Welcome ! As a young French Marketing professional with a Master's in International Management I have been selecting since January 2007 the latest headlines and best researches on sustainable development, climate change, cleantech and the world energy sector. Sounds great ? Don't hesitate to subscribe now !
China is facing a grim future because of climate change, massive pollutions and increasing prices of fossil fuels. To curb its booming energy consumption, it may soon introduce a carbon tax. As China Daily noted :
” China is considering levying a carbon tax within the next three years to tighten its regulations on polluting industries and put the economy on a greener path. (…) The main targets of the tax will be large users of coal, crude oil and natural gas.”
Even if some analysts have called this a hoax, Climate Spectator reminds us the many reasons why a carbon tax is actually the way to go for China, but also for ALL nations…
I blogged two years ago that CCS won’t solve the climate change problem as it is too risky, too expansive, too little and… too late. Joe Romm, the main contributor behind Climate Progress recently noted :
” There are simply too many unanswered questions for anyone to say today that we could rely on large-scale deployment of Carbon Capture and Storage in the 2030s as a major climate solution. “
Since we need to slash our emissions NOW – and certainly not by 2030 – we can see how useless CCS is. We should work on real solutions instead : energy efficiency, sobriety, renewables and nuclear.
We already saw that solar PV is due to compete in terms of costs with fossil fuels by around 2017 as this energy source is gaining momentum so fast that the Holy Grail – grid parity – might soon be within reach. These are sure great news…
But there is more as to Bloomberg New Energy Finance : ” The cost of electricity from onshore wind turbines will drop 12% in the next five years thanks to a mix of lower-cost equipment and gains in output efficiency. “
” The best wind farms in the world already produce power as economically as coal, gas and nuclear generators; the average wind farm will be fully competitive by 2016 “
This is the conclusion of a new study carried out by the US NCAR. In their conclusion, they note : ” substitution of gas for coal as an energy source results in increased rather than decreased global warming for many decades “
Climate Progress notes: ” The fact that natural gas is a bridge fuel to nowhere was first shown by the IEA in its big June report on gas. That study made clear that if we want to avoid catastrophic warming, we need to start getting off of all fossil fuels. “
I guess this should warn governments and companies worldwide that we have to seriously work on efficiency and renewables. And the faster, the better. Continue »
To the IEA : ” CO2 emissions reach a record high in 2010; 80% of projected 2020 emissions from the power sector are already locked in. Energy-related carbon-dioxide (CO2) emissions in 2010 were the highest in history. ”
” After a dip in 2009 caused by the global financial crisis, emissions are estimated to have climbed to a record 30.6 Gigatonnes (Gt), a 5% jump from the previous record year in 2008, when levels reached 29.3 Gt. ”
” In addition, (…) 80% of projected emissions from the power sector in 2020 are already locked in, as they will come from power plants that are currently in place or under construction today. ” Continue »
According to Cleantechnica : ” India plans to invest $37 billion (26 billion euros) to create 17,000 MW of renewable energy generation by 2017, the ministry for new & renewable energy has said. ”
” The present installed renewable energy capacity in India is 20,000 MW which accounts for 11% of the total installed power capacity. The major share ofpower still comes from coal which accounts for 40% of the country’s energy usage. “
The country is currently the third largest energy consumer, behind China and the United States. However, its per capita consumption is well below Western standards. Continue »
This week the New York Times ran another great article on energy, this time on why natural gas may be worse than coal, regarding climate change. Until now, this energy source was said to be emitting half less than coal.
The implications of such a fact could be huge as the world wouldn’t be able to count on natural gas to be a bridging energy source. Indeed, even environmentalists were until recently advocating natural gas…
But is it really the case about natural gas in general or just specific types ? It turns that, like for oil, unconventional gas is more polluting that the traditional one. Continue »
With all the agitation around the Fukushima catastrophe, I thought it would be interesting to put some facts and figures on the dangerosity of energy sources, including oil, coal, natural gas, some renewable energy sources and nuclear…
The global death rate for coal is 161 per TWh (15 in the United States), 36 for oil, and a staggering low 0.04 for nuclear. Of course, this doesn’t take into account the people who will die because of the Fukushima accident.
Nonetheless, nuclear will still kill much less people than fossil fuels – and will kill even less if we increase safety measures and transparency of the industry. Continue »
It’s a well known fact, the production of electricity via traditional coal and natural gas burning plants and in a lesser way nuclear reactors is vastly inefficient. But this might change soon thanks to scientific research. To Ecogeek :
” Researchers (…) are developing a new gas turbine to increase the efficiency of conventional electrical power plants with a generation system that could increase the thermal-to-electric conversion efficiency by 40 to 50 percent.“
Imagine a world where these turbines would be the implemented everywhere : emissions would drop very quickly. For more, read the official press release from Sandia National Laboratories.
The WWF believes it can be done in four little decades. As they state on their website: ” All of the world’s energy needs could be provided cleanly, renewably and economically by 2050. “
They are right on one point : energy efficiency’s potential is gigantic. Indeed I am reading a book which thesis is that we can cut our energy consumption by 80 percent, hence the title Factor Five. (the review will come soon)
But I don’t think we can really stop using coal, oil, natural gas and nuclear in such a little time. But I would love to be proven wrong (except on nuclear for the reasons I outlined there)
