Year: 2023


U.S. sets rules on methane emissions, first nation to set fines for polluters

During COP28 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), the US Environmental Protection Agency announced plans that could reduce an estimated 58 million tons of methane emissions over the next 15 years. More than 80 times more heat trapping than CO2 over a twenty year period, methane emissions continue to increase throughout the U.S., the world’s third largest emitter of this powerful greenhouse gas. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, today’s concentrations of methane in the atmosphere are higher than at any time in at least 800 000 years, and methane has contributed around 30% of observed global warming to date. The energy sector is responsible for around 40% of total methane emission. But now, as lead writer Michael Buchsbaum relates, for the first time, the U.S. federal government has set rules to regulate methane pollution from new and existing oil and gas facilities while preparing to set fines for violators. Read More

With methane emissions soaring, the UN is sending in the satellites

With support from the UN, private and public initiatives, a fleet of satellites equipped with space-based detection and sensors are being launched to identify and measure the concentration of methane in the atmosphere. The main component of natural gas, methane is over 80 times more heat trapping than CO2. Now the second-most prominent greenhouse gas, it can leak at all stages of its production and use — from wells, refineries, pipelines and even at homes and buildings. Globally in 2022, methane emissions from the energy industry totaled some 135 million metric tons, slightly higher than the year before. As lead writer Michael Buchsbaum relates, the new satellites will be able to locate emissions even from remote or inaccessible areas and hopefully help regulators and operators finally control them. Read More

Ukraine’s recovery will also be an example of sustainability – but don’t leave Ukraine out of that recovery

In Part 2/3, we considered the inability of politics and consumer behaviour to move at the speed and systems level the climate and sustainability emergency needs. For Ukraine and the world, the most progressive and bold businesses, combined with finance and braver politicians and activists, will need to show that sustainability works on all fronts – across the environment, for people and economically – to pull policymaking, the public and the rest of industry into alignment with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Part 1/3 considered how the whole world can maximize the Ukraine 2.0 vision, built on the research and convening of Razom We Stand. Josh Matthews reports. Read More

Ukraine’s recovery will also be an example of sustainability – but business and finance must make up for the limited power of politics

In Part 1/3, we considered that despite Ukraine being poised, in its post-war recovery, to contribute to the systems-level change sustainability needs, that the world’s boldness will determine just how fast and global that systemic effect could be. Razom We Stand, in an event that led up to the Ukraine Recovery Conference in London this summer, amplified how Ukraine is set to show that sustainability and, in particular, the energy transition should work across environmental, people and economic fronts. Josh Matthews reports. Read More

The hype around Hyphen – path towards Namibia’s energy revolution or Global North dependency?

In his two parts blog series on “green hydrogen” (GH2), Andy Gheorghiu asked the question if it’s solution of pipe dream – outlining the decarbonisation challenge of the Global North’s energy-/feedstock intensive industry while showing that mainly the Global South has the potential to actually produce large amounts of GH2. In this blog, he draws our attention to Hyphen, one of the largest African hydrogen (H2) projects, in Namibia – highlighting significant open questions and explaining why local opposition is mounting. Read More

The complexities of the clean energy divide

At the height of power blackouts in South Africa earlier this year households went without electricity for 10 hours a days. The unprecedented spike in outage hours saw the middle class scramble for alternative energy sources to buffer against the failing electricity grid. However, the poorest and the most vulnerable were being left in the dark, writes Ufrieda Ho. Read More

Carbon capture and storage | The Global Energy Transition Podcast

In this episode of the Global Energy Transition podcast, host Michael Buchsbaum, lead blogger for the Energy Transition.org talks with David Schlissel, attorney and Director of Resource Planning Analysis for the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) about carbon capture and storage (CCS) which got a lot of attention at the recently concluded COP28 in Dubai. Read More