GWPF | 27 Jan 2015
Greece’s Socialist Government Plans New Coal Power Plants
India’s resistance to accept a peak year for emissions was a prime reason why US President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Narendra Modi failed to strike a climate deal along the lines of a US-China agreement on emission cuts. The US wanted India to make specific commitments including a peak year for a new climate treaty to be signed at Paris later this year. But India refused as it feared it would have resulted in the world putting India in the same bracket as China on carbon emissions. –Chetan Chauhan, Hindustan Times, 27 January 2015
Syriza’s election victory in Greece has kindled hopes of an environmental champion pushing for greater climate ambition on the European stage, but the party will need to balance its green credentials with a commitment to new coal plants. “If we face fiscal difficulties from abroad in the medium term, then to burn more lignite instead of importing energy will seem a wise thing to do,” a Syriza source said. “If we don’t have money to import petrol then we will burn lignite which is free – not of a carbon footprint – but relatively cheaper. One way or another Greek lignite will be exploited.” –Arthur Nielsen, The Guardian, 26 January 2015
1) India Says ‘No’ To Obama Climate Deal – Hindustan Times, 27 January 2015
2) No US-India Climate Deal As Modi Boosts Coal Production – The Washington Post, 24 January 2015
3) US To Finance India’s Solar Dreams (Yeah, Right…) – CleanTechnica, 26 January 2015
4) Greece’s Socialist Government Plans New Coal Power Plants – The Guardian, 26 January 2015
5) UK Government Imposes Curbs On Fracking – Financial Times, 27 January 2015
6) Reality Check: What Does the Peer-Reviewed Literature Say About Trends in East Coast Winter Storms? – The Climate Fix, 27 January 2015
Despite international pressure, India’s climate negotiators have been reluctant to commit to specific emissions targets in part because the country must depend on coal as its primary energy source for at least the next decade. U.S. officials had hoped to announce a deal on climate change that would be a modest complement to the historic agreement the United States reached with China in November. But little progress has been made because India and China are in very different places in their development, experts say. “The growth of coal is inevitable,” said Navroz K. Dubash, senior fellow at the Center for Policy Research in New Delhi. –Annie Gowen, The Washington Post, 24 January 2015
To spur the solar sector, and meet its 100 GW solar goal, India is looking for investments to the tune of a $100 billion within a period of 6–7 years — more than half of this is expected to come from abroad. This is where the United States is expected to play an important role. Explaining the US stance in a joint press conference with Modi yesterday, President Obama said, “We very much support India’s ambitious goal for solar energy, and stand ready to speed this expansion with additional financing.” —Anand Upadhyay, CleanTechnica, 26 January 2015
Ministers have imposed a series of Labour demands on the UK’s fracking industry, in a last-minute move to avert a House of Commons defeat and pave the way for the development of shale oil and gas across Britain. A group of MPs failed on Monday to derail legislation to help fracking companies extract what experts believe are trillions of cubic feet of gas and billions of barrels of oil trapped beneath the UK. But, in a heated Commons debate, the government accepted an opposition amendment that will strengthen controls on the industry. –Christopher Adams and Jim Pickard, Financial Times, 27 January 2015
1) India Says ‘No’ To Obama Climate Deal
Hindustan Times, 27 January 2015
Chetan Chauhan,
New Delhi: India’s resistance to accept a peak year for emissions was a prime reason why US President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Narendra Modi failed to strike a climate deal along the lines of a US-China agreement on emission cuts.
The US wanted India to make specific commitments including a peak year for a new climate treaty to be signed at Paris later this year. But India refused as it feared it would have resulted in the world putting India in the same bracket as China on carbon emissions.
China is the world’s biggest carbon emitter while India is fourth with per capita emissions one-third those of China’s.
“Having a peaking year was not acceptable to us,” said an environment ministry official.
The officials also said the US was not willing to enhance its commitment to climate finance and reiterated that it had already offered to give $1 billion to the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA) for climate finance. India has also been seeking a US commitment to provide adequate funds for adapting to climate change for developing and least developed countries.
Sources said India was also not willing to make any bilateral commitment until India submitted its intended domestically determined contribution (INDCs) to fight climate change to the United Nations by June this year.
