Summary
In today’s edition, food for thoughts: Admit we can’t save everything might be the key to halting climate change. Also, in the Carbon section, analysts at French investment bank Société Générale slashed their EU Allowance price estimates by 24% across the board but said the recent price rout has been overdone, recommending that its clients buy with caution. Finally, in the Natural gas / coal, Russia’s Gazprom makes plans to increase global gas market share.
Quote of the day
“The longer we delay action, the cost of climate stabilisation will rise dramatically.”
Hoesung Lee, the head of the U.N.‘s panel of climate scientists, in the Reuters’ story France’s Royal to head U.N. climate talks after Fabius quits
Lead stories
The key to halting climate change: admit we can’t save everything
By Ayana Elizabeth Johnson – The Guardian
Climate change, and human resistance to making the changes needed to halt it, both continue apace: 2015 was the hottest year in recorded history, we may be on the brink of a major species extinction event in the ocean, and yet political will is woefully lacking to tackle this solvable problem.
http://bit.ly/1KX5VAp
Tackling Climate Change Through Profits
By Reuben Munger – Huffington Post
Last month in Davos, the World Economic Forum released the results of a survey of 750 experts on the “most significant long-term risks worldwide.” This year the survey was unequivocal: failing to act on climate change is the number one global risk.
http://huff.to/1KqMMa4
Climate change, fertility and girls’ education
Brookings
The historic agreement reached at Paris on climate change outlined a range of activities, research, and technical cooperation to mitigate climate change.
http://brook.gs/1QlxXId
Palestine to submit UN climate pledge mid-year
By Megan Darby – Climate Home
Palestine aims to submit a climate plan to the UN by the middle of the year, its lead envoy has told Climate Home.
http://bit.ly/1SzqMfK
France’s Royal to head U.N. climate talks after Fabius quits
Reuters
French Environment Minister Ségolène Royal said on Wednesday she would take over the presidency of U.N. climate talks, seeking to implement a global deal reached last year to shift away from fossil fuels, after former foreign minister Laurent Fabius quit.
http://reut.rs/1U8G6PV
Brain drain hinders Nauru in climate change battle
Radio New Zealand International
A Nauru climate change activist Nerida Ann Hubert says a brain drain and a generation’s worth of school drop outs are preventing the country from tackling climate challenges.
http://bit.ly/1Szq3eA
U.S. States That Embrace Carbon Price Are Unfazed By Scalia And Supreme Court Drama
By Steve Zwick – Ecosystem Marketplace
Two days before US Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia passed away in Texas, a group of leading environmentalists held a press conference to dissect the implications of the Court’s decision to freeze President Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan (CPP) pending the outcome of a lawsuit by 29 state attorneys general and some energy companies.
http://huff.to/1oKM79J
Events
Cleantech Innovate London
February 11, 2016
http://jlne.ws/1mg6nOG
CERAWeek 2016 Energy Conference
Energy Transition: Strategies for a New World
February 22-26, 2016
Houston, Texas
http://jlne.ws/1mg7VrX
The Wall Street Green Trading Summit
Columbia University Club, New York
March 14, 2016
http://jlne.ws/doFbLA
Northeast RECs Regional Thought Leader Round Table
March 23, 2016
Environmental Markets Association
Office of Dentons, 1221 Avenue of the Americas, New York
http://jlne.ws/1mg7iOT
Navigating the American Carbon World (NACW) 2016
Climate Action Reserve
May 4-6, 2016
San Diego, California
http://goo.gl/Ah5s1I
CARBON EXPO 2016
Global Carbon Market Fair and Conference
May 25-27, 2016
Cologne
http://jlne.ws/1mg8bqR
Cleantech Innovate Scotland
June 9, 2016
http://jlne.ws/1mg6nOG
Carbon
EU carbon price rout “overdone”, but buy with caution – SocGen
Carbon Pulse
Analysts at French investment bank Societe Generale on Tuesday slashed their EU Allowance price estimates by 24% across the board but said the recent price rout has been overdone, recommending that its clients buy with caution.
http://bit.ly/1QJLjbs
Canada’s Atlantic provinces eyeing regional carbon price -PEI environment minister
Carbon Pulse
Canada’s Atlantic provinces are considering introducing a regional carbon price, according to Prince Edward Island’s environment minister.
http://bit.ly/20ENm69
Natural gas / coal
Methane Leaks Erase Climate Benefit Of Fracked Gas, Countless Studies Find
By Joe Romm – Climate Progress
Fracking is not good for the climate. Or, to put it a tad more scientifically, “By The Time Natural Gas Has A Net Climate Benefit You’ll Likely Be Dead And The Climate Ruined,” as I wrote two years ago.
http://bit.ly/1Lu4XXe
A Natural Gas Price War Is Imminent
By Tim Maverick – Wall Street Journal
By now, we’re all familiar with the oil share war initiated by Saudi Arabia against other oil producers, mainly the United States.
http://bit.ly/1QmDrwj
Russia’s Gazprom Makes Plans To Increase Global Gas Market Share
Platts
Russia’s Gazprom is taking steps to increase its share of the global gas market amid uncertain demand and the onset of new LNG supplies from the US and Australia.
http://bit.ly/1Trirem
Natural Gas Likely To See $5 Within 2 Years
By Darian Frost – Seeking Alpha
Natural gas prices in the United States have hovered around $2-3 for months now. As crude prices have nosedived, many traders have taken that as a cue to take natural gas further down as well.
http://bit.ly/1Lu6ywk
The Biggest Natural Gas Discovery Of 2016 Just Got Bigger
By Dave Forest – Oil Price
International natural gas is shaping up as one of 2016’s most interesting spots in energy.
http://bit.ly/1TnUxix
Power
Power from water and graphene
Nature
Chemists have generated electricity from water by passing it through a material containing atom-thick sheets of carbon.
http://bit.ly/1OgPOsh
The wind turbine for your backyard: 26ft ‘Wind Tree’ uses tiny silent blades to generate electricity from light breezes
By Victoria Woolaston – Mail online
What started out as a concept is now being turned into reality, with several being planned for the French capital.
http://dailym.ai/24aVhg7
***LB: Also in this story “French company ‘New Wind’ is installing the first at Place de la Concorde in Paris and is hoping to expand throughout the country and abroad.”
Siemens 7-megawatt offshore wind power turbine reaches final stage in development process
PennEnergy
The development of Siemens’ offshore flagship wind power turbine has reached its final stage: the 7-megawatt (MW) offshore turbine has successfully passed final type certification.
http://bit.ly/1KqPlcf
Clean tech
MIT Cleantech Committee explores how blockchains can distribute renewable electricity
By Ian Allison
Experts from MIT are hosting an event next week to explore the potential blockchain technology could in making electricity markets cleaner and more efficient.
http://bit.ly/1oqpDdr
Ontario Invests Nearly $100 Million to Boost Cleantech Innovation and Create Jobs
Office of the Premier
Ontario is putting its new Climate Change Strategy into action by investing nearly $100 million from the Ontario Green Investment Fund into projects that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions, increase energy efficiency and support cleantech innovation and jobs.
http://bit.ly/1Vo9Yq6
Water
Thousands of Flint residents could join ‘billion-dollar’ water crisis lawsuits
By Ryan Felton – The Guardian
Hundreds of Flint residents on Tuesday packed into a ballroom at the University of Michigan-Flint, hoping to receive answers from a legal team representing potentially thousands of plaintiffs in several lawsuits filed over the water crisis in Flint, where financial damages may exceed $1bn.
http://bit.ly/1SzukyG