|
|
|
Climate Action
Network
Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central
Asia
Digest of news on
climate change and energy
issues
| |
Someone forwarded
this digest to you? You can subscribe using this
link | |
|
Climate chronicle of the war
Europe has imposed a ban on Russian diesel
fuel and other refined oil products, slashing
energy dependency on Moscow and seeking to further
crimp the Kremlin’s fossil fuel earnings as
punishment for invading Ukraine. Sunday’s ban
comes along with a price
cap agreed by the Group of Seven (G7) allied
countries – the United States, Britain, Germany,
France, Italy, Japan and Canada. The goal is
allowing Russian diesel to keep flowing to
countries such as China and India and avoiding a
sudden price rise that would hurt consumers
worldwide while reducing the profits funding
Moscow’s budget and war.
In response to electricity shortages,
Ukrainian government and its international
partners have focused their efforts on finding
emergency solutions. Although generators that use
fossil fuels have become a suitable quick fix,
they are not sustainable from a long-term
perspective, while supply of renewable energy
equipment and financial support to scale up
renewable energy production in Ukrainian
communities and cities would provide a resilient
source of energy for years to come. The draft
Ukraine’s Recovery Plan presented by the Ukrainian
authorities in July 2022 in Lugano consisted of
controversial projects such as, for example, the
construction of small modular nuclear reactors;
the promotion of the use of peat and wood as
‘green’ fuel at new power plants; plus forestry,
agriculture and hydropower projects that may lead
to the destruction of natural ecosystems.
Russian president Vladimir Putin has “lost
the energy war” and the worst of the European gas
and power crisis has passed, according to Pierre
Andurand, one of the world’s top-performing
traders in the sector. Andurand, whose energy
focused hedge funds have enjoyed three bumper
years of returns during the coronavirus pandemic,
said he had closed out all his positions in
natural gas markets because last year’s price
surge to record levels was unlikely to be
repeated, with Europe learning rapidly to live
without Russian gas. Deep cuts to Russian gas
exports in retaliation for western support for
Ukraine drove the European benchmark price above
€300 a megawatt hour in August, more than 10 times
its normal level.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February
and a global energy crisis sparked fears that
clean energy and net-zero emission targets were
being scrapped in the name of energy security. But
as it turns out, the spike in fossil fuel use was
just a blip, as the next few years are set to see
low-carbon energy sources generate a record share
of the world’s electricity.
In the outpatient clinic of the village of
Horenka, in the Kyiv region, a ground-water heat
pump and a solar power plant were put into
operation. This is the first medical facility in
the area where such an energy-efficient system is
installed, and it should become an example of
green reconstruction of the country. The
rebuilding of the heating system according to the
principles of green reconstruction will make it
possible to increase the energy efficiency of the
outpatient clinic, reduce CO2 emissions and the
negative impact on the environment, as well as
reduce heating costs by 80 % (almost a quarter of
a million UAH per year). Due to the solar plant,
the hospital will become an electricity producer
and can cover up to 60 % of its needs.
Britain’s biggest gas supplier, the
Norwegian state-owned oil company Equinor, has
been accused of “profiteering” from the energy
crisis and higher household bills after posting
record annual earnings of £62bn. The oil and gas
producer said on Wednesday that adjusted profits
hit $15.1bn (£12.5bn) in the final three months of
last year, bringing total annual profits to
$74.9bn, the highest in its 51-year history.
France’s largest oil and gas company,
TotalEnergies, one of the biggest operators in the
North Sea, also reported record annual profits.
Its adjusted earnings hit $36bn and it said it
would buy back a further $2bn of its own
shares.
