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Silver linings in the IEA report on 2012 fossil fuel carbon emissions

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Dana Nuccitelli - Jun. 11 (Opinion) - Carbon emissions from fossil fuels reached record levels, but the 2012 rise was relatively small, and there are positive signs As Fiona Harvey reported for The Guardian, the International Energy Agency (IEA) 2012 World Energy Outlook Report found that annual carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels rose 1.4 percent in 2012 to 31.6 billion tonnes (gigatonnes [Gt]).

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Australians are waking up to why coal matters

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Oliver Milman - Jun. 10 () - Bill McKibben says there is increasing momentum behind the anti-fossil fuel movement, whatever the outcome of the election.

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Detroit's mountains of petroleum coke are 'dirtier than the dirtiest fuel'

Sat, 08 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Suzanne Goldenberg - Jun. 08 (News Analysis) - Byproduct of tar sands production is piling up in Detroit, and environmentalists fear Keystone XL pipeline will bring more

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Climate change: let's bury the CO2 problem

Thu, 06 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Myles Allen - Jun. 06 (Opinion) - We can't stop fossil fuels being burned: but we can easily act now to capture and store carbon with CCS technology How often have you read that we have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to solve the problem of climate change – shortly followed by frustration and disappointment? People might expect me, as a climate scientist, to be disappointed by the failure of the attempt by the MP Tim Yeo to set an ambitious decarbonisation target in Tuesday's debate on the energy bill. But I'm not. Not because I don't think it is possible, or even desirable: get climate policy right, and I believe we will have largely decarbonised the UK power sector by 2030. And the UK, having led the world into this era of venting fossil carbon into the atmosphere, clearly has a duty to lead the world out of it. But ambitious targets backed by micromanagement of energy supply and demand are leading nowhere. What other country is going to attend a seminar on the UK energy bill and think, "Great idea, let's do that"? ...

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Greens leader: Abbott climate stance jeopardises the future of children

Wed, 05 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Lenore Taylor - Jun. 05 (News Analysis) - Christine Milne plans 'keep the bastards honest' campaign, casting party as Senate curb on Coalition excessesLenore Taylor

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Warning over UK use of cheap coal

Thu, 30 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

BBC News - May. 30 (News) - Coal on the global market is so cheap that it threatens government attempts to tackle climate change, the chairman of the Environment Agency warns

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Tax and energy to dominate EU summit

Wed, 22 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

BBC News - May. 22 (News) - EU leaders will seek to curb tax evasion, which costs EU states 1tn euros a year, and bring down energy prices to boost competition.

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Climate Tipping Point? Concentration of Carbon Dioxide Tops 400 ppm For First Time in Human History

Mon, 13 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - May. 13 (News Report) - The 400 ppm threshold has been an important marker in U.N. climate change negotiations, widely recognized as a dangerous level that could drastically worsen human-caused global warming. We speak to leading climate scientist Michael Mann, distinguished professor of meteorology at Penn State University and author of the recent book, "The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars: Dispatches from the Front Lines." Mann warns, "We have to go several million years back in time to find a point in Earth’s history where CO2 was as high as it is now.

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European energy chief puts forward case for funding coal

Mon, 13 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Terry Macalister - May. 13 (News) - EBRD chief Riccardo Puliti warns Europe not to be hasty in adopting 'ideological' policy on carbon intensity funding One of Europe's most influential government-owned investors in the energy industry has hinted it may expand funding of high-carbon coal projects despite mounting pressure from climate change campaigners to rule out such investments. Riccardo Puliti, energy chief at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), warned against an "ideological" policy on carbon intensity in funding decisions without giving weight to other considerations. The EBRD, which is based in London and owned by more than 60 countries, including the UK, is reviewing its energy policy. It has a €37.5bn (£32bn) loan book, with 41% of its investments last year channelled into the energy and infrastructure sectors. Puliti's comments came as scientists declared the highest day-long concentration of C0 2 in human history and a line of global institutions such as the International Energy ...

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China struggles to tap its shale gas

Wed, 01 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Steven Mufson - May. 01 (News) - BEIJING — In a remote corner of Sichuan with lush, terraced hillsides, oil exploration teams have been scaling cliffs to lay seismic charges and struggling to move heavy equipment along winding mountain ...

