Energy - Climate
In the face of the climate emergency and geopolitical confrontations, how can we reconcile security of supply, competitiveness, accessibility, decarbonization and acceptability? What policies are needed?
Related Subjects
European Energy Policy: Energy Savings Glass 2/3 Empty
Summing up Europe’s climate policies suggests we still haven’t grasped the full potential for energy savings. We act as if we were living in a system with infinite resources easily exploited by human innovation and ingenuity. We focus on the efficiencies we can gain from components of our system, but not on the system as a whole and we do not consider how the other billions of people on earth can achieve our level of comfort with a resource or carbon-constrained future and with aspirations that necessarily imply sharply growing energy consumption.
Japan's Nuclear Crisis: A Time for Support
These are terrifying moments. No one could ever have imagined that the Japanese nuclear sector could fall victim to such a seismic event.
Rising (Oil-linked) Gas Prices: A Message from Shale Gas
One benefit that should flow soon from large new sources of shale gas that have been and will be unleashed into world markets - is the realization that gas prices linked to oil prices don’t make sense any more.
The Effects of Baghdad Politics on Kurdistani Gas Prospects
This paper examines the effects of internal Iraqi politics on the potential for exporting Kurdistani natural gas. It examines Baghdad’s policy with regards to both oil and gas, and predicts what effects it will have on Kurdistan’s gas prospects.
Energy Efficiency: The Commission's Complicated Calculations
Who hasn’t heard of the 3x20, those pillars of European energy policy? And yet who is able to give their exact definition?
Renewables in Transport: Directive 2009/28/EC - Devils in its Details
This Actuelle precedes a longer and more exhaustive paper on Electric Vehicles, under the title "The Electric Vehicle in the Climate Change Race: Tortoise, Hare or both?" by Maïté de Boncourt.
As part of the 3*20 targets reached in December 2008, the EC decided that the EU should, by 2020, source 20% of its Final Energy Consumption (FEC) renewably.
Will there ever be a European Gas and Electricity Market ?
A year ago, I would have responded to this question rather positively. Nowadays, I am not so sure. My relative optimism before was based on the replacement of a group of monopoly-holding (at least regionally) national operators, by an oligopoly of operators with a sizeable proportion of their activity outside of their countries of origin. These included EON, EdF, RWE, ENEL, GDFSuez, IBERDROLA, VATTENFALL and others.
Arctic Solutions: The Frozen (Thawing) Relations of the High North
It’s cold, inhospitable and deadly. The image of the Arctic in years past is one of bewilderment, ignorance and awe. How the image of the Arctic has changed in recent years can be directly linked to our recognition that the Arctic has a great deal to offer in meeting the basic needs of future generations.
EU Council Feb 4: Strength in Unity
Community officials and heads of EU states and governments will meet this Friday February 4, 2011, at a Council called by President Herman VAN ROMPUY, to address energy security. There are many critical topics that could be on the table, but there is some considerable risk that the events in Lebanon, Yemen, Egypt, Tunisia and now Jordan could hijack the agenda. That would be unfortunate, as the problems in those countries are precisely why the Council should stay focused on energy and the growing European vulnerability to what happens in world energy markets.
The Electric Vehicle in the Climate Change Race: Tortoise, Hare or Both?
Europe is seeking ways to decrease the growing negative impact of passenger cars on climate, currently responsible for up to 12% of total EU CO2 emissions. After biofuels in the nineties and hydrogen in 2000, the new answer to climate change appears to be electric. But contrary to many marketing messages, electric cars are not zero emissions cars. They will not necessarily contribute to actual CO2 emission reductions before 2020 and even then, not in every country.
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