Tag: energy

Jason Anderson, the head of WWF's EU climate and energy policy, explains why binding targets and a backloading of carbon credits are needed to decarbonise Europe's economy by 2050.

EXCLUSIVE / Non-binding energy efficiency goals are meant to be treated with reverence but are routinely ignored, ticked off, or met by using legislative scams, ex-government officials have told EurActiv.

France and Germany could become the avant-garde of cross-border energy cooperation and could set the standards for all of Europe, writes Georg Zachmann.

Wind power accounted for over a quarter of all power capacity installed in the European Union last year, but turbulent times lie ahead, says a new report by the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA).

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.

The UK must prioritise growth in "green industries" such as energy efficiency and renewable energy, David Cameron said on Monday. The remarks are likely to antagonise those Tory MPs who have campaigned for cuts to green energy subsidies and the watering down of climate targets.

A coalition of three small business associations has issued a call for tougher fuel economy standards to be imposed on Europe’s fume-chugging light commercial vehicles.

In a widely expected U-turn, Romanian authorities yesterday (31 January) gave the American energy giant Chevron the certificates it needed to start exploring for shale gas in the eastern part of the country.

Oil extraction projects in Kazakhstan will continue to bring great benefits to Europe’s oil companies and Kazakhstan for decades to come but it cannot remain at the heart of EU-Kazakh economic relations, which have to evolve for the sake of Kazakhstan’s economy and the wider shared challenge of climate change, writes Erlan Idrissov.

Ukraine and Russia are embroiled in a new gas dispute after Moscow sent Kyiv a huge bill for gas it commissioned under long-term contracts but did not use. Asked by EurActiv if there was a risk of a repeat of the 2009 gas crisis, the European Commission said it expected both sides to make sure that shipments to the EU remain uninterrupted.

Bulgarians voted yesterday (27 January) in favour of building a new nuclear power plant in their first referendum in the post-communist era. However, due to the low turnout, the referendum result is not binding and the matter is referred to Parliament.

Cyprus licenced Italy's ENI and South Korea's Kogas for offshore gas exploration yesterday (24 January), in a boon to an economy in line for an international bailout because of its exposure to debt-crippled Greece.

The Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP ) group has agreed offer up to 50% of its shares to the Shah Deniz gas consortium - made up of Azerbaijan's state gas company SOCAR and leading European energy partners. The deal follows the rival Nabucco pipeline's recent decision to give the Caspian Sea gas consortium the chance to acquire half of its shares.

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 UK government is seeking to water down planned EU regulations on deep-sea oil drilling, even while insisting to MPs that it wants "robust environmental protection" for oil drilling in the Arctic.

EU officials are to debate a new set of tax proposals to promote clean fuel and erode fiscal advantages that have made diesel relatively cheap, a document seen by Reuters showed.

The companies behind the Nabucco pipeline have agreed to give Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz gas group a stake in the project to pipe the country's gas to Europe, boosting its prospects against the rival TAP project.

EXCLUSIVE / More than 70% of EU states could face court action over defiance of building efficiency measures which are slated to account for up to a quarter of the EU’s planned energy savings by 2020, EurActiv has learned.

Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz II gas group could agree to take a 50% stake in the Nabucco pipeline consortium by January, boosting Nabucco's prospects in a competition between projects that aim to pipe Azeri offshore gas into Europe.

European Union smart grid operators and energy providers need common cybersecurity measures to help them guard against attacks, says a new report by Europe's information security agency ENISA.

Germany, Austria and Finland have called for the withdrawal of an “absurd and unjustified” gentleman's agreement that allowed the United Kingdom to sign up to the Energy Efficiency Directive. The plea was made in a letter, seen by EurActiv, to Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger.

The coming of shale gas will magnify the importance of geography. Because it can be transported across oceans in liquid form, states with coastlines will have the advantage, writes Robert D. Kaplan.

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.