EU countries poised to agree push on fossil fuel phase-out
News
EU countries poised to agree push on fossil fuel phase-out, document
The EU is planning to back calls for a global fossil fuel phase-out at the next UN climate summit, according to a document seen by Reuters. A draft version of the EU’s “conclusions on climate diplomacy” seeks to include a complete fossil-fuel phase-out as one of the bloc’s priorities ahead of COP28, which is being held in Dubai in November, the newswire says. It reports: “A draft of the conclusions, seen by Reuters on Friday, acknowledged a commitment nearly 200 countries made at previous UN climate talks to phase down coal-fuelled energy – but said this must go further, to phase out all CO2-emitting fossil fuels, including oil and gas.” According to Reuters, the document reads: “The shift towards a climate neutral economy will require the global phase-out of unabated fossil fuels, as defined by the IPCC [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change].”
In other European news, Reuters reports that campaigners have urged the EU to rethink plans to label some aviation investments as “green” over greenwashing fears. Reuters explains: “The European Commission is split over how to handle aviation in the EU’s taxonomy list of climate-friendly investments, with some officials backing the idea on condition investments meet certain environmental standards and others opposed to giving any green badge to a high-carbon sector. The debate centres on recommendations made by EU advisers last year, which said Brussels should give a climate-friendly label to ‘best in class’ currently-produced aircraft if they replace an older, less fuel-efficient plane in the fleet.”
Elsewhere, the Times reports that European gas prices have fallen to an 18-month low as mild weather and smooth supply have limited demand. The Guardian reports that Italy has “scrapped a generous tax credit scheme aimed at making homes more energy-efficient amid warnings of dire effects on the construction sector”. Meanwhile, Reuters says France has signalled it still has concerns over electric car subsidies contained within the US Inflation Reduction Act. Reuters also reports that France has said it will wait to see if the return of left-wing environmentalist president Lula in Brazil will see progress on climate and deforestation in a proposed EU-Mercosur trade deal before signing anything.
Britain’s flagship nuclear plant scrambles to avoid cash crunch
The UK’s long-planned nuclear plant Hinkley Point C is “scrambling” to avoid a “cash crunch”, the Daily Telegraph reports. French power company EDF has said that its partner on the project China General Nuclear (CGN) will likely not want to contribute to a fresh funding round for the nuclear project in Somerset, the Daily Telegraph says. It reports: “It leaves EDF on the hook for billions of pounds at a time when the French state-owned business’s balance sheet has been stretched by outages on its nuclear fleet at home, which have worsened Europe’s energy crisis. EDF added that Hinkley Point C is now expected to cost £32bn owing to inflation, up from a previous estimate of £26bn. The project was initially expected to cost £18bn when approved in 2016.” The Times adds that the crunch could force the project to close for good.
The Sunday Times interviews the UK’s new net-zero and energy minister Grant Schapps, who insists that “private sector capital and investment” will ride to the rescue to save Hinkley and other proposed nuclear projects in the UK. Elsewhere in the interview, Schapps says that his number one objective as net-zero and energy minister is “to create the economy with the cheapest wholesale electricity price by 2035”. He adds: “That’s what I’m going to be all about. Let’s have Britain with the cheapest energy in Europe.” On offshore wind, he says: “What I intend to do is ensure it’s accelerated and put real emphasis and oomph behind it.” However, he seems “less keen” to discuss onshore wind, according to the Sunday Times. Separately, the Sunday Times reports that Labour leader Keir Starmer is to include climate change as one of his five “national missions” to transform the UK if elected into power, under plans to be unveiled this Thursday.
Elsewhere, the Daily Telegraph reports that a fuel cell energy company has been forced to give up plans for a development centre after being told it would take seven years to connect to Britain’s grid. It comes as the Press Association reports that two of the UK’s energy trade bodies have warned that the country risks falling behind in the race to become a global renewable energy leader without rule changes.
