News June 2019

Energy Policy

30th June 2019

World leaders have reaffirmed their commitment to cutting greenhouse gas emissions, after Theresa May urged them to do more on climate change. The prime minister called on the G20 countries to set targets for net zero greenhouse gas emissions. Instead, 19 pledged to meet their targets set in the 2015 Paris agreement. The US did not sign up. The UK is the first country to enshrine in law a commitment to be a net zero emitter of CO2 by 2050.

BBC 29th June 2019 read more »

Theresa May has urged countries to be more ambitious in tackling the climate crisis after Donald Trump reiterated his determination to ditch the Paris accord. The prime minister led a session on the environment at the G20 summit in Osaka, which will be one of her final appearances on the world stage. In the G20 communique, which was agreed after many hours of wrangling among the “sherpas”, who represent the group’s member states, 19 of the 20 reiterated their commitment to the Paris accord. The final wording echoed a statement from the last G20 summit, in Buenos Aires, but government sources suggested some countries, including the US, India and China, had tried to water it down. The US president had sought to excise the reference to the Paris agreement from the communique altogether, with the help of several other countries, reportedly including Brazil and Turkey. May said she was pleased there was a communique at all.

Guardian 29th June 2019 read more »

Leaders of the world’s biggest economies at the G20 summit in Japan have resisted pressure from Donald Trump to water down commitments to fight climate change. The US president is understood to have been pressing states including Brazil, Turkey, Australia and Saudi Arabia to join him in keeping any reference to the Paris agreement on reducing carbon emissions out of the summit communique. At one point it seemed possible that the leaders would be unable to agree a final statement at all. French president Emmanuel Macron, the architect of the climate deal, reportedly warned he would refuse to sign off a joint statement unless it was included. But the communique eventually agreed at the conclusion of the two-day gathering in Osaka repeated earlier commitments by 19 of the G20 members to the “irreversibility” of the Paris accord and its full implementation.

Independent 29th June 2019 read more »

Theresa May failed to convince Donald Trump to shift his stance on climate change during her last hurrah on the world stage yesterday. The two leaders clashed behind the scenes on the final day of the G20 summit. The US president snubbed May’s attempt to get world leaders to “raise their ambition” on climate change as he refused to reverse his position on the landmark 2016 Paris agreement committing world leaders to limit warming by 1.5C. America was the only country not to recommit itself to the Paris accord at the summit in the Japanese port city of Osaka — despite May pushing for the “strongest wording we can deliver”. Trump offered a robust defence of his scepticism about renewable energy and his opposition to the Paris accord: “It doesn’t always work with a windmill. When the wind goes off, the plant isn’t working. “It doesn’t always work with solar because solar’s just not strong enough, and a lot of them want to go to wind, which has caused a lot of problems.”

Times 30th June 2019 read more »

Times 29th June 2019 read more »

Trump snubs climate change accord at G20 despite plea from Theresa May.

The i News 29th June 2019 read more »

Telegraph 29th June 2019 read more »

Energy Policy – Scotland

30th June 2019

NICOLA Sturgeon has been accused of climate change gimmickry after her ministers took dozens of car trips on the short route between Government headquarters and Holyrood. Ministers used their chauffeur-driven vehicles for a journey that takes less than 15 minutes by foot a week ahead of Sturgeon declaring that an over-heating planet is an “emergency”. Environment Secretary Roseanna Cunningham was one of the Cabinet heavyweights to have been ferried about. Scottish Tory shadow environment secretary Maurice Golden said: “This proves that Nicola Sturgeon’s climate emergency was a gimmick above all else. When push comes to shove, her own ministers clearly have no intention of signing up to it. The voters can see right through this nationalist con.”

