasing transparency, both market-driven and public support measures may help increase the tangible financial contribution of green bonds to the low-carbon transition. The report then concludes with a number of possible steps for policymakers and financial stakeholders to overcome the current limitations of green bonds [i4ce.org]

» June 13 2016 - #ClimateChange #ClimatePolicy #EnergyPolicy #Finland, the #EU and the 1.5°C limit in the #ParisAgreement Climate Analytics Report. The implications of the 1.5°C temperature limit in the Paris Agreement for energy and climate policy in Finland and the European Union. The report finds that Finland and the European Union need to strengthen their climate pledges, rapidly cut emissions and speed up introducing renewables into the energy mix to be in line with the 1.5°C warming limit in the Paris Agreement. Key findings: Current climate pledges by Finland and the EU for are not sufficient to meet the temperature goal agreed in Paris. Under the least-cost approach, Finland would need to cut emissions by 60% below 1990 levels by 2030, compared with its current 2°C goal of -40%. By 2050, domestic emissions would need to become negative with reductions of 135% below 1990 levels, compared with its current 2°C goal of -80%. The equity approach would require even deeper emission cuts of at least 150% below 1990 levels by 2050 to be in line with the long-term temperature goal in the Paris Agreement. For the EU, the least-cost approach entails a 50% emission cut below 1990 levels by 2030 compared with its present 2°C goal of -40%. By 2050, the EU would need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions domestically by about 90%, which is within the 80-95% reduction range already adopted. However, to reflect a fair share effort, EU would need to cut emissions by at least 75% below 1990 levels by 2030 and at least 164% below 1990 levels by 2050, almost double the present target. For Finland this could mean that the equivalent of about 0.1% of projected GDP in 2030 and about 0.7% in 2050 may need to be invested in emission reductions abroad. For the EU the corresponding figures are around 0.6% in 2030 and around 2% in 2050. These estimates have a wide range but provide a broad indication of plausible climate mitigation finance needs. The report suggests both Finland and the EU significantly improve their climate pledges (known as Nationally Determined Contributions) to be consistent with the 1.5°C limit in the Paris Agreement. For this to be done in time for the 2018 global stock take of whether national ambition levels together are sufficient to meet the Paris Agreement goals (Facilitative Dialogue) would be very important for EU leadership on climate internationally. The key to achieving these deeper emission reductions in Finland is addressing energy efficiency in the industry, buildings and transport sectors, phasing out coal by 2030 and oil by 2060 while rapidly replacing fossil fuel energy generation with renewables. The report also highlights the likely longer term importance of negative emission technologies, specifically biomass with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) in the second half the century but emphasises that rapid scaling up of climate action is decisive [climateanalytics.org]

» June 13 2016 - #ClimateChange #ClimatePolicy #LowCarbonEconomy #FossilFuels The role of #Bioenergy in European #Cities. #WorldBioenergyAssociation Report Bioenergy has the potential to become a pillar in the future energy portfolio of cities. In the battle against climate change, cities play a decisive role. Without a targeted policy for cities to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, climate mitigation policies cannot be successful. This new study from World Bioenergy Association addresses the challenges cities are facing within the global climate mitigation policy and explains the contributions biomass can offer to reduce the use of fossil fuels in cities. Biomass is a proven renewable and cost-competitive source of on-demand energy to replace fossil fuels in the supply of heat, partly in the transport sector and in generation of electricity. Seven European cities are mentioned in this study that demonstrate how bioenergy is integrated into the urban energy system. The reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, energy security and development of new jobs in Europe are key arguments in favour of bioenergy for these cities [worldbioenergy.org]

» June 10 2016 - #ClimateChange, the #CO2Emissions slowdown is becoming structural According to the Statistical Review of #WorldEnergy by #BP, in 2015, CO2 emissions remained at the previous year's level. A clear change in course from the trend that has dominated the last decade [...] 2 main factors have contributed to this: on the one hand, the decrease in consumption due to the slowdown on the #WorldEconomy; on the other hand, the important developments in EnergyEfficiency and in #RenewableEnergy sources. Within this context, China has played a significant role having recorded a decrease in emissions for the first time in 20 years [abo.net]

» June 10 2016 - The #ParisAgreement a new agenda for the 21st Century #Coal In the implementation of the #NDCs, countries will need support to achieve their mitigation objectives while continuing to grow and develop. This is particularly important for developing countries. We need to remember that 1.1 billion people in the world lack access to modern electricity and double that number lacks access to clean cooking facilities. Many developing countries, particularly in emerging and developing Asia, have identified a role for advanced coal technologies in their NDCs8-because, for many countries, affordable and reliable electricity is the foundation of their economic development. These economies are industrializing and urbanizing at a rapid rate. Thus, affordable, reliable electricity is essential and, for many, it is coal that will continue to provide that electricity. It is certain that coal will continue playing a role in the world's energy mix. IEA's special report on Southeast Asia highlights that coal is the fuel of choice in the region, due to its relative abundance and affordability. It also indicates that the region's energy demand is projected to grow by 80% in 2040 and in terms of electricity demand. Energy generation and consumption efficiency are key components of sustainable development. As countries will continue using affordable and available resources such as coal and other fossil fuels, it is critical to support them in achieving energy access and economic growth with the lowest possible level of GHG emissions. This is doable with the use of 21st century technologies such as high-efficiency, low-emissions (HELE) coal technologies that increase the efficiency of power generation and allow for substantial emissions reductions and CCS that can achieve emissions reductions of more than 90% [worldcoal.org]

» June 10 2016 - #JobVacancy #ENERGYMANAGEMENT IN SMALL AND MEDIUM SCALE INDUSTRIES with focus on preparing for #ISO #Standard50001 #EnergyManagement. The University of Twente's Department of Governance and Technology for Sustainability is pleased to announce that there are still a small number of places available for self-funded participants on the short course 'Energy Management In Small And Medium Scale Industries'(#EMSI). Course date: 29 August – 21 October 2016 [utwente.nl]

» June 10 2016 - #BP and #DetNorskeOljeselskap announced the creation of #AkerBPASA, an independent #Oil and #Gas company combining the assets and expertise from both companies' Norwegian exploration and production operations to form the largest Norwegian independent oil and gas producer. Deal creates strategic platform for long-term growth in Norway, combining Det norske's efficient operating model with BP's experience and technical expertise [bp.com]

» June 10 2016 - #ETS A new report on #CarbonMarket reform has kicked off debate on the issue in the #EuropeanParliament. It promises new loopholes for the #OilIndustry and other polluters. The EU ETS should "adapt to the new targets" in the #ParisAgreement, according to Ian Duncan MEP, the European Parliament environment committee rapporteur on emissions trading. But his draft report does nothing to "pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels." The ETS is supposed to cut 43 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions in the sectors it covers by 2030, but it should aim to reduce double that amount if the EU is to take its fair share of even a 2°C climate goal. Instead of revising an inadequate target, and despite the Paris Agreement suggesting an initial evaluation in 2018, Duncan's report postpones any discussion on raising climate ambition until after 2023 [corporateeurope.org]

» June 10 2016 - #Gazprom sells #Gas to #Europe at the lowest prices for the last 8 years #OilPrice drop caused reduction of the cost of Russian gas for the region to the level of 2004 amidst competition on the European gas market. Meanwhile, 20% discount from "Gazprom" was the largest one over the last 8 years [rusmininfo.com]

» June 10 2016 - #ClimateFinance #CentralBanking and the Transition to a #LowCarbonEconomy. The Role of MonetaryPolicy #ICCG WEBINAR. Monetary policy has significant environmental and social repercussions. The channels through which money in our economies is created, as well as the actions taken by central banks with regard to interest rate levels, asset purchases and macroprudential policy are key factors driving economic decisions. Yet, in particular since the 1990s, there has been a broad consensus that central banks should focus on one overriding policy goal: consumer price stability. As a result, little analysis or public profile was given to other impacts of monetary policy, including on environmental and social sustainability. In view of the central role monetary policy plays in financial systems and in setting the overall context for financial flows this is striking - even more so as the financial crisis has significantly expanded the interventions by central banks and the toolbox they make use of. The US Fed more than quadrupled its balance sheet from below 1 trillion US$ in 2008 to 4.5 trillion US$ at the end of August 2014. The European Central Bank (ECB), the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan, the People's Bank of China as well as further central banks pursued similar strategies of monetary easing. The 80 billion Euro that the ECB is currently injecting into financial markets on a monthly basis is a case in point [iccgov.org]

» June 9 2016 - #ClimateChange #RapidIntensification's key role in TropicalCycloneRisk In October 2015, Hurricane Patricia became the strongest storm ever measured by the National Hurricane Center. But what really worried authorities was the speed at which Patricia amassed her strength. The storm's sustained winds increased from 85 miles per hour to 200 in 24 hours- the greatest 24-hour rise in intensity ever observed in the satellite era. While forecast models have made huge strides in the last 30 years predicting the tracks of hurricanes, they still have a difficult time predicting the rate at which a storm will intensify and become dangerous. Luckily, Patricia landed in a sparsely populated area of Mexico and quickly lost strength, sparing communities there much of the catastrophic destruction many had anticipated. Now, a new study in the journal Nature Communications shows that Patricia is the rule rather than the exception-the most intense storms are those that undergo rapid intensification during their lifetime. Moreover, the study shows that tropical cyclones which undergo rapid intensification are responsible for extreme storms being more frequent than expected [iri.columbia.edu]

» June 9 2016 - The #Geopolitics of #Gas: #Qatar, #Iran and # Russia Qatar is preparing but not yet ready to challenge Russia's hold on the EU gas market; Iran's return as a gas exporter may disrupt Qatari and Russian plans in Asia; Doha may consider more Russian investments to keep lines of communication open. Qatar's foreign policy differs from that of other Sunni Gulf states in key respects. First, it is one of the world's biggest exporters of natural gas, giving it a subtly different geopolitical and economic orientation than its oil-producing neighbors. Second, it has consistently supported Islamic militants, especially the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and Libya. Third, its relations with Iran are less antagonistic [iccgov.org]

» June 9 2016 - International #ClimatePolicy Magazine (N.41). A clear analysis of the worldwide evolution of both international and domestic climate and energy policies, as well as the carbon market. In this edition: Paris Agreement: first steps toward implementation; Coalition for Urban Transitions launched to empower cities; Impending challenges of old age for European nuclear generation; Renewable Energy Investments as an opportunity for growth; Embarking on early climate action with cool contributions in Asia; Climate Cooperation in Latin America and Caribbean Countries; New Adaptation Finance Gap Report 2016 released; Carbon markets April-May 2016 [iccgov.org]

» June 9 2016 - Role of Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (#SDGs) UNEP Report. Discussions related to realizing the Sustainable Development Goals have now shifted to developing appropriate indicators for measuring progress in implementation at the national, regional and global levels. The role and relevance of multilateral environmental agreements in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals have long been recognized. However, current discussions in developing the Sustainable Development Goal indicators seem to be challenged by appropriateness of data and information emanating from the implementation of multilateral environmental agreements. The present paper outlines the links between the Sustainable Development Goals and multilateral environmental agreements in general and biodiversity-related multilateral environmental agreements in particular, with a special focus on Sustainable Development Goal targets and indicators in an attempt to inform discussions within the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on Sustainable Development Goal Indicators of the United Nations Statistical Commission and at the multilateral environmental agreement leve [unep.org]

» June 8 2016 - #Energy #BP #StatisticalReview of #WorldEnergy Global primary energy consumption increased by just 1.0% in 2015, similar to the below-average growth recorded in 2014 (+1.1%) and well below its 10-year average of 1.9%. Other than the recession of 2009, this represented the lowest global growth since 1998. Consumption growth was below the 10-year average for all regions except Europe & Eurasia; emerging economies accounted for 97% of the increase in global consumption. OECD consumption experienced a small increase, with growth in Europe offsetting declines in the US and Japan. Chinese consumption slowed further, but still recorded the world's largest increment in primary energy consumption for the fifteenth consecutive year. Russia recorded the largest volumetric decline in primary energy consumption. By fuel, only oil and nuclear power grew at above-average rates, with oil gaining global market share for the first time since 1999. Renewables in power generation continued to grow robustly, to nearly 3% of global primary energy consumption, while coal consumption recorded the largest percentage decline on record. Global CO2 emissions from energy are estimated to have been essentially flat. Prices for all fossil fuels fell in 2015 for all regions. Crude oil prices recorded the largest decline on record in dollar terms, and the largest percentage decline since 1986. The annual average price for Brent, the international crude oil benchmark, declined by 47%, reflecting a growing imbalance between global production and consumption. The differential between Brent and the US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) narrowed to its smallest level since 2010. Natural gas prices fell in all regions, with the largest percentage declines in North America; the US benchmark Henry Hub fell to its lowest level since 1999. Coal prices around the world fell for the fourth consecutive year. Energy developments. Oil remained the world's leading fuel, accounting for 32.9% of global energy consumption. Although emerging economies continued to dominate the growth in global energy consumption, growth in these countries (+1.6%) was well below its 10-year average of 3.8%. Emerging economies now account for 58.1% of global energy consumption. Chinese consumption growth slowed to just 1.5%, while India (+5.2%) recorded another robust increase in consumption. OECD consumption increased slightly (+0.1%), compared with an average annual decline of 0.3% over the past decade. A rare increase in EU consumption (+1.6%) more than offset declines in the US (-0.9%) and Japan (-1.2%), where consumption fell to the lowest level since 1991 [bp.com]

» June 8 2016 - #ClimateChange #JobVacancy Lecturer/Senior Lecturer in Geosciences, Department of Physics, The University of Otago, New Zealand. Deadline for Application: 3 July 2016. Term: Permanent Full time [otago.taleo.net]

» June 8 2016 - #ClimateChange #Mitigation #SDG Addressing the #RenewableEnergyFinancing Gap in #Africa to Promote Universal #EnergyAccess: Integrated Renewable Energy Financing in #Malawi. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews Paper. Some financing strategies can be implemented in Sub-Saharan Africa and Malawi in particular inorder to support Climate Change mitigation and universal access ambitions as embodied in the Sustainable Energy for All Initiative (SE4All), Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7 and Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) [sciencedirect.com]

» June 8 2016 - #ClimatePolicy Wandering #Decarbonization: the #BRIC countries as conservative #ClimatePowers. Revista Brasileira de Politica Internacional. This article discusses the role of #China, #Russia, #India and #Brazil in the climate regime. It describes the trajectory of their emissions, of their domestic policies and of their international commitments, and argues that, despite their responsibility in causing the problem, they have been conservative forces in the climate regime [scielo.br]

» June 7 2016 - #ClimatePolicy #US #GlobalCarbonReductionPlan How Obama is 'Trump-proofing' his #ClimatePact While the GOP nominee-presumptive promises to dismantle the #ParisAccord, US officials are rushing to secure it. And Trump-s energy czar is already hinting he may back down. In a roomful of oil and gas executives in North Dakota late last month, Donald Trump reiterated his threat to "cancel" the Paris climate agreement, insisting the way to "make America great again" is to resurrect the #Coal industry and drill our way to prosperity. But even if Trump is elected, taking down Paris is going to be a lot harder than he thinks. That's certainly the view of Jonathan Pershing, President Obama's new climate envoy, who-s rushing to Trump-proof America's commitment to the pact - minimizing ways in which a President Trump could obstruct the global carbon reduction plan [politico.eu]

» June 7 2016 - #ClimateChange #GHGReductionCommitments Cities and Regions Pipeline #UNEP DTU. This Pipeline is an enlargement of our NDC/Pledgepipeline. It also includes information on #GHG #ReductionCommitments from cities and regions. It includes cities & regions which have made a commitment to reduce their GHG emissions in 2020 or later [unep.org]

» June 7 2016 - #EnergyTransition #Renewables Rethinking #PowerMarkets: #CapacityMechanisms and #Decarbonisation. #ODI report. This paper provides an introduction to capacity mechanisms, and finds that capacity schemes can have significant implications for the future power mix, and therefore also for future greenhouse gas emissions. The traditional approach to capacity mechanism design - which rewards the capacity to produce power - has failed to value flexibility and carbon intensity, and is therefore no longer suited to address today's challenges. As a number of countries move ahead with the design and implementation of capacity mechanisms as part of the wider energy transition to renewables, this is a key moment to influence these processes [odi.org]

» June 7 2016 - Floating #NuclearPower plants: #China is far from first The state-owned Chinese newspaper Global Times reported that China plans to build as many as 20 floating nuclear power plants, the first of which could be producing power in just a few years. The story made a splash because the power from the floating reactors would most likely be used to accelerate construction of #OilRigs and artificial islands in the South China Sea-already a source of border disputes and escalating tension between China and its neighbors [thebulletin.org]

» June 6 2016 - #NaturalGas #Oil #Geopolitics THE BIGGEST OBSTACLE TO #IRAN'S ENERGY MAKEOVER IS ITSELF [...] Revitalizing Iran's oil and natural gas sector has been a priority for Rouhani since he took office in 2013. The industry's deterioration under the weight of sanctions and the guidance of Rouhani's predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, made it clear to many Iranian leaders that the country could not reach its production potential without help. Despite widely held political concerns about working with foreign partners, Rouhani has taken steps to make Iran's oil contracts more enticing to outsiders. To that end, Iran discussed and unveiled some of the terms of its new Iran Petroleum Contract (IPC) model at a summit in Tehran last November. Though the details of the final version are still being worked out, the initial draft was clearly designed to address the biggest criticisms of Iran's former framework: the buyback contract [naturalgaseurope.com]

» June 6 2016 - #Finland #RenewableEnergy in Transportation One of the key #ClimateChange #Mitigation actions is substitution of fossil primary energy sources (#FossilFuels and fossil electricity) in #Transportation applications by #Renewable primary energy sources (RES), i.e. RES-T (Renewable Energy Sources in Transportation) consisting of RES-fuels and RES-E (Electricity from Renewable Energy Sources). An essential political action to enable this is creation of fossil fuel independent transportation energy systems. It requires building supply infrastructure for 100% RES and development of vehicle fleets for ability to utilize 100% RES. Fossil fuel independence does not mean ending fossil fuel use, because almost all vehicles able to utilize 100% RES are energy flexible and able to consume fossil energy as well. Therefore, fossil fuel independent system can be created without delays and it can co-exist with the old system while gradually replacing it. Blending biocomponents into fossil fuels does not lead to fossil fuel independent transportation energy systems, because such policy does not result in development of vehicle fleets and filling station infrastructure for 100% renewable energy utilization. RES-T100 (100% Renewable Energy Sources in Transportation) technologies need to become the main focus in transportation energy policies. To that end, one necessary tool is statistical data. Relevant statistics must be created and maintained. Finland is the first country in the world where national RES-T100 statistics have been developed and published. The original publication is in Finnish, but an extended summary "RES-T100 statistics - case Finland" is available [cbg100.net]

» June 6 2016 - The #Renewables 2016 Global Status Report REN21 Report. Read the most comprehensive annual overview of the state of renewable energy and find out why renewables are now firmly established as competitive, mainstream sources of energy in many countries around the world. This year's edition has detailed data and information on distributed renewables; the #EnergyEfficiency section is larger than ever. The role of cities, communities and companies in the expanding "100% renewable" movement is documented. This year's feature looks at renewables in community power [ren21.net]

» June 6 2016 - #ClimateChange #Adaptation #EnvironmentalMigration in #Brazil: Current context and systemic challenges Policy Brief Series Issue. Brazil has witnessed an increased level of human mobility due to environmental change. According to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, between 2008 and 2014, Brazil was among the countries with the highest numbers of internally displaced persons. Furthermore, the country is one of the top destinations of cross-border displaced persons by disasters in the region. However, the country lacks migration laws and policies to cope with the increasing number of displaced persons. This policy brief aims at identifying these gaps in the Brazilian law and related policies concerning migration caused by disaster, climate change or other environmental changes and provides a comprehensive overview on existing law and policies. Some recommendations to solve these gaps are presented [iom.int]

» June 6 2016 - #JobOpportunity Energy Climate House, a division of the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), a Brussels- based European policy research institute, has an immediate vacancy for a (Senior) Research Fellow - "EU Energy Markets". Deadline 12 June 2016 [ceps.eu]

» June 6 2016 - Landscape for change? International #ClimatePolicy and #EnergyTransitions: evidence from sub-Saharan Africa. Climate Policy Paper. What is the role of the climate regime in facilitating rapid decarbonization of the world's energy systems? We examine how core assumptions concerning the roles of the nation state, carbon markets and finance and technology in international climate policy are being challenged by the realities of how transitions in the energy systems are unfolding. Drawing on the critical region of sub-Saharan Africa, we examine the potential for international climate policy to foster new trajectories towards decarbonization [tandfonline.com]

» June 3 2016 - #InnovativeInvestmentPolicies the key to accelerating #EnergyTransition #WEC World Energy Trilemma 2016 Report. The World Energy Trilemma 2016 Report highlights five key findings emerging from innovative policies to drive progress on the Energy Trilemma. Reviewing five years of interviews with policymakers and energy leaders, and an analysis of the Energy Trilemma Index, the report offers guidance in the complex task of balancing the triple challenge of energy security, equity and sustainability into tangible actions [worldenergy.org]

» June 3 2016 - #Oil #OPEC 169th Meeting concludes The Conference considered Gabon's request to rejoin the Organization, and decided to approve its admission with effect from 1st July 2016. The Conference studied the Secretary General's report, as well as the report of the Economic Commission Board and various administrative matters. The Conference welcomed the Paris Agreement taken at the COP21 meeting in December last year. It stressed that the challenges related to the environment and climate change are a concern for us all. Member Countries are committed to supporting sustainable development and recognize the importance of continually looking to advance the environmental credentials of oil, both in production and use. Having reviewed the oil market outlook for 2016, the Conference observed that non-OPEC supply, in response to market dynamics, peaked during 2015 and started declining, with supply expected to further decline by 740,000 barrels per day (b/d) in 2016. Today, crude oil alone is lower by more than 1 million b/d from its peak at the beginning of 2015. Global demand is anticipated to expand by 1.2 mb/d after growing at 1.5 mb/d during 2015. This demand growth remains relatively healthy considering recent economic challenges and developments. The Conference observed that, since its last meeting in December 2015, crude oil prices have risen by more than 80%, supply and demand is converging and oil and product stock levels in the OECD have recently shown relative moderation. This is testament to the fact that the market is moving through the balancing process. The latest numbers, however, still show OECD and non-OECD inventories standing well above the five-year average and these need to be drawn down to normal levels. The Conference also noted the very low investment level currently prevailing in the oil industry and emphasized the need to increase upstream investment in order to achieve long-term balance in the oil markets. The Conference re-emphasized the coordination between Member Countries and with non-OPEC producers to ensure market stability in the global oil market; to obtain reasonable and sustainable revenue for oil-producing nations; and to provide a stable, reliable, efficient and economic supply to consuming countries and a fair return to investors in the oil industry [opec.org]

» June 3 2016 - #LowCarbonEconomy #ClimatePolicy Where to Go from Paris? The #EuropeanUnion in #Climate #Geopolitics #GlobalAffairs article. The EU's strategic re-orientation to coalition and bridge building after the failed Copenhagen Climate Summit in 2009 paved the way for its success in securing the #ParisAgreement on #ClimateChange in December 2015. This orientation will largely remain relevant in climate geopolitics characterized by multipolarity and a diversification of interests away from a North-South divide, both headed towards growing support for #Decarbonization. Various fora beyond the multilateral UN negotiations deserve systematic attention as climate governance has become "polycentric", requiring careful prioritization as well as further enhanced coordination of #ClimateDiplomacy across the EU. The EU's position in climate geopolitics will not least depend on the development of its internal climate and energy policy framework for 2030 and beyond. Advancing decarbonization and fostering low-carbon innovation towards the new climate economy in the EU will help enhance the EU's power base and role in future climate geopolitics. [tandfonline.com]

» June 1 2016 - #Adaptation to #ClimateChange: how to stimulate the #Economy and bring benefits to #PublicFinance #ClimateScienceAndPolicy. The economic perspective has completely changed. Some years ago, any discussion on climate change and its priority among other economic issues were driven by the "old" climate change dilemma: adaptation and mitigation may have high cost, while benefits may be larger, but far in the future. Nowadays, we know that climate change is no longer a problem for future generation: it is about present generation, it is about our societies. The economist Carlo Carraro (Vice chair IPCC WG3, Professor at Ca' Foscari University Venice, CMCC and Feem) explains that considering adaptation as a long-term investment could stimulate the economy and bring benefits for public revenues and for GDP. By showing concrete examples and figures, Prof. Carraro talks about how immediate investments in adaptation are costly in the short term, but produce positive impacts on the public debt in the medium-term because the avoided spending for flooding, droughts, hydrogeological disaster is larger then the investment in adaptation measures and infrastructures [climatescienceandpolicy.eu]

» June 1 2016 - #WaterScarcity, exacerbated by #ClimateChange, could cost some regions up to 6 percent of their GDP, spur #Migration, and spark #Conflict #WorldBank Report High and Dry: Climate Change, Water and the Economy, says the combined effects of growing populations, rising incomes, and expanding cities will see demand for water rising exponentially, while supply becomes more erratic and uncertain. Unless action is taken soon, the report says, water will become scarce in regions where it is currently abundant - such as Central Africa and East Asia - and scarcity will greatly worsen in regions where water is already in short supply - such as the Middle East and the Sahel in Africa. These regions could see their growth rates decline by as much as 6 percent of GDP by 2050 due to water related impacts on agriculture, health, and incomes. The report also warns that reduced freshwater availability and competition from other uses - such as energy and agriculture - could reduce water availability in cities by as much as two thirds by 2050, compared to 2015 levels. Water insecurity could multiply the risk of conflict, the report adds. Food price spikes caused by droughts can inflame latent conflicts and drive migration. Where economic growth is impacted by rainfall, episodes of droughts and floods have generated waves of migration and spikes in violence within countries, it says [worldbank.org]

» June 1 2016 - #LowCarbonEnergy #EnergyEfficiency Technology Collaboration Programmes: Highlights and outcomes #IEA publication The global transition to cleaner energy is going to require teamwork on a scale the world has never seen. This argues for strong, resource-efficient, and result-orientated multilateral c-ooperation. The breadth of the analytical expertise in the IEA Technology Collaboration Programmes (TCPs) - on both energy technologies and markets - and their coverage of all fuel sources, including energy efficiency, are unique assets in promoting such co-operation. The TCPs underpin the efforts of the IEA to provide support across the full spectrum of international low-carbon energy partnerships and initiatives, ranging from high-level policy fora such as the Clean Energy Ministerial, to activities under the bodies of the United Nations Framework Convention on #ClimateChange. The year 2015 marked a year of renaissance for the TCPs - rebranded for the first time since 1974, when they were known as Implementing Agreements. The 2015 IEA Ministerial formally recognised the untapped potential of the TCPs, calling upon the IEA further strengthen to the energy technology and innovation-related activities of the Agency. Building upon this momentum, the IEA compendium book Technology Collaboration Programmes: Highlights and outcomes is a collection of the significant recent outcomes of the 39 TCPs operating today, including updated statistics of participation worldwide. To date, participants in the TCPs have examined more than 1900 energy-related topics, involving over 6000 experts worldwide who represent nearly 300 public and private organisations located in 51 countries, including a large participation by IEA partner countries, such as China, India Mexico and Brazil. The publication provides highlights across the full range of TCPs, from high-temperature superconductors in wind power, to vegetable oil as an alternate motor fuel, to the wildlife management in the sustainable use of hydropower [iea.org]

» May 31 2016 - #FossilFuels and the future. #Opec Bullettin. In recent years, much has been said about the importance of developing #RenewablEnergy, especially those sources that come with an 'environmentally friendly' stamp of approval. This need has become even more pressing in the wake of the landmark Paris Agreement on #ClimateChange, reached by world leaders in December last year. However, while it is commendable to support 'green' sources of energy that have the potential to help preserve the planet for future generations, one has to be realistic. The fact is, in the overall energy mix, there is only so much that renewables, such as solar, wind power and biofuels, can do to supply the burgeoning levels of efficient, reliable and affordable energy the world requires. That is certainly the case now and one that will see only gradual change in the foreseeable future. All forecasts point to fossil fuels continuing to satisfy the lion's share of global energy demand in the years ahead. Past experience has shown that the energy sector will need to continue to evolve if it is to keep pace with progress and meet future challenges. In fact, such will be the level of global demand, that all sources of energy - conventional, unconventional, as well as renewables - will likely be required to adequately cover growing consumption levels [opec.org]

