Feed aggregator

Heat pump sales across the EU fell by around 5% last year compared to the previous year, data from an industry group show, putting the EU’s climate and energy targets at risk.

The government of Brazil has launched a programme to encourage foreign investment in sustainable projects by offering protections against exchange rate volatility, according to a government statement released Monday.

A project developer has unveiled plans for a demonstration ocean-based hydrogen plant in Singapore that will show how durable carbon dioxide removal (CDR) costs can fall below $100 per tonne before 2030, the company announced Tuesday.

Microsoft has signed an offtake agreement for 10,000 tonnes of voluntary carbon removals with a Kenyan-based biochar supplier, one of the largest single purchases of the credit type in the region.

Sales fell 5% over 14 countries for which data exists, according to the European Heat Pump Association

Europe’s heat pump market has hit a slump, industry data shows, holding up the continent’s efforts to heat its homes without polluting the planet.

Manufacturers in most markets sold fewer heat pumps in 2023 than they did the year before, according to the lobby group European Heat Pump Association (EHPA). Total sales fell 5% over the 14 countries for which data exists, bucking a trend of accelerating growth that peaked in 2022 when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sent gas prices soaring.

Continue reading...

European carbon allowances gave up most of Monday's gains in early trade on Tuesday as the previous day's positive sentiment across most energy markets faded and sellers reappeared.

Scientists express concern over health impacts, with another study finding particles in arteries

Microplastics have been found in every human placenta tested in a study, leaving the researchers worried about the potential health impacts on developing foetuses.

The scientists analysed 62 placental tissue samples and found the most common plastic detected was polyethylene, which is used to make plastic bags and bottles. A second study revealed microplastics in all 17 human arteries tested and suggested the particles may be linked to clogging of the blood vessels.

Continue reading...

The break-even point between the cost of biofuels and EUAs for the shipping sector is likely to occur as soon as next year, as purchasing greener alternatives to petroleum products becomes cheaper than the cost of carbon permits, according to market analysts.

Relying on private companies to solve the climate crisis means that the planet’s fate rests in the hands of asset managers

We are living through perhaps the biggest and most important policy experiment in human history, without even being aware of it: we have been relying primarily on the private sector to put an end to the climate crisis. But this experiment increasingly looks like a mistake, and one that may cost us our planetary future.

To appreciate this, consider the global stock market. With stock prices now at all-time highs, it would be easy to assume that global business is uniformly buoyant. But look behind the headline figures and it becomes clear that while some industry sectors are flourishing, others are floundering. The cast of winners and losers throws up an irony that is significant and dreadful. One of the sectors where stock performance is worst happens to be one the world arguably needs to be best. That sector is clean, renewable energy, or what is more widely termed “green capitalism”.

Brett Christophers is a professor in the Institute for Housing and Urban Research at Sweden’s Uppsala University and author of The Price is Wrong: Why Capitalism Won’t Save the Planet

Continue reading...

Tory government has ‘ducked’ difficult decisions, leading to higher bills, says shadow energy secretary

• Business live – latest updates

Labour has claimed a “culture of inertia and stasis” has blocked renewable energy projects under the Conservatives and says the party will overturn a de facto onshore wind ban “at the stroke of a pen” if it wins the general election.

The shadow energy secretary, Ed Miliband, told energy industry executives at a conference in London on Tuesday that Labour would immediately rip up a decade-long effective block on large onshore wind developments in England if elected.

Continue reading...

The introduction of green public procurement (GPP) has great potential to significantly drive down China's emissions associated with construction materials, particularly steel and cement, according to a report published Tuesday.

Vietnam has many legislative and legalistic levers to pull when it comes to attracting much needed investment into clean energy, with its 2028 carbon pricing mechanism among them if well designed, a report has found.

China should introduce new policies to reverse the dynamics in its oversupplied carbon market, as the carbon price is still far from the optimal level for meeting the country's climate targets, a report has argued.

Protecting 30% of areas held by big landowners in the Brazilian Cerrado could avoid 13% of the expected biodiversity loss by 2070, while failure to do so would see vast areas of nature lost, a study has found.

Green businesses and jobs are booming – in stark contrast to the national economy – but political U-turns risk future growth

The UK’s net zero economy grew by 9% in 2023, a report has revealed, in stark contrast to the 0.1% growth seen in the economy overall. Nevertheless, the report pointed out that strong future growth from green businesses was being put at risk by government policy reversals, lack of investment and competition from the EU and US.

Thousands of new green companies were founded in 2023 and overall the sector was responsible for the production of £74bn in goods and services and 765,000 jobs, according to the report by the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) and the Confederation of British Industry (CBI).

Continue reading...

A Japanese consortium is planning a multistep programme to develop clean fuels via capturing CO2 from industries that cannot be easily transitioned to lower emissions via electrification or the use of hydrogen to create new ‘e-fuels’ produced in Australia that can be used in place of traditional fossil fuels.

Australia’s Woodside Energy has bought nearly all the Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) it needs to meet its compliance obligations to 2030 under the Safeguard Mechanism, according to its climate report released Tuesday.

Japan will next month certify 63 more Other Effective area-based Conservation Measures (OECMs) that businesses can choose to support financially in exchange for biodiversity support certificates, the environment ministry announced Tuesday.

Clean Energy Council calls on federal Labor to ramp up investment "with a view to ...full decarbonisation of the electricity sector by 2035."

The post CEC calls for big budget spend on renewables, and net zero grid by 2035 appeared first on RenewEconomy.

EnergyAustralia says both its proposed four-hour battery projects are competing in government's Capacity Investment Scheme.

The post EnergyAustralia says two four-hour battery projects competing for government contracts appeared first on RenewEconomy.