In addition, the Daily Telegraph reports that a London-based oil producer is delaying plans for North Sea drilling, blaming the UK’s windfall tax.
Germany: Economy ministry is talking to energy company Leag about phasing out lignite in eastern Germany by 2030
The German economy ministry is in talks with the largest power plant operator in eastern Germany, Leag, about an “exit from lignite” by 2030 instead of the earlier target of 2028, reports Der Spiegel. The outlet adds that Leag’s majority shareholder, the Czech firm EPH, wants to “neither confirm nor deny” talks. However, the state governments in the German states of Saxony-Anhalt and Saxony have spoken out against an early end to lignite mining, notes the newspaper, adding that a law passed in 2020 stipulates that coal-fired power generation will not be phased out until 2038. Last October, German economy and climate minister Robert Habeck agreed with the state government of North Rhine-Westphalia and the energy company RWE to exit coal in 2030, says the outlet. Der Spiegel adds that, on Wednesday, the minister will visit the Schwarze Pumpe “coal-industrial” site in Lusatia with Leag.
Separately, Clean Energy Wire reports that Germany’s economy and climate ministry wants to take all the CO2 certificates from the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) that will be freed up by the country’s coal exit off the market. Even after the latest tightening of the ETS at the EU level, the coal exit would still leave “a residual amount” of free certificates and “we want to have this residual amount of allowances cancelled,” a ministry spokesperson has told the newsletter Table.Media. NGOs and climate experts “had expressed fears” that the country’s coal phaseout would do nothing for the climate if the freed-up emissions certificates could be used elsewhere – a phenomenon often referred to as the “waterbed effect”, notes CLEW. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) reports that German energy supply company EVO wants to be ‘totally climate-neutral’ from 2040 onwards, relying on “green district heating” and pellets instead of coal.
Meanwhile, FAZ reports that the dispute between Paris and Berlin over the classification of nuclear power as “green” is “about much more than climate protection”: it is “about tough economic interests in the future market of green hydrogen”. The newspaper notes that France is waiting for Germany’s support to classify nuclear power as “green”, threatening the further construction of the H2Med hydrogen pipeline from Spain to Germany. However, the German ambassador, whose support France had counted on, has stressed that “we could not accept the inclusion of low-carbon sources in the renewables directive”, the outlet adds.
In other German news, Reuters adds that Klaus Mueller, head of the German network agency which regulates gas and electricity markets, in an interview with Deutschlandfunk on Sunday, said that he could not exclude possible gas shortages next winter. Finally, the Economic Times reports that German chancellor Olaf Scholz’s visit to India next week will focus on tools to fight climate change and India’s possible inclusion in the “climate club”.
UK: King praises children for ‘raising the alarm over climate change’
King Charles has praised children for raising the alarm on climate change in the afterword of a new children’s book, the Independent reports. The king has co-authored “A Ladybird Book: Climate Change”, which is a child-friendly title adapted from the Ladybird Expert volume published in 2017, according to the Independent. It adds: “The text has been updated with new climate data, an additional spread on the youth climate change movement, as well as the new afterword from the former Prince of Wales and is illustrated by Aleesha Nandhra.” BBC News adds that the king on Friday hosted an event at Buckingham Palace to endorse the deal made at the COP15 nature summit in Montreal in December. It adds: “The king’s reception followed a major government meeting aimed at kick-starting private fundraising to deliver on promises made at the UN’s COP15 summit.” The National reports that COP28 president-designate Dr Sultan Al Jaber, a controversial choice given his presiding role over oil and gas in the UAE, met with the king on Thursday.
UK: Judge praises Birmingham oil protesters’ ‘admirable aims’
A judge sentencing seven Just Stop Oil protesters in the UK praised their “admirable aims” in trying to stop activities causing climate change, BBC News reports. In comments widely shared on social media, the judge said: “It is abundantly clear that you are all good people, intelligent and articulate and you have been a pleasure throughout to deal with. It is unarguable that manmade global warming is real and that we are facing a climate crisis. That is accepted and recognised by the scientific community and most governments (including our own). Your aims are to slow or even stop the advance of global warming and therefore to preserve the planet not just for generations to come but for existing generations…In simple terms, you are good people with admirable aims.” The Independent also has the story.