» May 31 2016 - #EU #ClimateDiplomacy #ClimateFinance #COP21 #Mitigation #Adaptation #Migration #ForeignPolicy #IDDRI #EUISS brief Given the transversal, and universal, nature of the climate challenge, what priorities should shape foreign policy action on climate issues in the decade ahead? What should be the focus of European climate diplomacy? The European Union Institute for Security Studies (#EUISS), the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (#IDDRI) and adelphi organized a meeting of senior experts and practitioners to review and build on the outcomes of COP21 earlier this year. The discussions revealed important ideas for using European foreign policy tools to address climate mitigation, adaptation, and finance, for responding to climate-related security and migration risks, and for improving EU climate diplomacy [climate-diplomacy.org]

» May 30 2016 - The #Crude Crash Has Created #Oil's Technological Superpowers Falling oil prices which started in late 2014 have highlighted an increased emphasis on the cost of producing oil, particularly from shale oil formations in the U.S. With 50 percent of U.S. oil production coming from U.S. shale, analysts initially estimated breakeven prices for shale oil operations to be at $75 per barrel, then lowering those estimates to $50 per barrel, and now, in some core regions, breakeven prices are as low as $30-$35 per barrel. The reason U.S. shale continues to see lower breakeven prices is because companies in the U.S. continue to innovate shale drilling techniques and technology. Similarly, Canadian shale drilling continues to improve alongside that of the U.S., and Canada has implemented similar technological progress towards the extraction and refining of oil from its oil sands. This continued U.S. improvement in oil and gas drilling, extraction, and refining technology provides for the hypothesis that such cutting-edge and unrivaled capability has the effect of anointing a qualification to those within the industry as the technological superpowers of oil. [oilprice.com]

» May 30 2016 - #ParisAgreement #G7# #Energy ministers (Japan) Both #Climate and energy goals are part of the global agenda for #SustainableDevelopment In their Joint Statement, the Energy Ministers of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, UK and US (G7 countries) emphasised the need for continued investment in energy security, energy sustainability and energy efficiency, as essential factors to reduce risks to global economic growth. They pledge to maintain a leading role on those issues. Welcoming the adoption of the Paris Agreement, Ministers pledged to play their full part in implementing it and commit to develop and deploy strategic measures that allow for sustainable economic growth and deep reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. With 1.2 billion people in the world lacking access to electricity and 2.7 billion without access to clean cooking facilities and power generation being one of the biggest sources of carbon emissions, it is of the utmost importance to see real leadership by developed economies in implementing the Paris Agreement; but perhaps even more important would be to have that leadership in supporting developing countries implementing the Paris Agreement and achieving universal access to electricity. Both climate and energy goals are part of the global agenda for Sustainable Development. As mentioned before in a previous blog, the successful implementation of the Paris Agreement and the attainment of its goals depend on the implementation of the National Determined Contributions of all parties. Developing countries have made clear they need international support to fulfil those undertakings. In Kitakyushu, Ministers confirmed their intention to enhance cooperation in energy technology innovation, research, development and deployment to accelerate the urgently required technological progress towards clean energy to achieve a global and sustainable energy transition. It is important to remember the role that fossil fuels, including coal, will play in that transition. As an affordable and reliable source of energy, coal is important not only for achieving energy access but also as part of a diversified energy mix that supports energy security. This role is recognised within the principles of the G7 Rome Initiative for Energy Security and the Hamburg initiative for Sustainable Energy Security. Those instruments as well Kitakyushu statement also recognize the relevance of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) to reduce emissions from fossil fuels and call for further work on large scale demonstration project. CCS is a crucial instrument and without it, it would be highly unlikely or impossible to achieve the Paris Agreement goals. As many developing countries have stated within the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions that they will use high efficiency low emissions (HELE) coal technologies to fulfil their mitigation commitments, it will also be important that G7 support further deployment of those technologies. Without international support, it is likely that less efficient technologies will be deployed. This would be counterproductive to the global mitigation objectives. The WCA report The Power of high efficiency coal analysis indicates that it will cost US$31 billion to convert 400GW of coal capacity from subcritical to HELE coal technologies in developing countries in NON-OECD regions. This will save 6 billion tonnes of CO2 from 2015 through 2040, making it one of the most cost-effective ways to abate CO2 emissions and an important contribution to a sustainable energy transition [worldcoal.org]

» May 30 2016 - #ClimateChange The #Water Partnership Program (#WPP)'s annual report: A Waterway to Resilience highlights the program's progress and results during Fiscal Year 2015 (FY15). This year's report showcases three focus areas in water: building resilience; helping service providers become more efficient and sustainable; and using integrated approaches to confront complexity. Each WPP-funded activity makes a unique contribution to client countries' sustainability goals. WPP supports the #WorldBank Water Global Practice and its approach to Water Writ Large, linking improved water management to water services in order to help client countries meet the Sustainable Development Goals in water and water-dependent sectors [wds.worldbank.org]

» May 30 2016 - #ClimateChange The 2016 #BusinessAndClimate Summit - Guildhall in London on June 28-29, 2016 - will bring together leaders from business, government and finance to deliver real #ClimateAction. The Summit will set out a roadmap for how business, in the short, medium and long term, can take advantage of a swift transition to the net #ZeroCarbonEconomy [...] Words Into Action: Implementing the Paris Agreement - What does the Paris agreement mean for Business: Risks and Opportunities - How Can Business Action Bend the Curve Below 2 Degrees? [...] Finance, Innovation and Policy for The Low Carbon Transition - Unlocking the Trillions: How to Finance the Low Carbon Economy [businessclimatesummit.com]

» May 28 2016 - #ClimateChange #India #Rajasthan's #Phalodi sizzles at 51°C, highest ever temperature in country. According to Laxman Singh Rathore, director general (DG), IMD, Delhi, "It has been observed that since 2001, places in northern India, especially in Rajasthan, are witnessing a rising temperature trend every year. The main reason is the excessive use of energy and emission of carbon dioxide. Factors like urbanization and industrialization too have added to the global warming phenomenon. I think similar trend would be maintained in Rajasthan in coming days." Phalodi was followed by Churu where a maximum temperature of 50.2 degrees Celsius was recorded. The roads in afternoon at Churu were empty as people confined themselves to their houses, while the OPD of government hospitals witnessed an increased number of patients coming with problems of heat stroke. Churu was followed by Bikaner and Barmer where a maximum temperature of 49.5 degrees Celsius each was recorded, Sriganganagar 49.1, Jaisalmer 49.0, Jodhpur 48.8, Kota 48.2, Pilani 47.5, Udaipur 46.4, and a maximum temperature of 46.2 degrees Celsius was recorded in Ajmer [timesofindia.indiatimes.com]

» May 27 2016 - #RenewableEnergy and #Jobs - Annual Review 2016 #IRENA Report. More than 8.1 million people worldwide are now employed by the renewable energy industry - a 5% increase from last year. While this increase is smaller than previous years, it is still notable given it stands in contrast to trends across the energy sector; the total number of renewable energy jobs worldwide rose in 2015 while jobs in the broader energy sector fell. In the US for example, renewable energy jobs increased 6% while employment in oil and gas decreased 18%. This positive news further strengthens the business case for renewable energy as means to mitigate climate change, reduce pollution and solve a host of other economic and social issues. Countries with the most renewable energy jobs in 2015 included China, Brazil, the United States, India, Japan and Germany. The solar PV sector remains the largest renewable energy employer worldwide with 2.8 million jobs (up from 2.5 at last count) [irenanewsroom.org]

» May 27 2016 - #SmartCities Market by Solution and Services for Focus Areas (#Transportation - #Rail & #Road, Utilities - #Energy, #Water, & #Gas, #Buildings - #Commercial & #Residential, and #SmartCitizenServices - #Education, #Healthcare, & #Security) - Global Forecast to 2020 #MarketsAndMarkets Report. The smart cities market size is estimated to grow from USD 312.03 Billion in 2015 to USD 757.74 Billion by 2020, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 19.4%. The base year considered for the study is 2014 and the market size is forecasted from 2015 to 2020. Smart cities market has been segmented into four major focus areas across regions. The focus areas include transportation, utilities, buildings, and smart citizen services. Technological advancements in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and growing demographics & hyper-urbanization are the major driving factors for the market. Cities across the world are increasingly adopting smart solutions for their various sectors, such as buildings, transportation, utilities, and citizen services in order to achieve better living standards, increased efficiency, economic stability, optimization of energy, and higher environmental protection based on the technologies: IoT, cloud, mobile, and sensors. The research methodology used to estimate and forecast the smart cities market begins with the collection and analysis of data on key vendor revenues through secondary research. The vendor's product and solution offerings are also analyzed to determine the market segmentation. The bottom-up procedure is used to arrive at the total market size of the global market from the revenue of key players in the market. After estimating the total market size, it is split into segments and subsegments, which are then verified through primary research by conducting extensive interviews with key people, such as CEOs, VPs, directors, and executives. This data triangulation and market breakdown procedures were employed to complete the overall market engineering process and arrive at the accurate statistics for all segments and sub-segments [marketsandmarkets.com]

» May 27 2016 - #China's #ClimateChange South-South Cooperation: History and Future Trends #UNDP Issue Brief. South-South cooperation in international development is now widely recognized as an important complement to North-South cooperation, and is rapidly growing as part of efforts in addressing climate change. The United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation defines South-South cooperation as "a broad framework for collaboration among developing countries in political, economic, social, cultural, environmental and technical domains, through which developing countries share knowledge, skills, expertise and resources to meet their development goals through concerted efforts". This Issue Brief will explore China's response to climate change and South-South cooperation, and discuss UNDP's global study More Money, More Impact? China's Climate Change South-South Cooperation to Date and Future Trends [undp.org]

» May 26 2016 - #OilMarket #Shale #OilPrices climbed above $50 a barrel on Thursday for the first time in nearly seven months as a global supply glut that plagued the market for nearly two years showed signs of easing. Oil prices have rallied in recent weeks after a string of outages, due mainly to wildfires in Canada and unrest in Nigeria and Libya, knocked out nearly 4 million barrels per day of production. Above $50 a barrel, oil was seen by many market players as breaching a psychological barrier that could lead producers, particularly among U.S. shale companies, to revive operations scrapped in recent years. Global benchmark Brent crude oil LCOc1 was up 56 cents at $50.30 a barrel at 1220 GMT, having reached $50.71 the highest in nearly 7 months, after a larger-than-expected draw in U.S. crude oil inventories last week indicated buyers are starting to mop up spare supply [reuters.com]

» May 26 2016 - #JobOpportunity #ClimatePolicy #climateScience Under the framework of Horizon 2020 Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions, #CMCC - the non-profit Italian research centre on climate science and policy - is taking into consideration to support individual experienced researchers in order to develop research proposals with reference to the 2016 Call Marie Sklodowska-Curie - Individual Fellowships - European Fellowships (MSCA-IF-2016, EF). MSCA-IF European Fellowships support experienced researchers for a full time period between 12 and 24 months. Fellowships are open to researchers meeting the following criteria [cmcc.it]

» May 26 2016 - #Decarbonisation #FossilFuel #ClimatePolicy #NDCs Status Report on Nationally Appropriate #Mitigation Actions (#NAMAs) This Status Report on NAMAs Mid-year Update 2016 is the first update since the 2015 "climate year" came to a close. In June 2015, the seven major industrialised economies (the G7 countries) agreed to decarbonise the world economy by the end of this century. This means that climate-damaging fossil fuels need to be phased out. About six months later, at the 21st UNFCCC conference in Paris, 194 countries adopted the Paris Agreement which marks a historic breakthrough in international climate diplomacy. It is the first legally binding climate treaty in which all UNFCCC parties - both developed and developing countries - committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions through NDCs. Together, they agreed to reach global greenhouse gas emissions neutrality by the end of this century in order to keep global warming well below 2°C. They also agreed to strive for a temperature increase of less than 1.5°C compared to pre-industrial levels. With this new dynamic in international climate politics, emission mitigation actions in developing countries are more than ever a focus of attention. This leads to the question of how mitigation actions that developing countries have already developed under UNFCCC, and that they seek to move to a further implementation stage, including NAMAs, can play a key role in the new climate landscape. A lot of political capital has been invested in NAMA development. The role of NAMAs in implementing the Paris Agreement will therefore be important to ensure the success of the international climate process in developing countries. This Report takes a closer look at the role of NAMAs in light of the Paris Agreement (Chapter 2) and includes opinion pieces from countries in Africa, Asia, and South America (Colombia, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Thailand) on their expectations, plans and needs with regards to NAMAs after Paris (Chapter 3). As usually, this Mid-Term Update also provides an update of the latest NAMA development and support world-wide (Chapter 1) [mitigationmomentum.org]

» May 25 2016 - Global Water Partnership (#GWP) Global Support Programme for #NDCs, #Water, #Climate, and #Development A global programme to assist countries to implement the adaptation component of their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) - the climate plans submitted to the UNFCCC ahead of the Paris Agreement [...] Water is the most cited 'sector' in NDCs. By the end of November 2015, 129 countries (including the EU), submitted their NDCS to the UNFCCC. 92% of them included water as a priority [...] water also topped the list of the global top 10 risks to business and economic progress, according to the 2015 World Economic Forum's Global Risks Report [gwp.org]

» May 25 2016 - #LowCarbonTechnology The #Nordic #EnergyTechnology Perspectives 2016 Nordic Energy Technology Perspectives 2016 is a Nordic edition of the IEA's global publication Energy Technology Perspectives. The report underlines the fact that through regional cooperation, the Nordic countries can achieve a near carbon-neutral energy system by 2050, while contributing to European decarbonisation through the export of clean electricity. However, it will require a dramatic restructuring of the transport sector, accelerated innovation to reduce industrial emissions, and greater flexibility in the energy system to handle higher shares of variable renewables [anpdm.com]

» May 24 2016 - #Saudis Move Away from #Crude with $1.4B In Deals With #GE Even as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) lent its backing to Saudi Arabia's economic reform to diversify away from crude oil this week, General Electric (GE) accounted a series of deals with Saudi Arabia worth over US$1.4 billion to boost the kingdom's manufacturing industry. Some US$1 billion worth of these deals are with the Saudi Arabian Industrial Investments Co., while around US$400 million is earmarked for a forging and casting manufacturing facility that will cater to the marine and energy industries. For this project, GE will be joining forces with Saudi state-owned oil giant Aramco. GE also signed a memorandum of understanding to invest US$1 billion jointly with a major Saudi entity into water and aviation, among other segments [oilprice.com]

» May 24 2016 - #Research #Webinar: Impact and #Innovation in #Horizon2020 - a Guide for Proposers - june 15. From finding the right management framework for one's activity to the question of how to develop a credible strategy focused on the management and exploitation of the research results, this webinar addresses different ways to define professional and systematic IP management in Horizon 2020 project [europa.eu]

» May 24 2016 - #ClimatePolicy #ClimateFinance #CarbonCredits and #Additionality: Past, Present, and Future #WorldBank Group paper. Several PMR countries are developing crediting mechanisms for domestic markets. Some countries are developing crediting mechanisms with a view to exploring options for trading with other countries in the future. The concept of "additionality" has long been considered important in the context of these crediting mechanisms as it ensures that the emission reduction or removal that is credited would not have otherwise occurred. However, there are different approaches that have been used and are emerging as new crediting mechanisms are being designed and implemented. This paper clarifies the concept of additionality and its significance for crediting mechanisms; describes the different approaches that have been used to demonstrate or test additionality; and explores the implications of the evolving carbon markets on the application and importance of additionality [worldbank.org]

» May 23 2016 - #EnergyTransition #RenewableEnergy #NuclearPower there has been much discussion of #Germany's #Energiewende-a plan that not only aims for a nearly carbon-free economy by 2050, but also seeks to achieve this ambitious goal with no Nuclear Power at all. Countless individuals and organizations share the optimistic view that what has happened in Germany so far shows that a totally decarbonized economy is both technically feasible and eminently affordable. Paul Krugman, for example, claims in one of his op-ed columns for The New York Times that the "climate threat" should be solved since "[t]he science is solid; the technology is there; the economics look far more favorable than anyone expected." And Joe Romm, founding editor of Climate Progress, suggests that it is possible to integrate "very large amounts of renewable electricity into the electric grid cost-effectively." But the celebrations are premature. A nearly carbon-free economy is still an ambitious goal for a major Western economy, or any industrial powerhouse of the developed world. True, Germany’s energy system is changing at an incredible pace. Its renewable energy share increased exponentially over the past two decades, accounting for almost a third of Germany's gross electricity consumption in 2015. And Germany accomplished all this without having its economy collapse-in fact, it is doing well, even while renewable energies became the largest source of power in the German electricity mix. But this energy transition has come at a high cost and created not only winners. The Energiewende has also destroyed the effort embedded in existing infrastructure and put an unprecedented strain on German society. The rapid shift to renewables-with their emphasis on lots of small-scale, decentralized power and heat production-has fundamentally altered the traditional way of doing business for the big utilities in Germany, causing a huge drop in market share and big losses in earnings. From their past position as the backbone of the German economy, the utilities now totter on the brink of dissolution; there has been a large sell-off of assets by the utilities as a result. (Among other things, they are now trying to reposition themselves as providers of Big Data, and intelligent technology.) And despite what some op-ed writers may have said, this energy-turnaround is most assuredly not a "done deal," technologically speaking. There are still many issues to be sorted out, especially in the area of what energy experts call the intermittency problem-the fact that wind and solar don't generate electricity around the clock. Nor is there a guarantee that efforts so far will make Germany hit its decarbonization targets. In fact, it looks like the country will miss its goals for 2020 and 2050. Therefore, we probably should take a deeper look at Germany's energy transition experiment [thebulletin.org]

» May 23 2016 - #SDGs #GreenEconomy Increasing the Policy Impact of #EcosystemService Assessments and Valuations - Insights from Practice #GIZ GmbH report. Society's interdependence with nature is revealed when we focus attention on ecosystem services. Yet ecosystem service assessments & valuations are often done in ways that do not achieve their full potential in terms of practical usefulness and policy relevance. How can ES assessments & valuations be more effectively commissioned, conducted, and used? Based on a review of experiences from various initiatives (TEEB, ProEcoServ, CSF, SGA Network, ValuES), a group of scientists and practitioners developed insights to this question. The report discusses requirements and shows practical options for ES studies to unfold impact under the typical constraints of limited time, resources, data and capacity [researchgate.net]

» May 23 2016 - #ClimateChange #EmissionReductionCommitment #CER #CDM Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (#IGES) #Kyoto Mechanism #FirstCommitmentPeriod #CP1) Summary Data IGES Kyoto Mechanism First Commitment Period (CP1) Summary Data provides the information on both retired and carried over Kyoto units sorted by originating country and project types. This database aims to provide overviews on how each Annex I country fulfill their emission reduction commitment during CP1 by using Kyoto units from own and other countries. It also provides how many CP1 CERs remain in the CDM registry. For example, #Japan has fulfilled its commitment by using 88 MtCO2 of Kyoto units from industrial gas reduction projects and 27 Mt CO2 of Kyoto units from hydro power projects. EU 15 countries have carried over 40 MtCO2 of CERs from China and 77 MtCO2 of ERUs from Russia. [iges.or.jp]

» May 20 2016 - The True Cost of #FossilFuels: Saving on the #Externalities of #AirPollution and #ClimateChange #IRENA Paper. This brief quantifies air pollution and climate change externalities related to fossil fuels, along with the extent these can be reduced with higher uptake of renewables. For this purpose, the analysis compares global energy demand between now and 2030 through two cases: first, based on current and planned energy policies; and second, by doubling the share of renewables in the energy mix within 15 years. The reduction of pollution and climate impact through rapidly increased use of renewable energy by 2030 could save up to USD 4.2 trillion per year worldwide - 15 times higher than the associated costs of doubling the share of renewables. Today's energy markets, however, do not adequately value climate impact or air pollution. Energy and environmental policies need to correct for these externalities [irena.org]

» May 20 2016 - Operationalizing the #ParisAgreement Article 6 Through the Joint Crediting Mechanism (#JCM) - Key Issues for Linking Market Mechanisms and the Nationally Determined Contributions (#NDCs) #IGES DiscussionPaper. This report aims to inform the current progress and lessons from the Joint Crediting Mechanism (JCM) and how they will contribute to the efforts in climate mitigation, especially for the Post-2020 to achieve the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) in the context of Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. Upon the analysis of IGES researchers, this report offer findings from the JCM as inputs for the JCM partner countries, Parties, and international negotiators for the further development of the Article 6.2 to support Parties towards achieving their NDCs [iges.or.jp]

» May 20 2016 - #ClimateChange Public-Private Partnerships for #ClimateFinance #Norden Report. There is strong evidence showing the urgent need for scaling-up climate finance to mitigate greenhouse gases in line with the 2°C target, and to support adaptation to safeguard the international community from the consequences of a changing climate. While public actors have a responsibility to deploy climate finance, it is clear that the contribution from the private sector needs to be significant. Consequently, a strong public commitment is needed to engage with the private sector and ensure climate finance is leveraged and deployed effectively. In this context, Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) are a promising avenue to contribute to climate finance delivery. PPPs provide frameworks to ensure public leadership and accountability in tackling climate change, while enabling the ownership of certain components of climate finance to be transferred to private hands. [norden.diva-portal.org]

» May 20 2016 - #EnergyTransition #JobOpportunity The Technology & Society Department at #StonyBrookUniversity invites applicants to apply for post-doctoral research fellowships in #EnergyEnvironmentalSystemsTransitions, and/or science, technology and innovation policy. These fellowships are part of programmatic thrusts that center on resilience, safety, security, and industrial development. Particular topics of investigation will include socio-technical factors that influence diffusion and learning amidst disruptive change, and inter-dependencies of critical infrastructure [stonybrooku.taleo.net]

» May 20 2016 - #Bonn #ClimateChange negotiation session #INDC Factsheets updated One detailed, number-rich Factsheet for every one of the 189 countries that submitted INDCs. Showing historical and future greenhouse gas emissions in accordance with the INDCs [climate-energy-college.net]

» May 19 2016 - #ClimateChange Can we expect a transformative shift in #InternationalCapacityBuilding after Paris? Observations from Party submissions #IGES Report Key messages: 1. To implement the Paris Agreement, a transformative change in international capacity building is required. Consideration of such a shift needs to be initiated soon (at SB44 in May 2016). 2. Observations from Party submissions after Paris on topics related to capacity building revealed multiple suggestions on enhancing capacity building in developing countries. 3. However, few Parties clearly identified or envisaged a transformation of international capacity building to meet the massively increased demand associated with all countries, rather than just developed countries, achieving climate pledges [iges.or.jp]

» May 19 2016 - #ExtremeWeather and #ArmedConflicts have put 240 million people under food stress In 2016, 240 million people across 45 low-income and/or conflict-affected countries are assessed as being in a 'food stress' situation. Within this number, 80 million people are in the more serious condition of "food crisis" with 41.7 million being located in countries affected by El Nino. A new European Commission report led by JRC scientists and compiled in cooperation with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) identifies crucial countries and regions where assistance should be prioritised to bridge the gap between emergency and development operations. Moreover, it allows programmatic planning for the short-medium-long term with the aim to strengthen resilience [ec.europa.eu]

» May 19 2016 - #ClimateChange After Paris: What is next for Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (#INDCs)? #NewClimate Report. This paper outlines what the #ParisAgreement means for Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) and what needs to happen at the country level now and in the longer term to implement the Agreement. The paper focuses explicitly on the mitigation part of national contributions and discusses specific steps in response to the relevant parts of the agreed framework including a view on how these may be supported internationally [newclimate.org]

» May 19 2016 - #ClimateChange Virtual special issue of papers that significantly advance the frontiers of knowledge about #Adaptation #GlobalEnvironmentalChange has been the premier journal for publishing innovative research on the human and policy dimensions of adaptation to climate change. To celebrate this, the journal has prepared a virtual special issue comprised of thirteen papers published in the last ten years that significantly advance the frontiers of knowledge about adaptation. Prefaced by a new editorial from Neil Adger, these articles cover topics that include cultural, economic, financial, planning, and psychological dimensions of adaptation, applied across a variety of sectors including agriculture, ecological management, fisheries, land use, water, and public health. Access to these articles is available from 21 March until 21 September [global-environmental-change]

» May 18 2016 - The #OilPrice crash and its effect on the #Market and WorldEconomies #ogfj paper. NO ONE with any interest in or knowledge of the oil and gas industry can deny that the present market conditions are anything other than challenging. However, oil price volatility and the problems it creates at the pumps, on the rigs, and in the markets is nothing new. Dependent upon one's age and perspective, the present turmoil is merely another example of the sort of disruption and havoc played on corporate and personal budgets by the 1970 energy crisis and its aftermath. From the mid-1980s to September 2003, the inflation adjusted price of a barrel of crude oil was generally less than US$25 per barrel. A series of events, most notably the second Iraq war in 2003, led the price per barrel of oil to reach US$75 by the middle of 2006. By late 2007, oil prices were nudging US$100 per barrel with the highest recorded price per barrel of US$147.02 being reached in the summer of 2008. Between 2011 and 2014, oil prices, broadly speaking, averaged US$100 per barrel. Between late 2013 and the summer of 2015, oil prices became more volatile until December 2014 when the benchmark price for a barrel of crude oil reached its lowest price since 2009 - around US$60 per barrel. Overall, this represented a 40% decrease in oil prices in the course of 2014 - Bloomberg News, 12 December 2014. In the course of 2015, oil prices rallied to reach a little over US$62 per barrel in late February of that year. In the second half of 2015 [ogfj.com]

» May 18 2016 - #OECD #EnergyProduction hits record high, but consumption and #CO2Emissions fall Newest IEA statistics detail decoupling of member countries' economic growth from carbon pollution. Even as total OECD energy production rose 4% in 2014 to a record high, energy consumption among the member countries fell, as did CO2 emissions from fuel combustion [...] The latest detailed official statistics for the 34 countries in the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development add to the IEA finding that world energy-related CO2 emissions held steady in 2014 despite economic growth, the first such decoupling on a worldwide basis in the 40 years the Agency has provided information on emissions. The IEA issued a preliminary assessment earlier this year that the historic shift continued at a global level through 2015. The decoupling is particularly acute among OECD countries, where emissions fell 1.4% in 2014, to 11.9 gigatonnes. That is only slightly more than OECD emissions in 2009 despite the countries' 10% economic growth over the period. The leading factor in the recent decoupling is a decline in the energy intensity of OECD countries’ economies, which is the result of greater energy efficiency and warmer seasons among other factors. Another contributor is reduced emissions per kilowatt-hour in electricity generation, the sector responsible for two-fifths of energy-related CO2 in OECD [iea.org]

» May 17 2016 - Catalog of #PolishIndustry for #NuclearEnergy #PolishMinistryOfEnergy Polish industry has gained significant experiences and competences in implementing nuclear power projects - mainly within the EU. Polish enterprises also implemented contracts for nuclear power plants outside of Europe. The competences and experiences of our enterprises from related sectors (conventional power engineering, chemical and petrochemical industry) can also be successfully used for the purposes of nuclear power [nucleu2020.eu]

» May 17 2016 - Business Opportunities in a Changing #Climate #UKEnvironmentAgency #Acclimatise #Report. #ClimateChange is presenting UK businesses with opportunities as well as risks. The report combines evidence from Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) surveys of UK firms with new insights from a series of interviews with leading UK businesses. When it comes to climate risks the vast majority (86%) of the companies have already identified on or more climaterelated risks to their businesses. This apparently high-level of awareness is, however, not matched when it comes to taking action to adapt [acclimatise.uk.com]

