| EWG Newsletter - June
2017 |
| | | |
|
|
Solar Power To
Kill Coal |
Oil Majors to Lose
Trillions |
Nuclear
Meltdown
| |
Dear Colleagues
and Friends,
Renewable energy
capacity worldwide was boosted by a record
amount in 2016, as costs of wind and solar PV
kept dramatically falling, two latest major
energy reports show. Especially solar PV is
becoming so cheap that it will provide
cheaper electricity than coal in China and
India as soon as the early 2020s. Meanwhile,
a third of the business-as-usual investment
until 2025 by oil and gas majors is inconsistent
with the Paris Agreement climate targets,
according to another report. And many top
multinational banks kept lending billions to
extraction of fossil fuels in 2016 while
claiming their green credentials. You will also
find inspiring stories from around the world on
100% renewable energy, news from the global
divestment movement and new studies on
Kazakhstan and the Åland islands in our
June
newsletter.
| |
Energy Watch
Group (EWG)
is an international n etwork of scientists
and parliamentarians. We commission
research projects and publish independent
studies on global energy developments. Our
mission is to provide energy policy - and you
via this newsletter - with objective information
on global energy
developments! | |
Another
Breakthrough Year for Renewables - Solar Power
to Kill Coal
2016 was another
record-breaking year for renewable energy, as
costs of solar and wind power kept falling,
according to the REN21’ annual Renewables Global
Status Report. Despite a 23% reduction in
investment compared to 2015, the new renewable
energy capacity installed worldwide in 2016
reached 161 GW, a 10% increase on 2015. At the
end of 2016, more than 24% of global electricity
was produced by renewables. Solar PV accounted
for around 47% of the capacity added, followed
by wind power at 34% and hydropower at 15,5%,
the Guardian reports.
Meanwhile, the
falling costs of wind and solar power mean they
will be cheaper than coal-fired generation in
many countries within five years, and will
provide 34% of the world’s electricity by 2040,
according to the latest New Energy Outlook report by
Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF). Solar power
is beco ming so cheap that it
will push coal and even natural-gas plants out
of business faster than previously forecast, BNEF says. In China and India,
which are still installing coal plants, solar PV
will start providing cheaper electricity as soon
as the early 2020s.
Such forecasts
for renewables and slowing demand for oil are a
reason enough for oil giants to invest heavily
in renewables, analysts of Wood Mackenzie group say. The
analysts found the major energy companies would
need to spend more than $350bn on wind and solar
power by 2035 to take a market share similar to
the 12% they have in oil and gas. FT has also
written about oil majors looking for
survival in the global energy transition in
its open-access special report on clean
energy. | |
"Coal is
Dead"
"Coal is dead. That's
not to say all the coal plants are going to shut
tomorrow. But anyone who's looking to take
beyond a 10-year view on coal is gambling very
significantly," the global head of BlackRock's
infrastructure investment group, Jim Barry said in a recent
interview.
It is the end of an era
of coal, Bloomberg writes. Global
demand for coal, the most polluting fossil fuel,
has fallen for the second consecutive year,
according to the annual BP review of global
energy trends. China, the world’s biggest energy
consumer, burned the least coal in six years,
whereas coal use in the U.S. dropped to a level
last seen in the 1970s. With its 52,5% decrease,
the UK was described as the “most extreme” case of the
trend away from coal, which has resulted in use
of fuel returning to levels not seen since the
start of the industrial revolution.
 Indeed, China keeps suspending permits
for new coal plants and a shift away from coal
is evident in India. South Korea is also moving to
close its aged coal power plants in a move to
fight air pollution. Coal is not coming back,
even with Trump leaving the Paris Agreement, writes Bloomberg. To
counter Trump's promise to revive the U.S.
coal industry, John Oliver exposed some of
Trump's lies on coal on his Sunday night show. Energy and Climate Intelligence
Unit has also published a comprehensive
analysis on coal industry myths and reality in
the USA.
| |
Oil and Gas Majors
are Set to Lose Trillions
 Five oil majors,
including ExxonMobil and Royal Dutch Shell, risk
spending more than a third of their budgets by
2025 on oil and gas projects that will not be
feasible if international climate targets are to
be met, a new report by Carbon Tracker and
the Principles for Responsible Investment shows.
