54% of Sweden’s power comes from renewables and this energy is increasingly local. Smart grids are switching Swedish homes from energy consumers to power-making ‘prosumers.’ Local ‘district heating’ plants use excess heat to warm the majority of Swedish homes. Sweden tops the World Economic Forum’s Energy Transitions Index By 2030, almost a third of all the energy consumed in the European Union must come from renewable sources, according to binding targets agreed in 2018. Sweden is helping lead the way. As well as targeting 100% renewable electricity production by 2040, the country is transforming homes into highly efficient ‘prosumers’ – buildings which both produce and consume the vast majority of their own energy.

WEForum 21st Sept 2020 read more »

An organizational change is planned in the coming years at the Orano la Hague site. The SUD Orano Cycle union is worried about possible job cuts. The SUD Orano Cycle union is worried because jobs are threatened in La Hague. The project called Convergence would result in the merger of offices and workshops, and would combine the control rooms into one. “For the moment, we still do not know the figures for layoffs”, explains Eric Gyurjan , of SUD Orano Cycle .

Actu.fr 24th Sept 2020 read more »

Going carbon neutral by 2060 ‘will make China richer’. China’s surprise pledge to reach “carbon neutrality” before 2060 could cut global warming this century by 0.25C and raise the country’s GDP, our new analysis shows. The significant new announcement, made by president Xi Jinping at this week’s UN General Assembly, means that more than one sixth of the world’s population – and around a third of its CO2 output – has, overnight, been committed to net-zero emissions within 40 years. We used Cambridge Econometrics’ E3ME macroeconomic model to analyse the implications of the pledge, finding that China’s CO2 emissions would need to fall rapidly to reach net-zero by 2060. The huge scale of investments required to do this would raise China’s GDP by as much as 5% later this decade, with a modest ongoing positive impact due to reduced fossil-fuel imports. China’s investments would not only drive dramatic reductions in its own CO2 emissions, but would also lower the cost of clean energy, creating a positive “spillover” effect in other countries. In total, the pledge could mean global warming this century reaching around 2.35C, some 0.25C lower than the level expected in our baseline – even if others do not raise their own climate goals.

Carbon Brief 24th Sept 2020 read more »

Why China’s pledge to go carbon neutral by 2060 is very good news for the global climate fight. China has previously dodged calls to set a long-term target of this kind, on the grounds it is a developing country.

iNews 23rd Sept 2020 read more »