» May 16 2016 - U.S. bank #GoldmanSachs, one of the most bearish forecasters on #Oil over the past year, on Monday raised its short-term price outlook as it said the market had flipped into a deficit due to production outages in Nigeria and Canada. Goldman, one of the most active banks in commodities, had been predicting as recently as a few months ago that oil prices could fall below $20 a barrel due to global oversupply. On Monday, it said it now saw U.S. crude trading as high as $50 per barrel in the second half of 2016, although it cautioned that price rises would be modest in 2017 as the market would return to surplus [reuters.com]

» May 16 2016 - Preparing for parity #EnrstYoung #RenewableEnergy country attractiveness index As solar, wind and storage technologies continue their remorseless - if not breathtaking - decline in cost, GridParity is set to wreak havoc on the century-old utility business model. A specter is haunting electric utilities and their regulators - the specter of consumers being able to generate their own electricity at the same or lower cost than what they are paying to purchase electricity from the grid. Renewable energy advocates have long warned that grid parity - once it arrives - will transform the relationships between consumers and utilities, and the power markets in which they operate. But, despite these warnings, few utilities, regulators or policymakers have fully appreciated just how rapid and far-reaching this technological revolution will prove. Many have avoided engaging with this impending transformation, putting it into the "too hard," "not our business" or "irrelevant" categories. Once it becomes economic over the long term to install renewable energy and storage technology without subsidies, uptake will accelerate beyond the control of incumbents and the authorities as the free market takes over. This will have profound implications for electricity markets around the world [oecd.org]

» May 16 2016 - #OECD/#IEA Communicating progress in national and global #Adaptation to #ClimateChange #CCXG paper by Takayoshi Kato and Jane Ellis. The Paris Agreement, adopted by the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), reinforces the international framework for adaptation action by establishing a global adaptation goal. Under the Paris Agreement, countries have also agreed to an enhanced transparency framework for action, which includes adaptation. The Agreement also requests each Party to submit and update an "adaptation communication" as appropriate. This paper explores what elements of countries' adaptation responses and progress could be reported under the Paris Agreement so as to better communicate efforts towards enhanced adaptation and resilience. The paper also highlights the potential benefits both at a national and an international level from identifying and collating adaptation-related information. Finally, the paper outlines a possible structure of an adaptation communication and identifies options and associated information needs for the adaptation-related components of the global stocktake agreed to in the Paris Agreement [oecd.org]

» May 16 2016 - #OECD/#IEA Unpacking provisions related to transparency of #Mitigation and support in the #ParisAgreement #CCXG paper by Gregory Briner and Sara Moarif. The agreement of an enhanced transparency framework was a key outcome of the COP 21 climate change conference in Paris. This enhanced transparency framework will play an important role in tracking progress towards the individual and collective goals agreed at COP 21 and in understanding achievement of nationally determined contributions under the Paris Agreement. This paper unpacks the transparency-related provisions within the Paris Agreement and Decision 1/CP.21 relating to mitigation and support. It also explores the relationship between the existing and future transparency framework, information required to track progress towards nationally determined contributions for mitigation, and fulfilling reporting provisions on finance provided, mobilised and received [oecd.org]

» May 16 2016 - #SDGs #IHA 2016 #Hydropower Status Report. Building on statistics published by #InternationalHydropowerAssociation earlier this year, the report highlights that 33.7 GW of new installed hydropower capacity was commissioned in 2015, including 2.5 GW of pumped storage. At the end of 2015, the world's total installed hydropower capacity reached 1,212 GW, including 145 GW of pumped storage. The full report includes in-depth reviews on key issues in hydropower development and policy, such as financial trends and climate resilience, sustainability topics such as resettlement and indigenous peoples, and the expected impacts of the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The report also includes regional overviews and country profiles which cover developments in the sector around the world. The infographics featured in the report include where new capacity was added in 2015, global technical potential, and a new map of worldwide pumped storage deployment, services and highlights. The 2016 Hydropower Status Report is built on data from IHA's global hydropower database, which has been developed in close collaboration with regulators, ministries and electricity associations, as well as the world's station owners and operators. This database contains information on over 11,000 of the world's hydropower stations [irena.org]

» May 16 2016 - Scaling up Variable #RenewablePower: The Role of #GridCodes #IRENA's Report provides guidance for countries with ambitious VRE targets to develop grid codes that assure power system security. The report offers revealing case studies from several countries, including: Barbados: Early stages of grid code development for a country with rising VRE targets; Germany: Policy and technical co-ordination to resolve the "50.2 Hertz problem", triggered by rapid penetration of solar photovoltaics in low-voltage systems; Ireland: Challenges posed by wind power in an island system without strong cross-border interconnections [...] Increasing the share of renewable power from variable sources, namely solar and wind energy, requires technological developments to be accompanied by well-designed regulations for grid management and operation. Grid connection codes for variable renewable energy (VRE) sources have evolved hand-in-hand with technological and operational practices, driving the adoption of the best available technologies for VRE grid integration. Lessons from pioneering countries can help in drafting a grid code for VRE integration [irena.org]

» May 13 2016 - #NoCountryAlone, a new documentary on #ClimateChange in the #MediterraneanRegion, produced by the #EU funded #ClimaSouthProject In the aftermath of the historical Paris agreement, the documentary examines the reality of climate change through the experiences of ordinary people, and the insights of leading scientists and decision makers currently shaping the region's agenda for climate action [...] One of the less recognized aspects of climate change are its social consequences. The Syrian crisis, for example, has its roots in the agricultural crisis before 2011. 32.4 million people have had to abandon their homes because of natural calamities - climate change has direct effects on migration phenomena [vimeo.com]

» May 13 2016 - Study on Data Inventory for a #RawMaterial System Analysis by the #EuropeanCommission The study aims to build knowledge and understanding of Europe's critical raw materials' flows. Many of these materials are used in everyday applications and are essential for the production of common goods, high-tech products, and emerging innovation. This study includes a full Material System Analysis for 28 groups of materials used in the economy of the 28 EU countries. The European Commission is committed to ensuring the supply and increasing the availability of raw materials for European industry in the context of the EU Raw Materials Initiative. A comprehensive data inventory of the material flows in industry and society is crucial for providing evidence and information useful in discussions and the decision-making process regarding the supply of raw materials [ec.europa.eu]

» May 13 2016 - #Eni announces a new and original model of integration between its traditional business and #Energy from #Renewable sources In Italy, Pakistan and Egypt, Eni will implement new renewable energy generation projects (420 MW) in the vicinity of the company's plants in order to make the most of all possible industrial, logistic, contractual and commercial synergies with the company's traditional activities [eni.com]

» May 13 2016 - Environmental norms and #ElectricitySupply: an analysis of normative change and #HouseholdSolar #PV in #Australia Environmental Sociology, Volume 2, Issue 2, 2016. This paper analyses normative change in electricity supply in order to understand the challenges associated with the introduction of a non-negotiable environmental norm, a change necessary to ensure long-term environmental sustainability of the supply system. The analysis combines the work of Wolfgang Streeck together with that of ecological modernisation to trace the fate of an environmental norm as it emerges within a complex pre-existing institutional context comprising social norms around accessibility, affordability and reliability as well as the more recent emphasis on the benefits of competition. The analysis shows how 'strong' forms of ecological modernist policy change, policies in which environmental norms were explicit, were vulnerable to carbon intensive businesses arguing that they posed too significant a social risk. Yet, solar PV has been associated with 'weaker' forms of ecological modernist policy development where solar proponents have succeeded in demonstrating, despite significant opposition, how solar PV can be embedded within the competition norm thereby promoting both competition and environmental goals. This weaker form of ecological modernist change may have far reaching unintended consequences as solar PV on residential houses enhances the capacity of those households as 'prosumers' to ensure their interests are better supported. An environmental norm may be established here but social norms around rights to an essential service may also be placed at risk [tandfonline.com]

» May 12 2016 - #SustainableDevelopment #JobOpportunity The #UNWTO (United Nations World #Tourism Organization) PhD Researcher Programme is looking for two candidates for its 2016 edition. The 2016 intake is focusing on the following thematic priorities: a) Global processes on sustainable development and tourism; b) Resilient tourism; and c) Measuring, monitoring and assessing tourism impacts at the destination level. DURATION OF THE PROGRAMME: The selected candidates will be offered a twelve months. LUMP SUM: A monthly lump sum of EUR 2,000 per month (pension included), to be paid at the end of each month. DATE OF ENTRY ON DUTY: 1 st September 2016. DUTY STATION: Madrid (Spain) [unwto.org]

» May 12 2016 - Shock Waves: Managing the Impacts of #ClimateChange on #Poverty #WorldBank Report. Ending poverty and stabilizing climate change will be two unprecedented global achievements and two major steps toward sustainable development. But the two objectives cannot be considered in isolation: they need to be jointly tackled through an integrated strategy. This report brings together those two objectives and explores how they can more easily be achieved if considered together. It examines the potential impact of climate change and climate policies on poverty reduction. It also provides guidance on how to create a "win-win" situation so that climate change policies contribute to poverty reduction and poverty-reduction policies contribute to climate change mitigation and resilience building. The key finding of the report is that climate change represents a significant obstacle to the sustained eradication of poverty, but future impacts on poverty are determined by policy choices: rapid, inclusive, and climate-informed development can prevent most short-term impacts whereas immediate pro-poor, emissions-reduction policies can drastically limit long-term ones. [worldbank.org]

» May 12 2016 - Last-ditch #Climate option or wishful thinking? #Bioenergy with #CCS (Carbon Capture and Storage) Biofueltach and the Heinrich Boll Foundation Report. News about climate change is going from bad to worse: Last October, global warming breached the 1°C temperature rise barrier for the first time ever, and they have stayed above it for six months running. Carbon levels in the atmosphere are anything but safe and it is hardly surprising that the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has been seriously looking at 'negative emissions', i.e. at ways taking carbon already emitted out of the atmosphere again. But, as this report on Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) shows, there is a dangerous trend to use the urgency of the climate crisis to justify unproven and potentially dangerous technological 'solutions'. One of the most hyped proposals for removing carbon from the atmosphere is BECCS: It would involve a massive global upscaling of bioenergy use, with CO2 being captured from biomass combustion or biofuel production and then sequestered underground. According to the IPCC's latest, 2014, report, most of their models and scenarios 'proved' that BECCS will be necessary for keeping global warming to within 2°C. Those who ran the models, however, simply input figures according to which BECCS would indeed be carbon negative, without actually reviewing the evidence about the technology - a circular argument. This report summarises the key evidence which must be considered about BECCS. It looks at the overwhelmingly destructive impacts of existing large-scale bioenergy production and use and the implications of massively scaling it up, as would be required for a global BECCS programme [boell.de]

» May 12 2016 - #ClimateChange #Water #Oceans Standards and the #BlueEconomy SSI Report. A deep dive into the market and performance trends of the 9 most prevalent seafood certification schemes operating in the seafood sector. The Review identifies the market impacts of the most prominent international seafood standards and reveals how these initiatives operate and contribute to the long-term sustainability of the global fisheries sector [ssi]

» May 11 2016 - High and Dry: #ClimateChange, #Water, and the #Economy A new #WorldBank reports finds that water scarcity, exacerbated by climate change, could hinder economic growth, spur #Migration, and spark #Conflict. However, most countries can neutralize the adverse impacts of water scarcity by taking action to allocate and use water resources more efficiently [worldbank.org]

» May 11 2016 - #EnergyEfficiency #Horizon2020 #EU #Energy #ClimatePolicies #Funding is available for proposals addressing #Finance for #SustainableEnergy, i.e. investments in energy efficiency and #Renewables, and, in particular, "project development assistance" [deadline for applications: 15 September 2016] Project development assistance: The aim is to help public or private organisations to build technical, economic and legal expertise needed for project development and to design innovative solutions which can serve as showcases for further projects in the EU. PDA projects: Support the development of investments in energy efficiency and renewables; Can fund all steps necessary to launch an investment, e.g.: Feasibility studies, Technical specifications, Procurement procedures, Business plans and financial engineering, Stakeholder and community mobilisation etc.; Should trigger investments of at least EUR 15 million for every million EURO of Horizon 2020 support; Can cover various sectors: Existing public and private buildings, Street lighting, Retrofitting of existing district heating/cooling, Energy efficiency in urban transport, Energy efficiency in industry and services; Can be proposed by 1 public or private entity (single country applications are eligible), e.g.: Public authorities or their groupings, Private/public infrastructure operators and bodies, Estate managers, Energy service companies; Retail chains, services, industry. Examples of such projects: [ec.europa.eu]

» May 11 2016 - #WorldBank Raises 2016 #OilPrice Forecast Amid improving market sentiment and a weakening dollar, the World Bank is raising its 2016 forecast for crude oil prices to $41 per barrel from $37 per barrel in its latest Commodity Markets Outlook, as an oversupply in markets is expected to recede. The crude oil market rebounded from a low of $25 per barrel in mid-January to $40 per barrel in April following production disruptions in Iraq and Nigeria and a decline in non-Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries production, mainly U.S. shale. A proposed production freeze by major producers failed to materialize at a meeting in mid-April [worldbank.org]

» May 11 2016 - #Economics #Energy #SustainableDevelopment #JobOpportunity #Horizon2020 #MarieSklodowskaCurie Individual Fellowships at #FondazioneEniEnricoMattei Internal deadline: June 6th, 2016 MSCA European Fellowships could be held in Italy, one of the EU Member States, and are open to researchers currently within and outside Europe. FEEM, as Italian host institution, provides support to individual experienced researchers who meet the requirements of the H020 Programme. Research proposals entail a period of 12-24 months at FEEM (either Milan or Venice offices) with reference to the Call Marie Sklodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF) - European Fellowships. FEEM offers a truly international and multi-disciplinary workplace. Thanks to a world-wide research network you will be involved in a continuous fruitful exchange of experiences. Eligibility criteria: 1. Candidates must be in possession of a doctoral degree at the deadline for the submission of proposals (14/09/2016) 2. Eligible researchers can be of any nationality and must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in Italy for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to the call deadline. Application: If you meet the eligibility criteria and are interested in exploring the opportunities offered by the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions to work at FEEM, please submit your application on line through the FEEM web platform anytime before June 6th, 2016 (internal deadline) and send: 1. a detailed curriculum vitae, including the list of publications; 2. an abstract of the research proposal (max 1 page). The candidates will be selected by FEEM by June 20th, 2016. The selected candidates will be supported in the development of their project proposals that must be submitted to the European Commission by September 14th, 2016 - h. 17.00 CET [feem-web.org]

» May 11 2016 - #RenewableEnergy #IRENA will be holding a #Webinar to demo Version 2.1 of the Global Atlas on May 18, 2016. The one-hour webinar will include demos of the new features in the Global Atlas, including the print and data download features. Please register here to participate in the webinar [...]

» May 11 2016 - #ClimateAndDevelopment Special Issue for #Adaptation Futures 2016 The papers include case studies from Costa Rica, Granada, India, Malawi, Pakistan, the Philippines, Uruguay, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Vietnam and across the Hindu-Kush Himalayas and Africa. Several of the papers present new methodologies, tools or conceptual frameworks, such as the Multidimensional Livelihood Vulnerability Index developed by Gerlitz et al. (2016) in the Hindu-Kush Himalayas, partial participatory GIS for vulnerability and disaster risk reduction in Granada (Canevari-Luzardo et al., 2015) and the idea of a domestic gatekeeper to link global finance architecture with domestic and local levels, particularly small-scale farmers, to thus ensure food security through climate change mitigation and adaptation measures (Junghans and Kohler, 2015). Other papers address important issues about decision making, such as Leon and Pittock (2016), Warner and Kuzdas (2015), Villamizar et al. (2016) and Mapfumo et al. (2015). The papers also address key recurring themes in adaptation research. Community-based adaptation remains a popular topic (Buggy and McNamara, 2015), as does the adaptation-disaster risk reduction link (Leon and Pittock, 2016), migration (Suckall et al., 2016), and the need to identify concrete adaptation solutions (Moench et al., 2015) [tandfonline.com]

» May 10 2016 - #LowCarbonEconomy Building a Sustainable #FinancialSystem - From Design to Delivery #Feem Webinar. Harnessing the US$300 trillion in the global financial system will be essential to make a successful transition to a prosperous, low-carbon economy. The UNEP Inquiry has uncovered a 'quiet revolution' in policy and market innovations to mobilise capital and mainstream sustainability factors in banking, capital markets, insurance and investment. This webinar will present the findings of its global report, "The Financial System We Need", and outline opportunities in 2016, including in Italy [feem.it]

» May 10 2016 - Going to Town: How the #GreenClimateFund can Support a Paradigm Shift in Cities #Germanwatch Publication. With its mandate to promote a paradigm shift towards low-emissions and climate resilient development pathways the Green Climate Fund (GCF) has reached full operationalisation in 2015 and is resourced with US$ 6bn (with more than US$ 10bn pledged). According to its initial results management framework the GCF aims to achieve a "reduction of emissions from buildings and cities" while at the same time "increasing the resilience of infrastructure and the built environment to climate change threats" (GCF 2014). However, clear operationalisation pathways for the GCF to reach the sub-national level are still lacking to date. This publication offers some concrete suggestions on how the GCF can better support cities [germanwatch.org]

» May 10 2016 - The #ParisClimateChangeAgreement: A New Hope? #AmericanJournalofInternationalLaw, vol. 110, Paper. The Paris Agreement seeks a Goldilocks solution to the climate change problem that is neither too strong (and hence unacceptable to key states) nor too weak (and hence ineffective). To safeguard national decision-making, it adopts a bottom-up approach, in which the agreement "reflects rather than drives national policy." But to promote stronger action, states' "nationally-determined contributions" (or NDCs, for short) are complemented by international norms to ensure transparency and accountability and to prod states to progressively ratchet up their efforts. Eight features of the Paris Agreement stand out: (1) It is a legally binding instrument (albeit with many non-binding elements). (2) It applies not only to developed countries, like the Kyoto Protocol, but also to developing countries, which account for a growing share of global emissions. (3) It establishes the same core obligations for all countries. In doing so, it abandons the static, annex-based approach to differentiation in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol, in favor a more flexible, calibrated approach, which takes into account changes in a country's circumstances and capacities and is operationalized differently for different elements of the regime. (4) It establishes a long-term, durable architecture. (5) It institutionalizes an iterative process, in which parties come back to the table every five years to take stock of their collective progress and put forward emission reduction plans for the next five-year period. (6) It sets an expectation of progressively stronger action over time. (7) It establishes a common transparency and accountability framework. (8) It appears to command universal, or near universal, acceptance. The Paris Agreement falls short of putting the world on a pathway to avoiding dangerous climate change. But, given current political realities, it produced as much as could reasonably have been expected, and perhaps more. That may or may not make Paris historic, but it is certainly cause for celebration [papers.ssrn.com]

» May 10 2016 - #OilPrice #OilMarket #Geopolitics Say goodbye to #OPEC, top Russian oil executive Igor Sechin says [...] Internal differences are killing OPEC and its ability to influence the markets has all but evaporated [...] #Russia, which has been hit hard by the oil price collapse, was flirting with the idea of cooperating with OPEC in recent months until tensions between OPEC members Saudi Arabia and Iran ruined a global deal to freeze output [...] Sechin's comments about the end of the era when OPEC could influence prices chime with those of Saudi Arabia's newly appointed energy minister Khaled al-Falih. Falih, who took over on Saturday from long-serving Ali al-Naimi, has been very vocal in the past year about his views that the oil market needs to rebalance through low prices and that the Saudis have the resources to wait. Falih's ultimate boss, Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who oversees Saudi oil policies, has also signaled that the world is moving to a new era where supply and demand rather than OPEC will determine prices [reuters.com]

» May 10 2016 - #LowCarbonTech #ClimateChange #JobOpportunity Post-doc on an interdisciplinary project at Carnegie Mellon, Assessment of the Present State and Future Trajectory of #FuelCell Technologies Using a Novel Expert Elicitation Process, starting in August or September [...]

» May 09 2016 - #ClimateChange #SmartCities #Mitigation #Adaptation Public Culture, latest issue. Climate Change and the Future of Cities: Mitigation, Adaptation, and Social Change on an Urban Planet [publicculture]

» May 05 2016 - #Economy #13thFYP #CCF #China's #Coal Power stranded assets challenge Report. China's carbon emissions have entered a 'new normal' of slow or negative growth as a result of slower growth in electricity demand, and resulting lower coal consumption. However this has not been matched by slower in investment in coal power generation. Coal power utilities face the threat of asset write-downs, and potentially asset stranding, due to three key factors: displacement by renewable energy sources, falling utilisation rates, and lower than expected demand for electricity. If the situation continues during the 13th FYP period, it could represent a significant mis-allocation of resources at a critical moment in China's industrial transformation [chinacarbon.info]

» May 05 2016 - #ClimateChange #ClimatePolicy Coalition on #ParisAgreement #CapacityBuilding Report. Leadership for Empowering People and Institutions in the New Era of #ClimateAction. Capacity building on climate change has too often defaulted to discrete initiatives. Many of these have revolved around short workshops, often with signifi cant foreign expert roles. The international community must now innovate capacity building with more eff ective long-term approaches. Types of eff ective strategies include [capacitybuildingcoalition.org]

» May 04 2016 - #SustainableDevelopmentGoals #ClimateChange #JobOpportunity Immediate opening for a Project Coordinator on #WRI's SDG Delivery Team. Click here for details and apply this week! The application window closes on Sunday, May 8th [wri.org]

» May 03 2016 - #INDCs National contributions for #Decarbonizing the #WorldEconomy in line with the #G7Agreement Paper. In June 2015, the G7 agreed to two global mitigation goals: 'a decarbonization of the global economy over the course of this century' and 'the upper end of the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)recommendation of 40%-70% reductions by 2050 compared to 2010'. These IPCC recommendations aim to preserve a likely (>66%) chance of limiting global warming to 2 °C but are not necessarily consistent with the stronger ambition of the subsequent Paris Agreement of 'holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels'. The G7 did not specify global or national emissions scenarios consistent with its own agreement. Here we identify global cost-optimal emissions scenarios from Integrated Assessment Models that match the G7 agreement. These scenarios have global 2030 emissions targets of 11%-43% below 2010, global net negative CO2 emissions starting between 2056 and 2080, and some exhibit net negative greenhouse gas emissions from 2080 onwards. We allocate emissions from these global scenarios to countries according to five equity approaches representative of the five equity categories presented in the Fifth Assessment Report of the IPCC(IPCCAR5): capability, equality, responsibility-capability-need, equal cumulative per capita and staged approaches. Our results show that G7 members Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDCs) mitigation targets are in line with a grandfathering approach but lack ambition to meet various visions of climate justice. The INDCs of China and Russia fall short of meeting the requirements of any allocation approach. Depending on how their INDCs are evaluated, the INDCs of India and Brazil can match some equity approaches evaluated in this study [climate-energy-college.net]

» May 03 2016 - #UNDP #China Releases Pioneering Study on China's South-south Cooperation on #ClimateChange #Mitigation and #Adaptation Report. More money, more impact? China's Climate Change South-South Cooperation to date and future [cn.undp.org]

» May 02 2016 - #ElectricityBasedPlastics and their potential demand for #Electricity and #CarbonDioxide Journal of Cleaner Production Paper. In a future fossil-free circular economy, the petroleum-based plastics industry must be converted to non-fossil feedstock. A known alternative is bio-based plastics, but a relatively unexplored option is deriving the key plastic building blocks, hydrogen and carbon, from electricity through electrolytic processes combined with carbon capture and utilization technology. In this paper the future demand for electricity and carbon dioxide is calculated under the assumption that all plastic production is electricity-based in the EU by 2050. The two most important input chemicals are ethylene and propylene and the key finding of this paper is that the electricity demand to produce these are estimated to 20 MWh/ton ethylene and 38 MWh/ton propylene, and that they both could require about 3 tons of carbon dioxide/ton product. With constant production levels, this implies an annual demand of about 800 TWh of electricity and 90 Mton of carbon dioxide by 2050 in the EU. If scaled to the total production of plastics, including all input hydrocarbons in the EU, the annual demand is estimated to 1600 TWh of electricity and 180 Mton of carbon dioxide. This suggests that a complete shift to electricity-based plastics is possible from a resource and technology point of view, but production costs may be 2 to 3 times higher than today. However, the long time frame of this paper creates uncertainties regarding the results and how technical, economic and social development may influence them. The conclusion of this paper is that electricity-based plastics, integrated with bio-based production, can be an important option in 2050 since biomass resources are scarce, but electricity from renewable sources is abundant [sciencedirect.com]

» May 02 2016 - How Paris Became the Capital of #ClimateFinance #UNEP Working paper. The evolution of the 'networked solution' to finance that came together at the #COP21 in Paris, linking the formal negotiations with a broader set of actions by financial regulators, by financial institutions and also by civil society. It explores the creative dynamic between France's efforts to stimulate action within its own domestic financial system, and the international steps harnessing the financial system for climate security. It closes with reflections on how this new approach can be deepened in the year ahead [unep.org]

» April 29 2016 - #Oil rose to a five-month high in New York after a further drop in U.S. #CrudeProduction signaled lower prices are taking a toll on the nation's shale boom. Futures capped an 8 percent gain over three sessions. Output slipped for a seventh week to the lowest since October 2014, a report from the Energy Information Administration showed. Nationwide supplies rose by 2 million barrels to 540.6 million, the highest since 1929. The gain accelerated as the dollar fell to a 10-month low, bolstering the appeal of commodities priced in the currency to investors[bloomberg.com]

» April 28 2016 - #ClimateChange #INDC fact sheets provide good resource for anyone who wants to check what the emission implications of the announced 2025 and 2030 climate targets are. These INDC fact sheets provide a detailed country-by-country overview. 203 fact sheets are now freely available, for all 188 countries that are subject to an INDC, as well as some aggregate groups like G7, G20, OECD90 etc. (we do include also overview sheets for international shipping, aviation, Nicaragua and Uzbekistan, which are all entities that are still without specific 2025/2030 climate targets under the Paris Agreement [climate-energy-college.net]

» April 27 2016 - #ClimateChange #WorldBank's Partnership for Market Readiness (PMR) Report. #GreenHouseGas Data Management: Building Systems for Corporate/Facility-Level Reporting. The report aims to provide specific guidance for policy makers and IT developers on all aspects of designing and developing GHG data management systems that support industry reporting programs. Drawing on lessons learned from a number of jurisdictions - including Australia, California, Chile, China, France, Germany, Kazakhstan, Mexico, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey, the UK, and the US - the report highlights the legal, institutional, and technical considerations associated with designing and developing such systems, and describes a step-by-step process for determining their functional and technical requirements [worldbank.org]

» April 26 2016 - #Oil #SaudiArabia, Ambitious Plan To Diversify #Economy Saudi Arabia released a blueprint for the future, a plan for the Kingdom that could alter the course of its history. The Vision for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia could radically transform Saudi Aramco, the Saudi economy, and the country's social structure [...] The prince - the 30-year-old Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman- has provided some clues into the roadmap [...] the government plans on spinning off parts of the massive state-owned Saudi Aramco in an IPO. He also said that Saudi Arabia wants to create the world's largest sovereign wealth fund, which would be built up with $2 trillion in assets, to be used to help diversify the Saudi economy away from oil dependence. "So within 20 years, we will be an economy or state that doesn't depend mainly on oil," [...] For a long time, however, oil will remain a mainstay. Saudi Aramco produces about 10 million barrels per day (mb/d), the largest volume in the world and more than double that of any other company. It is the only company with sizable assets sitting on the sidelines, acting as spare capacity. Aramco has the capacity to produce about 12 mb/d, and some say it has even more than that. Aramco also is the fourth largest oil refiner in the world. Despite its size and importance, the company is not sitting idle. Even though most of its oil production comes from huge aging oilfields, Aramco continues to drill to avoid seeing its position erode over time. By the end of May, for example, Saudi Aramco will complete the expansion of its Shaybah oilfield, adding 250,000 barrels per day to its capacity [oilprice.com]