Herald 30th June 2019 read more »

Sizewell

30th June 2019

Education and business leaders from across the region have hailed the Sizewell C project as a “once in a generation” opportunity to boost skills among local people. Alison Downes, co-chair of Theberton and Eastbridge Action Group on Sizewell (TEAGS), said: “We are dismayed that this support for Sizewell C and the East of England neglects to consider the damage to the riches of our environment, and entirely ignores losses to tourism income and jobs brought about by the impacts of a massive 10+ year construction project on our beautiful landscape. Noise, pollution, damage to the AONB and extreme traffic congestion will certainly drive visitors away for an extended period. “Given that EDF is planning to build a campus at Eastbridge for 2,400 construction workers, plus a caravan site for a further 600, that’s a huge number of people who are not from the local area working on the project. And indeed, according to the Office of National Statistics, our district enjoys some of the lowest levels of unemployment in the country. Nuclear power is not the only solution to our climate crisis; the carbon footprint of such a huge construction project as Sizewell C will be enormous. Of course we want our children to have a bright future, but surely not at any price.”

East Anglian Daily Times 28th June 2019 read more »

Cumbria

30th June 2019

An Open letter to All Allerdale Borough Councillors, Nuclear Laundry. Radiation Free Lakeland have been making waves about the new nuclear laundry operating on the Lillyhall Business Park. Immediately following a complaint sent in to the Local Government Ombudsman Allerdale Borough Council finally admitted that the Energy Coast Laundry has been operating for a full year illegally without planning permission. Allerdale B.C. now have a golden opportunity to stop the nuclear laundry operating on the Lillyhall Business Park. The ‘Energy Coast Laundry”s’ own website boasts that they are an “effective provider of laundry services to the Nuclear Industry. With the capability to launder significant quantities of quality finished garments, we meet the operational needs of our customers in a safe and cost effective way. We are determined to ensure we also look after our environment and show complete adherence to our permits and licences.” Meanwhile this new nuclear laundry has been operating for a full year without the necessary planning permission and there has been no scrutiny afforded by either the public or up until now by the council. It is clear that this laundry is geared up to service not only Sellafield but also the wider nuclear industry with nuclear laundry likely to be travelling through the Lake District to Lillyhall from for example Heysham and further afield.

Radiation Free Lakeland 29th June 2019 read more »

Floating Nuclear

30th June 2019

Next month, a floating nuclear power plant called the Akademik Lomonosov will be towed via the Northern Sea Route to its final destination in the Far East, after almost two decades in construction. It’s part of Russia’s ambition to bring electric power to a mineral-rich region. The 144-meter (472 feet) long platform painted in the colors of the Russian flag is going to float next to a small Arctic port town of Pevek, some 4,000 miles away from Moscow. It will supply electricity to settlements and companies extracting hydrocarbons and precious stones in the Chukotka region. A larger agenda is at work too: aiding President Vladimir Putin’s ambitious Arctic expansion plans, which have raised geopolitical concerns in the United States.

CNN 28th June 2019 read more »

Radwaste

30th June 2019

What really went wrong at WIPP: An insider’s view of two accidents at the only US underground nuclear waste repository? Within a 10-day period in February 2014, two accidents happened at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico – the United States’ only underground repository for nuclear waste. First, a truck fire deep in the mine spread soot over key equipment and disabled the repository’s air monitoring system. Then a chemical reaction breached a waste drum, causing a radiological release that contaminated large areas of the repository. Two Accident Investigation Boards and a Technical Assessment Team identified the immediate causes of the accidents and recommended remedial actions. The author, who served as the Deputy Under Secretary of the Energy Department at the time of the accidents and during the three years WIPP was closed, examines the larger problems within the Energy Department and its contractors that set the stage for the accidents. He places the blame on mismanagement at the Los Alamos National Laboratory; structural problems created by a statutory “fence” between the National Nuclear Security Administration and the rest of the Energy Department, including the Office of Environmental Management, which is responsible for disposing of the waste from more than 60 years of nuclear weapons production; and a breakdown of the “nuclear culture.”

