Arctic rushes, Scottish renewables, and climate thresholds
Climate and energy news:
Scottish consumers warned over power
bills
Renewables policy is deployed as a stick to hit the idea of
Scottish independence – as Scotland has more renewable production,
“pro-union politicians and some industry executives and analysts
say independence for Scotland could lead to hefty hikes in power
bills to cover renewable energy subsidies.”
Drax’s £2bn ‘clean coal’ project wins government
funding
The government have awarded “tens of millions of pounds” to
coal power station Drax to develop a new “clean coal” CCS plant at
their site in Yorkshire.
Takeover may solve wind turbine
issues
“The Scottish government, through Community Energy Scotland,
has invested millions of pounds of public money in 19 small wind
farm projects across the Highlands and Islands.” The schemes are
made up on small turbines.
China says poorly prepared to fight impact of
climate change
“China is poorly prepared to tackle the impact of climate
change that presents a serious threat to the country, thanks to a
lack of planning and public awareness, the government said on
Monday.”
Climate and energy comment:
US Navy predicts summer ice free Arctic by
2016
Looks like the curse of the missing “could” in headlines
strikes again. “An ongoing US Department of Energy-backed research
project led by a US Navy scientist predicts that the Arctic could
lose its summer sea ice cover as early as 2016”. On another blog, a
seasoned observer of the climate debate calls this
prediction “nonsense”.
Climate and science policy: the Australian
Coalition’s first 90 days
A summary of the first three months of Australia’s new
coalition government in climate and energy terms lists change
across a string of policy areas. The government came to power
pledging to roll back climate policy.
Can the Arctic be
protected?
“One of the more regrettable conclusions from 2013 is that
the Arctic cannot and will not be preserved and kept pristine from
the process of economic development” Nick Butler writes in the FT.
As climate change increased access to the region, “The resource
base is too substantial, the opportunity too tempting…
Development is starting and will continue. The next question is
whether it can be managed properly.”
Improving non-domestic RHI: Have your
say
The non-domestic Renewable Heat Incentive, a scheme to
subsidise renewable heat production, will be reviewed in 2014. This
DECC blog post calls for submissions on the scheme from the
public.
The changing landscape of the global energy
economy
A report back from a Nobel Week Dialogue, which this year is
examining global access to energy. The world’s energy landscape is
changing dramatically; the IEA’s analysis of shale gas, energy
access and climate change are summarised.
Snowe to AGU about Congress: ‘That Was Then, and
This is Now’
A former US senator tells a conference of scientists in the
US that getting scientific messages heard in the US Congress is
challenging. “She pointed to ‘a rising chorus’ of climate science
doubters and to the years-long economic recession as contributing
to the malaise.”
New climate science:
The difficult, the dangerous and the catastrophic:
Managing the spectrum of climate risks
The notion of a threshold of dangerous climate change has
been central to national and international efforts to address
climate risks. However, the focus on a single target has now become
an obstacle, says a new study.