» April 26 2016 - Driving #ForeignInvestment to #RenewableEnergy in #India: A Payment Security Mechanism to Address Off-Taker Risk #CPIarticle India's ambitious renewable energy targets of 175 GW by 2022 will require significant foreign investment. A major issue facing foreign investment in India is offtaker risk or the risk of the public sector distribution companies (DISCOMs) being unable to make payments on time for the procurement of power. Ultimately, this will requires long-term financial structural fixes for DISCOMs, some of which are currently under consideration. However, in the short-term, one solution is a government-supported payment security mechanism to build investor confidence. Though the government has used payment security mechanisms before, in the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM), it is not clear if they attracted much interest from foreign investors. This is likely due to a lack of transparency around the frameworks of the payment security mechanisms, resulting in an inability to assess adequate risk coverage. In this paper, we develop a framework, in order to enable assessment of an existing payment security mechanism. More transparency around the frameworks used will help to mobilize additional foreign investment, and thus will also help in the efficient use of public money that has been allocated to payment security mechanisms. We built our framework using elements of credit and financial guarantees - probability of default, exposure at default, and recovery after default. We applied the framework to estimate the size of payment security mechanism for involving a central aggregator during JNNNSM Phase 2, Batch1. We estimated this size to be INR 4160 million or INR 5.55 million/MW, or less than 10% of capital costs, but more than 2.5 times the size of a previously proposed facility. In other words, the existing facility did not provide adequate coverage of off-taker risk [climatepolicyinitiative.org]

» April 26 2016 - #ClimateChange #Food #Dryland #SubSaharanAfricanCountries #Elsevier Article. This synthetic analysis uses a set of indicators to assess the repercussions of predicted income reductions resulting from climate change on food consumption, nutrition, health expenditure, education, and recreation in Zimbabwe, Cameroon, South Africa and Ethiopia. We also assess the potential decline in human development potential among smallholder dryland farmers in these sub-Saharan African countries. In contrast to previous efforts, the current study directly integrates the uncertainties in estimations of income changes and secondary consequences through a weighting scheme. The results reveal moderate to high levels of secondary impacts which could lead to increased vulnerability to diseases, susceptibility to nutritional disorders, deprivation of educational opportunities, and ultimately to a reduction in human and societal development potential among the considered nations. The article concludes by proposing a portfolio of policy options for ameliorating the secondary impacts of climate change in these sub-Saharan African countries [sciencedirect.com]

» April 22 2016 - #ParisClimateAgreement Signing Ceremony live from UN, New York [un.org]

» April 22 2016 - #JMA Monthly Anomalies of #GlobalAverageSurfaceTemperature in March (1891 - 2016, preliminary value) The monthly anomaly of the global average surface temperature in March 2016 (i.e. the average of the near-surface air temperature over land and the SST) was +0.62°C above the 1981-2010 average (+1.07°C above the 20th century average), and was the warmest since 1891. On a longer time scale, global average surface temperatures have risen at a rate of about 0.85°C per century [jma.go.jp]

» April 22 2016 - #ClimateFinancing for a #LowCarbon tomorrow. #Nordic Report. This paper addresses some of the key issues around the global climate finance agenda, and in particular the transition to a low carbon future, from a Nordic perspective. It outlines an important role for public financing institutions and the benefits of small and medium sized projects in the low carbon economy in transitional economies and developing countries [nefco.org]

» April 21 2016 - #EnergyTransition in the #PowerSector in #Europe: State of Affairs in 2015 Report. The electricity generation mix within the EU did not change significantly from 2014 to 2015. Generally, most electricity was produced by renewable energy sources (28.8%), closely followed by nuclear power (26.8%). Hard coal and lignite made up a quarter of the electricity produced (26%) while gas, oil and other conventional sources made up the remaining 18.3%. Compared with 2014, the RES share increased slightly from 28.5% in 2014 to 28.8% in 2015. A remarkable aspect, however, is that the distribution among renewable energy sources changed substantially. Whilst in 2014 only 8.0% of the electricity was generated from wind energy, in 2015 this amounted to 9.6%. Due to a less precipitation, the share of hydropower decreased from 11.9% in 2014 to 10.6% in 2015. Nuclear power was the only conventional power source to experience a reduction in its share: in 2015, 26.8% of the electricity generated was from nuclear power (2014: 27.7%). The share of coal and lignite remained the same, while the share of gas-generated power - after years of continued decline - increased slightly from 14.6 in 2014 to 15.1% in 2015 [agora-energiewende.de]

» April 21 2016 - #NaturalGas #UE From #Poland to #Russia: the power games The construction of "vertical pipes", travelling from north to south, has long been considered. One of these is the Baltic Pipe, which could transport Norwegian gas to Poland. The other is North Stream 2, from Russia to Germany, feared by Poland and Ukraine due to the increase in Russia's influence on the continent [abo.net]

» April 21 2016 - Measuring Inclusive #GreenGrowth at the Country Level Inclusive green growth (IGG) combines economic, social and environmental dimensions, which increases the complexity of measurement and monitoring. No single indicator is enough to track progress towards IGG and there is unlikely to be a standardized, "one-size-fits-all" solution. Countries may hence choose different measurement approaches and indicators, depending on their priorities and capacities. This paper, produced through the GGKP Research Committee on Measurement and Indicators aims to improve the understanding of tools available for measuring IGG. It explore four approaches to measure IGG: a dashboard of indicators, composite indicators, environmental footprints, and "adjusted" economic measures. Moreover, it outlines main measurement themes and aspects relevant for IGG (natural assets, resource efficiency and decoupling, resilience and risks, economic opportunities and efforts, and inclusiveness); it reviews measurement approaches and indicators available for tracking progress towards IGG; and it identifies the main gaps where investments research, indicator development and data collection are needed. Key gaps identified include: (i) economic values of stocks and flows of natural assets; (ii) qualitative dimensions of natural assets; (iii) sustainable use or extraction of natural assets; (iv) combining micro-level economic and environmental data; (v) resilience of socioeconomic systems to ecological shocks; (vi) tracking of employment effects, investment and other economic effects, in particular on the opportunities side; (vii) aggregate impacts of environmental policies; and (viii) distributional impacts of environmental changes and policies. Based on the stocktaking and gap analysis, the paper calls for mobilizing investment for better indicator development and data collection [greengrowthknowledge.org]

» April 20 2016 - #Italy's #Eni plans to invest about 20 billion euros ($22.5 billion) in #Africa over the next fours, mostly in #oil and #gas, the company's Chief Executive Officer Claudio Descalzi said on Friday. "That represents about 60 percent of our investments" (over that period) he said in a presentation at the International Energy Agency in Paris. Descalzi said Eni, which is involved in projects in 15 African countries, will also help boost and diversify the continent's energy mix through investments in renewables. "In the long-term we are going to invest much more to develop the giant gas fields that we have found," he said. Eni has made major gas discoveries especially in Mozambique and recently in Egypt that have increased its reserves, with more than 12 billion barrels of discoveries in the last 7 years, mostly in Africa [reuters.com]

» April 20 2016 - #OilPrices fell on Wednesday as investor focus returned to worries about oversupply after Kuwaiti workers ended a three-day strike that had halved the nation's crude output. Industry data showed U.S. crude stockpiles rose last week, reinforcing concerns about the global surplus. Brent futures were down 60 cents at $43.43 a barrel at 7:28 a.m. ET (1138 GMT). U.S. crude was down 74 cents, or 1.8 percent, at $40.34, after dipping below $40 a barrel [cnbc.com]

» April 19 2016 - #InternationalClimatePolicy N.40 #ClimateChange In this edition: Climate and energy targets in China's 13th Five-Years Plan; Palestine celebrates full membership to the UNFCCC; US Supreme Court stays Obama's Clean Power Plan; Biofuel report kept secret during Renewable Energy consultation; Morocco: a focus on the COP 22 host's climate action; Where are Green Climate Fund dollars flowing?; Carbon markets February 2016 - March 2016 [iccgov.org]

» April 19 2016 - #EnergyPolicy #SranfordEnvironmentalLawJournal Comparing the #RenewableEnergy Experiences of #California, #Texas, and #Germany. The Obama administration has repeatedly identified the large-scale build-out of clean, renewable energy infrastructure as a key priority of the United States. The President's calls for a cleaner energy economy are often accompanied by references to other industrialized countries such as Germany, hailed by many as a leader in renewable energy deployment. Indeed, the share of renewables in Germany's electricity generation mix is twice that of the United States, and the ambitious "Energiewende" commits the country to meeting 80% of its electricity needs with renewables by 2050. While some praise the German renewables experience as successful proof of concept, others are concerned with the impact of ramping up renewables on electricity rates, the stability of the electric grid, and the international competitiveness of local industry. The mixed response to Germany's commitment to solar, wind, and other renewables raises questions as to how much and what, if anything, the United States can learn from Germany's renewable energy experiment-and vice versa. This Article seeks to answer some of these questions by comparing the German renewables experience to that of California and Texas, two leaders in renewable energy deployment in the United States and globally, albeit with very different policy approaches and political leadership. California and Texas have had significant success in large-scale renewables but not without their own challenges. Our comparison of the renewable energy paths taken by what amount to three large and highly distinct "countries" elucidates some of the most prominent (and controversial) themes in the transatlantic renewables debate, including electricity costs, policy design, output intermittency, grid stability, and soft costs. As the Paris climate accord and the Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Power Plan await implementation, we offer comparative insights and identify best practices to guide policymakers and regulators in the transition toward a cleaner, more sustainable energy economy [papers.ssrn.com]

» April 19 2016 - #GrossDomesticProduct (GDP), and growth thereof, has been widely used over the years to measure economic progress. But what is GDP, and why does it matter? [...] What does GDP miss out? Amid this GDP obsession, it is easy to forget that it was not initially intended for this purpose - it merely provides a measure of the final goods and services produced in an economy over a given period, without any attention to what is produced, how it's produced or who is producing it. Simon Kuznets, who defined the modern version of GDP in the 1930s, specifically cautioned against using it as a measure of welfare. Yet its relatively straightforward measurability has led it to be used widely over the decades for precisely that purpose. Of course, GDP is highly correlated with a lot of the things that we prize in a society: good education, quality infrastructure, functioning markets. And yet, as has been long recognized, as a concept it is missing critical parts of the puzzle. Indeed over the past decade a number of commissions and research projects have been set up to explore how we would think about measuring welfare "beyond GDP", led by luminaries and Nobel Prize winners such as Joseph Stiglitz, Michael Spence and Amartya Sen. The shortcomings of GDP as a measure of welfare have become even more striking in today's much more complex world of rapidly evolving technologies, demographic shifts, rising income inequalities and the urgent need to reduce pressure on the physical environment. Three areas provide particularly good examples of why a more nuanced approach to the discussion is needed: the inclusiveness of the economic process, the extent to which economic development respects the natural environment and a need to measure the improvements in living standards ushered in by new technologies, which can help drive greener and more inclusive growth, but which are not captured in traditional statistics [weforum.org]

» April 19 2016 - #IeaReport Transitioning to policy frameworks for cost-competitive #Renewables. As rapidly scalable renewable energy technologies, such as solar and wind energy, are increasingly becoming the least-cost options for new electricity supply, we are entering a new phase of RE policy. The cost-competitiveness of RET with conventional technologies, however, does not indicate that policymakers can withdraw all forms of policy that support investment in these technologies and still achieve sustained growth. This report presents a novel, overarching framework to help policymakers understand the evolution of RE policy, one that attempts to outline a number of potential pathways forward to adapt to the rise of renewables [iea-retd.org]

» April 19 2016 - #ShaleOil #ShaleGas #CarbonTrackerReport The state of the #USshaleIndustry and ramifications for investors. Please find below more background information on the study. Carbon Tracker's new study looks at how the US shale oil and gas sector is emerging more fragile and uneven after a commodity rout that has savaged more indebted companies, making them less able to withstand a period of longer, lower oil prices. Beyond the Shale: Aboard the Price Rollercoaster analyses five of the largest pure play shale oil and gas Exploration and Production companies that are uneconomic at recent oil and gas prices. It finds that some are more exposed than others, with the gulf widening between the worst and strongest performing, as they struggle with high levels of debt and dwindling hedging revenues. The study warns of the risk of pumping cash back into a weak US shale industry - that is no longer seen as a homogenous group of companies - in anticipation of higher prices, after heavy losses in value for equity and bond investors last year. One of the headline figures is that despite losses, equity investors are piling back into the sector to the tune of $8.9 billion in the first quarter of 2016. That's a more than 10-fold increase on the final three months of 2015, and the highest quarterly level since 2011 at least. The five companies sampled, Chesapeake Energy Corp, Concho Resources, Continental Resources, Energen and Whiting Petroleum are on average forecast to pump 10% less through 2016 compared with last year. All five project 20% lower overall revenues on average in 2016 and 62% lower hedging revenues [carbontracker.org]

» April 19 2016 - #ClimatePolicy #WorldBank #ClimateFinance #IMF The #CarbonPricingLeadershipCoalition (#CPLC), an initiative bringing together leaders from government, business and civil society, called for global goals on putting a price on carbon emissions, while welcoming new high-level co-chairs at the CPLC's first official meeting since being launched at Paris COP21 in December 2015. The new co-chairs announced today are S. Royal, Minister of Environment, Energy and Oceans of France and COP21 President, and F. Sijbesma, CEO of the Netherlands-based nutrition and materials multinational Royal DSM [...] the CPLC expressed support for "setting global goals for coverage of emissions by meaningful carbon pricing systems - as a way to drive collective ambition for the next decade" [...] The inaugural CPLC High-Level Assembly, held in Washington alongside the Spring Meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF), brought together UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, World Bank Group President Kim, IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde, finance and environment ministers and CEOs of major multinational companies, as well as the new co-chairs [worldbank.org]

» April 19 2016 - #ClimatePolicy #WorldBank #ClimateChangeActionPlan to help developing countries add 30 gigawatts of renewable energy - enough to power 150 million homes - to the world's energy capacity, bring early warning systems to 100 million people and develop climate-smart agriculture investment plans for at least 40 countries - all by 2020. These are among a number of ambitious targets laid out in the World Bank Group's new Climate Change Action Plan. Climate Change Action Plan lays out concrete actions to help countries deliver on their pledges and sets ambitious targets for 2020 in high-impact areas, including clean energy, green transport, climate-smart agriculture, and urban resilience, as well as in mobilizing the private sector to expand climate investments in developing countries [worldbank.org]

» April 18 2016 - #ClimateChange #ClimatePolicy #CarbonMechanismsReview 01-2016: The Dawning of a New Era. This issue of the Carbon Mechanisms Review describes and analyses the Paris outcome with respect to its Carbon Market provisions. From the contents: A fresh start, The comprehensive market mechanisms package under the Paris Agreement; Next steps, How to make Article 6.4 of the Paris Agreement work; Cooperative Implementation, The Joint Crediting Mechanism (JCM) as an example of Article 6.2 activities; Names do not matter, when you know what you want, "Sustainable development" - a few words on the main characteristic of Article 6.4; Ensuring Integrity, Design options for reliable and thorough Paris market mechanisms; Time for Pilots, A private sector view onto the Paris Agreement; Built on Experience, How to transition from the CDM to the Sustainable Development Mechanism under the Paris Agreement [carbon-mechanisms.de]

» April 18 2016 - #WorldBank book. Earth Observation for #WaterResources Management. Water systems are building blocks for poverty alleviation, shared growth, sustainable development, and green growth strategies. They require data from in-situ observation networks. Budgetary and other constraints have taken a toll on their operation and there are many regions in the world where the data are scarce or unreliable. Increasingly, remote sensing satellite-based earth observation is becoming an alternative. A new World Bank book briefly describes some key global water challenges, perspectives for remote sensing approaches, and their importance for water resources-related activities. The book describes eight key types of water resources management variables, a list of sensors that can produce such information, and a description of existing data products with examples. Earth Observation for Water Resources Management provides a series of practical guidelines that can be used by project leaders to decide whether remote sensing may be useful for the problem at hand and suitable data sources to consider if so. The book concludes with a review of the literature on reliability statistics of remote-sensed estimations [hydrology.nl]

» April 18 2016 - #Saudi-#Iran tensions scupper deal to freeze #OilOutput. A deal to freeze oil output by #OPEC and non-OPEC producers fell apart on Sunday after Saudi Arabia demanded that Iran join in despite calls on Riyadh to save the agreement and help prop up crude prices. The development will revive oil industry fears that major producers are embarking again on a battle for market share, especially after Riyadh threatened to raise output steeply if no freeze deal were reached. Iran is also pledging to ramp up production following the lifting of Western sanctions in January, making a compromise with Riyadh almost impossible as the two fight proxy wars in Yemen and Syria [reuters.com]

» April 14 2016 - #Oil #OilMarketReport #IEA Growth in global oil demand will ease to around 1.2 million barrels per day (mb/d) in 2016, below the 1.8 mb/d expansion of last year, the newly released IEA Oil Market Report (OMR) for April informs [...] as notable decelerations take hold across China, the United States and much of Europe. Preliminary data for the first quarter of 2016 reveal that this is already occurring, with year-on-year growth down to 1.2 mb/d, after gains of 1.4 mb/d in the final quarter of 2015 and 2.3 mb/d in the prior quarter. Global oil supplies sank by 0.3 mb/d in March to 96.1 mb/d, with annual gains shrinking to 0.2 mb/d, from 1.7 mb/d a month earlier and 2.7 mb/d a year earlier. The outlook for non-OPEC production in 2016 is largely unchanged since last month's OMR, at 57 mb/d, 710000 barrels per day (710 kb/d) less than the 2015 average. OPEC crude oil production fell by 90 kb/d in March to 32.47 mb/d as ongoing outages in Nigeria, the United Arab Emirates and Iraq more than offset a further increase from Iran and higher flows from Angola. Supply from Saudi Arabia dipped in March but held near 10.2 mb/d. First-quarter global refinery runs are estimated at 79.3 mb/d, 1.2 mb/d higher than in the first quarter of 2015, in line with global demand growth. The forecast for the second quarter throughput is at 79.7 mb/d, up only 0.8 mb/d year-on-year, slower than the forecast 1.1 mb/d demand growth. All of the net growth in the first half of 2016 comes from non-OECD refiners [iea.org]

» April 14 2016 - #Economy [by #bbc] IMF: #WorldEconomy 'too slow for too long'. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has once again lowered its forecasts for the world economy. The IMF's latest World Economic Outlook now predicts global growth of 3.2% this year and 3.5% in 2017. Launching the report, the agency's chief economist, Maurice Obstfeld, described the pace of growth as "increasingly disappointing". The downgrades reflect what Mr Obstfeld calls a widespread slowdown across all types of economies. He said it left the world economy more exposed to negative risks. Before the latest downgrade, the IMF had expected global growth of 3.4% this year and 3.6% next year [bbc.com]

» April 13 2016 - #Energy #DataCenters [by #thebullettin] The dirty parts of the computing world [...] Places such as Google, Amazon, Netflix, and Microsoft have facilities much larger than CERN's, which they use for taking on even bigger volumes of high-throughput computing jobs. These centers form the backbone of the Cloud-the remote memory and other computing services accessed by the Internet. Data centers contain the machines that do the actual work behind such activities as shopping online, booking the world's hotel and automobile reservations, transmitting movies down fiber optic lines, emailing, storing photos, putting up people's billions of Facebook posts ... and such economically and environmentally dubious activities as "mining" Bitcoins [...] There are at least four environmental aspects of the online economy that deserve serious scrutiny from consumers, producers, and regulators alike. The first and most obvious is energy use. According to a 2011 study by Greenpeace, data centers alone account for almost 2 percent of all global electricity use, and this use is projected to increase by at least 12 percent annually. In the 2014 update to this report, Greenpeace noted that if the Cloud were a country, it would rank sixth overall in national energy consumption, behind the United States, China, Russia, India, and Japan-but well ahead of Germany, Canada, Brazil, and France [thebulletin.org]

» April 13 2016 - #EnergyOutlook [by #BP] Report. Regional insights: #Russia [...] remains the world's largest energy exporter, with exports meeting over 4% of global energy demand by 2035. Fossil fuels account for 86% of primary energy consumption in 2035, slightly lower than 2014 (88%). Natural gas dominates the fuel mix with a 52% share (down from 54% in 2014). Oil's share inches up from 22% in 2014 to 23% in 2035, while coal's share declines from 12% to 10%. Nuclear (+26%) and oil (+18%) lead growth in consumption, followed by hydro (+10%) and gas (+7%), while coal consumption declines 9%. Despite growing tenfold, renewables contribute only a small share of primary energy demand, less than 2% in 2035, compared with 8% on average among the BRIC countries. Natural gas retains its lead in power generation, even though its share declines from 58% in 2014 to 55% in 2035. Nuclear grows from 14% to 16%, hydro remains flat at 13%, while coal falls from 14% to 12%. Transport leads energy consumption growth, increasing by 38% by 2035. Industry is the second fastest growing sector, increasing by 10% by 2035. Russia's liquids production (11Mb/d in 2035) trails only the US and Saudi Arabia. Tight oil production commences in the 2020s and gradually ramps up to 5% of the country's total liquids output by 2035 [bp.com]

» April 13 2016 - #EnergyOutlook [by #BP] Report. Regional insights: #NorthAmerica [...] becomes energy self-sufficient by 2018 and produces 27% of the world's oil and gas in 2035. The Energy Outlook: focus on North America considers the most likely path for North American energy to 2035 and explores some of the key issues that will shape energy supply and demand over the next two decades. Increasing consumption of natural gas (+34%), renewables (including biofuels) (+186%), and hydro (+8%), outweigh declines in coal (-51%), oil (-6%) and nuclear (-13%). Natural gas becomes the leading fuel in North American energy consumption around 2023 - increasing from 31% of total consumption in 2014 to 39% in 2035. Gas consumption grows by 1.4% p.a. from 2014 to 2035. Liquids consumption declines by 1Mb/d to 22.3Mb/d by 2035, the lowest level since 1996. Oil's market share declines from 35% in 2014 to 31% in 2035. Fossil fuels account for 83% of consumption in 2014 and decline to 78% by 2035. Coal's share in the fuel mix drops from 17% in 2014 to just 8% in 2035. Renewables consumption (including biofuels) grows by 5.1% p.a. from 2014 to 2035 and their share in the fuel mix increases from 4% in 2014 to 10% by 2035. The share of energy consumed in power generation rises to 43% by 2035 from 41% in 2014. [bp.com]

» April 11 2016 - #SustainableDevelopment #LowCarbonEconomy [by #UNEP] Report. Our Planet. Inclusive #GreenEconomy: Building Bridges to a Sustainable Future. [...] In response to a financial cataclysm (2008) that saw markets lose a third of their value in only three months, UNEP tabled the idea of a "Global Green New Deal". This vision proposed a reorientation of fiscal stimulus packages toward renewable and energy-efficient infrastructure, creating job opportunities in sustainable industries in the process. Many countries drew on this recommendation as an integral part of their recovery efforts. The idea has snowballed since then and gained purchase around the world. UNEP continues to support countries in advancing green economy policies and projects.The Partnership for Action on Green Economy and related initiatives currently contribute to the shift of national economic structures in over 22 countries towards clean technologies, resource-efficient infrastructure, green skilled labour, good governance and well-functioning ecosystems. The latter has been a crucial aspect of green economy work. Our ecological infrastructure provides enormous benefit to the economy beyond direct contribution through green industries. Early on, at the G8 meeting in 2007, the Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) initiative was born with the purpose of informing economic and social policy on the hidden values of ecosystems. More recently, the ProEcoServ project has demonstrated almost $1 billion worth of ecosystem services in just four localities across four countries. [unep.org]

» April 11 2016 - #ClimateChange #ClimatePolicy [by #UNFCCC] The Paris Climate Change Agreement opens for signature on 22 April 2016 during a high-level ceremony convened by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in New York, marking an important international push on the way to the agreement's timely entry into force. Over 130 countries have confirmed to United Nations headquarters that they will attend the signing ceremony, including some 60 world leaders [...] All Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change are invited to sign the agreement, taking note of established international practice that full powers are required to sign. A country's signature on the agreement initiates the critical domestic process, on which depends its final entry into force. This process takes many separate forms and can be rapid or lengthier, depending on each country's domestic practices. The outcome may be countries' instruments of ratification, acceptance, approval or accession. Following each national completion of this process, instruments are submitted to the Depositary under the UN Secretary-General in New York. It is only once such an instrument is deposited that a country can be said to have ratified the Paris Agreement. The Paris Agreement will enter into force on the 30th day after the date on which at least 55 Parties to the Convention accounting in total for at least an estimated 55 % of total global greenhouse gas emissions have deposited their instruments of ratification, acceptance, approval or accession with the Depositary [unfccc.int]

» April 8 2016 - #ClimateFinance #ClimateChange [by #norden] Report. Public-Private Partnerships for Climate Finance. There is strong evidence showing the urgent need for scaling-up climate finance to mitigate greenhouse gases in line with the 2C target, and to support adaptation to safeguard the international community from the consequences of a changing climate. While public actors have a responsibility to deploy climate finance, it is clear that the contribution from the private sector needs to be significant. Consequently, a strong public commitment is needed to engage with the private sector and ensure climate finance is leveraged and deployed effectively. In this context, Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) are a promising avenue to contribute to climate finance delivery. PPPs provide frameworks to ensure public leadership and accountability in tackling climate change, while enabling the ownership of certain components of climate finance to be transferred to private hands [norden.diva-portal.org]

» April 8 2016 - #Oil #OilReserves #Azerbaijan #Geopolitics [by #AbO] The Baku energy race. Despite the opening toward the European market and the growing network of infrastructures connecting neighboring countries, Azerbaijan still has wide margins of growth in the fossil fuel sector, a development also affected by the oil price crisis. Following the start of gas production in the Shah Deniz gas field in the mid-2000s, Azerbaijan has rapidly become one of the most attractive partners for the emerging European energy security policy. Almost simultaneously, the inauguration of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline has finally opened the doors of the global markets to the Caucasian country's oil resources - geographically enclosed between the Caspian Sea, Russia and Iran. The most recent data regarding Azerbaijan's oil and gas industry reveal oil reserves amounting to 7 billion barrels (bbls), and natural gas reserves of around one trillion cubic meters (Tcm), the figures fluctuate slightly according to different sources). These resources rank Azerbaijan in twentieth place with regard to proven crude oil reserves (0.4% of global reserves), and in twenty-third place for natural gas reserves (0.6% ). Following the production peak reached in 2010, when Azerbaijan's production reached 1 million barrels per day (bls/d), the performance of the oil industry suffered a major slowdown, only interrupted in 2013 by a slight recovery of the national output (877,000 bls/d). Based on the latest available data, production in 2015 would have declined further, reaching the lowest level of the last decade at 835,000 bls/d. A fluctuating production. Azerbaijan's national energy company, SOCAR, produces approximately 20% of the total output, amounting to 163,870 bls/d in 2015, a slight decline compared with previous years (167,083 bls/d in 2014). Production is concentrated in the fields of Mishovdagh (27,000 bls/d), Neftchala (14,000 bls/d), Khilli (14,000 bls/d), Pirsahhat (10,000 bls/d), Gum Deniz (condensed, 10,000 bls/d) and in a series of other small prospects. Approximately 80% of the country's oil output, however, comes from the offshore complex of Azeri, Chirag and Guneshli (ACG), operated by BP, whose production-sharing agreement was signed in 1994 as part of the famous Contract of the Century [abo.net]

