Researchers say climate change may be cooling California (Sacramento Bee, June 4)
I've been wondering about this ever since I moved back here. This is not the weather that I remember from my childhood.
Chinese airline group 'totally opposes' EU's emission plan (Bloomberg, June 5)
The EU wants to bring aviation into a cap and trade plan? Cap and trade works best where there are known solutions to emissions that caps can provide incentives to implement. My impression is that's not the case with airlines, so in this case I have some sympathy for the airlines - one can't help wondering if some other solution might be better in this case.
However, EU offers solution to China in row over aviation CO2 (Reuters, June 5)
Probably not one that will make China very happy, though: its airlines will be allowed an exemption if it can prove it's taking comparable steps to reduce aviation emissions at home.
German cabinet decides on nuclear exodus by 2022 (Reuters Africa, June 6)
Not a surprise.
And, LNG demand rises as nuclear power is shunned (The Telegraph, June 6)
The shift away from nuclear is expected to increase demand for natural gas, tightening that market and driving prices up. That's probably a good thing for renewable energy, which has a tougher slog the cheaper natural gas is.
Thus, unsurprisingly, Chubu expects CO2 emissions to jump due to nuke plant shutdown (Reuters, June 8)
LNG power has a higher carbon content than nuclear power. (Similarly, Germany's nuclear energy blunder, The Washington Post, June 1; Berlin bets big on renewable energy, Financial Times.com, June 8)
Speaking of which, Golden age of gas may be a call too soon (Financial Times, June 7)
Interesting review of how the global natural gas market works. Bottom line: a lot of gas pricing is still tied up in long-term contracts that index the price of gas to the price of oil. However, the current trend is toward gas-to-gas pricing, in which gas is priced against its own spot market rather than oil (this is the current favored mechanism in the US). The latter makes for a better, more globalized market.
World Bank eyes a network of carbon markets in a make-or-break decade (Bloomberg, June 6)
Developing countries as incubators for a bunch of different carbon-pricing or other market experiments?
Romney draws early fire from conservatives over views on climate change (The Washington Post, June 8)
Romney takes the position that climate change is real and man-made; predictable results on the right.
Canada confirms it will reject new Kyoto Protocol (Reuters, June 8)
Canada, Japan, and Russia have all confirmed they won't support extending Kyoto through a second commitment period after 2012.
Technology breakthrough news for the week
New battery design could give electric vehicles a jolt (MITnews, June 6)
Slurry batteries could allow "gas-station" style refueling for batteries.
US solar power nears competing on price (Financial Times.com, June 8)
Importance self-evident.
No comments:
Post a Comment