In this newsletter:
1) Half of UK adults struggle to afford their energy bills - with numbers rising
Sky News, 25 October 2022
2) As winter looms, Britons bank on warming hubs
Bloomberg, 25 October 2022
3) Europe's energy crisis to shrink its heavy industry
Reuters, 25 October 2022
Sky News, 25 October 2022
2) As winter looms, Britons bank on warming hubs
Bloomberg, 25 October 2022
3) Europe's energy crisis to shrink its heavy industry
Reuters, 25 October 2022
4) Quarter of German companies ‘plan to cut jobs’
The Local, 24 October 2022
5) Texas shale gas price drops toward zero as output swamps pipelines
Bloomberg, 24 October 2022
The Local, 24 October 2022
5) Texas shale gas price drops toward zero as output swamps pipelines
Bloomberg, 24 October 2022
6) Africa’s headed for a climate showdown with rich nations
Bloomberg, 24 October 2022
7) Renewable energy is a failed path, scientist tells Utah legislators
The Salt Lake Tribune, 21 October 2022
8) Russia ships record volumes of coal, oil and gas to China
Bloomberg, 24 October 2022
7) Renewable energy is a failed path, scientist tells Utah legislators
The Salt Lake Tribune, 21 October 2022
8) Russia ships record volumes of coal, oil and gas to China
9) Eco mob throws cream cake over King Charles statue at Madame Tussauds
Daily Express, 25 October 2022
10) Just Stop Oil protesters target Global Warming Policy Foundation think tank
The Times, 26 October 2022
Full details:
1) Half of UK adults struggle to afford their energy bills - with numbers rising
Sky News, 25 October 2022
Sky News, 25 October 2022
Almost half of UK adults are finding it difficult to afford their energy bills, rent, or mortgage payments, new figures have shown.
The data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show a rising percentage of the population is struggling amid the cost of living crisis.
In September 45% of adults who paid energy bills were finding it very, or somewhat, difficult to afford them - up from 40% in June.
Some 30% of those paying rent or mortgages reported it being difficult to afford, up from 26% in the same time frame.
The figures were higher in those living with disabilities, with more than half (55%) finding it difficult to afford energy bills and 36% struggling to cope with housing payments (rent or mortgage).
The ONS released analysis of the proportion of the population affected by the increase in their cost of living and of the characteristics associated with being behind on energy, mortgage or rental payments, using data from the Opinions and Lifestyle survey.
Last week, the Financial Conduct Authority estimated 7.8 million people - or six in 10 adults - in the UK were finding it hard to keep up with their bills.
Lowest-cost groceries have become 17% more expensive in the past year, ONS data finds
Around one in 15 (7%) of disabled adults reported being behind on their energy bills, compared to one in 25 (4%) non-disabled people.
One in 25 (4%) disabled adults reported being behind on their rent or mortgage payments - this was twice as high as their non-disabled counterparts, with one in 50 (2%) behind on housing costs.
Overall, nine in 10 (93%) of those surveyed reported their cost of living had increased compared with a year ago.
A slightly lower percentage (73%) said it had increased in the last month.
Renters and lower incomes hardest hit
Renters were finding it more difficult than homeowners, with 39% finding it difficult to afford their housing costs - compared to 23% of those with mortgages.
Those who didn't own homes also found it harder to pay energy costs, with 60% struggling, compared to 43% of homeowners.
And those earning less also find themselves harder hit amid soaring costs and rising inflation.
Around half of those with a personal income of less than £20,000 per year said they found it difficult to afford their energy bills. This proportion decreased as personal income increased, with around a quarter (23%) of those earning £50,000 or more reporting the same thing.
Similarly, 72% of adults on prepayment meters reported difficulty, compared to 42% of those who pay via direct debts or one-off payments.
It comes as data from the comparison website Uswitch said the energy crisis is pushing more households on to prepayment gas and electricity meters.
It said some 60,000 new meters were installed in the six months to March - reversing a long-term trend of numbers falling.
Full story
2) As winter looms, Britons bank on warming hubs
Bloomberg, 25 October 2022
The data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show a rising percentage of the population is struggling amid the cost of living crisis.
In September 45% of adults who paid energy bills were finding it very, or somewhat, difficult to afford them - up from 40% in June.
Some 30% of those paying rent or mortgages reported it being difficult to afford, up from 26% in the same time frame.
The figures were higher in those living with disabilities, with more than half (55%) finding it difficult to afford energy bills and 36% struggling to cope with housing payments (rent or mortgage).
The ONS released analysis of the proportion of the population affected by the increase in their cost of living and of the characteristics associated with being behind on energy, mortgage or rental payments, using data from the Opinions and Lifestyle survey.
Last week, the Financial Conduct Authority estimated 7.8 million people - or six in 10 adults - in the UK were finding it hard to keep up with their bills.