» April 8 2016 - #Geoscience #SustainableDevelopment [by #deliver2030] Geospatial Information and the #SustainableDevelopmentGoals. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is an extraordinarily complex agenda encompassing multiple dimensions, including time (time-bound targets) and space (geographic location). While there has been attention paid to the temporal dimension, comparatively less attention has been paid to the spatial dimension. Yet, it is axiomatic that "everything that happens, happens somewhere." The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) cannot be achieved without understanding that "somewhere." To understand the spatial dimension, the "data revolution" will need to include the integration of traditional statistical data with geospatial and Earth observation data. It is very clear that this integration will be important for SDG monitoring - combining statistics with location-based data will enable deeper knowledge of the dynamics of the SDGs in all three dimensions of sustainable development. Indeed, because such integration presents a far richer data picture for policymakers, it should occur even if the SDGs never existed. On the national level, there are different models for how this integration can occur - for example, the Australian model is based on a collaborative partnership (the Australian Bureau of Statistics with Geoscience Australia) while the Mexican model is based on a single unified institution (Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía (INEGI)). In line with national ownership, each country has to decide which organizational forms will work best in their national contexts. Regardless of organizational forms, it is important to actually start the substantive process of integration as soon as practicable. In this endeavor, the global partnership for sustainable development data and capacity-building support for developing countries will be crucial [deliver2030.org]

» April 7 2016 - #Energy #Markets [by #IRENA] Report. 2015 Sets Record for #RenewableEnergy. Renewable power generation capacity grew 8.3% in 2015, the highest rate ever recorded. Renewable generation capacity increased by 152 gigawatts (GW) or 8.3% during 2015, the highest annual growth rate on record, according to new data released by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). Renewable Capacity Statistics 2016 finds that as of the end of 2015, 1,985 GW of renewable generation capacity existed globally. "Renewable energy deployment continues to surge in markets around the globe, even in an era of low oil and gas prices. Falling costs for renewable energy technologies, and a host of economic, social and environmental drivers are favoring renewables over conventional power sources," said IRENA Director-General Adnan Z. Amin. "This impressive growth, coupled with a record $286 billion invested in renewables in 2015, sends a strong signal to investors and policymakers that renewable energy is now the preferred option for new power generation capacity around the world." 2015 was a record year for both wind and solar due in large part to a continued decline in technology costs. Wind power grew 63 GW (17%) driven by declines in onshore turbine prices of up to 45% since 2010. Solar capacity increased 47 GW (37%) thanks to price drops of up to 80% for solar photovoltaic modules in the same time period. Hydropower capacity increased by 35 GW (3%), while both bioenergy and geothermal energy capacity increased 5% each (5 GW and 1 GW respectively). Overall, capacity has increased by roughly one-third over the last five years, with most of this growth coming from new installations of wind and solar energy. In terms of regional distribution, the fastest growth in renewable generation capacity came in developing countries. Central America and the Caribbean expanded at a rate of 14.5%. In Asia, where additions accounted for 58% of new global renewable power generation capacity in 2015, capacity expanded at a rate of 12.4%. Capacity increased by 24 GW (5.2%) in Europe and 20 GW (6.3%) in North America [irena.org]

» April 6 2016 - #OilPrice #Markets #US [by #bloomberg] Report. #GoldmanSachs: Why $30 Oil is 'Too Much of a Good Thing' for the U.S. Economy. Economic bulls should root for $70 oil [...] David Mericle and Daan Struyven, economists at Goldman Sachs Group, make the unconventional argument that higher oil prices would be a boon for U.S. growth by breaking down the three major avenues by which the level of crude impacts growth: investment, consumption, and trade. The pair analyzed three scenarios in which Brent oil prices either fell to $30, recovered to $50, or rose to $70 by mid-2017 and stayed there for the year and a half, and the outcomes for the U.S. economy from 2016 through 2018 under each case. Getting prices back to around $45 to $55 per barrel would provide a meaningful boost to U.S. capital spending, the economists note, as the breakeven prices for the three largest shale plays in the nation fall in this range. If Brent returns to $70 per barrel by mid-2017, gross domestic product would be roughly 0.4 percentage points larger by the end of 2018 than if crude sank to $30 per barrel, according to Goldman's calculations [bloomberg.com]

» April 6 2016 - #RenewableEnergy #Coal #China #HELE [by #WCA] Report. The most recent publication from the World Coal Association (WCA), The power of high efficiency coal, shows that coal can generate electricity at close to half the price of gas. The economics are even clearer for the various intermittent technologies like the renewables. For instance, deploying high efficiency low emission (HELE) technologies for power generation in ASEAN economies costs a fifth less than using wind. Some may counter that the capital cost of renewables will fall. While this may be true, fundamental issues remain. Wind, solar and other intermittent technologies have lower generating capacity that limits their competiveness. Looking ahead over the next two decades, HELE technology will continue to generate electricity at a lower cost. In 2035, our analysis shows that HELE technology will produce electricity at half the cost of renewables in China. This comes in spite of China's position as a world leader in the renewables sector. Developing and emerging economies cannot meet their energy needs, tackle energy poverty, and reduce global emissions without utilising all energy options and all low emission technologies. Yet, there remains scope for further progress. WCA research finds that adopting the most efficient technology for the current projected coal-fired power station pipeline could save 13 billion tonnes of CO2 from 2015 through to 2040. Moreover, HELE technology reduces or eliminates pollutant emissions, such as oxides of sulphur and nitrogen and other particulate matter. Using the most efficient technology available clearly makes sense and is very much the low-hanging fruit of climate mitigation action. Currently, however, there are limited financial and technological support opportunities available to assist the transition to more efficient coal. An international mechanism is required to accelerate construction of HELE projects. To this end, WCA has proposed the establishment of a Platform to Accelerate Coal Efficiency (PACE) and stands ready to work with international partners to support its implementation. I am often asked - especially since the Paris Ageement - is it not better to use climate finance to fund renewables rather than modern coal technology? In short, not always [worldcoal.org]

» April 5 2016 - #RenewableEnergy #LowCarbonEconomy [by #IEA-RETD] Report. The costs of regulatory delays for the growth and economic potential of the renewable energy industry. Key recommendations from the RE-DELAYS project are: Streamline the regulatory processes by creating a one stop shop with simplified rules for applications; Increase accountability for decision making processes at the regulatory/governmental level, for example in the form of pre-determined fines associated with not achieving set milestones; Link the level of incentive such as FIT to delay; Define clear procedures and cost impact assessment of appeal processes; Inform the public about benefits and risks of RE and encourage consultative mechanisms to share concerns. The project was carried out by 3E together with London Economics International LLC (LEI). [iea-retd.org]

» April 4 2016 - #ClimateChange #ClimateFinance #LowCarbonEconomy #China [by #ictsd] Report China's National #EmissionsTradingSystem: Implications for Carbon Markets and Trade. China's introduction of a national ETS, scheduled for 2017, is an important development in the expanding carbon market landscape. As countries move towards implementation of the recently-adopted Paris Agreement, this sends a powerful signal about China's mitigation commitment and support for carbon markets. As the largest emitter of greenhouse gases and a key player in world trade, China's move to a nation-wide ETS can have significant implications for the future of carbon markets around the world. This paper explores the implications of a national ETS in China for carbon market developments globally and the potential formation of “carbon market clubs”. It examines how the presence of a Chinese ETS may affect competitiveness and carbon leakage concerns in other countries, and, related to that, the further uptake and ambition of carbon markets. The paper also discusses the design of China's national ETS. It identifies key challenges the scheme may encounter and makes recommendations for designing and running an effective ETS that may be linked with other schemes in the future. The author further explores the potential for plurilateral carbon market clubs, both with and without China's participation. [www.ictsd.org]

» April 4 2016 - #NuclearEnergy #US #LowCarbonEconomy [by #thebulletin] Use failing power plants to improve the safety and efficiency of #CleanEnergy. Nuclear energy is currently the largest generator of low-carbon electricity in the United States. It could play an important role in mitigating climate change, but fears about safety impede its spread. These fears aren't always grounded in reality. The US nuclear energy industry is overseen by two industry groups-the World Association of Nuclear Operators and the Institute of Nuclear Power Operators-and multiple government regulators dedicated to passing on lessons learned from nuclear accidents. It is one of the safest industries around in terms of occupational hazards. Severe accidents are rare, and nuclear professionals embrace a strong culture of safety. But is a culture of safety enough? And if it's not, what can be done to improve? The answer may be found in some of the many US nuclear power plants in danger of closing their doors.[thebulletin.org]

» April 4 2016 - #ClimateChange #ClimateFinance #LowCarbonEconomy [by #CIF] The CIF 2015 Annual Report Empowering a Greener Future shares how the $8.3 billion CIF is leveraging an additional $58 billion in co-financing from other sources to catalyze transformational change in 72 developing countries. By lowering the high up-front costs, risks, and learning curves of climate action, CIF concessional financing is unlocking the potential of low carbon, climate resilient economies. Explore this report and learn more about how the CIF is empowering a greener future in five key ways [www-cif.climateinvestmentfunds.org]

» April 4 2016 - #ClimateChange #EnergyTransition #Anthropocene [by #MIT press] Climate Change through the Lens of Energy Transformation, in New Earth Politics: Essays from the Anthropocene. This chapter explores existing conversations around energy transformation for a New Earth and puts forward ideas toward a conversation that might bridge the divide between how energy is supplied (how we produce) versus those who emphasize the demand side (how we use). The author approaches the problem by looking at four overarching narrative frames around energy and the implications of each for how energy is institutionalized and how it might be transformed. The four narrative frames explored are climate change, energy security, energy poverty, and local environmental pollution [mitpress.mit.edu]

» April 2 2016 - #Oil #Energy #FinancialMarkets [by #IEA] Article. WHAT DRIVES CRUDE OIL PRICES? An analysis of 7 factors that influence oil markets, with chart data updated monthly and quarterly. Market participants not only buy and sell physical quantities of oil, but also trade contracts for the future delivery of oil and other energy derivatives. One of the roles of futures markets is price discovery, and as such, these markets play a role in influencing oil prices. Oil market trading activity involves a range of participants with varying motivations, even within individual participants. Some, such as oil producers and airlines, have a significant commercial exposure to changes in the price of oil and petroleum-based fuels, and may seek to hedge their risk by buying and selling energy derivatives. For example, an airline may want to buy futures or options in order to avoid the possibility that its future fuel costs will rise above a certain level, while an oil producer may want to sell futures in order to lock in a price for its future output. Banks, hedge funds, commodity trading advisors, and other money managers-who often do not have interests in trading physical oil-are also active in the market for energy derivatives to try to profit from changes in prices. In recent years, investors have also shown interest in adding energy and other commodities as alternatives to equity and bond investments to diversify their portfolios or to hedge inflation risks. Every transaction must involve both a buyer and a seller, and the desired "long" buyer and "short" seller positions of those with direct commercial interests in the oil market do not necessarily equal one another. Banks, hedge funds, and other "non-commercial" investors can add liquidity to futures and derivative markets by taking the other side of transactions with commercial participants. On the other hand, concerns have been raised that non-commercial commodity trading and investment may "use up" liquidity and amplify price movements, particularly at times when momentum is running strongly in a particular direction. Activity in commodity exchange contracts has risen in recent years. One measure of activity in futures markets is open interest on exchanges, which indicates the number of contracts in a trading session that have not been settled or closed. Open interest on exchange-traded crude oil futures contracts increased substantially over the past decade, as measured by the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), the main commodities exchange for energy products in the United States. Both commercial participants (those that have a direct interest in physical oil production, consumption, or trade) and non-commercial investors (money managers and funds that are interested in trading contracts for investment and diversification purposes) have shown increased trading activity. Care must be taken in interpreting these data, however, because the vast majority of positions are held in the less transparent over-the-counter (OTC) market rather than on exchanges. In addition to futures contracts, another way for market participants to invest in crude oil is through the buying and selling of options contracts. Options allow for investment exposure with limited potential for losses and provide an insurance-like instrument against adverse commodity price movements. [eia.gov]

» March 31 2016 - #NaturalGas #LNG #EU [by #Eurogas] Gas demand in EU rises for the first time in four years, according to new Eurogas data. Gas consumption increased last year by approximately 4% compared with 2104. This rise, the first in four years, was mirrored by an increase in liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports highlighting further diversification of supply [eurogas.org]

» March 31 2016 - #ClimatePolicy #ParisAgreement #COP21 [by #NCI] Pubblication. Challenges and lessons learned in the preparation of Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (#INDCs). This document presents a synthesis of the main challenges and lessons learned from the preparation process of intended nationally determined contributions (INDCs) by Parties to the UNFCCC in the run up to Paris. The challenges and lessons learned from the INDC preparation process hold great relevance for the next steps regarding the implementation and further development of countries' nationally determined contributions (NDCs), in terms of both clarity and ambition. The report is based on the research NewClimate Institute (NCI) has conducted during the INDC preparation process, including two major surveys with developing country representatives before and after the process. Some examples are given for how to overcome some of the thematic challenges, which are drawn from GIZ's work on INDC development with more than 30 partner countries [newclimate.org]

» March 31 2016 - #Oil #Markets [by #IEA] #OilMarketReport. Global oil supplies eased by 180 000 barrels per day (180 kb/d) in February, to 96.5 million barrels per day (mb/d), on lower OPEC and non-OPEC output. But production stood 1.8 mb/d above a year earlier, as a slight decline in non-OPEC was more than offset by OPEC gains. Non-OPEC production in 2016 is estimated to fall by 750 kb/d, to 57.0 mb/d, 100 kb/d less than foreseen in last month's Report. OPEC crude oil production eased by 90 kb/d in February to a still-robust 32.61 mb/d with losses from Iraq, Nigeria and the United Arab Emirates partly offset by a substantial rise in flows from post-sanctions Iran. Saudi Arabia, OPEC's largest producer, held supplies steady. Sharp decelerations in demand growth - particularly in the United States and China - pulled global growth down to a one-year low of 1.2 mb/d in the fourth quarter of last year compared with the year earlier, dramatically below the near five-year high of 2.3 mb/d in the previous quarter. A gain of around 1.2 mb/d is forecast for 2016. OECD commercial inventories gained 20.2 mb in January while forward demand cover remained comfortable at 32.7 days. Preliminary data suggest that in February, OECD inventories drew for the first time in a year while volumes of crude held in floating storage increased. Global refinery throughputs are estimated at 79.1 mb/d in the current quarter, reflecting weak OECD refinery throughput and a shift of peak spring maintenance to this quarter. Annual growth in the fourth quarter of last year fell to below 1 mb/d amid product stock builds and in line with a slowdown in global oil demand growth [iea.org]

» March 29 2016 - #ClimateChange #ParisAgreement #COP21 [by #RECIEL] Article. The Legal Character of the Paris Agreement. From start to finish, the question of legal form or character was central to the Paris negotiations. The Paris agreement is a treaty within the definition of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, but not every provision of the agreement creates a legal obligation. It contains a mix of mandatory and non-mandatory provisions relating to parties’ mitigation contributions, as well as to the other elements of the Durban Platform, including adaptation and finance. One cannot definitively say how much the legal or non-legal character of the agreement's provisions matters. Making a provision legally binding may provide a greater signal of commitment and greater assurance of compliance. But transparency, accountability, and precision can also make a significant difference, and legal bindingness can be a double-edged sword if it leads states not to participate or to make less ambitious commitments. Thus, the issue of legal bindingness, though important, is only one factor in assessing the significance of the Paris outcome [papers.ssrn.com]

» March 25 2016 - #RenewableEnergy #BNEF #UNEP [by #fs] Report. Global Trends in #RenewableEnergyInvestment 2016. Renewable Energy Investments: Major Milestones Reached, New World Record Set. According to UNEP's 10th "Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment 2016", prepared by the Frankfurt School-UNEP Collaborating Centre for Climate & Sustainable Energy Finance and Bloomberg New Energy Finance, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and Bloomberg New Energy Finance all investments in renewables totalled $286 billion in 2015, some 3% higher than the previous record in 2011. Coal and gas-fired electricity generation drew less than half the record investment made in solar, wind and other renewables capacity [fs-unep-centre.org]

» March 24 2016 - #ClimatePolicy #Geopolitics #EU #Migration [by #ClimateDiplomacy] Important as #ClimateChange is, however, #Migration clearly dominates the political agenda in Europe, also in Germany. Pride of place goes to the influx of refugees and the challenges, imagined and real, that this entails for Europe's security and social cohesion. What is less discussed are the links between large-scale displacement and climate change - although the German Minister for the Environment recently emphasized this connection in an interview. A new EU Trust Fund on addressing root causes of irregular migration. When the European Union launched an "Emergency Trust Fund for stability and addressing root causes of irregular migration and displaced persons in Africa" in November 2015, though, climate change was nowhere to be found in the nine-page decision. This is despite the fact that the three target regions in which the 'root causes' of irregular migration are to be addressed comprise the Sahel and Lake Chad region, the Horn of Africa, and North Africa. Due to a confluence of human (low adaptive capacity, reliance on rain-fed agriculture, climate-sensitive livelihoods, poverty, state fragility) and environmental factors (above-average temperature rises in Africa, pre-existing water stress, the vulnerability to droughts of semi-arid areas), these areas are extremely vulnerable to climate change already today. The semantic loss of one 'climate change' not uttered in 2015 is bearable. Yet the omission arguably reveals something disconcerting about the thinking underlying this decision. The Fund was launched at the last European Council (the regular gathering of the Union's heads of state and government) before COP 21 in Paris. Why wouldn't the EU use the opportunity to emphasize the links between the two topics? [climate-diplomacy.org]

» March 23 2016 - #NaturalGas #Geopolitics #Asia #Japan [by #OGFJ] #Chevron Corp.'s first shipment of liquefied natural gas (#LNG) from the Gorgon Project has departed Barrow Island off the northwest coast of Western Australia. The cargo will be delivered to one of Chevron's foundation buyers, Chubu Electric Power, for delivery into Japan. LNG is an essential fuel for power generation across Asia, and natural gas is among the fastest growing segments of Chevron's energy portfolio. Chevron's Australian projects are situated to supply natural gas for the region and more than 80% of Chevron's Australian subsidiaries' equity LNG from the Gorgon and Wheatstone projects is covered by sales and purchase agreements and heads of agreements with customers in the Asia-Pacific region [ogfj.com]

» March 23 2016 - #ClimateChange #Renewable #EnergyTransition #EnergyPolicy #LowCarbonEconomy #ParisAgreement #ClimatePlicy [by #WRI] What Does #China's New Five-Year Plan Mean for Climate Action? China has officially unveiled its 13th Five-Year Plan, which will guide the country's economic and social development from 2016 through 2020. This latest edition builds on progress made over the last five years, and makes clear that environmental stewardship is an increasingly integral component of China's development. The plan lays out targets and measures to address several sustainability challenges-including climate change, air pollution, water, urbanization, transportation and more. The new plan's high-level targets and policies will continue to strengthen China's efforts to shift to a more sustainable model of growth and deliver on its climate commitments. Here's a look at the highlights and importance of the plan for China's action on energy and climate change [...] With China's new target for an 18 percent reduction in carbon-intensity from 2015 levels, we estimate that China will actually reduce its carbon intensity 48 percent from 2005 levels by 2020, exceeding its original target of a 40-45 percent reduction by that year. It will also be a first step toward achieving its Paris Agreement pledge to reduce carbon intensity 60 to 65 percent by 2030. The plan also includes a goal to reduce energy intensity by 15 percent, suggests that China's most-developed eastern regions will be the first to peak their carbon emissions, and builds on efforts to increase China's forest stock [wri.org]

» March 23 2016 - #Oil #Geopolitics #Terrorism [by #FT] Inside #Isis Inc: The journey of a barrel of oil. Isis controls most of Syria's oil fields and crude is the militant group's biggest single source of revenue. Here we follow the progress of a barrel of oil from extraction to end user to see how the Isis production system works, who is making money from it, and why it is proving so challenging to disrupt, even with airstrikes [ft.com]

» March 22 2016 - #FossilFuelCompany #EnergyTransitionRisk #Oil #LowCarbonEconomy [by #CarbonTracker] This paper examines #Chevron's current disclosures in the context of Carbon Tracker's April 2015 Blueprint, where we identified the key company information needed by investors to understand whether and how fossil fuel companies are managing energy transition risk. Since the publication of the Blueprint several fossil fuel companies have enhanced their discussions of carbon asset risks, stranded assets, and further considered the implications of low-carbon scenarios. These are important steps, but the assumptions guiding those analyses and their capital allocation implications are largely absent, especially at a quantitative level of detail. One concern is that companies are saying they are examining the risks but not showing investors how they' ve done so [carbontracker.org]

» March 21 2016 - #Oil #IeaMarketReport [by #reuters] Where has the oil gone? Missing barrels and market rebalancing. Global oil production exceeded consumption by just over 1 billion barrels in 2014/15, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). Production exceeded consumption by an average of 0.9 million barrels per day in 2014 and 2.0 million bpd in 2015. Of the 1 billion barrels reportedly produced but not consumed, roughly 420 million are being stored on land in member countries of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Another 75 million barrels are thought to be stored at sea or in transit by tanker somewhere from the oil fields to the refineries. That leaves 550 million "missing barrels" unaccounted for, apparently produced but not consumed and not visible in the inventory statistics ("Oil Market Report", IEA, Feb. 2016). Missing barrels are recorded in the "miscellaneous to balance" line of the IEA's monthly Oil Market Report as the difference between production, consumption and reported stock changes [reuters.com]

» March 21 2016 - #CO2Emissions #EnergyPolicy #ClimateChange [by #IEA] #Decoupling of #GlobalEmissions and #EconomicGrowth confirmed. Global energy-related carbon dioxide emissions (CO2) - the largest source of man-made greenhouse gas emissions - stayed flat for the second year in a row, according to analysis of preliminary data for 2015 released today by the International Energy Agency (IEA) [...] Global emissions of carbon dioxide stood at 32.1 billion tonnes in 2015, having remained essentially flat since 2013. The IEA preliminary data suggest that electricity generated by renewables played a critical role, having accounted for around 90% of new electricity generation in 2015; wind alone produced more than half of new electricity generation. In parallel, the global economy continued to grow by more than 3%, offering further evidence that the link between economic growth and emissions growth is weakening. In the more than 40 years in which the IEA has been providing information on CO2emissions, there have been only four periods in which emissions stood still or fell compared to the previous year. Three of those - the early 1980s, 1992 and 2009 - were associated with global economic weakness. But the recent stall in emissions comes amid economic expansion: according to the International Monetary Fund, global GDP grew by 3.4% in 2014 and 3.1% in 2015 [iea.org]

» March 21 2016 - #Water #EnergyTransition #EnergyPolicy #ClimateChange #Renewable [by #iass] PolicyBrief. The global water needs of the energy sector are large. Without policy changes, they will increase greatly in the future. Already today, water constraints are a risk to a secure electricity supply. In many parts of the world, droughts and heatwaves have led to forced reductions in power generation. Not surprisingly, hydropower has been the most affected energy source. However, generation from nuclear and coal power plants has also been curbed due to constraints on the water needed for cooling. With climate change and a globally rising water demand, competition for water resources will become more intense. Decision-makers will increasingly be forced to make tough choices on water allocation. Secure and Sustainable Energy in a Water-Constrained World. To promote water-resilient electricity generation around the world, the IASS recommends taking the following three steps: Message 1: Increase the share of wind power and solar PV in water-scarce regions. Wind power and solar PV are the least water-intensive electricity technologies. In addition, they contribute to mitigating climate-induced water risks due to their very low greenhouse gas emissions. Message 2: Incorporate water scarcity into energy decision-making. Charging the energy sector for its water use in a way that better reflects actual water costs and scarcities can be a very effective way to improve water management in the sector. Integrating water scarcity into energy system models for public policy planning is a low-hanging fruit that can have major positive effects. Message 3: Enhance transparency on water use in the energy sector. The limited data on actual water requirements in the energy sector in different parts of the world is a fundamental deficiency for informed decision-making. Both private companies and the public sector should therefore significantly improve their monitoring and reporting on water use [changepartnership.org]

» March 18 2016 - #EnergyTransition #EnergyPolicy #ClimateChange #EconomicGrowth [by #changepartnership] Report. #China's 13th Five Year Plan. China is embarking on a clean technology revolution. It covers a wide range of technologies from renewable energies to grids as well as and the lucrative electric vehicle market. China is also undertaking a substantial economic restructuring away from coal and coal-consuming steel production which will dramatically speed up the pathway to meeting the Paris Agreement's targets of solving climate change. The lessons that China learns here will be of paramount importance to Europeans and other regions looking to phase out fossil fuels in a socially equitable and just transition. We also outline a five-point plan of action for the EU. One of the policy recommendations is this need for a clean technology trade agreement to benefit consumers on both countries with access to affordable clean solutions to facilitate a bottom up revolution. [changepartnership.org]

» March 18 2016 - #ClimateChange #RenewableEnergy #EnergyPolicy #EconomicGrowth [by #irena] Report. REmap: Roadmap for a Renewable Energy Future. According to a report released today by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), doubling the share of renewables in the global energy mix by 2030 can save up to USD 4.2 trillion annually by 2030 thanks to avoided expenditures on air pollution and climate change. It would also create more jobs, boost economic growth, save millions of lives annually through reduced air pollution, and - when coupled with greater energy efficiency - put the world on track to keep the rise of temperatures within 2C, in line with the Paris Agreement. But to meet that goal, renewable energy deployment must happen six times faster than today. This second edition of IRENA's global roadmap provides an in-depth perspective on the energy transition in 40 economies, representing 80% of global energy use. It offers concrete technology options and outlines solutions to accelerate renewable energy growth [irena.org]

» March 17 2016 - #ClimateChange #Renewable #EnergyPolicy [by #iass] Study: The German #EnergyTransition in International Perspective examines the German Energiewende within the context of the global expansion of renewable energy. It underlines the global significance of the German Energiewende, while also making clear that it has been a dynamic interplay of various pioneering countries that has led to the global rise of renewables. The study focuses on the electricity sector, since this is where the most significant expansion of renewable energy is taking place, both in Germany and around the world. As the study shows, the multiple benefits of renewable energy constitute the decisive drivers of a global energy transition. However, given the sharp increase in global energy demand and the negative environmental impacts of the existing energy system, the pace of renewables expansion is not yet sufficient. Important opportunities for social and economic development associated with an increased deployment of renewable energy remain untapped. With its international energy transition policy, Germany is well positioned to make a key contribution to building a sustainable global energy supply system. The study concludes with recommendations on how to further strengthen Germany's international energy transition policy [iass-potsdam.de]

» March 16 2016 - #ClimateChange #INDC #GHG #COP21 [by #die #gdi] Discussion Paper: Self-Differentiation of Countries' Responsibilities: Addressing Climate Change through Intended Nationally Determined Contributions. In the context of the INDCs as a universal instrument of self-differentiation of responsibilities, this Paper shows that: INDCs advance the notion of Common But Differentiated Responsibilities and Respective Capabilities (CBDR-RC) beyond mitigation to include, at least, adaptation and finance; INDCs advance differentiation beyond the bifurcation of Annex I and non-Annex I countries [die-gdi.de]

» March 15 2016 - #ClimateChange #GHG #CO2 [by #nasa] The annual growth rate of atmospheric carbon dioxide measured at NOAA's Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii jumped by 3.05 parts per million during 2015, the largest year-to-year increase in 56 years of research. In another first, 2015 was the fourth consecutive year that CO2 grew more than 2 ppm, said Pieter Tans, lead scientist of NOAA's Global Greenhouse Gas Reference Network [climate.nasa.gov]

» March 14 2016 - #RenewableEnergy #EU [by #EurObservER Annual Overview 2015] Report. The combined turnover of 10 renewable energy sector in all 28 EU member states reached € 143.6 billion in 2014 and thus remained on a stable level compared to 2013 (142 billion). Comparing to other industry sectors in the aftermath of the economic crisis, these figures may be interpreted as a success story in the long hand. Germany is once more the class primus here with a revived overall country turnover of € 33.3 billion for investment in new installations and turnover from operation of existing renewable energy facilities. Even more than in the years before this is the result of an exceptionally good year in wind power that accounted for over € 12 billion alone. France (€ 18.8 billion), the United Kingdom (€ 18.1 billion), Italy (€ 16 billion and Denmark (€ 12.5 billion) rank next in the EurObserv'ER overview. The flat development confirms the trend of the past years: stagnation on a high level. Whereas the growth levels witnessed in the first decade of the century cannot be replicated, the European renewable energy industry is mature, internationally competitive, and an irreplaceable part of the EU industry landscape. Wind energy by far attracted the largest share of investments and has created the bulk of turnover (over € 48 billion in 2014), followed by the solid biomass segment (€ 36 billion). The other sectors showed less dynamics [... The job counts displays once more a drop of the current work force to around 1.11 million persons in 2014, - i.e. a loss of over 44000 work places (down from 1.15 million in 2013). This is a consequence of investors concerns about the slashing of renewable energy policy incentives throughout numerous member states and the indirect impacts of the financial crisis over recent years. The most notable decrease was observed in the European PV sector that could not be offset by clear growth in wind power or minor increases such as in biofuels [EurObservER]

