GWPF | 16 Nov 2015
Britain will no longer pursue green energy at all costs and will instead make keeping the lights on the top priority, Amber Rudd, the energy secretary, will vow this week. Households already face paying over-the-odds for energy for years to come as a result of expensive subsidies handed out to wind and solar farms by her Labour and Lib Dem predecessors, Ms Rudd will warn. a major speech setting out a new strategy, the energy secretary is expected to say that from now on, policies will balance “the need to decarbonise with the need to keep bills as low as possible”.“Energy security has to be the first priority. It is fundamental to the health of our economy and the lives of our people,” she will say. —Emily Gosden, The Sunday Telegraph, 15 November 2015
1) At Last: Britain To End Pursuit Of Green Energy At All Costs – The Sunday Telegraph, 15 November 2015
2) G20: India Blocks Western Tactics On UN Climate Deal – Financial Times, 16 November 2015
3) India Opposes West’s Climate Agenda – The Hindu, 15 November 2015
4) India’s Energy Challenge, Or Why Paris Climate Pledges Are Meaningless– Financial Times, 15 November 2015
5) Reality Check: China Approves 155 New Coal Power Plants – The New York Times, 11 November 2015
India has blocked G20 efforts to pave the way for an ambitious climate change accord in a sign of deep divisions just two weeks before delegates from almost 200 nations meet in Paris. Through almost 20 hours of talks at the G20 gathering in Turkey officials struggled to bridge a political chasm even over language suggesting a common problem required a collective solution. A senior EU official at the meeting of world leaders in Antalya said: “At certain times I was feeling that we’re not living on the same planet.” Most significantly India and Saudi Arabia opposed the inclusion of a reference in the G20 statement to the need to discuss a “review mechanism” that the EU and many economies say must be a central feature of the accord. If other big economies follow suit, the weakening of the final accord would raise doubts about the UN’s ability to do anything to combat climate change. —Alex Barker and Pilita Clark, Financial Times, 16 November 2015
Speaking for developing countries, in his address to the G-20 Leaders, Prime Minister Modi will voice strong objections to the environment and social safeguards standards being pushed by the World Bank and other multilateral agencies for project finance and loans. He will call for a balance at the Conference of Parties (COP) 21 December talks in Paris so that development is not compromised as a result of the focus on climate change. Mr. Modi is also expected to emphasise that the commitment from the developed countries to make available from 2020 $100 billion of climate finance every year to developing countries has to be ensured and a road map for this should be laid down over the next five years. — Puja Mehra, The Hindu, 15 November 2015
In the first nine months of this year, state-owned companies received preliminary or full approval to build the 155 coal power plants that have a total capacity of 123 gigawatts, the report said. That capacity is equal to 15 percent of China’s coal-fired power capacity at the end of 2014. The construction boom — with capital costs estimated by Greenpeace at $74 billion — is a clear sign that China remains entrenched in investment-driven growth, despite promises by leaders to transform the economic model to one based on consumer spending. —Edward Wong, The New York Times, 11 November 2015
1) At Last: Britain To End Pursuit Of Green Energy At All Costs
The Sunday Telegraph, 15 November 2015
Emily Gosden
Britain will no longer pursue green energy at all costs and will instead make keeping the lights on the top priority, Amber Rudd, the energy secretary, will vow this week.
Amber Rudd, the energy secretary, is expected to give a major speech on policy this week. Photo: Rex Features
Households already face paying over-the-odds for energy for years to come as a result of expensive subsidies handed out to wind and solar farms by her Labour and Lib Dem predecessors, Ms Rudd will warn.
In a major speech setting out a new strategy, the energy secretary is expected to say that from now on, policies will balance “the need to decarbonise with the need to keep bills as low as possible”.
“Energy security has to be the first priority. It is fundamental to the health of our economy and the lives of our people,” she will say.
But Ms Rudd is also expected to make clear that eking out more power from Britain’s ageing and polluting coal-fired power stations is not the solution to keeping the lights on, and new gas and nuclear plants are needed instead.
The energy department is understood to be considering announcing a closure date for Britain’s remaining coal plants – potentially requiring a shutdown as early as 2023, although policy details were still being thrashed out this weekend.
Any such move would be highly controversial as coal power stations produced 29 per cent of UK electricity last year and the closure of some plants has already increased the risk of blackouts.
But Ms Rudd is expected to warn that the remaining old coal plants are becoming increasingly unreliable, highlighting breakdowns at several plants earlier this month that forced National Grid to resort to emergency measures to keep the lights on.
While coal will have a role in the “short term”, she will say that “longer term, it seems obvious that the risks from relying on ageing coal plant, which requires heavy investment just to maintain the plant, will increase”.