China launches climate prediction model for wind and solar power
China has launched a “national wind and solar resources climate prediction model to enable provincial authorities to forecast energy demand and supply”, reports Reuters. A government statement says that the model, which “provides data and graphic predictions on major variables in renewable energy supply, such as wind speed and solar radiation, as well as demand-side data such as average local temperature”, was “first issued on Thursday and will be released monthly”, the newswire notes. Meanwhile, China’s petrochemical industry “saw an increase in revenues and a decline in profits” in 2022, writes Xinhua, citing the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation (CPCIF). The country’s petrochemical industry registered a “total revenue of 16.56tn yuan (about US$2.41tn) in 2022, climbing 14.4% year on year, while its total profit eased 2.8% to 1.13tn yuan”, the state news agency adds. The state-run industry newspaper China Energy News carries an interview with Xiong Yan, chairman of Beijing Guofu Capital, a private company, who says that the “metaverse…and the new technology could be the most powerful tool to help achieve the carbon neutrality goal”.
Meanwhile, CNBC reports on comments by US Senator Lindsey Graham, who has said that “I think the best thing we do for the planet is come up with low-carbon technology sooner rather than later, get people like China and India, who are big emitters, to play”, noting that “carbon adjusted border fees could help towards this”. The Wall Street Journal reports that US climate envoy John Kerry has said that he is “seeking to renew talks about climate change with his Chinese counterpart and hopes that a focus on that issue will aid in a broader renewal of communications with Beijing”. He added that “I think climate is a way definitively to find cooperation” in an interview at the Munich Security Conference. Time has an article, titled: “The US wants to build a clean-energy economy. But first it needs China’s help.”
Separately, Al Jazeera writes that Iran’s president Ebrahim Raisi was “warmly welcomed by his Chinese counterpart” Xi Jinping in Beijing, but the “same issues that have hampered their relationship for years – mainly economic ties – pose a challenge to the deals signed by the two”. It adds that reportshave emerged that “Sinopec, China’s state-owned energy giant, has pulled out of the significant Yadavaran oil field project near the Iran-Iraq border, with Tehran left to go ahead with its development on its own”. The South China Morning Post has an editorial on Raisi’ visit, which says, “despite crippling economic sanctions Iran, a major oil and gas producer, has maintained supplies to China. But prolonged curbs have driven Tehran to diversify economic ties.” It adds that this is reflected in Raisi’s “assessment” upon his return to Tehran that the talks with Xi were “fruitful, yielding as many as 20 cooperation agreements that deepen agriculture, trade and industry ties, as well as in renewable energy and infrastructure”.
Elsewhere, Reuters says that International Energy Agency (IEA) head Fatih Birol has “warned of possible energy shortages next winter as relatively little new liquefied natural gas (LNG) is coming to the market while China’s consumption is set to rise this year”. Finally, Caixin Global has an “in-depth” article, titled: “Japanese, German carmakers lose ground in China after falling behind on EVs.”
Comment
Vladimir Putin’s energy war has utterly failed
Editorial, The Daily Telegraph
An editorial in the Daily Telegraph says that Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s attempts to drive up prices in an energy war have “utterly failed” as an exceptionally mild winter has seen wholesale energy prices plunge. The challenge now is to ensure this dip is quickly translated into lower energy bills for consumers in the UK, the editorial says. It adds: “The UK’s energy sourcing is now much more diverse, with renewables in the mix, offering policy makers the opportunity to reform the market structure to stop unjustified and hugely damaging price increases becoming the norm.” It comes as a Daily Telegraph column by GB News journalist Liam Halligan argues that the UK’s energy market is “blatantly rigged”, adding: “Rather than jacking up an already sky-high tax rate on North Sea energy exploration, ministers should instead reform how energy is priced – so consumers can finally start benefiting from the big shift over the last decade in the UK’s energy mix.”
