Energy Transition

January 17, 2021

ESG Investments Could Pick Up Momentum in 2021

Editor

As we look to a new year, socially responsible investments that track factors like environmental, social, and governance principles could see greater adoption among financial advisors and investors. “Interest has gone up tremendously in 2020,” Jeffrey Gitterman, head of Gitterman Wealth Management, an RIA that specializes in sustainable investing and provides model portfolios to other wealth management firms, told Think Advisor. “Our climate strategies are the most popular. The transition (to zero emissions) is here and not going away.”

December 13, 2020

We have set an end date for oil and gas production. The world should follow

Dan Jørgensen and Andrea Meza Murillo

Joiseyshowaa/Flickr

Climate Action, Emissions reduction targets, Energy Transition, Paris Agreement

Five years ago, in Paris, the governments of the world pledged to take urgent action to tackle the climate emergency. Today, as we celebrate the anniversary of that pledge, the time has come to take stock of the progress we’ve made and what it is going to take to limit warming to 1.5C. One thing is clear: to meet the Paris objectives, we will need to put an end to the expansion of fossil fuel production.

December 9, 2020

Russia weighs scenarios for declining global oil demand

ANYA ANDRIANOVA AND EVGENIA PISMENNAYA

Climate Change, Energy Transition, Scenarios

The Finance Ministry of the world’s biggest energy exporter has started preparing for the possibility of lower budget revenues in case global oil demand declines sooner than expected. A drop in mobility due to the coronavirus has coincided with increased efforts to combat climate change this year to completely alter the outlook for fossil fuel demand. BP Plc became the first major oil giant to admit in September that oil consumption may never return to levels seen before the pandemic. Since then China and the U.S., the world’s two biggest economies, have stepped up commitments to transition to clean energy.

November 26, 2020

Just north of the oilsands, the largest remote solar farm in Canada is about to power up

Ainslie Cruickshank

Nick Kendrick / Greenplanet Energy Analytics

Energy, Climate Change, Energy Transition, First Nations, Solar Photovoltaic

Three Nations Energy (3NE), a corporation owned by Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, Mikisew Cree First Nation and Fort Chipewyan Metis Association, announced the completion of their 2.2-megawatt solar farm in Fort Chipewyan this week.

November 18, 2020

Climate change: UN chief calls for ‘great leap’ towards carbon neutrality

Unsplash/Les Corpographes

Climate Action, Carbon Neutral, Climate Change, Climate Narratives, Energy Transition, Europe, Governments

“2021 must be the year of a great leap towards carbon neutrality,” said António Guterres, UN Secretary-General to a virtual gathering of influential leaders on Monday. “Every country, city, financial institution and company should adopt plans for transitioning to net zero emissions by 2050.” “By early 2021, countries representing more than 65 per cent of global carbon dioxide emissions and more than 70 per cent of the world economy are very likely to have made ambitious commitments to carbon neutrality,” he said. “The signal this sends to markets, institutional investors and decision-makers is clear. Carbon should be given a price. We must shift the tax burden from income to carbon, from taxpayers to polluters.” He added that financial reporting on exposure to climate risks should be made mandatory, while authorities must integrate the carbon neutrality goal into economic and fiscal policies in order to truly transform industry, agriculture, transportation and the energy sector.

November 14, 2020

A harmonised, high-coverage, open dataset of solar photovoltaic installations in the UK

Dan Stowell, Jack Kelly, Damien Tanner, Jamie Taylor, Ethan Jones, James Geddes & Ed Chalstrey

Shutterstock

Climate Action, Energy Transition, Solar Photovoltaic, UK

This article presents the results of a major crowd-sourcing campaign to create open geographic data for over 260,000 solar PV installations across the UK, covering an estimated 86% of the capacity in the country. In particular, it focuses on capturing small-scale domestic solar PV, which accounts for a significant fraction of generation but was until now very poorly documented. The dataset suggests nameplate capacities in the UK (as of September 2020) amount to a total of 10.66 GW explicitly mapped, or 13.93 GW when missing capacities are inferred. Our method is applied to the UK but applicable worldwide, and compatible with continual updating to track the rapid growth in PV deployment.

November 11, 2020

Climate heroes: the countries pioneering a green future

Jonathan Watts

Sergio Pérez/Reuters

Climate Action, Climate Narratives, Energy Transition, Future

From Spain to South Korea, there are several global success stories in the drive to become carbon neutral.

November 2, 2020

Ottawa’s Ambitious Energy Evolution

Vesta Sahatciu

Climate Action, Climate Change, Emissions reduction targets, Energy Transition

In 2019, Ottawa City Council joined cities around the world in declaring a climate emergency and committed to reducing emissions to net zero by 2050. Today, City Council unanimously passed Energy Evolution—its plan for achieving that goal. The plan focuses on achieving ambitious carbon reduction targets by reducing energy use through conservation and efficiency, increasing the supply of renewable energy through local and regional production, and prioritizing the procurement of clean renewable energy.

October 31, 2020

Climate change: You’ve got cheap data, how about cheap power too?

Justin Rowlatt

GETTY IMAGES

Technology, Climate Change, Energy Transition

Green tech is at a tipping point where it could take off explosively – just like the smartphone did. And, just like the smartphone, it could bring a revolution in how we do much more than just create energy.

October 26, 2020

GE: Industrial giant will stop building coal-fired power plants