Bulletin of Atomic Scientists 28th June 2019 read more »

Chernobyl

30th June 2019

A Staffordshire woman who grew up close to the Chernobyl nuclear plant has told how families knew little about the disaster. Cruelly, she recalls, they were told “everything is fine” by the authorities. While she was at school, youngsters were given a series of tablets, but were never told what they were for. Only later did she learn they were to deal with radiation caused when a reactor exploded at the nuclear plant in 1986. Elina Oliferuk, 32, was born in October 1986 in the Ukrainian city of Lviv, just six months after the catastrophic nuclear accident.

Birmingham Mail 30th June 2019 read more »

Ireland

30th June 2019

Letter Dr Cormac O’Raifeartaigh: I see the current “political fever” as an important first step. Acknowledging a problem is a vital part of its solution, and in this regard our government is far ahead of countries such as America. You made no mention of the costs of not taking action. Delaying on this issue will cost us dearly, both in the short term — heavy fines from the EU — and in the long term, by failing to help the international action to combat a growing crisis that is set to have a devastating effect on many countries. However, I was disappointed that, of all the studies of this issue that have recently been published, you cited the work of Dr Bjorn Lomborg, who is not a trained scientist, and whose work, I would argue, is not respected by climate scientists.

Times 30th June 2019 read more »

US

30th June 2019

Donald Trump expends a lot of energy complaining about renewable wind power. The US president has called wind farms ugly, unreliable and has linked the noise they make to cancer. He should save his breath. Renewable energy in the US has far too much momentum to be halted by barbed quips. Wind power already accounted for nearly 7 per cent of all US electricity generation last year, according to the US Energy Information Agency. The next phase of growth will come from offshore wind farms. That is good news for Danish wind farm specialist Orsted. Formerly known as Danish Oil and Natural Gas, the group has shed much of its fossil fuels related businesses in recent years. It focuses on financing and building ever larger wind turbine arrays. Its next growth area is the nascent US offshore market. After buying Deepwater Wind, a US offshore wind developer, last year it has won new contracts. Most recently, New Jersey selected Orsted to develop a 1,100 megawatt offshore project – enough to power half a million homes. This follows another even larger Orsted-partnered project off Massachusetts and Rhode Island, due to begin operations in the next five years. There will be more to come. Although US installed wind generation capacity has grown at a compound annual rate of over 9 per cent since 2013, almost all of that sits onshore. Texas is one of the largest wind generators. Offshore projects could dot the waters on both of America’s coasts in the decades ahead – potentially providing another 2,000 gigawatts (2m megawatts), according to the US Department of Energy.

FT 30th June 2019 read more »

Renewables – Onshore Wind

30th June 2019

Pressure is mounting within the Conservative party to end its block on new onshore windfarms after evidence that Tory supporters overwhelmingly back their return. Both Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt, who are battling to become the party’s new leader, are facing internal calls to give the green light to new onshore wind projects that could slash the price of energy. Latest research suggests Tory voters are far more concerned about fracking than they are about onshore windfarms. Polling of more than 15,000 Tory voters suggests there is now clear support for onshore wind farms. The survey, carried out by Survation, for the Conservative Environment Network, showed that 74% of people who voted Conservative in the last election support onshore wind farms. The figure was twice the number of Tory voters who back fracking – just 37%. Analysis of the poll carried out by Chris Hanretty, professor of politics at Royal Holloway University, found support was high in eight of the 10 constituencies identified by Conservatives as swing seats, targeted by Liberal Democrats. This includes Bath and Richmond Park, where support is 80.7% and 78.1% respectively. There is mounting evidence that onshore wind is significantly cheaper than other forms of energy. The government has already committed to a “net-zero” carbon emissions target by 2050. Onshore wind is currently excluded from competing in Contracts for Difference auctions, which are designed to provide stability and certainty to investors. The exclusion has been blamed for stopping further investment.

Observer 30th June 2019 read more »

Energy Policy

Energy Policy – Scotland

Sizewell

Cumbria

Floating Nuclear

Radwaste

Chernobyl

Ireland

US

Renewables – Onshore Wind

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