» March 11 2016 - #ClimateChange #ClimaFinance [by #Norden] The new issue of the web magazine Green Growth the Nordic Way focuses on climate financing and parliamentary follow-up to COP21. What is the role of our elected parliamentarians to ensure climate action and how can we secure a better financing for green investments? [nordicway]

» March 11 2016 - #Coal #EnergyTransition [by #WCA] #Coal in the energy mix of #China. In the third publication of the country-specific factsheets, the World Coal Association analyses the role of coal in the energy mix of China. China has been a remarkable example of the role affordable coal can play in improving access to energy and supporting economic development. Now, as it transitions to a less energy-intensive period of development, it is a leading example of the opportunities high-efficiency low-emissions technology can provide in meeting the challenge of reducing emissions [worldcoal.org]

» March 9 2016 - #ClimateChange #Drought [by #NASA] A new NASA study finds that the recent drought that began in 1998 in the eastern #MediterraneanLevantRegion, which comprises Cyprus, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria and Turkey, is likely the worst drought of the past nine centuries. Scientists reconstructed the Mediterranean's drought history by studying tree rings as part of an effort to understand the regions climate and what shifts water to or from the area. Thin rings indicate dry years while thick rings show years when water was plentiful. In addition to identifying the driest years, the science team discovered patterns in the geographic distribution of droughts that provides a "fingerprint" for identifying the underlying causes. Together, these data show the range of natural variation in Mediterranean drought occurrence, which will allow scientists to differentiate droughts made worse by human-induced global warming. The research is part of NASA's ongoing work to improve the computer models that simulate climate now and in the future [climate.nasa.gov]

» March 9 2016 - #ClimateChange #EnergyPolicy #ClimatePolicy #China [by #wiley] Securitization in Chinese climate and energy politics. This article provides an overview of securitization in Chinese climate and energy debates. Scholars have debated the merits as well as the potentially problematic implications of securitization, or framing issues as 'security,' since the early 1990s. Early concern focused on the potential problems with linking environmental issues with 'security,' and the debate has since also turned specifically to the climate and energy. However, it is only recently that this debate has begun to pay attention to China. Energy and climate concerns are of increasing importance to China: the sheer scale of its energy consumption and air pollution struggles dwarf the challenges seen by other states, and its policy choices play a key role in shaping global climate and energy dynamics. Thus, while securitization in the Chinese context is rarely studied, how China frames its energy and climate policy matters. Both energy and climate are taken increasingly seriously, and security plays an increasing role in debates. This review surveys the increasing popularity of linking security with climate and energy issues both in the academic debate on China and in official discourse, and some of the potential implications [wiley.com]

» March 9 2016 - #ClimateChange #Facts [by #NASA] Arctic sea ice reaches its minimum each September. September Arctic sea ice is now declining at a rate of 13.4 percent per decade, relative to the 1981 to 2010 average. This graph shows the average monthly Arctic sea ice extent in September since 1979, derived from satellite observations. The animated time series below shows the annual Arctic sea ice minimum since 1979, based on satellite observations. The 2012 sea ice extent is the lowest in the satellite record [climate.nasa.gov]

» March 9 2016 - #ClimateChange [by #wiley] Beyond special circumstances: #ClimateChangePolicy in #Turkey 1992-2015. The contours of #Turkey's climate policy have remained almost intact over the past two decades. Being an Annex I party without any mitigation commitments, Turkey maintains a peculiar position under UNFCCC. Subsequent to 12 years of delay in signing both the Framework Convention and the Kyoto Protocol, Turkey had the highest rate of increase in greenhouse gas emissions among the Annex I countries with 110.4% upsurge in the period 1990 and 2013. Yet with the new climate regime now in place, the country's mitigation pledges fall short of expectations both in terms of realistic projections and its ambition to step up in the post-2020 period. Climate policies in Turkey, an EU candidate and OECD founding member with a growing economy, remain under‐investigated. Although the country has a wide range of policies and institutions in place, it shows limited progress in addressing climate change. Based on evidence from the literature, we observe that climate policies operationalize in Turkey insofar as they do not directly confront developmental ambitions, leaving policy diffusion with limited success. To provide a historic overview, we focus on climate policy development, actors, processes, and contemporary trends. Evidence shows that these are highly ridden with the politics of special circumstances: a notion that Turkey employs to refrain from bindings commitments. In order to go beyond special circumstances discourse, we argue the need for a bold policy shift in Turkey, a country subject to adverse impacts of climate change and high-carbon lock-in risk due to development policy preferences [wires.wiley.com]

» March 8 2016 - #CarbonCapture #LowCarbonTechnologies #ClimateChange #CO2Emissions #EnergyStorageSystems #Batteries [by #ACS Central Science] Paper. Carbon Nanotubes Produced from Ambient Carbon Dioxide for Environmentally Sustainable Lithium-Ion and Sodium-Ion Battery Anodes. Carbon dioxide is transformed into carbon nanotubes which serve as high performance anodes in lithium-ion and sodium-ion batteries, offering a new route to attribute economic value to carbon dioxide. The cost and practicality of greenhouse gas removal processes, which are critical for environmental sustainability, pivot on high-value secondary applications derived from carbon capture and conversion techniques. Using the solar thermal electrochemical process (STEP), ambient CO2 captured in molten lithiated carbonates leads to the production of carbon nanofibers (CNFs) and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) at high yield through electrolysis using inexpensive steel electrodes. These low-cost CO2-derived CNTs and CNFs are demonstrated as high performance energy storage materials in both lithium-ion and sodium-ion batteries. Owing to synthetic control of sp3 content in the synthesized nanostructures, optimized storage capacities are measured over 370 mAh g-1 (lithium) and 130 mAh g-1 (sodium) with no capacity fade under durability tests up to 200 and 600 cycles, respectively. This work demonstrates that ambient CO2, considered as an environmental pollutant, can be attributed economic value in grid-scale and portable energy storage systems with STEP scale-up practicality in the context of combined cycle natural gas electric power generation [pubs.acs.org]

» March 8 2016 - #Nuclear #Japan #Fukushima [by #greenpeace] Report. Ecological Impacts of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Accident 5years Later. Radiation Reloaded. The report is based on a large body of independent scientific research in impacted areas in the Fukushima region, as well as investigations by Greenpeace radiation specialists over the past five years. It exposes deeply flawed assumptions by the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Abe government in terms of both decontamination and ecosystem risks. It further draws on research on the environmental impact of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe as an indication of the potential future for contaminated areas in Japan. The environmental impacts of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster will last decades to centuries, due to man-made, long-lived radioactive elements are absorbed into the living tissues of plants and animals and being recycled through food webs, and carried downstream to the Pacific Ocean by typhoons, snowmelt, and flooding. Greenpeace has conducted 25 radiological investigations in Fukushima since March 2011. In 2015, it focused on the contamination of forested mountains in Iitate district, northwest of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Both Greenpeace and independent research have shown the movement of radioactivity from contaminated mountain watersheds, which can then enter coastal ecosystems. The Abukuma, one of Japan's largest rivers which flows largely through Fukushima prefecture, is projected to discharge 111 TBq of 137Cs and 44 TBq of 134Cs, in the 100 years after the accident. [...] [by #iaea] Report.The Fukushima Daiichi Accident consists of a Report by the IAEA Director General and five technical volumes. It is the result of an extensive international collaborative effort involving five working groups with about 180 experts from 42 Member States with and without nuclear power programmes and several international bodies. It provides a description of the accident and its causes, evolution and consequences, based on the evaluation of data and information from a large number of sources available at the time of writing. The Fukushima Daiichi Accident will be of use to national authorities, international organizations, nuclear regulatory bodies, nuclear power plant operating organizations, designers of nuclear facilities and other experts in matters relating to nuclear power, as well as the wider public [iaea.org]

» March 7 2016 - #OilMarket #HedgeFunds #OilGlut #FinancialMarkets [by #wsj] Hedge Funds Turn Bullish on Oil Despite Glut. Several hedge funds are starting to bet that assets in the battered energy sector are through the worst of their dismal run. Oil is down nearly 70% since June 2014, and analysts say there are few signs that the global oversupply of crude will soon abate. But some hedge-fund managers have recently started betting on rising oil prices, or picking up the stocks or credit of battered energy companies in the belief that prices have dropped too far [die-gdi.de]

» March 7 2016 - #ClimatePolicyPolicy #ClimateChange #INDC #GHG [by #gdi] The German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut fur Entwicklungspolitik (DIE, a new interactive tool on climate policy: The INDC Content Explorer: Understanding national climate goals. Based on an in-depth analysis of INDC submissions, lead by Pieter Pauw, DIE's Klimalog project has developed the interactive INDC Content Explorer. INDCs are considered instrumental to increase the global ambition to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. However, most countries also used their INDCs to also address other priorities and ambitions that are pertinent to national climate policy, notably regarding adaptation pledges, finance needs or fossil fuel subsidy reform. The INDC Content Explorer thus provides a better understanding of countries' ambitions beyond mitigation targets. It allows you to search and compare countries' national climate plans using the following features [die-gdi.de]

» March 4 2016 - #EnergyPolicy #ClimateChange #CCS [by #environmentalleader] Will #COP21 Spur #BigOil to Invest in #LowCarboTechnology? The Paris climate deal - and the actions it will require to keep global temperature rise to "well below" 2 degrees Celsius - can go one of two ways for big oil. Either it's a nail in the coffin of the high-carbon-emitting industry, or it's an opportunity for oil companies to develop a low-carbon future. At IHS CERAWeek, the world's largest gathering of oil executives held last week, industry insiders told Reuters it's the latter - an opportunity to improve and cheapen carbon capture and other technologies that will help oil and gas cut emissions and protect the industry from climate change legislation [environmentalleader.com]

» March 4 2016 - #EnergyPolicy #Geopolitics [by #shana] Post-Sanctions #Iran: #Oil and #Gas Opportunities for Foreign Firms. From the oil and gas industry point of view, the lifting of international sanctions provides the country, as well as International Oil Companies (IOCs), with opportunities at a time when oil prices are down to levels not seen for a decade. Although there is every likelihood that prices will rebound, the drivers of demand and supply indicate that this may not happen for some time. The IOCs are hurting, reflected largely by their cut back in dividend as well as profit falls and job cuts. Under these circumstances, IOCs need to look for exploration and production opportunities that require comparatively little capital and operational expenditure. As such, Iran presents itself as a great opportunity - with costs to produce a barrel of crude in Iran estimated at around US$ 12 compared to an average of around US$ 9 in Saudi Arabia, around US$ 36 in the USA and around US$ 52 in the UK. Provided the IOCs are willing to accept the risks and challenges that arise with investing in Iran, the offering of about 18 E&P blocks and 50 oil and gas projects worth US$ 185 billion by 2020 under the new 'Iranian Petroleum Contract' (IPC), might just be the need of the hour. On the other hand, Iran itself seems anxious about the incoming investment, as it is looking to update its aging oil & gas infrastructure, in order to increase production to meet the rising local demand alongside helping fund government spending. An initial foreign investment of around US$ 25 billion is targeted and several leading European E&P companies (BP, Eni, Repsol, Shell, Statoil, Total) are believed to have been in discussions. In late September 2015, the Minister of Petroleum, Bijan Zangeneh, declared the path chosen by the country by announcing that Iran will not hold back its oil production once economic sanctions are removed and that the country's crude output will reach an ambitious 4.2 MMbo/d by the end of 2016. Crude oil production currently stands at around 2.85 MMbo/d [shana.ir]

» March 4 2016 - #EnergyPolicy #ClimateChange #US [by #AbO] #Renewables vs #Fossilfuels: this is the contest. So far, the candidates for the U.S. primary elections in the race for the White House have avoided expressing too much on the country's energy future, although the competition is being played out between the Democrats pushing for renewables and the Republicans in defense of the oil industry. Statement by statement, here is the background to their mutual positions [abo.net]

» March 3 2016 - #RenewableEnergy #PV [by #bnef] #OffGrid #SolarMarket Trend Report 2016. The 1.2 billion people living without access to the power grid spend about $27 billion annually on lighting and mobile-phone charging with kerosene, candles, battery torches or other fossil-fuel powered stopgap technologies. Solar-powered portable lights and home kits offer a better service at lower cost. This report takes stock of what the emerging off-grid solar industry has achieved, looks at the opportunities and challenges facing the sector and assesses the potential of off-grid solar to help achieve universal electricity access [...] Off-grid solar is advancing rapidly beyond just lighting and phone charging. Between cost reductions, latent consumer demand and a sales-driven push for higher-margin products, solar home systems capable of powering appliances such as TVs and fans are likely to capture an increasing market share. About 7 million off-grid households will use solar-powered fans and 15 million households will have a solar-powered TV in 2020, according to our estimates. Similar systems will also provide services to small businesses. This report was commissioned by Lighting Global, a joint initiative of IFC and the World Bank. It was produced by Lighting Global and Bloomberg New Energy Finance in partnership with the Global Off-Grid Lighting Association [bnef.com]

» March 3 2016 - #Oil #US #OilPriceCollapse [by #ogfj] Texas Oil Output Finally Drops, More Job Losses Likely. Finally, in January, 19 months into the crude oil price collapse, Texas producers recovered less crude oil than in the same month the previous year. The economic contraction gripping the upstream oil and gas industry squeezed tighter, forcing more layoffs, idling more drilling rigs, and driving well-permitting activity to a record monthly low. So dire were industry economic conditions, the Texas Petro Index (TPI) in January declined to 181.9, nearly 40% less than in January 2015 and the first time in its existence the TPI fell below the lowest point of the previous industry economic cycle. Following a decline that began in September-October 2008, the TPI reached a nadir of 187.5 in December 2009 before embarking upon a five-year expansion that finally stalled at year-end 2014 [ogfj.com]

» March 3 2016 - #Oil #US #OilPriceCollapse [by #ogfj] Texas Oil Output Finally Drops, More Job Losses Likely. Finally, in January, 19 months into the crude oil price collapse, Texas producers recovered less crude oil than in the same month the previous year. The economic contraction gripping the upstream oil and gas industry squeezed tighter, forcing more layoffs, idling more drilling rigs, and driving well-permitting activity to a record monthly low. So dire were industry economic conditions, the Texas Petro Index (TPI) in January declined to 181.9, nearly 40% less than in January 2015 and the first time in its existence the TPI fell below the lowest point of the previous industry economic cycle. Following a decline that began in September-October 2008, the TPI reached a nadir of 187.5 in December 2009 before embarking upon a five-year expansion that finally stalled at year-end 2014 [ogfj.com]

» March 3 2016 - #SustainableDevelopment #FinancingSDGs [by #diis] Report. FINANCING SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT - ACTORS, INTERESTS, POLITICS. We gradually move to a 'post-aid' world in which development aid is losing its relative importance, and established donors are cutting or diverting aid budgets to meet refugee and security issues. In this context, alternative sources of development financing seem ever more critical, including those from the private sector, private foundations and the BRICS. But what are in fact the interests and modes of operation of these actors, and to what extent do they align with the aims of the SDGs? And how do national governments of developing countries themselves perceive and approach these new sources of financing? In this new report, through a 'political economy of financing sustainable development' lens, six DIIS researchers examine the policies, mind-sets and interests of some of the many actors that will play a fundamental role in the complex and challenging task of financing sustainable development in the years to come [diis.dk]

» March 3 2016 - #LowCarbonEconomy #ClimateChange #RenewableEnergy #EnergyTransition #EU [by #LealArcas, Queen Mary University of London - School of Law] Paper. The Transition Towards #Decarbonization: A Legal and Policy Exploration of the European Union. Decarbonization is the final and visionary goal of European Union (EU) energy policy. The EU has traditionally conveyed the dashing resolution to lead the strife against climate change. In that sense, the EU shelters the hope that its example will whet other regions around the globe to follow suit. This paper argues that such a grandiose aspiration could cause a new industrial revolution based on vanguard clean and low-carbon technologies that may boost the EU's recovery from the economic crisis and launch the vital conversion to a more sustainable energy system. To that end, the EU has set itself the ultimate objective of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to a towering 80-95% below 1990 levels by 2050. This decarbonization aim will come at a cost, similar to a hotel analogy: a five-star hotel is much better, but more expensive, than a one-star hotel. By conceptual analogy, renewable energy is a much better, but more expensive, option to generate energy than coal. The paper concludes that the potential for solar energy is phenomenal and that the greatest result of investing in low-carbon technologies will be to become increasingly energy independent. So there is hope and great business opportunities [papers.ssrn.com]

» March 2 2016 - #Coal #Renewable #Germany #EnergyTransition [by #CurrentFuture] The benefits to society as a whole and the regional and local fear to lose jobs [...] If we are taking the Paris Agreement seriously, then we need to not only satisfy additional demand with zero-carbon technologies, but need to start changing existing generation systems. To some extent, this can happen 'naturally' by closing down coal fired power plants at the end of their technical lifetime and replacing the capacity with renewable technologies. But in most countries, including Germany, this will not be enough, given the number of plants that went online in the last years and will go online in the next few years, and which have a technical lifetime well beyond the 2050s [...] Economic studies show the benefits of renewables and energy efficiency technology to society. They are important and demonstrate the benefits to society as a whole. However, they rarely take a more detailed look at the regional and local level. This is where it starts to get difficult: The new jobs they create may or may not be in the same regions and may or may not require similar skills to those jobs that are lost. From an economic perspective at the national level this may not matter - from a societal, political and regional perspective it does. It also changes how we need to communicate, support and steer the transition [...] Germany, as all other countries, is only at the starting point of this new road. Globally, we need to start changing existing systems, not only adding on some renewables. A recent proposal to bring all stakeholders together in a coal 'round table' for Germany is a good starting point. If this process can also manage to address the regional challenges posed through the required structural change in a bottom-up process that involves all stakeholders, it has the potential to become a role model for other countries and regions that are facing similar problems globally [current-future.org]

» March 2 2016 - #NaturalGas #TAP #TANAP #EU #Azerbaijan #Geopolitics [by #en.trend] #SouthernGasCorridor Advisory Council joint declaration signed. Following the second Southern Gas Corridor Advisory Council Meeting in Baku Feb. 29, the participants of the meeting have signed a joint declaration. The document emphasized the intention to develop and deepen prolonged strategic relations between the producers of energy resources, transit countries and consumers for reliable, secure and consistent provision of European markets with energy resources of Azerbaijan. The document was signed by 12 ministers who took part in the meeting in the presence of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini, including Vice-President of the European Commission for Energy Union Maros Sefcovic. The document also approved carrying out of legal procedures and regulative measures by these countries for implementation of the Southern Gas Corridor project. It was noted that existing and future opportunities for the expansion of the project beyond the EU, including the Balkans will be evaluated. For this purpose, a special interest is shown for projects of Greece-Bulgaria and the Ionian Adriatic Pipeline interconnectors. At the same time, the document supported strengthening of cooperation with national and international financial institutions to finance the project. In order to resolve issues that may arise in connection with the involvement of new suppliers or transit countries, it is proposed to continue consultations at the level of bilateral and multilateral working groups [en.trend.az]

» March 2 2016 - #NaturalGas #NaturalGasLeak RealTimeMethaneDetection [by #enerknol] #California Leak Exposes Risks Of Increasing Reliance On Natural Gas. The California Department of Conservation (DOC) issued a notice of intent to propose emergency natural gas storage regulations in response to Governor Brown's emergency proclamation to address the ongoing natural gas leak at the Aliso Canyon Natural Gas Storage Facility in Los Angeles County. The leak, detected in October 2015, is attributed to the failure of a 40-year-old pipe more than a thousand feet underground, allowing pressurized gas to flow back to the surface and into the atmosphere. While the methane emissions rate has been slowing due to reducing pressure from gas withdrawals, at one point, the leak was estimated to account for 25 percent of all methane emissions in the state. Underground gas storage facilities involve injection of large quantities of gas into underground reservoirs for withdrawal during peak load periods. Industry stores methane underground in depleted oil and gas fields, aquifers, or salt caverns for future use as it is more economic than storing gas in tanks on the surface. The Aliso Canyon storage facility is an oil field that was converted into a natural gas storage reservoir in the 1970s. Although natural gas storage is critical for the economy and grid resilience in the transition to a low-carbon future, the California incident illustrates the risks associated with aging natural gas infrastructure and underscores the need for rigorous oversight using effective technology. Natural gas is composed primarily of methane (approximately 80 percent) - a potent greenhouse gas. While natural gas burns cleaner than other fossil fuels, fugitive emissions during the production, storage, and delivery have the potential to undo much of the greenhouse gas benefits. Given the scale of the California site leak, regulatory outcomes could not only impact natural gas practices, but also the electricity sector, as natural gas utilization is assumed to grow significantly over the next decade as utilities shift away from coal generation in response to the Clean Power Plan. Current methane reduction measures from oil and gas operations primarily target above-ground pipeline infrastructure on storage sites, rather than subsurface malfunctions. Given methane's substantial environmental impact, regulatory requirements for real-time methane detection and controls to address below-ground leaks will become increasingly crucial for sustainability [enerknol.com]

» March 1 2016 - #ClimatePolicy #ParisAgreement #CDM #ITMOs [by #UNEP DTU] UNEP DTU Low Carbon Development, Working Paper. The CLEAN DEVELOPMENT MECHANISM Re-engineered. The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) remains the only instrument that has been capable of delivering cash flow at scale to investments with emissions reduction benefits in developing countries. Although cash flows have largely dried up, the need for earning operational premiums on assets with lower emission profiles than their traditional investment alternatives is intact. Cash flows must not be confused with financing, and although sometimes labeled 'results-based financing' (which in isolation is a contradiction in terms as finance is ex ante while results are ex post), the CDM experience has shown that unless someone guarantees the result - in CDM the 'emissions reduction outcome' - the market will adopt a 'wait-and-see' approach and abstain from participating financially on the basis of prospective cash flows. New mechanisms, like the CDM, that deliver new and untried benefits are therefore at a significant risk of attracting no financing at all. This, too, is true for the new mechanisms established in the Paris Agreement, which is to deliver 'ITMOs' (Internationally Transferred Mitigation Outcomes') yet to be defined (with net mitigation impacts). The CDM experience provides a basis for engineering such mechanism, or indeed reengineering the CDM itself, to make it a viable mitigation financing tool, providing receipts for payments in the form of certified emission reductions (CER). Two solutions are presented, both of which secure new financing for projects that deliver real and measurable emissions reduction benefits on the basis of prospective revenues from emissions reduction: one introduces up-front securitization of the emissions reductions; the other builds on a defined value of the CERs without the need for a carbon price or a market for trading. This working paper takes an essential look at the CDM and proposes a way to transform it into a true climate finance instrument based on its prospective cash flow. Two elementary solutions to improving the CDM are offered: 1) a 're-engineered CDM' with an securitization model added that allows the cash flows offered by Emission Reduction Purchase Agreements (ERPAs) to function as a project finance instrument, and 2) a 'risk internalization device' that creates up-front securities and frontloads payments for emission reductions, enabling it to contribute to project financing and turns CERs into "receipts for payments" in a true 'results based finance' model [unepdtu.org]

» February 29 2016 - #Biofuels #LowCarbonEconomy #RenewableEnergy [by #UNCTAD] A new report on advanced (cellulosic) biofuel markets, a sector which holds great promise for the objectives and expectations laid out with the adoption of the SDGs and the Paris declaration last year. This report focuses on how these market opportunities can be capitalized on and how to promote technology transfer for developing countries interested in engaging in advanced biofuel markets for the attainment of the SDGs, and as an instrument to meet their commitments under COP21. By carrying out a non-exhaustive mapping of cellulosic ethanol projects and recent policy lessons around the globe, this report seeks to provide public and private practitioners with a macro-picture of the advanced biofuels sector, with a specific focus on cellulosic ethanol as of 2015-2016. The report concludes with five suggestions for the responsible development of the second-generation biofuels industry [unctad.org]

» February 26 2016 - #ElectricVehicle #CarMarket #LowCarbonEconomy #RenewableEnergy #BatteryPrices #OilPrices [by #BNEF] Report. Continuing reductions in battery prices will bring the total cost of ownership of EVs below that for conventional-fuel vehicles by 2025, even with low oil prices. The electric vehicle revolution could turn out to be more dramatic than governments and oil companies have yet realized. New research by Bloomberg New Energy Finance suggests that further, big reductions in battery prices lie ahead, and that during the 2020s EVs will become a more economic option than gasoline or diesel cars in most countries. The study forecasts that sales of electric vehicles will hit 41 million by 2040, representing 35% of new light duty vehicle sales. This would be almost 90 times the equivalent figure for 2015, when EV sales are estimated to have been 462,000, some 60% up on 2014. This projected change between now and 2040 will have implications beyond the car market. The research estimates that the growth of EVs will mean they represent a quarter of the cars on the road by that date, displacing 13 million barrels per day of crude oil but using 1,900TWh of electricity. This would be equivalent to nearly 8% of global electricity demand in 2015 [bnef.com]

» February 26 2016 - #CarbonTax #ClimateChange #FossilFuels #LowCarbonEconomy #India #ClimateResilientEconomy [by #downtoearth] All tax on carbon is not a carbon tax. India's de-facto carbon tax is not reducing the demand for fossil fuels or risk from climate impacts [...] According to the government, there is a de-facto "carbon tax" on petrol and diesel at US$ 140 (per tonne of CO2) and US$ 64 respectively. This is much higher than the internationally agreed price of carbon-US$ 25-35. The increase in excise duty however has not led to any measurable reduction in demand from FY2014-15 levels, as they have been coupled with a corresponding reduction in global oil prices-keeping the net price of petrol and diesel low. This begs the question-will such a tax survive an eventual increase in oil prices? The revenue from the carbon tax has also not been spent in a climate-aware manner. For example, a portion of the excise duty has been allocated as road cess. This could perhaps be used to modify urban mobility in a more sustainable manner, by improving public transport. This is part of a larger pattern of government expenditure, that does not take into account the systemic changes that would be needed to move to a low-carbon, climate-resilient economy [downtoearth.org.in]

» February 25 2016 - #EnergyEfficiency #CopenhagenCentreonEnergyEfficiency #UNEP [by #energyefficiencycentre] Report. Best Practices and Case Studies for Industrial Energy Efficiency Improvement. This book focuses on energy efficiency in the industrial sector. The techniques and technologies to improve industrial energy efficiency have been well proven. The challenge for policy makers is to accelerate the adoption of those techniques and technologies. This book is intended to support their work. Globally, industry accounts for about 29% of final energy consumption and about 23% of the world's workforce. Improvement in energy efficiency is needed in all sectors but targeting industrial energy consumption offers major advantages for policy makers because it is more concentrated in terms of entity numbers and often a small number of big energy-intensive enterprises consume the majority of energy in the sector. The Pareto Principle, or 80/20 rule, generally applies to this sector, in that about 20% of industrial sites often consume 80% of the energy used by all of industry. Nearly two thirds of all industrial energy consumption is accounted for by just four sectors: chemical & petrochemical (33%), iron and steel (17%), cement (9%), and pulp and paper (5%) (IEA 2008). Achieving improved energy efficiency in industry can make a significant contribution to solving local, national and global energy problems [energyefficiencycentre.org]

» February 24 2016 - #Oil #SaudiArabia #Opec [by #cnbc] Saudi oil minister Naimi: Oil production cuts won't happen [...] producers will hopefully meet in March to negotiate an output freeze, but production cuts will not happen. Last week, Saudi Arabia, #Russia, #Qatar and # Venezuela proposed a freeze that would cap production at January levels. Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said Saturday the deal, which is contingent on other producers participating, should be finalized by March 1 [...] There is now less trust than normal among the world's oil exporters [cnbc.com]