Lowest-cost groceries have become 17% more expensive in the past year, ONS data finds
Around one in 15 (7%) of disabled adults reported being behind on their energy bills, compared to one in 25 (4%) non-disabled people.
One in 25 (4%) disabled adults reported being behind on their rent or mortgage payments - this was twice as high as their non-disabled counterparts, with one in 50 (2%) behind on housing costs.
Overall, nine in 10 (93%) of those surveyed reported their cost of living had increased compared with a year ago.
A slightly lower percentage (73%) said it had increased in the last month.
Renters and lower incomes hardest hit
Renters were finding it more difficult than homeowners, with 39% finding it difficult to afford their housing costs - compared to 23% of those with mortgages.
Those who didn't own homes also found it harder to pay energy costs, with 60% struggling, compared to 43% of homeowners.
And those earning less also find themselves harder hit amid soaring costs and rising inflation.
Around half of those with a personal income of less than £20,000 per year said they found it difficult to afford their energy bills. This proportion decreased as personal income increased, with around a quarter (23%) of those earning £50,000 or more reporting the same thing.
Similarly, 72% of adults on prepayment meters reported difficulty, compared to 42% of those who pay via direct debts or one-off payments.
It comes as data from the comparison website Uswitch said the energy crisis is pushing more households on to prepayment gas and electricity meters.
It said some 60,000 new meters were installed in the six months to March - reversing a long-term trend of numbers falling.
Full story
2) As winter looms, Britons bank on warming hubs
Bloomberg, 25 October 2022
Already struggling with high inflation and risk of an imminent recession, many Britons face a winter of being both cold and hungry.
The first rule for setting up a “warm bank”— a free heated indoor space for UK residents facing high energy bills this winter — is not to call it a warm bank.
The premise behind these spaces may be the same as that of a food bank, but term itself should be avoided, because of the potential stigma involved. “A warm space is a far more approachable place than a warm bank,” writes influential British moneysaving expert Martin Lewis, who commissioned and published a new British guide to setting up warming centers.
With fuel price rises sparked by the war in Ukraine making British home heating bills prohibitive for many, a nationwide network of these open-access facilities is currently being established by local governments, health authorities and civil society groups as the temperature drops. The phenomenon is widespread — the 262,000-resident city of Wolverhampton alone expects 38 such centers to open within its limits this year. But issues such as disability access, amenities and even ideal indoor temperatures may vary widely. Lewis’s how-to guide is aimed at ensuring that these often bottom-up, locally organized facilities are inclusive, financially sustainable and welcoming.
A Global Crisis Hits Locally
While Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has sent energy costs across Europe spiraling, UK residents have proved to be especially vulnerable — more so, for example, than in Germany, which is notably more dependent on Russian gas but has announced a huge €200 billion ($197 billion) subsidy for energy bills. The International Monetary Fund predicts that the UK is likely to be worse hit by rising fuel costs than any other country in Western Europe, due substantially to a greater gap between high- and low-income households.
Already struggling with high inflation and risk of an imminent recession, many Britons face a winter of being both cold and hungry.
The British state is offering support to help mitigate sharp price rises. In August, the government announced an energy price cap until April 2023 intended to ensure that the average household will pay no more than £2,500 ($2,820) per year (although households with above-average consumption will still pay more) — a cap initially planned to last two years but whose span was recently shortened by new Chancellor Jeremy Hunt. In addition, all households will receive a one-off £400 reduction on their overall winter bills, while the most vulnerable households could be eligible for staggered payments totaling £1,200. On average, bills would be almost £1,000 higher for the year without the cap.
This package is substantial, but with Britain’s Conservative government in chaos following the abrupt end of Liz Truss’s 44-day tenure, the terms may be subject to change. And even figuring in caps and one-off grants, Lewis estimates that utility bills will on average rise 6.5% compared to last year, while average household bills could exceed £4,300 annually once the cap is revoked in April. Even with state aid, Britain is still looking at a winter where heating could be an unaffordable luxury for many.
Full story
3) Europe's energy crisis to shrink its heavy industry
Reuters, 25 October 2022
The first rule for setting up a “warm bank”— a free heated indoor space for UK residents facing high energy bills this winter — is not to call it a warm bank.
The premise behind these spaces may be the same as that of a food bank, but term itself should be avoided, because of the potential stigma involved. “A warm space is a far more approachable place than a warm bank,” writes influential British moneysaving expert Martin Lewis, who commissioned and published a new British guide to setting up warming centers.
With fuel price rises sparked by the war in Ukraine making British home heating bills prohibitive for many, a nationwide network of these open-access facilities is currently being established by local governments, health authorities and civil society groups as the temperature drops. The phenomenon is widespread — the 262,000-resident city of Wolverhampton alone expects 38 such centers to open within its limits this year. But issues such as disability access, amenities and even ideal indoor temperatures may vary widely. Lewis’s how-to guide is aimed at ensuring that these often bottom-up, locally organized facilities are inclusive, financially sustainable and welcoming.