India is likely to make its plan of generating 1,00,000 MW of solar power and 55,000 MW of wind power as part of its INDCs, apart from saving upto 20,000 MW of power from introducing energy efficient systems. “We also want to see what other countries will commit in their INDCs,” an official explained.
US Secretary for State John Kerry earlier this month had emphasised that a climate deal with India would be a top priority during Obama’s visit. But the two countries failed to hammer out a deal except for a US commitment to invest in India’s plan to generate 1,00,000 MW of solar power by 2019.
2) No US-India Climate Deal As Modi Boosts Coal Production
The Washington Post, 24 January 2015
Annie Gowen
Despite international pressure, India’s climate negotiators have been reluctant to commit to specific emissions targets in part because the country must depend on coal as its primary energy source for at least the next decade.
As President Obama arrives in India on Sunday for talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, U.S. officials had hoped to announce a deal on climate change that would be a modest complement to the historic agreement the United States reached with China in November. But little progress has been made because India and China are in very different places in their development, experts say.
India’s energy deficit is staggering. An estimated 300 million people — roughly equal to the population of the United States — live without power. The national power grid was completed just last year.
Renewable energy remains scant and expensive. American and Indian officials have been trying to reach a deal that would soften liability concerns and clear the way for companies to invest in India’s nuclear industry. But even if an accord is reached, proposed nuclear power reactors would take many years to complete.
Coal, by contrast, is plentiful and available. India has the world’s fifth-largest coal reserves and must use the fossil fuel to power growth of 7 or 8 percent in gross domestic product, said the country’s coal secretary, Anil Swarup.
“The question is, what do you have in hand? We have coal,” Swarup said. “There isn’t much choice available.”
Despite international pressure, India’s climate negotiators have been reluctant to commit to specific emissions targets in part because the country must depend on coal as its primary energy source for at least the next decade, officials say.
“The growth of coal is inevitable,” said Navroz K. Dubash, senior fellow at the Center for Policy Research in New Delhi. “India is still an energy-scarce society that is not able to keep the lights on in many parts of the country and still needs to build up much of its infrastructure. Given the energy needs, it is likely coal will grow — for how long and how much, it’s hard to say.”
Even under the best-case scenario, coal will continue to account for more than 60 percent of the country’s power capacity until 2030, according to one government model, although renewable energy such as wind and solar power will rise from 6 percent to 18 percent.
3) US To Finance India’s Solar Dreams (Yeah, Right…)
CleanTechnica, 26 January 2015
Anand Upadhyay
President Obama is in India as the state guest for Republic day celebrations here. Needless to say, clean energy is a major focus area in the dialogue between the two countries.
To spur the solar sector, and meet its 100 GW solar goal, India is looking for investments to the tune of a $100 billion within a period of 6–7 years — more than half of this is expected to come from abroad. This is where the United States is expected to play an important role.
In September of last year, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in the US to persuade capitalists to invest in solar and wind sectors back home.
To get things rolling, the US Export-Import Bank entered into an agreement with the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA) and offered $1 billion in low-cost loan to India for aiding the development of renewable energy projects.
Explaining the US stance in a joint press conference with Modi yesterday, President Obama said, “We very much support India’s ambitious goal for solar energy, and stand ready to speed this expansion with additional financing.” To which, Modi added:
We discussed our ambitious national efforts and goals to increase the use of clean and renewable energy. We also agreed to further enhance our excellent and innovative partnership in this area.
I asked him (Obama) to lead international efforts in making renewable energy more accessible and affordable to the world. President and I expressed hope for a successful Paris Conference on climate change this year.
4) Greece’s New Socialist Government Plans New Coal Power Plants
The Guardian, 26 January 2015
Arthur Nielsen
Syriza’s election victory has kindled hopes of an environmental champion pushing for greater climate ambition on the European stage, but the party will need to balance its green credentials with a commitment to new coal plants, and ambivalence about a major gas pipeline.
Syriza is in an alliance with a faction of the Greek Green party, which will have at least one MP in the new government, and it is seen by many as a tribune of European social movements, particularly environmental ones.