European countries' bill to shield
households and companies from soaring energy costs
has climbed to nearly 800 billion euros,
researchers said on Monday, urging countries to be
more targeted in their spending to tackle the
energy crisis. European Union countries have now
earmarked or allocated 681 billion euros in energy
crisis speding, while Britain allocated 103
billion euros and Norway 8.1 billon euros since
September 2021, according to the analysis
by think-tank Bruegel. The 792-billion-euro
total compares with 706 billion euros in Bruegel's
last assessment in November, as countries continue
through winter to face the fallout from Russia
cutting off most of its gas deliveries to Europe
in 2022. | |
Regional and world
news
A lawyer from Bishkek, Ikramidin Aitkulov
broke the silence on the 8th of February this year
and filed a complaint to the General Prosecutor’s
Office on the work of some Government
organizations and Bishkek Power Station. The
reason for his complaint was a heart attack he’d
had in December 2020, with the subsequent
operation and health complications. The lawyer
blamed Bishkek Power Station for the deterioration
of his health and demanded to open several
criminal cases against the institution. Now, time
will show whether the General Prosecutor’s Office
starts an investigation with the requirement of
lawyer Aitkulov. The response to the official
appeal should be sent by February 20. Until then,
Aitkulov is gathering signatures
in support of his appeal.
As Uzbekistan freezes amid rampant power
shortages in its coldest winter for half a
century, there is a million dollar question on the
lips of its shivering citizens. Is the government
exporting gas that could be powering heating
plants and pumping warmth into people’s homes?
Officials are adamant
that Tashkent is not sending the valuable
commodity abroad. “All exports of gas, including
exports to China, have been 100 percent halted,”
Behzot Narmatov, head of the Uztransgaz
transportation company, stated
last month, when public outrage over power outages
soared as Arctic temperatures gripped
Uzbekistan.
To help young Central Asian women
kick-start careers in the sustainable energy
sector, the OSCE is organizing a 5-day intensive
training course on renewable energy for young
women from Central Asia who specialize in energy.
This training course is being implemented in
partnership with the Kazakh-German University
(DKU) within the framework of the OSCE Initiative
Empowering
Young Central Asian Women in the Energy Transition
| OSCE. The course will: increase
participants’ knowledge of green energy
technologies, renewable energy and energy
efficiency;provide practical insights into the
clean energy sector through an onsite visit to a
renewable energy facility in Kazakhstan; expand
participants’ access to industry experts and
potential employers.
The Baku Botanical Garden, one of the
city's last bastions of thriving plant life, is
under renovation, and leaked images of the
proposed plans have highlighted how the
Azerbaijani capital's green space is dwindling. In
January, Azerbaijani media published
images of projections for Baku's Central Botanical
Garden, which closed
for renovation in November 2022. The plans,
reportedly drawn
up by Baku-based MB Architects, depict new
buildings and pedestrian overpasses, as well as a
parking lot. The company also designed Nizami
Ganjavi Park and Chambarakand
Park in Baku in similar styles.
Up to 15 million people face risk of
catastrophic flooding from glacial lakes which
could burst their natural dams at any moment, a
new study finds. The study led by Newcastle
University is the first global attempt to map
potential hotspots for such floods. As the climate
warms, glaciers retreat and meltwater collects,
forming lakes. The impact of global warming on
glacial lake floods is yet to be defined, but it
has increased both
the volume and number of glacial lakes
worldwide. The study published
in the journal Nature Communications assessed
the conditions of lakes and the number of people
living downstream from them, which has also
increased significantly.
Climate change is impacting all parts of
our lives, from the way we power our homes to the
heat waves that grip our cities in summer.
Tracking these changes paints a picture of the
effect our changing planet is having on people
across Europe. It also shows where countries are
getting it right when it comes to mitigating our
impact - and where improvements are urgently
needed. But some places are heating up faster than
others. Between 2012 and 2021, average global
temperatures were 1.11 to 1.14 °C warmer than in
pre-industrial times.
Six months on from the start of
devastating floods in Pakistan, about 200,000
people are still displaced – living under
tarpaulins by the side of the road. As summer
turned to winter, some parts of the country have
seen snow. “For children and old age people
without shelter, it’s terrible,” said Concern
Worldwide’s Sherzada Khan. Young women and girls
are still “forced to live without roof and walls,”
he added, putting them at risk of sexual assault.
On top of this, he said “[a] severe food security
crisis [is] looming now and will be there until
the next harvest”. | | |
|
| |