A Global Crisis Hits Locally
While Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has sent energy costs across Europe spiraling, UK residents have proved to be especially vulnerable — more so, for example, than in Germany, which is notably more dependent on Russian gas but has announced a huge €200 billion ($197 billion) subsidy for energy bills. The International Monetary Fund predicts that the UK is likely to be worse hit by rising fuel costs than any other country in Western Europe, due substantially to a greater gap between high- and low-income households.
Already struggling with high inflation and risk of an imminent recession, many Britons face a winter of being both cold and hungry.
The British state is offering support to help mitigate sharp price rises. In August, the government announced an energy price cap until April 2023 intended to ensure that the average household will pay no more than £2,500 ($2,820) per year (although households with above-average consumption will still pay more) — a cap initially planned to last two years but whose span was recently shortened by new Chancellor Jeremy Hunt. In addition, all households will receive a one-off £400 reduction on their overall winter bills, while the most vulnerable households could be eligible for staggered payments totaling £1,200. On average, bills would be almost £1,000 higher for the year without the cap.
This package is substantial, but with Britain’s Conservative government in chaos following the abrupt end of Liz Truss’s 44-day tenure, the terms may be subject to change. And even figuring in caps and one-off grants, Lewis estimates that utility bills will on average rise 6.5% compared to last year, while average household bills could exceed £4,300 annually once the cap is revoked in April. Even with state aid, Britain is still looking at a winter where heating could be an unaffordable luxury for many.
Full story
3) Europe's energy crisis to shrink its heavy industry
Reuters, 25 October 2022
Oct 25 (Reuters) - Makers of metals, chemicals and gases said on Tuesday that the outlook for the final months of the year had worsened as concerns intensify that a surge in energy and raw material costs will shrink Europe's heavy industry.
French industrial gases company Air Liquide (AIRP.PA) flagged slowing demand from some customers in Europe while Swedish steel maker SSAB said it will cut capacity in the fourth quarter as demand in Europe slows. It already cut construction-related volumes in the quarter to end-September.
German chemicals maker Covestro (1COV.DE) lowered its 2022 earnings guidance for the third time this year, blaming gas and raw material prices.
The company, whose main products include foam chemicals used in mattresses, car seats and insulation for buildings, said it was only able to offset part of the rise in costs through higher prices.
Gas prices in Europe have eased in response to an unusually warm October and projections of a mild winter.
But the continent is paying five time more for its gas than the United States, stirring concerns the region will struggle to compete on the global market in the long term.
"A mild winter alone can’t save the day in Europe. Growth is slowing, the European Central Bank (ECB) is tightening, while the single currency remains weak," Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote Bank, said.
BASF (BASFn.DE), the world's largest chemicals company, has reduced production of ammonia, a nitrogen fertiliser and input for engineering plastics and diesel exhaust fluid. The group, which relies heavily on natural gas, is buying from outside Europe, where prices are lower.
Data has also highlighted the impact. Euro zone manufacturing activity this month hit its weakest level since May 2020.
The downbeat manufacturing outlook is in contrast to food and consumer products companies, including Nestle (NESN.S) and Procter & Gamble (PG.N), which have passed on higher prices for goods ranging from Nescafe coffee to Gillette razors.
Full story
4) Quarter of German companies ‘plan to cut jobs’
The Local, 24 October 2022
French industrial gases company Air Liquide (AIRP.PA) flagged slowing demand from some customers in Europe while Swedish steel maker SSAB said it will cut capacity in the fourth quarter as demand in Europe slows. It already cut construction-related volumes in the quarter to end-September.
German chemicals maker Covestro (1COV.DE) lowered its 2022 earnings guidance for the third time this year, blaming gas and raw material prices.
The company, whose main products include foam chemicals used in mattresses, car seats and insulation for buildings, said it was only able to offset part of the rise in costs through higher prices.
Gas prices in Europe have eased in response to an unusually warm October and projections of a mild winter.
But the continent is paying five time more for its gas than the United States, stirring concerns the region will struggle to compete on the global market in the long term.
"A mild winter alone can’t save the day in Europe. Growth is slowing, the European Central Bank (ECB) is tightening, while the single currency remains weak," Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote Bank, said.
BASF (BASFn.DE), the world's largest chemicals company, has reduced production of ammonia, a nitrogen fertiliser and input for engineering plastics and diesel exhaust fluid. The group, which relies heavily on natural gas, is buying from outside Europe, where prices are lower.
Data has also highlighted the impact. Euro zone manufacturing activity this month hit its weakest level since May 2020.
The downbeat manufacturing outlook is in contrast to food and consumer products companies, including Nestle (NESN.S) and Procter & Gamble (PG.N), which have passed on higher prices for goods ranging from Nescafe coffee to Gillette razors.
