Roughly four-fifths of U.S. coal plants are either scheduled to close by 2025 or now cost more to operate than new nearby solar or wind power would, new research shows. The May 5 analysis comes from Energy Innovation: Policy & Technology, based in San Francisco. The work highlights the accelerating pace of the clean energy transition, even aside from the social costs of coal plant pollution.

Energy News Network 5th May 2021 read more »

So it’s goodbye climate deniers, hello – and you’ll pardon me for being blunt here – climate bullshitters. The impacts of the climate emergency are now so obvious, only the truly deluded still deny them. Instead, we are at the point where everyone agrees something must be done, but many are making only vague, distant promises of ineffective action. As a result, we are currently on track for a 0.5% cut in global emissions from 2010 levels by 2030, when a 45% drop is needed to avoid climate catastrophe. So how to spot this greenwash? A good rule of thumb is whether the proposal actually cuts emissions, by a significant amount, and soon, and whether the proposer is in fact making the climate emergency worse elsewhere. Let’s start at the top, with the world’s governments, which have been setting out more targets than an archery competition. The global leader is the UK, which recently pledged a world-beating emissions cut of 78% by 2035. Targets are a necessary first step, but need action to be met and the instant, universal response: “Show me the policies!” The problem is some actual UK policies are pushing emissions up, not down: massive road building, a scrapped home energy efficiency programme and slashed electric car incentives, new oil and gas exploration, a failure to halt airport expansions and block a new coalmine (instead, the government belatedly ordered a public inquiry). But it is not just Boris Johnson’s government that says one thing while doing another. All are talking tough on climate, but China is building one large coal-fired power station a week, Japan remains one of the biggest Companies are, if anything, even better bullshitters than governments, and the fossil fuel giants are masters. Many are still exploring for new reserves, when we already have more than can ever be safely burned. Chevron touts capturing CO2 emissions and storing them underground as a solution – one that of course enables the continued burning of its products. But its plans for carbon capture and storage cover less than 1% of its 2019 carbon emissions. ExxonMobil wants public money to help with its carbon capture project to store 50m tonnes of CO2 by 2030. That’s just 8% of the 2020 emissions its products resulted in. Another technological fix promoted is hydrogen, in theory a clean fuel when generated using renewable energy. But its most enthusiastic backers are incumbent fossil fuel companies. Members of the global Hydrogen Council include Saudi Aramco, BP and Total, while the UK parliament’s hydrogen group is funded by Shell and gas network and boiler-making firms. Why? Because hydrogen is a way for oil companies to move towards green energy without giving up fossil fuels. Pierre-Etienne Franc, co-secretary of the Hydrogen Council until 2020, explained: “It’s a way to avoid having stranded assets from the current fossil fuel-based system.” financiers of overseas coal plants and Norway is developing giant new oil and gas fields.

Guardian 6th May 2021 read more »

Electric car sales slide after government cuts grant for buyers. Governnent subsidy motorists can claim to buy an electric car was slashed from £3,000 to £2,500 in March, following high demand from drivers.

Telegraph 5th May 2021 read more »

Times 5th May 2021 read more »

The environment secretary George Eustice is under pressure from Downing Street after a leaked memo revealed that his department still had no plan to meet its carbon emissions targets. All ministers have been told by Boris Johnson to develop workable strategies to cut emissions in their sectors as part of his roadmap to net zero by 2050. However, an internal memo revealed that, despite being responsible for a tenth of the total UK emissions, the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) had yet to agree policies that can deliver this.

Times 5th May 2021 read more »

All the targets are set, for the next five years at least. Now is the small case of actually cutting carbon, a task currently overshadowed by an argument over the ‘true cost of net zero’. The impending Treasury Net Zero Review is a chance to tackle this head on, dispelling some of the greatest myths about a ‘crippling’ cost of decarbonising, and setting a precedent that can lead to all of government swinging in behind net zero. Her Majesty’s Treasury operates in the same way to an oil tanker. Years of ingrained thinking means things are slow to turn around. Once pointing in the right direction, though, there’s no stopping it. Initial signs that the review heralds a change of tune are positive. The interim net zero review, released late 2020, stressed that the effect of taking action on economic growth would be small, and that the cost of inaction dwarfs that associated with ditching fossil fuels. On total costs, Treasury itself says that macro-level estimates are highly uncertain, extremely speculative and based on a large number of assumptions. It also says that addressing market failures and underpinning a consistent policy environment can ensure the transition takes place as cheaply as possible. Any models run by HMT to estimate this ‘total cost’ will be subject to its own disclaimers on accuracy. Economy-wide models have long underestimated the pace of technological change, with recent research from UCL highlighting that the benefits of cumulative innovation, as well as those from investing early, are absent from the spreadsheets that spit out big and scary ‘total cost’ numbers.

ECIU 27th April 2021 read more »

ScottishPower and Good Energy are calling for regulatory reforms to close “loopholes” in the energy retail market that allow for greenwashing. Greenwashing – a process whereby companies seek to make their products seem more environmentally friendly than they are – includes the use of renewable energy certificates without direct connection to the source through a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) or investment into green energy, according to the two suppliers. Many suppliers sell ‘green energy’ utilising these renewable certificates, but this is misleading customers they continued.

Current 4th May 2021 read more »

The forest protection carbon offsetting market used by major airlines for claims of carbon-neutral flying faces a significant credibility problem, with experts warning the system is not fit for purpose, an investigation has found. Money from carbon offsets can provide vital financial support for projects seeking to protect and restore some of the most beautiful threatened ecosystems around the world. Given that nature-based solutions can make a significant contribution to the climate mitigation needed to stabilise global heating, a functioning finance channel will be important for climate change progress, and particularly for developing countries.

Guardian 4th May 2021 read more »

Unearthed 4th May 2021 read more »

Operators of Britain’s van fleets will spend nearly £16 billion on zero-emission vehicles this year, almost 50 per cent more than last year, according to industry estimates. However, a large minority of British companies are reducing their fleets of electric vans or are not investing at all after finding that the range on a single charge in available models means that they cannot do the same job as a diesel van. The spending boom on electric vans has been put down to the growing focus of companies and shareholders on environmental targets, particularly amid the rapid rise in home delivery vehicles on the roads during the pandemic. The take-up has led to growing optimism by most van operators that their fleets can be wholly emission-free by the end of the decade.

Times 5th May 2021 read more »

The ‘Red Wall’ of Conservative marginal seats could become a nationwide hub for green jobs, according to research consultancy WPI Economics. More than 16,000 jobs could be created in coastal restoration, tree planting and parks maintenance across parts of the country with low levels of employment, including ‘Red Wall’ areas such as County Durham, Copeland, Wolverhampton, and Ashfield. The region could host 112,000 hectares of new woodland, for example, while hundreds of jobs could be found in a massive peatland restoration scheme known as the ‘Great North Bog’. The jobs depend on the Government directing its energies – and investment – on nature restoration across the country, said think tank Green Alliance, which commissioned the research. It is calling on the Chancellor Rishi Sunak to include environmental projects alongside other infrastructure in the Government’s £4.8bn levelling up fund announced at the Spending Review.

iNews 3rd May 2021 read more »