The energy secretary will disclose she has asked the National Grid to review the old coal fleet to “assess whether coal reliability is worsening”.
Although the Government wants gas plants to replace coal, Ms Rudd is expected to admit that the UK electricity market is now so distorted by subsidies that “no form of power generation, not even gas-fired power stations, can be built without government intervention”…
The energy industry has been awaiting the promised “policy reset” that is supposed to set out a vision for where Britain will source its electricity needs in years to come.
Ms Rudd will say: “New, clean technologies will only be sustainable at the scale we need if they are cheap enough. When costs come down, as they have in onshore wind and solar, so should support.
“Subsidy should be temporary, not part of a permanent business model. We need to provide a level playing field, where success is driven by your ability to compete in a market, not on your ability to lobby for subsidy.”
2) G20: India Blocks Western Tactics On UN Climate Deal
Financial Times, 16 November 2015
Alex Barker in Antalya and Pilita Clark in London
India has blocked G20 efforts to pave the way for an ambitious climate change accord in a sign of deep divisions just two weeks before delegates from almost 200 nations meet in Paris.
Through almost 20 hours of talks at the G20 gathering in Turkey officials struggled to bridge a political chasm even over language suggesting a common problem required a collective solution.
A senior EU official at the meeting of world leaders in Antalya said: “At certain times I was feeling that we’re not living on the same planet.”
Most significantly India and Saudi Arabia opposed the inclusion of a reference in the G20 statement to the need to discuss a “review mechanism” that the EU and many economies say must be a central feature of the accord. The accord is supposed to require all countries to volunteer pledges to cut their greenhouse gas emissions from 2020 or take other measures to tackle climate change.
The EU and others say it must also contain measures requiring assessment every five years of commitments made by signatories and upgrade them if progress is deemed insufficient.
India said it did not want the G20 to interfere in the Paris talks and blocked even a general reference to discussions on “periodic monitoring”.
If other big economies follow suit, the weakening of the final accord would raise doubts about the UN’s ability to do anything to combat climate change.
More than 160 countries have published their initial climate pledges ahead of the two-week Paris summit that starts on November 30.
However, it is clear they will not add up to enough to meet the target agreed almost five years ago at UN talks that global temperatures should not rise more than 2C from pre-industrial times.
Some countries want a lower threshold of 1.5C set in Paris. India and Saudi Arabia were initially among a group of countries in Antalya resisting the inclusion of a reference to the 2C targets in the G20 conclusions, saying they did not want to prejudge Paris. “I was a bit surprised,” said the senior EU official, adding it did not bode well for Paris.
Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, said that “after long talks overnight” the world leaders agreed to include the 2C target in the G20 statement.
“But it is clear that a whole host of talks will still be necessary to make sure that we can make progress in Paris,” she said. “This has to be a success.”
India has long opposed efforts to oblige all countries, not just wealthy ones, to share the burden of reducing the greenhouse gas emissions that have risen steadily since UN climate talks started more than 20 years ago.
New Delhi’s opposition nearly sank the 2011 UN climate talks in Durban, South Africa, that laid the groundwork for the Paris summit.
On Sunday night Laurent Fabius, the French foreign minister who is at the summit, said the “declaration was too weak” and had been rejected by the US and some EU countries.
After talks that stretched to 3am on Monday — rare for G20 meetings — the draft was amended to make mention of targets and some broader goals for Paris…
However a caveat was inserted stating that negotiators would have to engage “flexibly” in Paris, which some officials saw as watering down even the general G20 statement of intent made in Antalya.
China, the world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitter, agreed in a joint statement with France this month that there should be a five-year stocktaking assessment of national climate pledges.
President François Hollande of France, who is hosting the Paris talks, hailed a “major step” forward that boosted chances of success at the summit.
But the statement said the results of this stocktake would only “inform” governments about enhancing their emissions reduction plans. It did not spell out any requirement for the plans to be strengthened.
Full story
3) India Opposes West’s Climate Agenda
Puja Mehra
India objects to the environment and social safeguards standards being pushed by the World Bank, demands that developed countries make available $100 billion of climate finance every year.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who arrived here from London on Saturday evening to attend the two-day G-20 Summit, after completing his three-day U.K. visit, is scheduled to be the lead speaker at its inaugural session on Climate Change and Development.
Speaking for developing countries, in his address to the G-20 Leaders, including U.S. President Barack Obama, Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Chinese President Xi Jinping, British Prime Minister David Cameron and Prime Minister of Australia Malcolm Turnbull, among others, Mr. Modi will oppose the proposed move for eliminating fossil fuels subsidies.
He will also voice strong objections to the environment and social safeguards standards being pushed by the World Bank and other multilateral agencies for project finance and loans. He will call for a balance at the Conference of Parties (COP) 21 December talks in Paris so that development is not compromised as a result of the focus on climate change.