Full story
4) Quarter of German companies ‘plan to cut jobs’
The Local, 24 October 2022
In order to tackle rising energy prices, a quarter of German companies revealed in a new survey that they planned to cut jobs, among other cost saving measures.
Around 25 percent of German companies plan to axe jobs as a cost saving measure, according to a survey of 1,080 German firms led by the Munich-based Stiftung Familienunternehmen released on Monday.
The figure stood at 14 percent in their last survey conducted in April.
Furthermore, ninety percent of the mostly small or medium-sized companies surveyed either plan to raise their prices or already have.
The results raise an alarm signal, said Rainer Kirchdörfer, Chairman of the Stiftung Familienunternehmen.
“Companies are scaling back manufacturing in Germany or relocating production to places where energy costs, taxes and bureaucratic burdens are lower,” he said.
Around nine percent of companies are seriously considering moving their production abroad, as opposed to only six percent six months ago, according to the survey.
Full story
5) Texas shale gas price drops toward zero as output swamps pipelines
Bloomberg, 24 October 2022
Shale gas in the Permian Basin trades for as little as 20 cents
Natural gas prices in the Permian Basin of West Texas are plunging toward zero as booming production overwhelms pipeline networks, creating a regional glut of the fuel.
Gas in an area of the vast Permian known as Waha traded for as little as 20 cents to 70 cents per million British thermal units on Monday, traders said. That compares with the US benchmark futures contract that’s trading around $5.20 and European prices close to $28.
If West Texas prices tumble into negative territory, energy producers will effectively be paying someone to take gas off their hands -- something that hasn’t happened in two years.
The price collapse illustrates the sharp contrast between bountiful US supplies of the fuel and Europe’s worsening energy crisis as winter approaches. Tight gas markets in Europe and Asia threaten to have knock-on effects for diesel, coal and power as governments and utilities scramble for energy, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.
The Texas price plunge stems from maintenance scheduled for Kinder Morgan Inc.’s Gulf Coast Express and El Paso Natural Gas pipeline systems.
Insufficient pipeline capacity has actually been a long-term problem that has dogged Permian Basin gas producers for years. The choke points worsen when pipeline operators must perform repairs and preventative maintenance work that forces temporary reductions in pressure or halts to shipping.
Permian pipeline constraints “have never been relieved,” making the region more susceptible to sudden gluts and price volatility, said Campbell Faulkner, chief data analyst at OTC Global Holdings LP.
There also are climate implications because much of the gas pumped in the Permian Basin is a byproduct of crude extraction. When pipelines are too full to handle any more gas, companies typically burn off the excess gas so they won’t have to reduce or stop oil production. The practice, known as flaring, has attracted increasing ire from environmental groups and scrutiny from regulators.
Gas delivered into the Waha hub crumbled by 85% to settle at 41 cents on Monday. Prices in the region went negative eight times times in 2020 and more than two dozen times in 2019, data compiled by Bloomberg shows.
Around 25 percent of German companies plan to axe jobs as a cost saving measure, according to a survey of 1,080 German firms led by the Munich-based Stiftung Familienunternehmen released on Monday.
The figure stood at 14 percent in their last survey conducted in April.
Furthermore, ninety percent of the mostly small or medium-sized companies surveyed either plan to raise their prices or already have.
The results raise an alarm signal, said Rainer Kirchdörfer, Chairman of the Stiftung Familienunternehmen.
“Companies are scaling back manufacturing in Germany or relocating production to places where energy costs, taxes and bureaucratic burdens are lower,” he said.
Around nine percent of companies are seriously considering moving their production abroad, as opposed to only six percent six months ago, according to the survey.
Full story
5) Texas shale gas price drops toward zero as output swamps pipelines
Bloomberg, 24 October 2022
Shale gas in the Permian Basin trades for as little as 20 cents
Natural gas prices in the Permian Basin of West Texas are plunging toward zero as booming production overwhelms pipeline networks, creating a regional glut of the fuel.
Gas in an area of the vast Permian known as Waha traded for as little as 20 cents to 70 cents per million British thermal units on Monday, traders said. That compares with the US benchmark futures contract that’s trading around $5.20 and European prices close to $28.
If West Texas prices tumble into negative territory, energy producers will effectively be paying someone to take gas off their hands -- something that hasn’t happened in two years.
The price collapse illustrates the sharp contrast between bountiful US supplies of the fuel and Europe’s worsening energy crisis as winter approaches. Tight gas markets in Europe and Asia threaten to have knock-on effects for diesel, coal and power as governments and utilities scramble for energy, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.
The Texas price plunge stems from maintenance scheduled for Kinder Morgan Inc.’s Gulf Coast Express and El Paso Natural Gas pipeline systems.
