Author: Energiewende Team


The "Energiewende Team" has an administrative function. We use this account to repost all the best articles about the global Energiewende from around the web.

Methane part 2 | The Global Energy Transition Podcast – Episode 7

by Energiewende Team

While much of the international community’s climate action has focused on controlling carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, in doing so, we’ve essentially given a pass on another very powerful greenhouse gas: methane.

With 86 times the warming impact of CO2 over a twenty-year period, new studies show that methane accounts for about 30-50 percent of today’s global warming.

Thankfully, after years of pressure from activists and climate scientists, in 2021 world leaders finally started paying attention to our growing methane problem. While US President Biden created something of a stir leading an international pledge to reduce methane emissions, the EU actually introduced some rules intended to control methane pollution both inside the 27-member bloc as well as outside of it.

In this second episode in a series focusing on methane, host Michael Buchsbaum interviews James Turitto, Campaign Manager for Methane Pollution Prevention at the Clear Air Task Force.

We also hear an excerpt from Sharon Wilson, Senior Field Advocate at Earthworks, who has long been documenting carbon leakage in the US.

You can play the episode below, and it’s also available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Audio from the podcast was mixed and edited by audio expert Christian Kreymborg.

 

East Asia’s top economies to rise as top importers of Russian fossil fuels by end of year

by Energiewende Team

While media coverage has mainly focused on China and India’s record-level imports, other countries in Asia – particularly East Asia – have also been among the top global importers of Russian energy – and are therefore also implicit contributors to the war effort. A new data visualization website shows that countries in the region are likely to become top importers of Russian fossil fuels once Europe finalizes its plans to phase them out, and that moving towards renewables makes more sense considering the global security risks of fossil fuels, the climate crisis and the falling costs of renewables.

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Cheniere’s new LNG greenwashing scheme exposes the deep flaws in industry’s methane strategy

by Energiewende Team

In war there are winners and losers. One U.S. gas company profiteering off the back of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is America’s largest Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) exporter, Cheniere Energy. The company has pivoted more of its exports this year to Europe, which is in desperate need of alternatives to Putin’s gas. Over 70% of the company’s LNG exports went to Europe in the first half of 2022, up from less than 40% the year before. Lorne Stockman and Andy Rowell report. This article was originally published on Oil Change International.

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Not enough Space? Combining Agriculture with Renewable Energies

by Energiewende Team

In 2022, Germany set ambitious goals renewable energy, raising its share of gross electricity consumption up to 80 percent by 2030. In this context, the German government has adopted a policy to promote energy systems on agricultural land and focusing, in particular, on solar energy production. Many questions remain but agrovoltaic systems could serve as a useful tool to boost both the national and European energy transition. Leona Schmitt scans the detail.

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The New Energy Charter Treaty in Light of The Climate Emergency 

by Energiewende Team

After 2 years and 15 negotiation rounds, on June 24, 2022, the Contracting Parties of the Energy Charter Treaty (“ECT”) finaly reached an agreement in principle on a reform of the Treaty. The deal, the detailed text of which remains confidential, contains a package of amendments and changes meant to modernise the Treaty’s investment provisions and bring it in line with the Paris Agreement (the “new ECT”). Crucially, this new ECT will grant existing fossil fuel investments in the European Union and the United Kingdom an additional 10 years of investment protection and even maintain, for now, indefinite protection in other Contracting Parties. It is therefore clearly not aligned with the rapid phase-out of fossil fuels that science shows is required to avoid climate catastrophe, or consistent with the International Energy Agency’s (“IEA”) widely recognised scenario to limit global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. Amandine Van den Berghe, Lukas Schaugg and Helionor de Anzizu have the details. This blog was originally published on Jus Mundi.

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GFANZ must tighten the screw on fossil fuel expansion

by Energiewende Team

Pressure on the fossil fuel industry to stop developing new projects and to start to phase out the production of coal, oil and gas is steadily increasing. On May 18, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stated unequivocally that “Fossil fuels are a dead end — environmentally and economically. […] We must end fossil fuel pollution and accelerate the renewable energy transition, before we incinerate our only home.” Global finance, and especially the leadership of the Glasgow Financial Alliance on Net Zero (GFANZ), needs to follow Guterres’ lead, stop waffling on fossil fuels and send a clear message to the industry that its days are numbered. Paddy McCully gives a broader look. This article was originally published in Reclaim Finance.

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