» February 24 2016 - #Biofuels [by #IEA] Report. Towards advanced biofuels - options for integrating 1st and 2nd generation biofuel production. The integration of advanced (2nd generation/2G) biofuel plants with conventional (1st generation/1G) biofuel plants can lead to significant synergies and cost savings, especially for bioethanol plants. For biodiesel, conversion of fossil refineries to advanced biofuel production is another promising option as well. These are the results of a scoping study commissioned by the IEA Implementing Agreement for Renewable Energy Technology Deployment (IEA-RETD) "Towards advanced biofuels - options for integrating conventional and advanced biofuel production sites (RES-T-BIOPLANT)". The aim of this study was two-fold: Getting a better understanding of the scale of the opportunity for adapting existing sites to produce advanced biofuels; and, Analysing the potential role of government policy to incentivise site conversion. Advanced (2nd generation / 2G) biofuel plants can be implemented as stand-alone units or integrated with conventional (1st generation / 1G) biofuel plants. Integration strategies can refer to: co-location (installing a separate 2G entity adjacent to an existing 1G facility), retrofitting (altering the existing 1G production line for producing 2G biofuels alongside 1G biofuels) or repurposing (adjusting the production process of an existing (mothballed) facility to produce 2G biofuels). There are cases where significant synergies between 2G and 1G plants exist, while in other cases, integration options are very limited. The variety of conceptual and design studies identify cost-savings from co-location for all 2G conversion pathways in the order of 5-10%. The sequence of implementation of policy instruments is crucial. A market start-up will only happen if stable support to technology development and technology commercialization is given (by way of economic incentives) for a reasonable timeframe reflecting investment lifetimes. Blending mandates would cause more harm than benefits if they were applied in an immature market where biofuel prices have not yet reached stability and fossil fuel prices remain low [iea-retd.org]

» February 19 2016 - #Oil #Geopolitics [by #energypost] Over the last 18 months, the oil price has fallen from around $110 per barrel to around $30. The oil price collapse creates new uncertainties, including greater rivalries in the Middle East, more internal turmoil in Venezuela and a strain on Vladimir Putin's grip on power. But the price collapse also offers geopolitical opportunities. A post-OPEC world is emerging. It is essential that Western countries lose no time in seeking to forge a new international oil strategy and shape a more secure future - secure from a military perspective and also from a humanitarian one. Over the past four decades, the rulers of most OPEC countries became very rich, built modern armies and captured all the levers of governance. In sharp contrast, a majority of the citizens in most of these countries enjoyed none of the benefits. Indeed, in many of these OPEC-member countries, poverty and corruption both rose. Oil as a war trigger. At present, demand for oil is very low relative to the abundant supply. This situation is not likely to change soon. This is, therefore, an ideal time for Western governments to put in place a strategy to ensure that oil will no longer be a crucial factor in launching wars - as it has repeatedly been in recent decades [energypost.eu]

» February 16 2016 - #NaturalGas #ShaleGas [by #WEC] World Energy Council Report. Unconventional gas, a global phenomenon. Natural gas is currently the number three fossil fuel in terms of share of the global primary energy mix and for years the world has debated the potential for natural gas to play a critical part in building a more resilient and sustainable energy future. While the demand outlook is currently uncertain, advances in supply side technologies for unconventional resource development, led by advances in US shale gas operations, have changed the supply landscape and created new prospects for affordable and secure supplies of natural gas. The '2012 World Energy Council Survey of Energy Resources: Shale Gas - What's New' predicted that shale gas development would have a "significant impact on the dynamics and prices" of future natural gas markets. This latest study explores the implications of the rapid growth in unconventional gas supplies on global markets and concludes that, unconventional gas has become a global phenomenon and will continue to have global implications for some time to come. The weight of these changes on the global supply landscape is an important consideration for energy professionals seeking to understand the future of the industry. Key findings and implications. The bearing of unconventional gas on changing market dynamics should not be under-estimated. Now that Australian coal bed methane (CBM) and US shale gas are emerging on the global market as liquefied natural gas (LNG), the impact will no longer be contained to regional markets. In particular, three trends emerge as the most meaningful in the global context: Interconnected markets: With excess supplies in the market, there has been price normalisation and other structural shifts towards a more global and transparent market across the three main regional hubs: Asia, Europe, and North America. International growth of unconventional gas: Exploration and production (E&P) operators in Australia, China, and Argentina have made progress in growing unconventional gas supplies outside of North America. Shifting portfolio allocations: In this time of uncertainty, US unconventional gas emerged as a cost competitive asset type that continues to shift industry capital towards flexible, shorter-cycle investments in North America shale assets [worldenergy.org]

» February 8 2016 - #ClimateChange #ClimatePolicy #TTIP #TPP [by #RenewableEnergyLawAndPolicyReview] Paper. Mega-regionals and sustainable development: The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership and the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Partnership#RegionalTradeAgreements (#RTAs) could become building blocks for ensuring climate change mitigation. The design of strategic RTAs is vital for sustainable development. This would require them to be of a relatively large size, composed of some prominent economies, given that major economies are major greenhouse gas emitters and therefore play a major role in climate change mitigation efforts. This article proposes several ways in which trade can promote climate change mitigation and focuses on two mega-regionals: The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership and the Trans-Pacific Partnership [ssrn.com]

» February 5 2016 - #ClimateChange #ClimatePolicy #Politics #Refugees #Syria #Egypt #Uganda #ElNino #Africa [by #katereggadennis] In the past politics has been linked to climate change but it's not easily understood, there is some evidence to prove that exists. Drought in Syria between 2006 and 2011, which was the worst ever recorded destroyed almost everything including agriculture, which led to many families migrating from the rural areas to cities. This human influx added to the already stressed social structure by the refugees from the Iraq war. This added to other stressors leading to a full blown conflict in the region. Egypt faces a similar trend from climate change, if sea levels rise to a height that would salinize the Nile Delta. About 3million people from the city of Alexandria will be forced out, the Suez Canal may not be that important in the future when the North Sea melts. If the precipitation reduced leading to water shortage more drastic measures (Military) would be adopted that would be directed towards Ethiopia, South Sudan, Sudan and other nations up stream of the Nile. In Abu Simbel which is near the Sudan border has had a civilian airport turned into a military one and this has been labelled as a military threat to upstream nations of the Nile. Last year (2015) Africa was hit hard by El Nino, with high precipitation in East Africa, typhoons in Madagascar and drought in Southern Africa. UNICEF estimates that over 11m children are at risk of diseases, hunger and water shortages. Uganda is deciding on the 18th February 2016 who will lead it for the next 5 years, analyzing what Syria is going through and what may happen in Egypt, is an eye opener for Ugandan voters [katereggadennis.blogspot.ug]

» February 4 2016 - #SustainableEnergy #RenewableEnergy #NaturalGas #NuclearPower #CCS #US [by #BNEF] Bloomberg New Energy Finance. SUSTAINABLE ENERGY IN AMERICA 2016 FACTBOOK. Now in its fourth year, the Sustainable Energy in America Factbook series documents the revolution transforming how the US produces, delivers, and consumes energy. The 2016 Factbook provides an update through the end of 2015, highlighting a number of key developments that occurred as the long-term transformation of US energy continues to unfold. Two thousand fifteen will surely be remembered as a watershed year in the evolution of US energy, as the industry passed important milestones and the federal government finalized critical new policies. The already rapid de-carbonization of the US power sector accelerated with record numbers of coal plant closures and solar photovoltaic system commissionings, while natural gas production and consumption hit an all-time high. Concurrently, the US continued to enjoy greater benefits from energy efficiency efforts as economic growth outpaced the growth in electricity consumption. The net result on the planet: US power sector CO2 emissions fell to their lowest annual level since the mid-1990s. The net impact on consumers: negligible to positive as prices for electricity and fuel remained low by historic standards and customer choices expanded. Perhaps most importantly, many of the key changes seen in 2015 are likely permanent shifts, rather than temporary adjustments due to one-time events [bnef.com]

» February 4 2016 - #ClimateChange #GHGEmissions #Germany [by #cleantechnica] German Greenhouse Gas Emissions Fell 4.6% In 2014, New Data Shows. Official figures released by Germany's Federal Environment Agency show that the country's greenhouse gas emissions fell by 4.6 percent in 2014 to the equivalent of 901.9 million metric tons of CO2 in an apparent return to the long-term trend following an uptick in 2013. The greatest reductions were achieved in electricity generation, where emissions fell by the equivalent of 20.9 million tons of CO2 despite continued growth in electricity exports. While the emissions data relates to 2014, further reductions can perhaps be expected in electricity generation in 2015 due to record generation from renewable sources. However, it's not all good news as emissions from the agricultural sector rose by 2.2 percent, which the Federal Environment Agency attributes to increased liming and fertilizer use and growth in dairy livestock. 20.8 million tons of reductions have been attributed to the relatively mild weather in 2014, with German households burning less oil and gas for heating. Perhaps most disappointing, however, is the 2.2 percent increase in greenhouse gas emissions from transport. Despite Germany's remarkable prowess in car production - dodgy emissions software aside - the country is struggling to recreate the momentum it has achieved in renewable electricity in the introduction of electric cars. Officially, the government aims to have 1 million electric vehicles registered by 2020 - a target that is looking increasingly utopian with just 19,000 pure EVs currently registered in the country [iea.org]

» February 3 2016 - #Coal [by #IEA] The coal market is undergoing significant change, with global demand stalling after a decade of aggressive growth. Preliminary official data indicate that Chinese coal demand declined in 2014, a reversal that looks to have accelerated in 2015. Amid oversupply, prices have plunged, while the COP21 climate accord commits governments to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The IEA has slashed its five-year estimate for coal demand but still sees a rise [iea.org]

» February 2 2016 - #Oil #OilPrice #OilMajor [by #energyvoice] Oil major BP posted a loss of $2.2billion in the fourth quarter of last year after being hit by restructuring charges and writedowns amid the lower oil price. Last month the company said it would be reducing its global headcount, including 600 staff from its North Sea operations. The announcement of the company's results comes a day after First Minister Nicola Sturgeon visited Aberdeen and spoke with BP executives. In a statement BP said it expects its full-year 2016 underlying production to be "broadly flat" with 2015. BP also said it expects to reduce the number of staff and contractor roles in the upstream by around 4,000 during 2016 and by up to 3,000 from the downstream arm by the end of 2017. The underlying replacement costs profit for the period fells to $196m compared with a $2.2billion profit from the same time a year ago. Meanwhile the unadjusted loss of $2.2billion compared with a previous loss of $969million the previous year [energyvoice.com]

» February 2 2016 - #Oil #OilMarket #StockMarket [by #bloomberg] Much ink has been spilt over the leakage of collapsing crude prices into wider markets. A new note from Morgan Stanley analysts [...] demonstrates the degree to which the fortunes of the energy sector are currently driving stocks and bonds, but emphasizes the correlation is overdone. Stripping out the impact of the energy sector reveals a far different picture for industrial production, corporate earnings, and inflation around the world [bloomberg.com]

» February 1 2016 - #ClimateChange #GHGEmissions #Mitigations [by #unepdtu] Report. UNEP DTU Partnership has released the report Uncertainty in Greenhouse-gas Emission Scenario Projections, which outlines approaches to quantify the uncertainty associated with national-level projections of greenhouse-gas emissions, by describing practical applications of those approaches in Mexico and South Africa. The report aims to promote uncertainty quantification, because quantifying uncertainty has the potential to foster more robust climate-change mitigation plans. To this end the report also summarises the rationale for quantifying uncertainty in greenhouse-gas emission scenario projections. At present few, mainly G20, countries are conducting uncertainty quantifications. Their efforts are typically restricted to comparing projections obtained through different models. While valuable, the information provided by such comparisons tells only one part of the story: other, complementary approaches exist that remain under-utilised. In any country, the larger the expenditure for climate change mitigation, the closer climate change plans will be scrutinised to ensure that they are robust to as many plausible future conditions as possible. Uncertainty quantification is central for achieving this goal [unepdtu.org]

» February 1 2016 - #Energy #EnergyStorage #WEC [by #energypost] Report. Storage is less expensive than we think. A narrow focus on 'levelised cost of energy' (#LCoE) can be misleading when looking at the business case for energy storage. This is one of the major conclusions of a new study E-storage - shifting from cost to value carried out by the World Energy Council (#WEC) into the real costs of energy storage. The report is calling for the true value of energy storage to be recognised by taking into account both its cost and revenue benefits [energypost.eu]

» January 29 2016 - #ClimateChange #LowCarbonEconomy #EconomicLossDamage [by #DIE] Deutsches Institut fur Entwicklungspolitik Paper. Non-economic loss and damage: addressing the forgotten side of climate change impacts. Non-economic loss and damage (#NELD) has emerged as a new concept in the negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It refers to the negative impacts of climate change that are difficult to measure or quantify. The value of NELD cannot easily be expressed in monetary terms, which has left them mostly neglected in climate-risk and cost estimates. As a result, although NELD are vital to those affected, they often go unnoticed by the outside world. This paper brings conceptual clarity to the new notion of NELD, identifying 10 meta-categories: Human Life, Meaningful Places, Cultural Artefacts, Biodiversity, Ecosystem Services, Communal Sites, Production Sites, Intrinsic Values, Identity and Agency [die-gdi.de]

» January 28 2016 - #Energy #ClimateChange #LowCarbonEnergy #Geopolitcs [by #ExxonMobil] The Outlook of Energy. By 2040, the world's population will have reached 9 billion - up from about 7.2 billion today - and global GDP will have more than doubled. This growth will create more need for affordable, reliable energy - energy for homes, transportation, business and industry. We see global energy demand rising by about 25 percent from 2014 to 2040. This is a significant increase, but would have been far higher (exceeding 110 percent) if we did not foresee steep improvements in energy efficiency across all demand sectors [...] Many nations are already reducing their level of CO2 emissions relative to their GDP. By 2040, the carbon-intensity of the global economy is likely to fall by half, with substantial contributions from OECD and non-OECD nations alike. Energy efficiency gains are expected to be a major contributor to this achievement, supported by a gradual but significant transition to less-carbon-intensive energy types. As a result of these changes, we expect global energy-related CO2 emissions to peak around 2030, and then begin declining. Global CO2 emissions are expected to be only about 10 percent higher in 2040 versus 2014, despite the fact that population will have risen by about 25 percent and global GDP will have more than doubled. [exxonmobil.com]

» January 28 2016 - #ClimateChange #ClimatePolicy #COP21 #Geopolitcs [by #WuppertalInstitute] Report. Phoenix from the Ashes - An Analysis of the Paris Agreement to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Researchers from the Wuppertal Institute have observed COP 21 (as well as all other conferences) and elaborated a detailed analysis of the results (see downloads). The assessment: provides an overview of the most important negotiation outcomes, assesses their results as well as shortfalls and provides an outlook of the next steps needed to implement the Paris Agreement's goals and to set the world firmly on a non-fossil based development path [wupperinst.org]

» January 27 2016 - #Oil #OilPrice #OilMarket #OPEC #SaudiArabia #Russia #US #Geopolitcs [by #marketwatch] Nawal al-Fuzaia, Kuwait's top OPEC representative: the cartel is willing to cooperate with others to stabilize the oil market, but non-OPEC producers would have to show they are serious about cooperating with OPEC. She also said crude-oil prices will remain low this year and likely trade between $40 and $60 a barrel until 2020 because of oversupply and slowing demand. As oil prices plunge, some members of OPEC, including Nigeria, have called for an emergency OPEC meeting, but Saudi Arabia has made it clear that it won't cut production unless Russia does too. It also stands strong in its battle for market share, particularly against U.S. shale producers. "There is little hard evidence" that the Saudis will participate in an OPEC cutback before the cartel's next meeting in June, said James Williams, energy economist at WTRG Economics. Given that, Williams said he expects no OPEC policy change until early June-and "there is a distinct probability that they will not cutback at that time" either. Still, both Saudi Arabia and Russia are starting to show serious signs of buckling under the constant pressure of plunging oil. Russia's gross domestic product contracted 3.7% in 2015 and the oil-dependent economy is likely to contract further, analysts predict. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia has been trying to stop speculators from betting against its currency as falling oil prices have helped to deplete the kingdom's foreign currency reserves [...] U.S. output has remained strong, even in the face of such low prices for crude. Total U.S. oil production stood at roughly 9.235 million barrels a day for the week ended Jan. 15. That is actually up from 9.186 the same time a year ago, according to U.S. government data [marketwatch.com]

» January 26 2016 - #LowCarbonEconomy #CorporatePolicy [by #goldmansachs] Report. $600 bn+ pa revenue opportunity. Between 2015 and 2020, solar PV and onshore wind will add more to global energy supply than US shale oil production did between 2010 and 2015. By 2020, six in ten lightbulbs will be LEDs; and our analysts expect carmakers to sell 25 million hybrid & electric vehicles by 2025, 10x more than today. We estimate that these technologies will save >5 Gt of CO2 emissions per annum by 2025 and could help global emissions to peak earlier than expected around 2020, with ripple effects felt across our global coverage [goldmansachs.com]

» January 26 2016 - #ClimateChange #CorporatePolicy [by #influencemap] Report. A tipping point in corporate attitudes to #ClimatePolicy. InfluenceMap's scoring system observed a flurry of pro-climate policy activity immediately prior to and following COP21 in Paris. This so-called "Paris effect" means that over half the global 100 industrial companies are now advocating for emissions reductions in line with 2C. Furthermore, a third of these 100 leading industrial corporations are explicitly supporting strands of legislation that put a price on carbon. This comes as a result of a flurry of pre COP21 activity such as policy support as part of the We Mean Business campaign, the American Business Act on Climate Pledge, strong CEO messaging from the likes of Apple and Unilever and a letter signed by CEOs from the World Economic Forum with specific policy language in it. From the pro-climate companies, InfluenceMap has ascertained true leaders who support progressive climate policy in a proactive and determined manner. These include visionary company Unilever, electric utilities National Grid and Iberdrola and electric vehicle company Tesla, all of whom appear to be "all in" for 1.5C and a low-carbon future [influencemap.org]

» January 26 2016 - #Oil #OilPrice #OilMarket [by #artberman] Fundamentals Point Toward Oil-Market Balance: IEA Too Pessimistic. Fundamentals point toward market balance but pessimism is dragging oil prices down. IEA has apparently succumbed to this negativity but their data suggests that things are getting better, not worse. In a business-as-usual world in which nothing unusual happens, the world will be close to market balance some time in 2016. If anything unusual happens, all bets are off and oil prices could rebound much faster than anyone imagines. Just to be clear, I continue to believe that oil prices must fall further in order to modify producer and capital-provider behavior and thus prepare the way for some kind of meaningful market balance to occur and I don't see that happening any time soon. Fundamentals are moving slowly in the right direction toward market balance. Imbalance will persist for some time and a meaningful price rally-that is not taken away when reality forces its way back upon the markets-cannot occur unless/until supply and demand are approaching balance [artberman.com]

» January 25 2016 - #ClimateChange #Adaptation #China [by #intasave] China has been subject to floods, droughts and heatwaves for millennia. However, in recent decades climate risks have been changing rapidly for different groups of people and sectors - posing a significant challenge for China's policy makers. In this short video we describe how China has been working to understand and respond to climatic risk, based on research conducted for the Adapting to Climate Change in China. In this seven-minute video, premiered at COP21 and now available online, we describe how China has been working to understand and respond to climatic risk. Over recent decades climate risks have been changing rapidly for different groups of people and sectors - posing a significant challenge for China's policy makers. This animation is based on the book, Climate Risk and Resilience, edited by Rebecca Nadin, Sarah Opitz-Stapleton and Xu Yinlong and published by Routledge this year. Using research from a wide range of Chinese sources and the Adapting to Climate Change in China project, a research-to-policy project, the book provides a fascinating glimpse into how China has been working to understand and respond to climatic risk - from droughts and desertification in the grasslands of Inner Mongolia to deadly typhoons in the megacities of the Pearl River Delta [intasave.org]

» January 25 2016 - #Oil #OilPrice #Geopolitics #SaudiArabia [by #bloomberg] Oil gave up its gains after the world's biggest crude exporter said it's keeping up investments in energy projects. Futures dropped as much as 4.1 percent after earlier rising as much as 1.7 percent in New York. State-run Saudi Arabian Oil Co. hasn't reduced its investment capacity amid lower crude prices and is building a marine cluster in the eastern part of the Middle East nation [...] West Texas Intermediate for March delivery dropped as much as $1.31 to $30.88 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange and was at $31.04 at 8:49 a.m. London time. Total volume traded was more than double the 100-day average. Front-month prices dropped on Wednesday last week to $26.55 a barrel, the lowest close since 2003. Brent for March settlement lost as much as $1.46, or 4.5 percent, to $30.72 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The contract gained $2.93, or 10 percent, to $32.18 Friday. Prices advanced 11 percent last week. The European benchmark crude was at a discount of 7 cents to WTI. Speculators' short position in WTI, or wagers on falling prices, dropped by 16,782 contracts, or 8.4 percent, to 184,193 futures and options in the week ended Jan. 19, according to CFTC data. Longs fell by 4,580 to 266,150, bringing the net-long position up 12,202 to 81,957. New York crude capped a second annual loss in 2015 as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries effectively abandoned production limits to defend market share, exacerbating a global glut. Ecuador and Venezuela are proposing output quotas for OPEC to increase prices, a statement published in Ecuador presidency's official gazette shows [bloomberg.com]

» January 22 2016 - #Oil #OilPrice #Geopolitics #EU #US #OPEC #Russia [by #ABO] Oil prices: causes and consequences. The trend in crude oil prices, the weakening of the dollar, the effects of the price decrease, especially for producing countries. Here is an analysis of what is happening. Which are the most important effects of the fall in oil prices? Firstly, according to MEES-Weekly Middle East Oil & Gas News and Analysis, between 2013/15, the annual revenues of the OPEC countries decreased by $598 billion, more than 50%, and the expectations for 2016 estimates a further decrease of $118 billion. Certainly, this impact on the OPEC member States budget, which includes Indonesia after its return, which was decided during the meeting mentioned above, is different from country to country. In particular, the economies of Iran, Venezuela, Algeria, Nigeria and Ecuador are suffering more losses than Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates and Qatar because of a higher break-even point. "Saudi Arabia is acting directly against the interests of half the cartel and is running Opec over a cliff", said Helima Croft (RBC Capital Markets). Secondly, as pointed out by Fatih Birol, there was a 20% decrease in oil industry investments in 2015. In addition, the Director of the International Energy Agency stated, "during the last 30 years we have never seen a decline of this amount in investments, adding that this situation will have effects [in prices] in the years to come" [energyvoice.com]

» January 22 2016 - #ClimateChange #Davos #IndustrialRevolution [by #weforum] Can this revolution save our warming planet? [...] At the heart of this new revolution is the speed and global scale of exponential developments in digital, nano, materials and bio-technology that are already revolutionizing how societies and economies operate. But this new industrial revolution occurs at a critical juncture for humanity on Earth and must occur within scientifically defined planetary boundaries for a stable Earth. And it must contribute positively to entrenched equity challenges. It is essential to ensure that the Fourth Industrial Revolution is a sustainable one for people and planet. It could even drive greater innovation not only for short-term benefits and solutions for human wealth, but also long-term solutions that benefit all and enable planetary stability. From the long lens of deep time and geology this revolution is unique. The planet we are living on is undergoing a transformation - not just our world. Human development - from the agricultural revolution 8-10,000 years ago to the first industrial revolution in 1800 to the economic "golden age" of the 1950s - took place during a remarkable period of stability geologists call the Holocene. Global temperatures rose or fell by no more than 1°C. Resources were plentiful. We were a small world on a big planet. In the last few decades we have accumulated overwhelming evidence that this Holocene stability is now in jeopardy. Earth has entered a new geological epoch where humans have become the prime driver of change in Earth's life support system - the Anthropocene. We are changing the climate: it is now 1°C warmer than pre-industrial temperatures and heating up rapidly. 2015 was the hottest year on record beating the previous record holder - 2014. Already, meteorologists predict 2016 may beat 2015 [weforum.org]

» January 22 2016 - #Oil #OilPrice #OilMarket #StockMarket [by #energyvoice] Aramco pumps about 10 million barrels of oil a day, giving it tremendous influence over global oil prices [...] Earlier this month, Saudi's deputy crown prince, Muhammad bin Salman, floated the idea to The Economist of a stock offering for Saudi Aramco, the state company that controls Saudi Arabia's massive oil reserves [...] Saudi Arabia may not have the grip over oil prices that it once did, but it still knows how the prime the market [...] A public offering for Aramco would, in all likelihood, be the biggest the world has ever seen. The company claims to have 261 billion barrels worth of oil and gas reserves, which would make it 10 times bigger than Exxon Mobil, the largest oil company that isn't state owned. Exxon, despite recent downturns in both the stock market and oil prices, is still worth more than $320 billion. Some analysts have pegged Aramco's total value as high as $10 trillion. In other words, even a small piece of Aramco going on the market could boost any exchange on which it traded, and the Saudi stock exchange, which opened to foreign investors just last year, has a value of about $400 billion for all its listings combined. An Aramco sale could balloon the market's value in a single deal [energyvoice.com]

» January 21 2016 - #RenewableEnergy #FossilFuel #EnergyPolicy #Water #CO2Emissions #EconomicDiversification #IRENA Report. The countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (#GCC) could reap multiple benefits from scaling up renewable energy use, including reducing water withdrawal by 11 trillion litres (or 16%) and saving 400 billion barrels of oil in the power sector, creating 2000, direct jobs and reducing the region's per capita carbon footprint 8% by 2030. Renewable Energy Market Analysis: The GCC Region looks at the opportunities and barriers for renewable energy deployment in the GCC economies and offers recommendations for greater integration of renewables into the regional energy mix. This analysis from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) highlights the best practices in policy-making, project development and financing that have begun paving the way for more sustainable energy systems. The report also examines the potential for renewables-based desalination to address the need for sustainable water supply in the arid GCC region. The six-member GCC holds almost a third of the world's proven crude-oil reserves and about a fifth of natural gas reserves. Exports of these fossil fuels have underpinned impressive economic growth, which has brought widespread prosperity and rapid development in the region. However, industrialisation, population growth and increasing water desalination have led to high energy demand growth, affecting the ability of some GCC countries to maintain export levels over the long term. The resulting market dynamics have compelled governments to embark on a diversification strategy. The addition of other sources, including renewables, into the region's energy mix presents ample opportunities, both through freeing up domestic energy production for export and reducing carbon-dioxide (CO2) emissions. Other socio-economic benefits include job creation and local economic diversification [irena.org]

» January 21 2016 - #Energy #Davos [by #weforum] Davos Forum Energy Panel. The Transformation of Energy. What trends and uncertainties are shaping the future of energy value chains? Transformations to be addressed: Digital and renewable energy innovation. Price and demand uncertainty. New oil and gas suppliers. Speakers: Daniel Yergin, Hiroaki Nakanishi, Fatih Birol, Ignacio Sánchez Galan, Eric Xin Luo [weforum.org]

» January 20 2016 - #ClimateChange #Energy #Water [by #bloomberg] Energy production is world's second-largest water consumer. #GulfNations aim to install 27 gigawatts of renewables by 2030. Why are the oil-rich countries of the Persian Gulf region announcing ambitious plans for renewable energy when the fossil fuels they produce are so cheap? It's all about water. The energy production industry is the second-largest consumer of water in the world after agriculture, according to Xylem Inc., which makes equipment for the water industry. It estimates that some processes in OPEC nations such as secondary oil recovery use about 30 times more of the liquid to extract their crude than producers outside the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. The Middle East has some of the world's lowest levels of water supplies that aren't replenished by rains. A significant amount of the region's fresh water is made from the sea pumped through desalination plants, ranging from 27 percent in Oman to 87 percent in Qatar, according to a report on Wednesday by Irena. Removing the salt burns through a third of total power consumed in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, the report said. Saudi Arabia uses a 10th of its domestic oil to power its desalination plants [bloomberg.com]