India’s stated position is that the emphasis should rather be on clean technology, Economic Affairs Secretary and head of India’s finance track delegation here at the G-20 Summit Shaktikanta Das told presspersons. “India calls for balance between focus on climate change and development needs.” The Prime Minister will invite all countries to join an international network on non-conventional energy, he said.
Mr. Modi is also expected to emphasise that the commitment from the developed countries to make available from 2020 $100 billion of climate finance every year to developing countries has to be ensured and a road map for this should be laid down over the next five years.
4) India’s Energy Challenge, Or Why Paris Climate Pledges Are Meaningless
Financial Times, 15 November 2015
Nick Butler
International Energy Agency predicts India’s fossil fuel demand will more than double in the next 25 years
Optimism, however essential for human progress, can be very dangerous if misapplied or allowed to run to excess. There can be few better examples of this than the new review of India’s energy future published last week by the International Energy Agency. As you would expect, the paper is fascinating in its detailed description of India’s energy economy. But the forecasts are seriously over optimistic. They gloss over the challenges that even a radical modernising government in Delhi is not managing to overcome and they ignore the very real risks of a much less happy outcome.
The IEA’s central “new policies” forecast is summed up by the table below (figures show million tonnes of oil equivalent).
Total energy demand is set to more than double by 2040, with oil use rising by 6m barrels a day; 260m new passenger vehicles will travel on India’s roads. Over the period around 530m people will gain access to electricity for the first time through new grid connections or off-grid supplies. The proportion without access will decline from 20 per cent to 8 per cent in 2030 and to zero by 2040. Renewable power generation — excluding hydro — will grow 12-fold to 720 terawatt hours. All this will be achieved by virtue of $2.8tn worth of investment — that is $110bn a year, 75 per cent of which will go to the power sector for the construction of new plant and transmission lines. There will be a five-fold increase in gross domestic product — at an average rate of 6.5 per cent a year — and by around 2030 India will overtake China as the most populous country in the world, with some 1.5bn citizens.
Of all these numbers I am afraid I only believe the last one.
5) Reality Check: China Approves 155 New Coal Power Plants
The New York Times, 11 November 2015
Edward Wong
In the first nine months of this year, state-owned companies in China received approval to build the 155 coal power plants
Just outside the southwest border of Beijing, a new coal-fired power and heating plant is rising in Dongxianpo, a rural town in Hebei Province. Cement mixers roll onto the site. Cranes tower above a landscape of metal girders.
When finished, the plant, run by a company owned by the Beijing government, is expected to have a generating capacity of 700 megawatts of power, more than the total of similar plants in Ohio. But whether it will actually be used to its fullest is questionable, despite the investment of $580 million.
That is because the plant is scheduled to come online in three years amid a glut of coal-fired power plants — an astounding 155 planned projects received a permit this year alone, with total capacity equal to nearly 40 percent of that of operational coal power plants in the United States.
China’s economic slowdown and the government’s pledges to use more renewable and nuclear energy make some of the country’s existing plants and most or all of the 155 new ones unnecessary (sic), according to interviews with officials and scholars, a review of public statistics and a report released on Wednesday about the “coal power bubble” by Greenpeace East Asia. There are already too many plants, as shown by a steady decline in the plants’ average operating hours since 2013.
Despite China’s pledge to cap and then reduce carbon emissions, coal production continues to grow, creating tough choices for those who work in and live near the mines.
China’s state-controlled economy creates strong incentives for provinces to manage their own energy sources to generate jobs and revenue. Coal plants have long been the easiest, fastest way for provinces to meet their own energy needs and stimulate local economic growth.
That system has created an apparent disconnect between the provincial building boom and the country’s overall energy requirements, making it harder for China to convert to a system that is not dominated by dirty fuel.
“China already has more coal capacity than it will ever need,” Zhang Boting, vice chairman of the China Society for Hydropower Engineering, said in an interview. “A few years down the road, we’ll see what a waste the plants are. We have seen this happen to the steel and cement industries.”
In the first nine months of this year, state-owned companies received preliminary or full approval to build the 155 coal power plants that have a total capacity of 123 gigawatts, the report said. That capacity is equal to 15 percent of China’s coal-fired power capacity at the end of 2014.
The construction boom — with capital costs estimated by Greenpeace at $74 billion — is a clear sign that China remains entrenched in investment-driven growth, despite promises by leaders to transform the economic model to one based on consumer spending.
It also raises questions about whether China is weaning itself off coal as quickly as it can and whether officials are sufficiently supporting nonfossil fuel sources over coal, which is championed by some state-owned enterprises. China is the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world and the main driver of climate change, and has some of the worst air pollution.