Insufficient pipeline capacity has actually been a long-term problem that has dogged Permian Basin gas producers for years. The choke points worsen when pipeline operators must perform repairs and preventative maintenance work that forces temporary reductions in pressure or halts to shipping.
Permian pipeline constraints “have never been relieved,” making the region more susceptible to sudden gluts and price volatility, said Campbell Faulkner, chief data analyst at OTC Global Holdings LP.
There also are climate implications because much of the gas pumped in the Permian Basin is a byproduct of crude extraction. When pipelines are too full to handle any more gas, companies typically burn off the excess gas so they won’t have to reduce or stop oil production. The practice, known as flaring, has attracted increasing ire from environmental groups and scrutiny from regulators.
Gas delivered into the Waha hub crumbled by 85% to settle at 41 cents on Monday. Prices in the region went negative eight times times in 2020 and more than two dozen times in 2019, data compiled by Bloomberg shows.
6) Africa’s headed for a climate showdown with rich nations
Bloomberg, 24 October 2022
African leaders say industrialized countries should pay to save the planet rather than expecting them to forego oil and gas development.
When Senegalese President Macky Sall convened an Africa Climate Adaptation Summit in Rotterdam last month, the idea was to bring together countries that need help adapting to a warming planet with industrialized nations whose emissions are to blame. Only the African leaders showed up.
The sole officials to attend from rich nations, which have prospered for nearly two centuries at the Earth’s expense, were Chrysoula Zacharopoulou, the French development minister, and Frans Timmermans, the European Commission climate chief. Even Mark Rutte, prime minister of the Netherlands, the country hosting the meeting, only made it for the photo op.
Backed by the United Nations, the Rotterdam gathering was meant to prepare the ground for the latest round of international climate talks, known as COP27, taking place in Egypt next month. Hosted by an African country, this year’s negotiations are set to focus on demands by developing nations — who contributed little to historical emissions of planet-warming gases — for financing to help them cope with worsening storms, droughts and floods.
If the leadup is anything to go by, however, it’s the widening chasm in policy approach that’s likely to be on display.
“Macky Sall invited all of his western counterparts. They didn’t come to that party,” said Patrick Verkooijen, chief executive officer of the Netherlands-based Global Center on Adaptation, an international organization focused on brokering climate solutions. “COP27 will be a train wreck if the adaptation finance doesn’t come through.”
The unprecedented heatwaves that swept the planet this year, along with melting glaciers and worsening floods and storms have added weight to demands for reparations from developing countries. Though an agreement is unlikely to be reached, the contentious issue of forcing rich nations to compensate poorer ones for economic losses caused by global warming will, for the first time, likely be on the formal agenda of COP27.
Adaptation financing is less controversial — it’s focused more on helping poorer countries protect their infrastructure and people from a changing climate. The idea is the more you invest in mitigation and adaptation, the less loss and damage there’ll be in the first place. Yet Africa, which is perhaps in more dire need than anywhere else, is getting neither.
The continent is the world’s least developed and produces just 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions but it’s due to suffer some of the worst consequences of increasingly extreme weather.
Nigeria and Chad are currently subsumed by floods that have killed hundreds of people, but the disasters have barely made headlines while the ensuing disruption of gas exports to Europe has dominated coverage. The Horn of Africa is in the midst of its worst drought in 40 years, threatening millions of vulnerable people with hunger. Madagascar and Mozambique have been hit by a series of cyclones and more than 400 people died when torrential rains drenched the South African city of Durban.
Unlike Europe and the US, African nations have few resources to protect against or cope with such calamities.
Verkooijen’s organization, together with the African Development Bank, has developed the Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program, in a bid to win $25 billion in finance for programs that would help buttress the continent by building stronger roads and bridges and bulwarks against rising seas. Money would also be spent on establishing irrigation systems and weather forecasting facilities to help farmers cope with more frequent droughts.
Even that $25 billion — which African nations are struggling to secure — is a fraction of what’s needed. Governments regularly submit to the UN updated Nationally Developed Contributions, showing what they want to do to fight climate change. Taken together, the NDCs of 51 African nations show a need for $579 billion in investment in adaptation projects through 2030, according to the Global Center on Adaptation. The continent received an annual average of $11.4 billion in adaptation finance between 2011 and 2020, it said.
All that falls far short of the $100 billion a year that rich countries pledged to put toward financing climate adaptation and clean energy in poorer countries in the decade to 2020. The target, since extended, has never been met. And what financing has been made available has mostly gone toward mitigation projects, such as the construction of renewable energy plants, important but perhaps not the top priority given the continent’s miniscule contribution to global carbon emissions.
While undertakings were made at last year’s COP26 in Glasgow to double adaptation finance to $40 billion a year to 2025, the world economy has since been blown off course by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which upended global energy and grain markets and shifted attention away from climate.