» January 20 2016 - #ClimateChange New #UBS #report highlights the high cost of climate change to global middle class. Consumption patterns change significantly of those living in cities most at risk for climate change. The five costliest events were winter storms in the United States, Canada and Europe. Key findings: 2015 saw the hottest temperatures on record; Natural disasters caused 16,200 fatalities and total losses of USD 32 billion in the first half of 2015; Middle-class residents of cities at high risk spend more of their household budget on housing compared to the respective national averages and less on luxuries, entertainment and household durable goods; Most of the global middle class lives in Southeast Asia, the region with the fastest urban population growth in recent years; 91% of weather related losses in Asia are uninsured; One-third of weather related losses in the United States are uninsured bringing the total sum of damages to 1.5 trillion USD in total economic losses from 1980-2014 [ubs.com]

» January 20 2016 - #Oil #OilPrice #OilMarket [by #IEA] Report. As oversupply, mild temperatures and grim economic news check growth demand, non-OPEC output falls year-on-year for first time since 2012. Exceptionally mild temperatures in the early part of the winter in Japan, Europe and the United States - alongside weak economic sentiment in China, Brazil, Russia and other commodity-dependent economies - saw global oil demand growth flip from a near five-year high in the third quarter of last year, at 2.1 million barrels per day (mb/d), to a one-year low in the fourth quarter of 1.0 mb/d, the IEA Oil Market Report (OMR) for January informed subscribers. Persistent oversupply, bloated inventories and a slew of negative economic news pressured prices so that by mid-January crude oil touched 12-year lows. The OMR outlook for 2016 has demand growth moderating to 1.2 mb/d. Global oil supplies expanded by 2.6 mb/d last year, following hefty gains of 2.4 mb/d in 2014. By last December, however, growth had eased to 0.6 mb/d, with lower non-OPEC production that pegged below year-earlier levels for the first time since September 2012. OPEC crude output eased by 90 000 barrels per day (90 kb/d) in December to a still-lofty 32.28 mb/d, including newly rejoined Indonesia. Iran, now relieved of sanctions, insists it will boost output by an immediate 500 kb/d. Our assessment is that around 300 kb/d of additional crude could be flowing to world markets by the end of the current quarter. Global inventories rose by a notional 1 billion barrels in 2014-15, with the fundamentals suggesting a further build of 285 mb over the course of this year. Despite significant capacity expansions in 2016, this stock build will put storage infrastructure under pressure and could see floating storage become profitable [iea.org]

» January 20 2016 - #Oil #Upstream #Norway [by #regjeringen] APA 2015: Considerable interest in further exploration of the Norwegian Continental Shelf. The Ministry of Petroleum and Energy offers 56 exploration licenses on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS) in the Awards in Pre-defined Areas 2015 (APA 2015) licensing round. The 56 exploration licenses are distributed over the North Sea (27), the Norwegian Sea (24) and the Barents Sea (5). 36 different oil companies, ranging from the international majors to small domestic exploration companies, are awarded ownership interests in one or more production license. 22 of these companies will be offered one or more operatorships. Every license awarded includes work-programme commitments [regjeringen.no]

» January 19 2016 - #EconomicInnovation #ClimateChange #UrbanEconomies #LowCarbonEconomy #ClimateResilientDevelopment #ClimateFinance [by #germanwatch] Report. Cities are hubs of economic growth and innovation, rising emissions and significant climate change vulnerability. With the urban population expected to grow by an additional 3 billion people by 2050, innovative approaches are necessary to build climate compatible cities and overcome fossil-fuel based urban economies. While political will for transformative action is imperative, so are the financial means to develop and realise those new urban areas. This publication presents a number of financing sources that are available for cities to match their needs in translating low carbon and climate resilient development plans into action. It provides insights on how local governments can raise funding locally and gives an overview of the international climate financing landscape that cities can access. The role of cities in combating climate change is vital. By accessing the financial resources out there they can become pioneers of change, exemplifying transformative change [germanwatch.org]

» January 19 2016 - #Renewable #FossilFuel #Oil #Coal #NaturalGas [by #BNEF] Report. CLEAN ENERGY DEFIES FOSSIL FUEL PRICE CRASH TO ATTRACT RECORD $329BN GLOBAL INVESTMENT IN 2015. 2015 was also the highest ever for installation of renewable power capacity, with 64GW of wind and 57GW of solar PV commissioned during the year, an increase of nearly 30% over 2014. Clean energy investment surged in China, Africa, the US, Latin America and India in 2015, driving the world total to its highest ever figure, of $328.9bn, up 4% from 2014's revised $315.9bn and beating the previous record, set in 2011 by 3%. The latest figures from Bloomberg New Energy Finance show dollar investment globally growing in 2015 to nearly six times its 2004 total and a new record of one third of a trillion dollars, despite four influences that might have been expected to restrain it. These were: further declines in the cost of solar photovoltaics, meaning that more capacity could be installed for the same price; the strength of the US currency, reducing the dollar value of non-dollar investment; the continued weakness of the European economy, formerly the powerhouse of renewable energy investment; and perhaps most significantly, the plunge in fossil fuel commodity prices. Over the 18 months to the end of 2015, the price of Brent crude plunged 67% from $112.36 to $37.28 per barrel, international steam coal delivered to the north west Europe hub dropped 35% from $73.70 to $47.60 per tonne. Natural gas in the US fell 48% on the Henry Hub index from $4.42 to $2.31 per million British Thermal Units [bnef.com]

» January 15 2016 - #ClimateChange #GlobalRisks [by #WEF] Report. Now in its 11th edition, The Global Risks Report 2016 draws attention to ways that global risks could evolve and interact in the next decade. The year 2016 marks a forceful departure from past findings, as the risks about which the Report has been warning over the past decade are starting to manifest themselves in new, sometimes unexpected ways and harm people, institutions and economies. Warming climate is likely to raise this year's temperature to 1° Celsius above the pre-industrial era, 60 million people, equivalent to the world's 24th largest country and largest number in recent history, are forcibly displaced, and crimes in cyberspace cost the global economy an estimated US$445 billion, higher than many economies national incomes. In this context, the Report calls for action to build resilience - the "resilience imperative" - and identifies practical examples of how it could be done [weforum.org]

» January 15 2016 - #ClimateChange #CCS [by #nature] Article. Learning through a portfolio of carbon capture and storage demonstration projects. Carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) technology is considered by many to be an essential route to meet climate mitigation targets in the power and industrial sectors. Deploying CCS technologies globally will first require a portfolio of large-scale demonstration projects. These first projects should assist learning by diversity, learning by replication, de-risking the technologies and developing viable business models. From 2005 to 2009, optimism about the pace of CCS rollout led to mutually independent efforts in the European Union, North America and Australia to assemble portfolios of projects. Since 2009, only a few of these many project proposals remain viable, but the initial rationales for demonstration have not been revisited in the face of changing circumstances. Here I argue that learning is now both more difficult and more important given the slow pace of deployment. Developing a more coordinated global portfolio will facilitate learning across projects and may determine whether CCS ever emerges from the demonstration phase [nature.com]

» January 14 2016 - #Coal #PeakCoal [by #thinkprogress] Chinese coal use peaked back in 2013 [...] Since China was responsible for some 80 percent of the growth in global demand since 2000 - and since the United States and most of the industrialized world have also started cutting coal use - the key remaining question for the dirtiest fossil fuel was, "Will a handful of developing countries, particularly India, see enough growth in coal consumption to overcome that drop?" Goldman Sachs, among others, says the answer is no. "Peak coal is coming sooner than expected," Goldman told clients in a September research note. Goldman projects global demand for coal used in electricity generation will drop from a peak of 6.15 billion metric tons in 2013 to 5.98 billion in 2019 (the end of its forecast range) [thinkprogress.org]

» January 14 2016 - #Oil #OilPriceForecast [by #EIA] Crude oil prices to remain relatively low through 2016 and 2017. The Short-Term Energy Outlook (#STEO) released on January 12, which is the first STEO to include projections for 2017, forecasts Brent crude oil prices will average $40 per barrel (b) in 2016 and $50/b in 2017. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil prices are expected to be $2/b lower than Brent in 2016 and $3/b lower than Brent in 2017. EIA recognizes that there is still high uncertainty in the crude oil price outlook. For example, EIA's forecast for the average WTI price in April 2016 is $37/b, while the market expects WTI prices to range from $25/b to $56/b (at the 95% confidence interval) based on the recent prices of futures and options contracts for April 2016 delivery. Crude oil prices are expected to remain low as supply continues to outpace demand in 2016 and more crude oil is placed into storage. EIA estimates that global oil inventories increased by 1.9 million b/d in 2015, marking the second consecutive year of inventory builds. Inventories are forecast to rise by an additional 0.7 million b/d in 2016, before the global oil market becomes relatively balanced in 2017. The first forecasted draw on global oil inventories is expected in the third quarter of 2017, marking the end of 14 consecutive quarters of inventory builds [eia.gov]

» January 13 2016 - #NaturalGas #NorthStream #Russia #Germany [by #reuters] Italy's #Saipem and France's #Technip are among the companies vying for a $4 billion contract to expand the Nord Stream gas pipeline, Russian business daily Kommersant reported on Wednesday citing sources. Media reports have earlier suggested Saipem would participate in the pipeline expansion, driving its shares higher. Swiss Allseas and the Netherlands-based Royal IHC are also bidding for the right to secure the contract to build the second part of the pipeline, which ships Russian gas to Germany via the Baltic Sea, Kommersant said. It said the tender to build two more pipelines of total length of 2,500 kilometres (1,553 miles) was expected to be held in January [reuters.com]

» January 13 2016 - #ClimateChange #CO2Removal #Biomass #Coal #CCS#BECCS #IGCC #FT [by #nature] Paper. A commercialization strategy for #CarbonNegativeEnergy. Climate change mitigation requires gigatonne-scale CO2 removal technologies, yet few examples exist beyond niche markets. The flexibility of thermochemical conversion of biomass and fossil energy, coupled with carbon capture and storage, offers a route to commercializing carbon-negative energy [nature.com]

» January 13 2016 - #Oil #OilPrice #UK [by #theweek] Oil price slump: as BP cuts jobs, does #NorthSeaOil have a future? Former 'shining light' of UK economy and proposed backbone of independent Scotland could be in terminal decline. BP has announced plans to shed about 600 jobs from its operations in the North Sea, part of a new set of cutbacks that will see 4,000 staff go globally. Blaming low oil prices, the company said it was taking the step in the face of "toughening market conditions", but added it remained committed to the North Sea [theweek.co.uk]

» January 12 2016 - #Oil #OilPrice #Dollar [by #bloomberg] Crude Oil Tumbles to 12-Year Low as Hedge Funds Head for Exit. Crude declined to a 12-year low, confirming the view of hedge funds that turned the least bullish since 2010. Futures dropped 5.3 percent in New York, adding to last week's 10 percent slide. Speculators' net-long position in West Texas Intermediate crude shrank 24 percent in the week ended Jan. 5, U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission data show. Producer prices in China fell for a record 46th month, bolstering concern about the world's second-biggest economy. A rapid U.S. dollar gain may send Brent oil to as low as $20 a barrel [bloomberg.com]

» January 12 2016 - #ClimateChange #India #INDC #Coal #ClimateFinance [by #shaktifoundation] Report. Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundation, the publication of the next edition of the India Climate Report. The latest briefing paper (Volume 2, January 2016) covers the Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) communicated by India, other recent developments including the notification of revised emission standards for coal-based thermal power plants and adoption of an accelerated timeline for achieving Bharat Stage VI emission standards for vehicles, and an update on climate finance [ogfj.com]

» January 12 2016 - #Oil #Geopolitics [by #ogfj] #Iran-#SaudiArabia Tensions And Impact On #OilPrice. Following recent attacks on the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Tehran in response to the execution of a prominent cleric, the Kingdom has announced that it will be severing diplomatic ties with Iran. This soaring political tension between the two most influential members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has led to fluctuating oil prices, with the price of Brent crude briefly having risen to $38.50/bbl, its highest level for three weeks, then being followed by a drop to below $33/bbl [today $31,67], due to concerns over rising product inventories and weakening Chinese demand growth. These developments have potentially significant repercussions for the oil & gas industry. Douglas-Westwood (DW) expects total oil production in Saudi Arabia to increase steadily over the next six years, reaching just over 12.1 MMbbl/d in 2021, with the Kingdom keen to maintain its market share. Following the signature of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) agreement in July 2015, and anticipated removal of international sanctions, Iran is eager to re-enter the market and increase its oil export volumes. Though the Iranian government has an ambitious target to raise its oil production to 5.7 MMbbl/d by 2018, DW takes a conservative view, expecting total Iranian oil production to rise at a 4% CAGR through to 2021. This could add further pressure on a market which is already oversupplied and pose an obstacle for other key producers within the Middle East, such as Saudi Arabia. In October 2015, the World Bank lowered its 2015 forecast for crude oil prices from $57/bbl to $52/bbl, due in part to expectations that Iranian oil exports would rise once international sanctions were lifted [ogfj.com]

» January 12 2016 - #Renewable #Wind #Uk [by #telegraph] Britain abandons onshore wind just as new technology makes it cheap [...] The world's biggest producer of wind turbines has accused Britain of obstructing use of new technology that can slash costs, preventing the wind industry from offering one of the cheapest forms of energy without subsidies [...] Half of all new turbines in Sweden are between 170 and 200 meters, while the latest projects in Germany average 165 meters. "Such limits mean the UK is being left behind in international markets," said a taskforce report by RenewableUK. The new technology has complex electronics, feeding 'smart data' from sensors back to a central computer system. They have better gear boxes and hi-tech blades that raise yield and lower noise. The industry has learned the art of siting turbines, and controlling turbulence and sheer. Economies of scale have done the rest. This is why average purchase prices for wind power in the US have fallen to the once unthinkable level of 2.35 cents per kilowatt/hour (KWh), according to the US energy Department. At this level wind competes toe-to-toe with coal or gas, even without a carbon tax, an increasingly likely prospect in the 2020s following the COP21 climate deal in Paris. American Electric Power in Oklahoma tripled its demand for local wind power last year simply because the bids came in so low. "We estimate that onshore wind is either the cheapest or close to being the cheapest source of energy in most regions globally," said Bank of America in a report last month. A study by Bloomberg New Energy Finance concluded that the global average for the 'levelised cost of electricity' (LCOE) for onshore wind fell to $83 per megawatt/hour last year compared to $76-$82 for gas turbine plants in the US, or $85-$93 in Asia, or $103-$118 in Europe [telegraph.co.uk]

» January 12 2016 - #Oil #Gas #India #FossilFuels #Geopolitics [by #india] With 11-year low oil price forcing oil and gas producers to cut spending, Prime Minister Narendra Modi [...] brainstormed with global experts on ways to attract investments and raise domestic production. Modi, in a two-hour long meeting with experts including BP Group chief executive Bob Dudley and International Energy Agency (IEA) Executive Director Fatih Birol, discussed steps needed to give fillip to domestic oil and gas sector where no major discovery has been brought to production in the last five years. The underlying theme was how to attract investment in oil and gas exploration and production (E&P) and raise domestic production, sources privy to the deliberations said. The experts, who also included Royal Dutch Shell Director (Projects & Technology) Harry Brekelmans and Pulitzer award- winning American author Daniel Yergin, detailed regulatory faultlines as well as need for steps like freeing of natural gas prices to boost domestic investments [india.com]

» January 11 2016 - #Renewable #Iran #Denmark #Geopolitics [by #oilprice] Many nations have expressed their willingness to invest in Iran once the western sanctions against the country's nuclear program are lifted. Denmark is one such nation that is eying Iran's renewable energy market. The Danish Foreign Affairs Minister Kristian Jensen, who visited Tehran on Monday along with a delegation that comprised of 58 companies, said that Denmark's exports to Iran could increase by almost $72 million after the lifting of western sanctions [oilprice.com]

» January 11 2016 - #NaturalGas #EU #Geopolitics [by #energypost] Gasland EU: upcoming energy security package is all about gas. The European Commission's first big energy initiative in 2016 will be a "winter package" on energy security, due in February. This will revise EU legislation on security of supply for gas and electricity, propose to give the Commission a greater role in international gas buying deals and set out new strategies for LNG and energy storage, and heating and cooling [energypost.eu]

» January 8 2016 - #ClimateChange #ClimateFinance #GreenClimateFund #GCF #EU [by #eurocapacity] Paper. Enhanced Direct Access: A Brief History (2009-15). This brief history of Enhanced Direct Access traces the idea back to a number of historic precursors, such as the Kreditanstalt fur Wiederaufbau (KfW) under the Marshall Plan, the World Bank Kecamatan Development Program in Indonesia, and the Brazilian Amazon Fund. It then follows how the idea evolved under the Bali Action Plan, the Transitional Committee for the design of the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and finally, the GCF Board, culminating in the establishment of a GCF EDA Pilot Phase [eurocapacity.org]

» January 8 2016 - #Coal #NaturalGas #EnergyMarkets [by #reuters] Is big coal dead? Coal and gas producer Consol Energy Inc cut its 2016 capital expenditure budget for its oil and gas division by 41 percent due to weak commodity prices. The company said it now plans to spend $205-$325 million on oil and gas drilling, down from its previous estimate of $400-$500 million. Pennsylvania-based Consol shifted its focus to natural gas from coal as coal prices began to weaken, giving it a slight advantage. However, oil and gas prices have also plummeted, forcing the company to tighten its purse strings. Consol also cut its 2016 sales forecast for its coal division to 27-32 million tons from 30.6-33.4 million tons, and said it expects coal prices to fall further due to an "unusually warm winter weather" [reuters.com]

» January 8 2016 - #Energy #TTIP #LowCarbonEnergy #ClimateChange #EnergySecurity #Geopolitics [by #QueenMaryUniversity] Paper. The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, Energy and Divestment. Negotiations over the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) have caused considerable concerns, specifically in relation to the effects the TTIP might produce in the energy sector. Such concerns are primarily related to climate change and the need to pursue a transition to a low-carbon energy future. In the near future, the world will have to meet the energy needs of a growing and fast-developing world population, while mitigating the impacts of climate change. As a result, the complex and evolving links between energy security and climate change challenges need to be taken into consideration very carefully. In fact, both energy security and climate change might have broad economic, political, and societal consequences. For instance, on the one hand, a lack of energy security can exacerbate geopolitical tensions and impede development; whilst, on the other, impacts of climate change might carry both short-term and long-term adverse implications [ssrn.com]

» January 7 2016 - #ClimateChange #GlobalWarming [by #reportingclimatescience] Atmospheric temperatures will remain elevated and may even edge up higher as the El Nino Pacific Ocean warming event fades and the cooling sea gives up heat to the air above it [...] the latest analysis of satellite measurements of the temperature of the atmosphere by UAH show that December was the warmest December since continuous measurement by satellite began in 1979 and that 2015 was the third warmest year in terms of the temperature of the lower troposphere as measured by satellite. The UAH analysis of global atmospheric temperatures agrees with a different analysis of satellite data by US firm Remote Sensing Systems (RSS) which also placed 2015 third and showed that December 2015 was the warmest month of December in the satellite era. The fact that temperatures for the global lower troposphere during 2015 were behind those reported for 2010 and 1998, according to both RSS and UAH data, appears to be at variance to the surface temperature datasets from US space agency NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of the US and the UK Meteorological Office which are all expected to show that 2015 was the warmest year on record in terms of global surface temperatures. This discrepancy may be partly - but not wholly - explained by the time lag between sea surface temperature warming and atmospheric warming. However, the variance is likely to reignite debate around the changes to the way that sea surface temperatures are analysed that were introduced earlier this year by both NASA and NOAA which had the effect of boosting global average temperatures in recent years [reportingclimatescience.com]

» January 7 2016 - #Oil #OilPrice #OilMarkets [by #bloomberg] U.S. oil futures in New York slid to the lowest in 12 years as turmoil in China's markets pushes crude closer to $30 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate slid as much as 5.5 percent Thursday on concern the economic slowdown in the world's biggest commodity consumer is worsening. China's central bank reduced the onshore yuan's fixing to the lowest since March 2011, triggering a selloff that led to the closure of Chinese stock exchanges. Brent oil will slump to $30 in the next 10 days, according to Nomura Holdings Inc., while UBS Group AG sees an oversupply pushing prices even lower [bloomberg.com]

» January 6 2016 - #ClimateChange #NaturalGas #US [by #ecowatch] Porter Ranch (U.S., California) Natural Gas Leak Spews 150 Million Pounds of Methane, Will Take Months to Fix. In the nation's biggest environmental disaster since the BP oil spill, a runaway natural gas leak above Los Angeles has emitted more than 150 million pounds of methane. Thousands of residents in the community of Porter Ranch, California, have been evacuated and put in temporary housing. The fumes have caused headaches and nosebleeds. The company responsible, Southern California Gas Company, says it could take 3 to 4 months to stop the breach [ecowatch.com]

» January 5 2016 - #Energy #ClimateChange #COP21 #US #Oil #Gas #Coal [by #washingtonpost] Why 2015 may be remembered as a transformative year for how we get energy. The United States is on track to shut down a record amount of coal-fired power plants in 2015. At the same time, it has installed a record amount of new solar energy capacity. The past year, in other words, hints at a historic transition for the U.S. energy sector. From dramatic price plunges for oil and natural gas to the significant emergence of industrial batteries for energy storage, 2015 was on a momentous course even before the world came together in Paris to agree on steps to reduce global warming. While it's not always a simple story, the overall tenor of these changes is clear - Americans are moving into a world that will get less of its energy from fossil fuels, that will embrace clean or low emission sources of electricity and that will write this into policy. The change didn't begin in 2015 - and won't happen overnight. Nor is it really marked by any single development - but rather, by a whole range of them [washingtonpost.com]

» January 5 2016 - #Coal #Geopolitics #China [by #IEA] What are the biggest changes affecting the coal market? The two most significant developments at present are the dip in Chinese demand and low prices. Coal prices have been declining since the start of 2011, making every month more difficult for struggling producers. Bust and boom cycles are common in commodities, and high prices and expectations of relentless Chinese growth triggered investments earlier this century that resulted in the current oversupply. Exacerbating the situation are the shale gas revolution, which cut coal demand and prices in the United States, and take-or-pay contracts for rails and ports in Australia. Additionally, currency depreciations in major coal-exporting countries and low oil prices (important in mining and transportation costs) have further depressed prices [iea.org]

» January 4 2016 - #Oil #Geopolitics #US #SaudiArabia #Iran #Opec [by #energyvoice] As we head into 2016, the world faces one of the freest oil markets weve ever seen. From the earliest days of oil production, many countries, beginning with the U.S., enacted strong government controls over their domestic oil markets. Later, that control shifted to OPEC and, more specifically, Saudi Arabia, which maintained a vise-like, if imperfect, grip over supply. But the year that is now winding down was one in which OPEC’s grip loosened significantly as production increased from new oil sources, primarily shale formations in the U.S. Mexico, which led the trend toward nationalization of oil resources in the early part of the last century, opened its fields to foreign investment. Then, in the final weeks of the year, the U.S. Congress voted to end a four-decade ban on oil exports, paving the way for the Theo T's historic voyage [...] On the last afternoon of 2015, an oil tanker filled with light, sweet crude from South Texas' Eagle Ford Shale formation eased out of NuStar's North Beach terminal in Corpus Christi, and headed for Trieste, Italy. ConocoPhillips sold the oil aboard the tanker Theo T to the Swiss trading firm Vitol - the first major export of U.S. oil in four decades [...] The U.S., which for years has only been a price taker in the global market, is poised to become a key seller, one whose production may be able to respond more quickly to price fluctuations than any source of supply outside of Saudi Arabia. U.S. production will be hitting a saturated global market just as sanctions are lifted on Iran and that country, too, ramps up exports. Meanwhile, Saudi continues pumping apace and weaker OPEC members like Venezuela are desperate to sell as much oil as possible at any price to prop up their ailing economies. The U.S., it seems, couldn't have picked a worse time to enter the export marke [energyvoice.com]

» January 4 2016 - #Renewables #ClimateChange #US [by #bnef] #WIND & #SOLAR #TAXCREDIT. In an historic move, Congress is about to extend tax credits for the renewable energy industry. What's potentially at stake: approximately $73bn in new investment and 8 million more households to be powered by renewables [...] Congress is on the verge of a making a historic move that will be a major boon for clean energy over the next five years and beyond. What's potentially at stake: approximately $73bn in new investment and 8 million more households to be powered by renewables. Specifically, the House of Representatives is expected to vote on five-year extensions of key tax credits supporting wind, solar, and other renewable technologies. These credits have been critical to helping clean energy attract well over $400bn in in investment over the past decade. But they have repeatedly lapsed in the past, causing serious disruption in the marketplace. Now Congress is on the verge of giving the clean energy industry the longer-term certainty it has long needed to compete and grow. The net result could be 37 gigawatts of new wind and solar capacity - a 56% boost to the industry over 5 years. Bloomberg New Energy Finance has forecast the potential upside of the changes Congress is considering with five-year outlooks for wind and solar growth in the US [bnef.com]

» January 4 2016 - #ClimateChange #ClimateFinance #Germany #IADB [by #climatefinanceready] New finance facility will help cities get ready to unlock billions for green infrastructure. Green infrastructure is no longer out-of-reach for cities in developing countries thanks to the launch of the C40 Cities Finance Facility, a major project by C40, Germany and Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) to provide the skills, technical assistance and connections to funding opportunities needed to unlock up to $1 billion worth of sustainable infrastructure in cities across low and middle-income countries by 2020. This transformative partnership between C40, Germany and IADB, launched today at the C40 Forum, reinforces the joint commitment to bring practical solutions to unlock the potential of all cities to deliver action on climate change [climatefinanceready.org]

» January 4 2016 - #Oil #Geopolitics [by #bloomberg] Oil gained for a second day as #SaudiArabia cut ties with #Iran a day after its embassy in Tehran was attacked to protest the Saudis' execution of a prominent Shiite cleric. Futures rose as much as 3.5 percent in New York, extending Thursday's 1.2 percent advance. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned of repercussions and protesters armed with rocks and firebombs attacked the Saudi embassy in Tehran on Saturday and set parts of the building on fire. The Middle East accounted for about 30 percent of global oil output in 2014, according to the Energy Information Administration. Saudi Arabia and Iran, respectively OPEC's first- and fifth-ranked producers, are on opposite sides of Middle East conflicts from Syria to Yemen [bloomberg.com]

» January 1 2016 - #Oil #Geopolitics [by #yahoo] #Oman sees $6.47 bn budget deficit amid oil slump. Non-OPEC member Oman on Thursday announced a budget deficit for 2015 of $6.47 billion (5.35 billion euros), reflecting the effect on Gulf producers of plummeting crude oil prices. The budget includes expenditure of $36.5 billion, up 4.5 percent from 2014, and revenue of $30.03 billion, down 1.0 percent, the official ONA news agency cited the finance ministry as saying. The projected deficit will represent 21 percent of public revenue and 8.0 percent of the sultanate's GDP. Oman is a small producer of crude, at about one million barrels per day. Current expenditure accounts for the lion's share at 68 percent of public spending, far ahead of investments (23 percent) [yahoo.com]

» January 1 2016 - #EUenergy: the #EnergyUnion now has an App to back it up. Did you know that today's total EU energy consumption is about the same as in 1990? Did you know that greenhouse gas emissions per capita have dropped almost 20% since 1990 in the EU? Did you know that Germany, despite its Energiewende, still accounts for a quarter of all coal consumption in the EU, the same as in 1990? Did you know that Poland, despite its reputation as coal country, has far lower per capita CO2 emissions than many other EU countries? All of these insights - and many more - are revealed by the new EUenergy App. The App (only in the Apple store for now, Android version will follow) makes available, for the first time, public EU climate and energy data (based on Eurostat) in an easy to use format. It shows in an instant how national energy mixes and emissions have changed over time and relative to each other and to EU-averages. It also shows the evolution of electricity prices and gas market fundamentals. It is, in short, a great tool to follow the developments in the European energy market [energypost.eu]

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