The report „2 Degrees of Separation“ analysed
upstream investment plans of 68 of the largest
publicly traded oil companies plus Saudi Aramco
up to 2025 and found that $2.3 trillion of
projects — roughly a third of business-as-usual
investment to 2025 – is inconsistent with
international climate targets to limit global
warming to a maximum of 2⁰C and rapid advances
in renewables
technologies.
Unsurprisingly, most of oil majors foresee
either no peak oil at all or not until 2050.
But, some analysts believe that it could
occur much earlier in the 2020s. Therefore,
there is an increasing pressure from investors
to reduce carbon emissions and increase
transparency over future investments, Reuters reports. In the
end of May, 62% of shareholders in ExxonMobil -
world’s largest private oil company - voted in
favor of more open and detailed analyses of the
risks posed to its business by policies aimed at
stemming climate change, against the board’s
advice. The New York State Pension Fund and the
Church of England investment fund called this
victory “unprecedented” and
“historic”.
| |
The Meltdown
of Nuclear Industry in the U.S., South Korea
and Worldwide
From Europe to Japan to
the U.S. with the only exception of China,
nuclear power is in retreat, as plants are being
shut, governments move to toward renewables, and
key companies face financial troubles. Even some
of the industry’s biggest boosters believe
nuclear is on the way out, writes Fred Pierce in
his piece for Yale Environment
360. As costs of renewable
energy and gas are falling, more than half of
America's nuclear reactors are losing money -
about $2.9 billion annually, a recent analysis by Bloomberg
New Energy Finance shows. States including New
York and Illinois are now working to subsidize
nuclear plants to keep them generating
electricity.
On June 19, the new President of South Korea,
Moon Jae-in, has vowed to phase out the
country’s dependence on nuclear power and to
“move towards a nuclear-free era”, warning of
“unimaginable consequences” from a
Fukushima-style meltdown. He said the government
would completely scrap construction plans for
new nuclear reactors that are currently under
way. South Korea was the fifth-largest producer
of nuclear energy last year. Moon Jae-in also
plans to close at least 10 ageing coal-fired
power plants before his term ends in 2022 and to
boost renewables’ share of the energy mix to 20%
by
2030. | |
Divestment
Ticker: Sweden's Pension Fund Divests & Top
Banks Still Lend Billions to Extract Fossil
Fuels
 After Trump’s decision
to exit the Paris Agreement, many people,
organizations and communities are looking for a
way to fight back. "One of the simplest and most
powerful things we can do right now is to divest
from fossil fuels", writes Jamie Henn, co-founder
and strategic communications director for 350.org
in the Guardian.
On June, 15, Sweden’s largest national pension
fund AP7 has sold its investments
in six fossil fuel energy related companies that
it says violated the Paris Agreement. AP7 said
ExxonMobil, Westar, Southern Corp and Entergy
had fought against introducing climate
legislation in the United States. AP7 criticized
Gazprom for looking for oil in the Russian
Arctic and TransCanada for building large-scale
pipelines in North
America.
Meanwhile, Norway's $960
billion sovereign wealth fund - the world’s
largest - will ask the banks in which it has
invested to disclose how their lending
contributes to greenhouse gas emissions, Reuters reports. The fund’s
holdings include Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank,
HSBC, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Barclays and
Nordea. Some of the world’s top
banks are continuing to lend tens of billions
for extracting fossil fuels, a new analysis by a group of
NGOs found out. In 2016, the top 37 banks
provided $87bn for tar sands and other
unconventional oil and gas, as well as coal and
liquefied natural gas. That represented a
slump of more than a fifth compared with the
$111bn raised the previous year. But, the
analysis "Banking on Climate Change
2017" showed that many
multinational banks were trumpeting their
green credentials while continuing to pour money
into the dirtiest fossil
fuels. More news on global
divestment movement can be found in our live-ticker.