Not only has the promised financing not come through, but European nations reliant on Russia for gas have recommissioned coal-fired and nuclear plants to avoid a winter energy crunch and, along with the US, pressured oil-producing allies to increase supplies.
Those developments cut to the heart of African frustrations with international climate policies; while failing to fulfill their own commitments on financing and emissions targets, the world’s richest nations are pressuring African countries not to develop their natural resources to conserve natural habitats and avoid future warming.
Full story
7) Renewable energy is a failed path, scientist tells Utah legislators
The Salt Lake Tribune, 21 October 2022
A Utah legislative committee this week gave 45 minutes to a scientist who argued that policy makers across the globe are committing a grave mistake by turning to renewable energy.
William Hayden Smith, a professor of earth and planetary sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, wrote a research paper with colleagues in Switzerland and South Africa that claims to calculate a full cost of producing electricity from various sources. The paper was published this year in the Journal of Sustainable Development, a Canadian scientific journal.
“Now everyone will say that wind turbines and photovoltaics are cheaper than fossil fuels,” he told legislators. “That’s a stretch.”
He said the standard for comparing costs of electricity sources is called “Levelized Cost of Electricity,” which is calculated by adding up the total costs of a source over its lifetime and dividing it by the total energy expected from that source over the lifetime.
But Smith and his co-authors created an alternative metric they are calling the “full cost of electricity,” which he says factors in renewable energy costs not considered in LCOE, including the cost of storing power when renewables are not producing and the cost of replacing solar panels and windmills when they wear out.
He pointed to recent problems in Germany, where energy prices have shot up after Russia invaded Ukraine. He said Germany’s rush to renewables and decision to shut down nuclear plants is costing them now.
Beyond cost, wind and solar simply can’t meet the capacity, he said. “Every day the grid will collapse because you can’t meet the peak power.”
He also dismissed the idea that there is enough land available for the wind and solar farms to produce what fossil fuels do now. Thousands of square miles of wind and solar farms would be required. He added that windmills strike millions of insects, and no one is considering the biological effects.
Smith is a scientific and technical adviser to the CO2 Coalition, a nonprofit organization established “for the purpose of educating thought leaders, policy makers and the public about the important contribution made by carbon dioxide to our lives and the economy.” He is not compensated for his work, according to the coalition’s website.
Smith presented to the Public Utilities, Energy and Technology Interim Committee at the invitation of Rep. Ken Ivory, but Ivory had a conflict and could not attend. No other viewpoints were presented.
Full story
Bloomberg, 24 October 2022
African leaders say industrialized countries should pay to save the planet rather than expecting them to forego oil and gas development.
When Senegalese President Macky Sall convened an Africa Climate Adaptation Summit in Rotterdam last month, the idea was to bring together countries that need help adapting to a warming planet with industrialized nations whose emissions are to blame. Only the African leaders showed up.
The sole officials to attend from rich nations, which have prospered for nearly two centuries at the Earth’s expense, were Chrysoula Zacharopoulou, the French development minister, and Frans Timmermans, the European Commission climate chief. Even Mark Rutte, prime minister of the Netherlands, the country hosting the meeting, only made it for the photo op.
Backed by the United Nations, the Rotterdam gathering was meant to prepare the ground for the latest round of international climate talks, known as COP27, taking place in Egypt next month. Hosted by an African country, this year’s negotiations are set to focus on demands by developing nations — who contributed little to historical emissions of planet-warming gases — for financing to help them cope with worsening storms, droughts and floods.
If the leadup is anything to go by, however, it’s the widening chasm in policy approach that’s likely to be on display.
“Macky Sall invited all of his western counterparts. They didn’t come to that party,” said Patrick Verkooijen, chief executive officer of the Netherlands-based Global Center on Adaptation, an international organization focused on brokering climate solutions. “COP27 will be a train wreck if the adaptation finance doesn’t come through.”
The unprecedented heatwaves that swept the planet this year, along with melting glaciers and worsening floods and storms have added weight to demands for reparations from developing countries. Though an agreement is unlikely to be reached, the contentious issue of forcing rich nations to compensate poorer ones for economic losses caused by global warming will, for the first time, likely be on the formal agenda of COP27.
Adaptation financing is less controversial — it’s focused more on helping poorer countries protect their infrastructure and people from a changing climate. The idea is the more you invest in mitigation and adaptation, the less loss and damage there’ll be in the first place. Yet Africa, which is perhaps in more dire need than anywhere else, is getting neither.
The continent is the world’s least developed and produces just 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions but it’s due to suffer some of the worst consequences of increasingly extreme weather.
Nigeria and Chad are currently subsumed by floods that have killed hundreds of people, but the disasters have barely made headlines while the ensuing disruption of gas exports to Europe has dominated coverage. The Horn of Africa is in the midst of its worst drought in 40 years, threatening millions of vulnerable people with hunger. Madagascar and Mozambique have been hit by a series of cyclones and more than 400 people died when torrential rains drenched the South African city of Durban.
