In this edition, businesses chime in. Read Business Green’s Business giants urge US to seize climate change “opportunity”. In the solar space, Saudi Arabia hopes to export solar electricity to Europe, says Reuters.
Quote of the Day:
“My message to the MEPs who are thinking how to vote next week is if you want to vote for green growth, if you want to vote for a future strong European economy, you vote for the backloading proposal. Not to vote is actually a real backward step for the European economy.”
–U.K. Energy and Climate Secretary Ed Davey in Bloomberg’s “German, U.K. Ministers Urge Support For Carbon Fix”
Lead Stories
German, U.K. Ministers Urge Support For Carbon Fix
Bloomberg
Six environment and climate chiefs, including German Environment Minister Peter Altmaier and U.K. Energy and Climate Secretary Ed Davey, pressed European Union lawmakers to back a rescue plan for the world’s biggest carbon market, as divisions persist before a key vote.
http://jlne.ws/XGkjEC
Nations Lead Carbon Plans Amid Elusive Global Price, Shell Says
Bloomberg
Investors in clean-energy projects will need to work within national policy “bubbles” because a global carbon price will remain elusive for years, according to David Hone, Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA)’s climate adviser.
http://jlne.ws/10Pp3nQ
Business giants urge US to seize climate change “opportunity”
Business Green
Some of the world’s largest businesses yesterday called on America’s political leaders to urgently accelerate efforts to build a greener economy, arguing that “tackling climate change is one of America’s greatest economic opportunities of the 21st century”.
http://jlne.ws/16QIKzQ
Geothermal Energy Expected to More Than Double by 2030
Bloomberg
Geothermal energy capacity will more than double by 2030 as developing economies including Indonesia, Chile and Kenya take advantage of natural resources, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
http://jlne.ws/111zOoy
Fuel subsidies dwarf climate efforts
ODI
The global cost to developing country governments of subsidising fuels such as gas and oil is over $396 billion a year – 75 times higher than the $5 billion received by the same governments to combat the effects of climate change.
http://jlne.ws/111x1Md
A mighty wind problem
Crain’s Chicago Business
Here’s a new indignity for cash-strapped Illinois: A state fund to promote clean energy is projected to balloon to about $150 million from $15 million in the next 18 months, but unanticipated glitches in the law that established it could make it next to impossible to spend much of that money.
http://jlne.ws/10XjD9e
EPA Nominee McCarthy Vows ‘Common Sense’ Actions on Climate
Bloomberg
Gina McCarthy, President Barack Obama’s nominee to head the Environmental Protection Agency, vowed “common sense” steps to tackle climate change, and said those actions can be taken without undermining the economy.
http://jlne.ws/ZQdjiF
Events
Navigating the American Carbon World (NACW) 2013
San Francisco April 16-18
http://jlne.ws/11SrgTF
Natural Gas/Coal
Pengrowth Buys Aquatech Water Equipment for Oil Sands
Bloomberg
Pengrowth Energy Corp. (PGF) hired Aquatech International Corp., a Pennsylvania-based water engineering specialist, to design and build a treatment system for the Canadian company’s oil sands project in northern Alberta.
http://jlne.ws/ZpZF5T
Australia’s Woodside shelves $40 bln Browse LNG project
Reuters
Woodside Petroleum has shelved plans for its $40 billion Browse liquefied natural gas project in Western Australia, saying it will consider a floating LNG plant after deciding the onshore development did not make economic sense.
http://jlne.ws/ZQfO4C
Coalition blames unions, dollar for Browse gas blow
The Age
“Outrageous” industrial action and the soaring dollar had priced Australia out of the market for onshore liquefied natural gas projects, said Ian Macfarlane, the Coalition’s resources spokesman.
http://jlne.ws/10XuRKQ
Rosneft challenges Gazprom in Asia-Pacific LNG race
Reuters
Russian state energy major Rosneft said on Thursday it wants to start supplying liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Asia from 2018, challenging rival Gazprom’s plans to launch its own plant in the Pacific port of Vladivostok.
http://jlne.ws/10YpBrU
Noble Energy expects to double in size in 5 years
Reuters
Texas-based Noble Energy will double in size in the next five years, with a big boost coming from natural gas production in the eastern Mediterranean, its chief executive said on Thursday.
http://jlne.ws/10SF2TK
Power
Saudi Arabia hopes to export solar electricity to Europe
Reuters
Saudi Arabia, which is planning massive investment in renewable energy, hopes to export solar electricity to Europe in winter, when cooler temperatures reduce the need for air conditioning in the kingdom.
http://jlne.ws/121Ac86
Libya aims to get about fifth of power from solar by 2020
Reuters
Libya is nearly ready to issue tenders for two new solar plants and aims to get a fifth of its power from renewable sources by 2020, while its sunshine could one day supply all of Europe, its electricity minister said.
http://jlne.ws/10SDEAJ
COLUMN-Renewable power may reverse EU price convergence: Wynn
Reuters
Power prices diverged last year across central Europe for the first time since as far back as 2006 in further signs of a possible conflict between European Union goals for an internal energy market and more renewable power.
http://jlne.ws/17ugLXM
Record-breaking Portugal generates 70 per cent of power from renewables
Business Green
lmost three quarters of the electricity consumed in Portugal during the first quarter of the year came from renewable sources, according to new figures from the country’s grid operator REN.
http://jlne.ws/XvrsoR
Reports
Clearing the Air: Reducing Upstream Greenhouse Gas Emissions from U.S. Natural Gas Systems (Posted April 8, 2013)
World Resources Institute
http://jlne.ws/10M9Um3
The State of Green Business 2013 (Posted February 12, 2013)
GreenBiz.com
http://jlne.ws/12K3WYL
Can the US Get There from Here? (Posted February 6, 2013)
WRI
http://jlne.ws/X5PgyQ
The Billion Euro Aviation Bonanza – Aviation’s Participation in the EU ETS (Posted January 22, 2013)
http://jlne.ws/WHQez7