| |
Success
Stories Paving Way to 100% Renewable
Energy
Climate Action
Network has released a list of very
inspiring campaigns on 100% renewable energy
from across the world. And those are not
necessarily your usual suspects. Read more about
the ways a village in the Russian Arkhangelsk
region, monasteries in Georgia, a mosque in the
capital of Indonesia, University campuses in
Kenya are getting 100% renewable and about some
innovative campaigns in South Africa, Brazil and
Belarus here.
Meanwhile, Sweden
has become the first country to pass a climate law with a goal on
net carbon zero emissions until 2045, increasing
its previous ambition in the light of the Paris
Agreement. The tiny Greek island of Tilos with
its nature reserve, will become the first island in the
Mediterranean to run entirely on solar and
wind energy. And Costa-Rica, which already
can boast 98% of renewable energy in its
electricity mix, is now turning its climate
efforts to achieve the cleanest transport system
worldwide.
A growing number of
companies is also joining the global campaign
for 100% renewable electricity. Danish plastic
building blocks manufacturer Lego has achieved its goal
three years earlier than planned. The
supermarket chain Tesco has announced it will
switch its operations to 100% renewable
electricity in the UK and Ireland this year and
worldwide by 2030. Other companies joining the
campaign can be found here. | |
Kazakhstan
Can Switch to 100% Renewable Electricity by
2050
A new study by Prof. Christian
Breyer, co-chairman of the EWG's Scientific
Board and Professor for Solar Economy at the
Lappeenranta University of Technology in
Finland, and his team shows that Kazakhstan
can switch to a 100% renewable energy-based
power system by 2050. Such transition would
exceed the Government’s “Green Concept" goal of
50% alternative energy (incl. nuclear), would be
lower in cost than the existing fossil-based
system and could help to solve the water stress
problem. For the transition, wind power and
solar PV balanced with battery storage and
power-to-gas technology should replace the aging
coal-fired power plants over the next 15 years.
The study was presented at the Astana
Economic Forum, which took place on the
sidelines of the World EXPO2017 in Astana,
dedicated to “Future
Energy”. | |
100%
Renewable Energy System in Åland Islands By
2030
Feasible
A new study by the Lappeenranta
University of Technology in Finnland shows that
a fully renewable energy-based domestic energy
production can be achieved by 2030 in the Åland
Islands, the Swedish-speaking archipelago,
belonging to Finland. Such system could be based
on the domestic production of wind and solar PV
power, domestic energy storage solutions,
electrified transport, and strategic energy
carrier trade. The special benefits of
electric vehicles to the island grid is further
highlight in this complementary
study. | |
New Book: Energy Transformation
- Opportunity for
Europe
 A new book by a green
MEP leading some of the key European energy
reforms and a member of the Energy Watch Group
Claude Turmes “Energy Transformation – An
Opportunity for Europe” is now available in
English. The book looks closer into the bitter
political battles fought inside EU institutions
over the past 15 years between the architects of
energy transition – those who develop solutions
against the grave impetus of global warming –
and the saboteurs, who infiltrate the highest
European levels of decision-making to slow down
the system
transformation. | | | | |
|
|
Copyright © 2015 Energy Watch
Group, All rights reserved.
You
are receiving this newsletter because we think
that its content could be of great interest to
you or you subscribed to the newsletter on our
website. If you do not want to receive this
newsletter, you may always unsubscribe via the
link below.
Our
mailing address is:
off...@energywatchgroup.org
Energy
Watch Group
Albrechtstraße 22
℅
DWR-eco
Berlin
10117
Germany
Follow us on Twitter:
@EWGnetwork
unsubscribe from this
list update subscription
preferences
| | | | | |