Unlike Europe and the US, African nations have few resources to protect against or cope with such calamities.
Verkooijen’s organization, together with the African Development Bank, has developed the Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program, in a bid to win $25 billion in finance for programs that would help buttress the continent by building stronger roads and bridges and bulwarks against rising seas. Money would also be spent on establishing irrigation systems and weather forecasting facilities to help farmers cope with more frequent droughts.
Even that $25 billion — which African nations are struggling to secure — is a fraction of what’s needed. Governments regularly submit to the UN updated Nationally Developed Contributions, showing what they want to do to fight climate change. Taken together, the NDCs of 51 African nations show a need for $579 billion in investment in adaptation projects through 2030, according to the Global Center on Adaptation. The continent received an annual average of $11.4 billion in adaptation finance between 2011 and 2020, it said.
All that falls far short of the $100 billion a year that rich countries pledged to put toward financing climate adaptation and clean energy in poorer countries in the decade to 2020. The target, since extended, has never been met. And what financing has been made available has mostly gone toward mitigation projects, such as the construction of renewable energy plants, important but perhaps not the top priority given the continent’s miniscule contribution to global carbon emissions.
While undertakings were made at last year’s COP26 in Glasgow to double adaptation finance to $40 billion a year to 2025, the world economy has since been blown off course by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which upended global energy and grain markets and shifted attention away from climate.
Not only has the promised financing not come through, but European nations reliant on Russia for gas have recommissioned coal-fired and nuclear plants to avoid a winter energy crunch and, along with the US, pressured oil-producing allies to increase supplies.
Those developments cut to the heart of African frustrations with international climate policies; while failing to fulfill their own commitments on financing and emissions targets, the world’s richest nations are pressuring African countries not to develop their natural resources to conserve natural habitats and avoid future warming.
Full story
7) Renewable energy is a failed path, scientist tells Utah legislators
The Salt Lake Tribune, 21 October 2022
A Utah legislative committee this week gave 45 minutes to a scientist who argued that policy makers across the globe are committing a grave mistake by turning to renewable energy.
William Hayden Smith, a professor of earth and planetary sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, wrote a research paper with colleagues in Switzerland and South Africa that claims to calculate a full cost of producing electricity from various sources. The paper was published this year in the Journal of Sustainable Development, a Canadian scientific journal.
“Now everyone will say that wind turbines and photovoltaics are cheaper than fossil fuels,” he told legislators. “That’s a stretch.”
He said the standard for comparing costs of electricity sources is called “Levelized Cost of Electricity,” which is calculated by adding up the total costs of a source over its lifetime and dividing it by the total energy expected from that source over the lifetime.
But Smith and his co-authors created an alternative metric they are calling the “full cost of electricity,” which he says factors in renewable energy costs not considered in LCOE, including the cost of storing power when renewables are not producing and the cost of replacing solar panels and windmills when they wear out.
He pointed to recent problems in Germany, where energy prices have shot up after Russia invaded Ukraine. He said Germany’s rush to renewables and decision to shut down nuclear plants is costing them now.
Beyond cost, wind and solar simply can’t meet the capacity, he said. “Every day the grid will collapse because you can’t meet the peak power.”
He also dismissed the idea that there is enough land available for the wind and solar farms to produce what fossil fuels do now. Thousands of square miles of wind and solar farms would be required. He added that windmills strike millions of insects, and no one is considering the biological effects.
Smith is a scientific and technical adviser to the CO2 Coalition, a nonprofit organization established “for the purpose of educating thought leaders, policy makers and the public about the important contribution made by carbon dioxide to our lives and the economy.” He is not compensated for his work, according to the coalition’s website.
Smith presented to the Public Utilities, Energy and Technology Interim Committee at the invitation of Rep. Ken Ivory, but Ivory had a conflict and could not attend. No other viewpoints were presented.
Full story
8) Russia ships record volumes of coal, oil and gas to China
Bloomberg, 25 October 2022
Bloomberg, 25 October 2022
China imported record quantities of Russian liquefied natural gas and steelmaking coal in September, as total purchases of energy products topped $50 billion since the invasion of Ukraine pushed Moscow to expand sales to its strategic ally.
Coking coal imports from Russia jumped to 2.5 million tons in September, from about 900,000 tons in the same month last year and 1.9 million tons in August, according to Chinese customs data. LNG sales rose by a third from a year ago to 819,000 tons, despite a 12% decline in China’s overall purchases of the super-chilled fuel. China hasn’t reported imports via pipelines, the main conduit for Russian gas, since the start of the year.
Crude oil imports from Russia were at 7.5 million tons last month, compared with 8.3 million tons in August and 6.1 million tons a year ago, with Saudi Arabia leapfrogging Russia as China’s top supplier.
