12 June 2015, The Carbon Brief, Letting the fox into the chicken coop! UN welcomes oil groups’ help to fight global warming: The UN will accept an unusual offer from six of Europe’s largest oil and gas groups to help it fight global warming as countries work on sealing a new international climate change agreement due in December. The proposal from companies including Royal Dutch Shell and Britain’s BP was “very, very welcome”, the UN’s top climate official, Christiana Figueres, told the Financial Times. Chief executives of the six companies wrote to Figueres in May saying they wanted to help countries devise a global carbon-pricing system ahead of the climate agreement. The move laid bare a transatlantic rift between some of the world’s largest energy groups, after US oil producers, Chevron and ExxonMobil, declined to join. Pilita Clark, Financial Times Read More here
Monthly Archives: June 2015
12 June 2015, Science Daily, Fighting climate change, with cement: The cement industry is one of the largest sources worldwide of carbon emissions, accounting for around five per cent of global emissions. New technologies being developed by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology may help substantially lower these emissions.Membrane-based technology developed at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) is one of four technologies that may be used in a full-scale CO2 capture project — in a cement factory. Gassnova, Norway’s state-funded effort to develop carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies for commercial use, has identified Norcem’s cement plant in Brevik and Yara’s ammonia plant in Porsgrunn as the most promising candidates for a full-scale CCS demonstration project in Norway. The decision was submitted to Norway’s Ministry of Petroleum and Energy (OED) as part of a pre-feasibility study on 4 May. Read More here
12 June 2015, Renew Economy, 10 things we learned about Tony Abbott’s war on renewables: Ever since the Coalition election victory in September 2013, and indeed beforehand, RenewEconomy has been accused of making a harsh assessment on its approach to climate and clean energy policies. Wind energy the biggest loser as Abbott sweeps to power, we wrote the day after this ultra-conservative Coalition came to power. And we continued with headlines such as Australia’s wind turbine syndrome, why Abbott hates the RET; Abbott’s Achilles Heel – is it ideology or ignorance?: andTony Abbott’s energy rules: It’s goodies versus baddies. Harsh? Turns out we were probably not harsh enough. Our lingering suspicion that the Abbott government’s policy positioning and actions have been designed with one thing in mind – to cripple the clean energy industry in Australia – have been proven to be true … by the Prime Minister himself. Read More here
11 June 2015, Common Dreams: As Bonn Climate Talks Conclude, Another Failure for Planet Earth, Humanity. Developed countries criticized for being unwilling to buck fossil fuel industry and make necessary transition to renewable energy sources. As ten days of UN-sponsored climate talks came to end in Bonn, Germany on Thursday morning, global campaigners demanding far-reaching solutions to the crisis of a warming planet expressed dissatisfaction on multiple levels, charging that the continued foot-dragging of governments is sentencing future generations to unparalleled catastrophe even as scientists issue grave new warnings about the dangers of inaction. Speaking on behalf of Friends of the Earth, Lucy Cadena, the group’s climate justice and energy coordinator, said the among the deepest frustrations is that while solutions are available to stave off the worst impacts of climate change, Bonn has once again proven that leaders from the most developed countries are unwilling to buck the fossil fuel industry and make the urgent transition to renewable energy sources. Read More here