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Carbon bubble makes Australia's coal industry ripe 'for financial implosion'

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Damian Carrington - Apr. 29 (News Analysis) - Much of the nation's coal reserves will be worthless if world's governments fulfil pledge to cap emissions, warns report Australia's huge coal industry is a speculative bubble ripe for financial implosion if the world's governments fulfil their agreement to act on climate change, according to a new report . The warning that much of the nation's coal reserves will become worthless as the world hits carbon emission limits comes after banking giant Citi also warned Australian investors that fossil fuel companies could do little to avoid the future loss of value. Australia is already the globe's biggest coal exporter and "mega-mine" plans in Queensland for more extraction are identified as the world's second biggest " carbon bomb " threatening runaway global warming. "Investments in Australian coal rest on a speculative bubble of climate denial, indifference or dreaming," said John Connor, one of the new report's authors and CEO of The Climate Institute , an independent research organisation ...

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Shale mining under Great Barrier Reef 'likely to be banned'

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Lenore Taylor - Apr. 25 (News Report) - Australia's coastline mining industry undergoing a boom as rules relaxed, but Unesco site to be protected under heritage rules Mining shale oil under the Great Barrier Reef is likely to be banned by Australia's federal Labour government as tensions rise over the environmental impact of the booming oil and gas industry on the coastline beside the reef. In February, the conservative Queensland state government lifted a moratorium on the shale oil industry in most places along the coast to allow companies to assess whether the US shale oil boom could be replicated in Australia. Power firm Queensland Energy Resources is now proceeding with an onshore open-cut shale rock mine and a commercial-scale demonstration processing plant near Gladstone, before deciding on the development of huge areas where it has mining rights, and which contain up to 8bn of the 22bn barrels of recoverable shale oil estimated to exist under Queensland. The Australian Greens attacked the state decision to allow the ...

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Many coal sludge impoundments have weak walls, federal study says

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Juliet Eilperin, Steven Mufson - Apr. 25 (Special Report) - Many of the man-made ponds for storing toxic sludge from coal-fired power plants have dangerously weak walls because of poor construction methods, according to the synopsis of a study for the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement obtained by The Washington ...

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Burn our planet or face financial meltdown. Not much of a choice

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Will Hutton - Apr. 21 (Opinion) - Last week's collapse of a European carbon emissions scheme makes an agreed approach to climate change all the more urgent The world is going to fry – unless there is change soon. There is weakening political will to make national and international targets for carbon reduction stick, no strong business and financial coalition prepared to lead and a weakening groundswell of public opinion prepared to foot the bill. Instead, the international consensus of 25 years ago – that the world must act to challenge climate change – is dissolving. Individual countries are trying to steal a march on each other in a race to the bottom, dropping whatever scant penalties there have been for burning fossil fuels. This new political geography has been obvious ever since the Copenhagen talks collapsed in 2009 , but last week the speed with which ground is being lost became sickeningly obvious. The European parliament refused to back a stop-gap measure to save the European carbon emissions trading scheme. ...

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Carbon bubble will plunge the world into another financial crisis

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Damian Carrington - Apr. 19 (Opinion) - Trillions of dollars at risk as stock markets inflate value of fossil fuels that may have to remain buried forever, experts warn The world could be heading for a major economic crisis as stock markets inflate an investment bubble in fossil fuels to the tune of trillions of dollars, according to leading economists. "The financial crisis has shown what happens when risks accumulate unnoticed," said Lord (Nicholas) Stern, a professor at the London School of Economics. He said the risk was "very big indeed" and that almost all investors and regulators were failing to address it. The so-called " carbon bubble " is the result of an over-valuation of oil, coal and gas reserves held by fossil fuel companies. According to a report published on Friday, at least two-thirds of these reserves will have to remain underground if the world is to meet existing internationally agreed targets to avoid the threshold for "dangerous" climate change. If the agreements hold , these reserves will be in effect ...

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Clean energy progress too slow to limit global warming, warns IEA

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - Apr. 17 (News Analysis) - With governments failing to promote green energy, top scientists say the drive to keep temperature rise below 2C has stalled The development of low-carbon energy is progressing too slowly to limit global warming, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Wednesday . With power generation still dominated by coal and governments failing to increase investment in clean energy, top climate scientists have said that the target of keeping the global temperature rise to less than 2C this century is slipping out of reach . "The drive to clean up the world's energy system has stalled," said Maria van der Hoeven, the IEA's executive director, at the launch of the agency's report on clean energy progress . "Despite much talk by world leaders, and a boom in renewable energy over the past decade, the average unit of energy produced today is basically as dirty as it was 20 years ago." Global clean energy investment in the first quarter fell to its lowest level in four years, driven by cuts in ...