Elsewhere, the Daily Telegraph’s assistant editor Jeremy Warner is critical of the US Inflation Reduction Act and its likely impact on the UK, saying: “It masquerades under the catch-all justification of net-zero. Climate change has given governments new licence for interventions of this sort.”
In addition, Business Green publishes an opinion article by Liberal Democrat MP Wera Hobhouse, urging the government not to abandon tidal energy. It comes as the Sunday Times has published a column by (climate sceptic) Dominic Lawson questioning government support for Drax, the North Yorkshire biomass power plant that has long faced scrutiny over the sustainability of its practices.
Science
Many risky feedback loops amplify the need for climate action
A new commentary piece warns that current plans to mitigate climate change may be “inadequate” because of “risky feedback loops”. The authors describe 41 climate feedback loops, identifying 27 as “amplifying”, seven as “dampening” and seven as “uncertain”. They say that some feedbacks – including permafrost thaw and forest dieback – are not yet fully incorporated into climate models, meaning that current emissions drawdown plans could fail to adequately limit future warming. The paper makes two recommendations – a rapid transition toward integrated Earth system science to fully account for biological, social and other interactions that may influence the climate, and more ambitious plans for emissions drawdown.
Three-decade assessment of dry and wet spells change across Iran, a fingerprint of climate change
Iran has seen a 0.35mm per year decrease in rainfall over the past 30 years due to climate change, a new paper finds. The study investigates variations in the timing, duration and temperature of wet and dry spells over Iran, using a statistical analysis of historical climate data over 1959-2018. “Warmer wet spells are likely responsible for precipitation patterns changes in snow-dominated stations since their wet spells temperature has more than threefold growth with increasing distance to coast,” the study notes. It adds that the most severe changes in climate were seen over 2009-18.
Other stories
- The race across Europe to build green steel plants (BBC News)
- How climate change is making tampons (and lots of other stuff) more expensive (The New York Times)
- Will Elon Musk’s $25,000 Tesla save the electric car industry? (The Sunday Times)
- Skiiers urge sport’s governing body to act over climate crisis and lack of snow (The Guardian)
- Comment: Malpass led the World Bank for growth (Wall Street Journal)
- How populist Poland exposed Britain’s failing heat pump strategy (The Daily Telegraph)
- How to fix global warming? Bring back rationing (The Times)
- Three dozen dead as Brazil rains cause calamity (Reuters)
- IEA’s Birol warns of tighter energy supply next winter (Reuters)
- Australia’s big emitters could cut CO2 by 90% by 2050 without offsets, report finds (The Guardian)
- Great Lakes ice cover at record low (The Hill)
- Public lands in the US have long been disposed to fossil fuel companies. Now, the lands are being offered to solar companies (Inside Climate News)
- The $100bn offshore wind industry has a whale problem (Bloomberg)
- With two key picks, Biden weaves climate into economy and regulations (The New York Times)
- Cyclone death toll in New Zealand rises to nine as recovery continues (Reuters)
- Wildfires in Chile raise ‘great concern’, says minister (Reuters)
- Canada unveils sustainable jobs plan to prepare workers for future green economy (Reuters)
- I’m teaching the next generation how to cope with climate devastation at my new university (The i newspaper)
- Australia can’t blow another decade of climate action – it’s now up to Labor and the Greens (The Guardian)
- Consultation launched on banning sale of peat in Scotland (The Independent)
- Climate crisis brings whiff of danger to French perfume capital (The Guardian)
- From cradle to compost: the disruptors who want to make death greener (The Guardian)
- Brazil appoints Luiz Alberto Figueiredo as ambassador for climate change (Reuters)