Elements of Syriza’s domestic agenda will delight environmentalists. The party believes in small-scale diversified renewables production, coordinated with local people through community-level decision making. It also plans a big expansion of energy efficient building renovations – seen as the most cost-effective means of simultaneously cutting emissions – and fuel poverty. […]
But Syriza is torn between an economy that has contracted at a scale and speed not seen since the 1930s and a sizeable chunk of its party that is eager for growth now, at any cost. The government will need to quickly reframe the debate about ‘sustainable growth’ or lower green expectations, or both.
Syriza also plans to build new coal lignite plants – albeit, as cleanly as possible. “To build one new lignite plant but replace two others which are of older technology and emit more pollution, could be seen in technical terms as an improvement,” Harris Konstantatos, a member of Syriza’s central committee, told the Guardian, from Athens.
But coal is also the most carbon-intensive of all fossil fuels, and environmentalists argue that ‘clean coal’ techniques simply displace pollutants from one waste stream, such as fly ash, to another, such as water outflow.
Syriza’s commitment to growth itself would be challenged by many European Greens, but Konstantatos said that ‘degrowth’ ideas would be viewed as “absurd” in the austerity-wracked Greece of today. Leading party thinkers see the ‘keep fossil fuels in the ground’ idea as equally inappropriate – when even Germany continues to burn coal.
“If we face fiscal difficulties from abroad in the medium term, then to burn more lignite instead of importing energy will seem a wise thing to do,” a Syriza source said. “If we don’t have money to import petrol then we will burn lignite which is free – not of a carbon footprint – but relatively cheaper. One way or another Greek lignite will be exploited.”
Syriza is also keeping cards close to its chest on the issue of an east Mediterranean gas pipeline to alleviate Europe’s energy security concerns, with gas from Cyprus and Israel.
The Guardian understands that informal – though not yet face-to-face – negotiations have taken place between Syriza and the EU over what could be the largest pipeline project in the world, and among its most politically fraught.
5) UK Government Imposes Curbs On Fracking
Financial Times, 27 January 2015
Christopher Adams and Jim Pickard
Ministers have imposed a series of Labour demands on the UK’s fracking industry, in a last-minute move to avert a House of Commons defeat and pave the way for the development of shale oil and gas across Britain.
A group of MPs failed on Monday to derail legislation to help fracking companies extract what experts believe are trillions of cubic feet of gas and billions of barrels of oil trapped beneath the UK. But, in a heated Commons debate, the government accepted an opposition amendment that will strengthen controls on the industry.
Amber Rudd, energy minister, said it would take on board Labour’s proposals, which included tougher environmental monitoring, wider consultation, and a legal compulsion on companies to provide community benefit schemes. Activity in national parks would also be prohibited.
The government said most of Labour’s proposals were already official policy, carried out voluntarily by industry or as part of working practice by the Environment Agency or Health and Safety Executive.
6) Reality Check: What Does the Peer-Reviewed Literature Say About Trends in East Coast Winter Storms?
The Climate Fix, 27 January 2015
Roger Pielke Jr.
The image below comes from a 2001 paper by Hirsch et al. (here in PDF) titled, An East Coast Winter Storm Climatology. The top curve shows all East Coast winter storms, and the bottom shows the most intense storms. for the period 1948 to 1997.
As the figure implies, they concluded in that analysis:
the frequency of ECWS show a downward tendency over the study period but at insignificant levels. One test found a decreasing trend in strong ECWS significant for an alpha = 0.10.
So there was no trend 1948 to 1997, or a slightly downward trend. This is interesting because over the latter half of that period one analysis (Willett et al. 2010) found an increase in the water content of the lower atmosphere over the US East Coast. So those who argue for a simple relationship between increasing water content of the atmosphere and storm strength, data do not support such a claim over this multi-decadal period, in this region.
In 2010 Frankoski and DeGaetano published an update to Hirsh et al. 2001, extending data through 2006. They concluded:
No significant time-dependent trends were identified for precipitation or snowfall from East Coast Winter Storms or for the percentage of precipitation or snowfall from East Coast Winter Storms.
Such research is likely why the IPCC AR5 concluded in 2013:
In summary, confidence in large scale changes in the intensity of extreme extra-tropical cyclones since 1900 is low.
What that means in climate-speak is that the detection of trends in winter storms has not been achieved. It also means that the IPCC has not attributed any trends to human influences.