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How 'green' are electric cars?

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

BBC News - By Andrew Bomford - Apr. 11 (Special Report) - Nissan has begun production of the first UK-built electric car - but are these vehicles really environment-friendly?

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The long, slow death of the UK coal industry

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Mark Seddon - Apr. 11 (News Report) - Earlier this month Maltby colliery in South Yorkshire closed down for good. At the end of a winter that saw 40% of our energy needs met by coal – most of it imported – we witnessed the poignant closing ceremony Nothing better symbolised the passing of a great industry, referred to reverentially as "King Coal", than the lowering of one of the last chunks to have been cut at Maltby colliery next to the grave of the "unknown miner" in the town's cemetery last weekend. His had been the only body to be recovered when a gas explosion ripped through the underground galleries 90 years ago, killing 27 men. Those present wiped away tears, as last rites on an industry that had sustained this community for more than a century were read by the local priest. Wreaths were laid and the colliery brass band played the miners' hymn, Gresford, itself an anthem to another disaster. The short service had been billed as a "thanksgiving and prayer for the future", although the many newly redundant must have wondered ...

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Mine Safety Reform Stalled Three Years After Deadly Blast

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

All Things Considered - Apr. 09 (Comment) - One critic said it was a travesty that Congress had not acted three years after the worst mine disaster in this country in 40 years.

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The Thatcher years in statistics

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

BBC News - Apr. 08 (News Analysis) - Margaret Thatcher's premiership was a time of immense social and economic change, bringing high unemployment and industrial unrest but also home ownership and low taxation.

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Germany Doesn't Get Much Sun. How Did It Become a Leader in Solar Energy?

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Mother Jones - By Andrew Curry - Apr. 02 (Special Report) - This story first appeared in Slate and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. It's been a long, dark winter in Germany. In fact, there hasn't been this little sun since people started tracking such things back in the early 1950s. Easter is around the corner, and the streets of Berlin are still covered in ice and snow. But spring will come, and when the snow finally melts, it will reveal the glossy black sheen of photovoltaic solar panels glinting from the North Sea to the Bavarian Alps. Solar panels line Germany's residential rooftops and top its low-slung barns. They sprout in orderly rows along train tracks and cover hills of coal mine tailings in what used to be East Germany. Old Soviet military bases, too polluted to use for anything else, have been turned into solar installations. Continue Reading ...

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The Coming Crash: Our Addiction to Endless Growth on a Finite Planet [With Photo Slideshow]

Sat, 30 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Tara Lohan - Mar. 30 (Review) - If you want to understand how much energy costs, don't look at your electric bill; instead get a copy of the new book Energy: Overdevelopment and the Delusion of Endless Growth. This massive coffeetable book contains hundreds of arresting images showing the effects of our energy choices, including oil spills, nuclear accidents, massive solar arrays, tar sands mines, fracking operations, transmission lines, and more. The photos are complemented by essays from leading writers like Wes Jackson, Wendell Berry, Sandra Steingraber, Douglas Tompkins, Bill McKibben, Lester Brown and many others, which put into context our growing energy problems and what we can do about them.

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We're Measuring Energy Efficiency Wrong

Sat, 23 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Mother Jones - By Chris Nelder - Mar. 23 (News Analysis) - It is widely assumed that over the coming decades, increased energy efficiency will help the world meet its energy needs and reduce carbon emissions. That may be true, but recent research suggests that energy intensity—a widely used way of measuring efficiency—isn't the right metric. Energy intensity is a simple ratio: energy use per dollar of GDP. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the energy intensity of the U.S. economy declined by 1.6 percent per year from 1985 to 2004, suggesting that we're doing more with less energy. Energy companies have embraced this idea: "Energy per unit of income as measured by GDP continues to fall, and at an accelerating rate," asserts BP . "This is true in our outlook to 2030 not only for the global average, but for almost all of the key countries and regions. The combination of energy efficiency gains and a long-term ...

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German institute pulls out of Canadian tar sands project

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - Mar. 20 (News Report) - Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres drops out of research into tar sands impact over fears of reputational impact

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No to Keystone. Yes to Crazy.

Sat, 09 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN - Mar. 09 (Opinion) - If the oil pipeline is approved, President Obama will need to make it up to his green base.

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