Tag: CO2 emissions

Few environmentalists would see Poland as an energy efficiency champion, but noises from Warsaw point towards an unlikely repositioning by the fiercest opponent of the EU's decarbonisation strategy.

Tough new EU carbon dioxide emissions targets for cars are facing "dilution" due to heavy pushback from member states with strong auto-industry lobbies, such as Germany, according to an Irish presidency source, who was speaking on condition of anonymity at a press briefing on 16 January.

The value of the world’s carbon market fell by 36% last year, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, the first annual contraction to hit the CO2 reduction mechanism since 2008.

Next year is likely to be one of the warmest on record with global temperatures 0.57 degrees above the long-term average, Britain's Met Office said in its annual year-ahead forecast.

Coal is likely to rival oil as the world's biggest source of energy in the next five years, with potentially disastrous consequences for the climate, according to the world's leading authority on energy economics.

SPECIAL REPORT: An ambitious but little known set of UN sustainable energy goals for 2020 aims to double global improvements in energy efficiency and renewable energy capacity, and provide universal access to modern energy services. But achieving this last target would cause a carbon emissions explosion, according to a senior UN economist.

Carbon trading schemes are fast sprouting across the planet as a market-based way of addressing rising greenhouse gas emissions. But advocates should be prepared for powerful business backlashes, Chang-beom Kim, the South Korean ambassador to the EU, warned a Brussels round table of business leaders and envoys on 19 November.

The European Commission will try to shore up its battered carbon market today (14 November) with a structural report signalling a future squeeze on carbon credits to augment a planned  ‘backloading’ or postponing of 900 million allowance auctions until 2019 and 2020.

EU Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard has heartily endorsed a decision by Australia to sign up to a second round of emissions reductions under the Kyoto Protocol, which expires at the end of this year.

Günther Oettinger, the EU’s energy commissioner, greeted the launch of a new coalition promoting renewables and gas power with a call to set fixed emissions reductions and clean energy targets for 2030.

EXCLUSIVE: Bioenergy production often increases greenhouse gas emissions in the short term even though the EU currently counts it as a carbon neutral technology, according to an unreleased EU report, which EurActiv has obtained.

European biofuel mandates are unlikely to deliver a significant reduction and could even increase greenhouse gas emissions unless land use factors are considered, says a study by the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT).

The European Commission's proposal to fix the beleaguered Emissions Trading System (ETS) today (25 July) will include scenarios for ‘backloading’ a massive 400 million, 900 million, or 1.2 billion carbon allowances, EurActiv understands.

Indications that keenly-awaited details of the European Commission's plans to fix Europe’s depressed carbon market may be delayed until September sent carbon prices spiralling on 18 July.

The European Commission is planning to re-introduce a clause for ‘super credits’ that would reward manufacturers that switch to electric cars with permits to make high-emitting gas guzzlers, EurActiv understands. The controversial clause will be part of proposals for CO2 in Cars, due to be announced today (11 July).

The Polish Chamber of Commerce (PCC) threw its weight behind Warsaw’s campaign against the EU’s decarbonisation goals for 2050 yesterday (26 June), launching a study which claims that Polish jobs, growth, inflation and the environment are under threat.

Brussels is poised to set two new carbon emissions targets that all new cars will need to meet by 2025 and 2030, as well as a standard of 95 grams of CO2 emissions per km (g/km) for 2020, according to a draft regulation seen by EurActiv.

Europe must agree 2030 milestones as soon as possible to spur investment in renewable energy, or green power growth will fizzle once firm policy runs out in 2020, the European Commission said on Wednesday (6 June) in its latest strategy statement.

An energy strategy without fossil fuels would be preferable to the regulated gas pathway outlined in the International Energy Agency (IEA)’s new report, the paper’s own author told EurActiv in an exclusive interview yesterday (30 May).

Most fluorinated greenhouse gases (also known as F-Gases), used in today’s mobile air conditioning and refrigeration units, could realistically be banned across the EU by 2020, a new report says.

Shell has joined with other ‘progressive’ businesses to lobby the EU for a much stronger carbon price to incentivise clean energy investments. But Graeme Sweeney insists that it will not compromise on its support for tar sands, gas, and opposition to new efficiency and renewables targets.

Analysts say that any one-off EU clearing of the massive glut of carbon permits now clogging the Emissions Trading System (ETS) is likely to lead to a ‘central bank' or other policy tool to manage future imbalances.

The use of middlemen to leverage private sector climate cash is putting investments at risk because of the rich world’s negligence in ensuring transparency and adequate monitoring, according to a new report by the European Network on Debt and Development (Eurodad).

Britain may have enough offshore shale gas to catapult it into the top ranks of global producers, energy experts now believe, and while production costs are still very high, new US technology should eventually make reserves commercially viable.