Total purchases of Russian energy, including oil products, slowed to $7.5 billion last month from a revised record of $8.4 billion in August, although the figure is well-ahead of last year’s $4.7 billion. It brings the total to more than $51 billion in the seven months since the war in Ukraine began. Over the same period in 2021, China’s energy purchases from Russia were $30 billion.
Although import values have been inflated by the global spike in energy prices caused by the war, China is still taking more volumes, sometimes at discounted rates, from Russia. Moscow for its part needs to find a home for exports that are being shunned by much of the rest of the world as punishment for the invasion. A new package of European Union sanctions that will deprive oil tankers of insurance and other services is due to take effect on Dec. 5.
Full story
Coking coal imports from Russia jumped to 2.5 million tons in September, from about 900,000 tons in the same month last year and 1.9 million tons in August, according to Chinese customs data. LNG sales rose by a third from a year ago to 819,000 tons, despite a 12% decline in China’s overall purchases of the super-chilled fuel. China hasn’t reported imports via pipelines, the main conduit for Russian gas, since the start of the year.
Crude oil imports from Russia were at 7.5 million tons last month, compared with 8.3 million tons in August and 6.1 million tons a year ago, with Saudi Arabia leapfrogging Russia as China’s top supplier.
Total purchases of Russian energy, including oil products, slowed to $7.5 billion last month from a revised record of $8.4 billion in August, although the figure is well-ahead of last year’s $4.7 billion. It brings the total to more than $51 billion in the seven months since the war in Ukraine began. Over the same period in 2021, China’s energy purchases from Russia were $30 billion.
Although import values have been inflated by the global spike in energy prices caused by the war, China is still taking more volumes, sometimes at discounted rates, from Russia. Moscow for its part needs to find a home for exports that are being shunned by much of the rest of the world as punishment for the invasion. A new package of European Union sanctions that will deprive oil tankers of insurance and other services is due to take effect on Dec. 5.
Full story
9) Eco mob throws cream cake over King Charles statue at Madame Tussauds
Daily Express, 25 October 2022
Protesters have smothered the face of the King Charles waxwork figure with cream cake.
Just Stop Oil activists have targeted London’s Madame Tussauds in the latest development to a string of high-profile demonstrations across the capital. Two activists have thrown cream cake into the face of the King Charles waxwork figure on display at the famed tourist attraction. The protesters wore white t-shirts brandishing the logo and name of the environmental group which made clear their affiliation with the Just Stop Oil campaign.
The Twitter account for Just Stop Oil shared a clip of the demonstration, celebrating the action of the protesters.
Full story
10) Just Stop Oil protesters target Global Warming Policy Foundation think tank
The Times, 26 October 2022
Just Stop Oil protesters targeted the offices of a climate change-sceptic think tank in central London yesterday and caused traffic chaos in Westminster during their 25th day of protests.
Two activists sprayed orange paint across the facade of 55 Tufton Street in Westminster at about 11am.
Just Stop Oil said they were aiming for the headquarters of the Global Warming Policy Foundation, which aims to combat what it describes as harmful climate policies.
The foundation, founded by Lord Lawson of Blaby, the former Conservative chancellor, is among several lobby groups and think tanks with offices in the building.
The spray paint was part of a wider protest, which involved six protesters blocking Horseferry Road at the junction with Tufton Street.
The group disrupted traffic by sitting in the road holding Just Stop Oil banners. Some protesters glued themselves to the road while others locked themselves together.
The Metropolitan Police said seven people were arrested on suspicion of wilful obstruction of the highway while one was arrested on suspicion of criminal damage.
Full story
The Times, 26 October 2022
Just Stop Oil protesters targeted the offices of a climate change-sceptic think tank in central London yesterday and caused traffic chaos in Westminster during their 25th day of protests.
Two activists sprayed orange paint across the facade of 55 Tufton Street in Westminster at about 11am.
Just Stop Oil said they were aiming for the headquarters of the Global Warming Policy Foundation, which aims to combat what it describes as harmful climate policies.
The foundation, founded by Lord Lawson of Blaby, the former Conservative chancellor, is among several lobby groups and think tanks with offices in the building.
The spray paint was part of a wider protest, which involved six protesters blocking Horseferry Road at the junction with Tufton Street.
The group disrupted traffic by sitting in the road holding Just Stop Oil banners. Some protesters glued themselves to the road while others locked themselves together.
The Metropolitan Police said seven people were arrested on suspicion of wilful obstruction of the highway while one was arrested on suspicion of criminal damage.
Full story
The London-based Net Zero Watch is a campaign group set up to highlight and discuss the serious implications of expensive and poorly considered climate change policies. The Net Zero Watch newsletter is prepared by Director Dr Benny Peiser - for more information, please visit the website at www.netzerowatch.com.
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