Remember the biofuels fairy tales which in the span of one year turned into one big nightmare when more scientists started to look a little deeper and the media started reporting about its connection to the new food crisis? It looks like the energy industry’s new “wunderkind”, carbon capture and storage, might follow the same… » read more
Posted by Willy De Backer
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Carbon capture and storage, Climate change, energy security, Energy technologies |
After EU policymakers’ disenchantment with biofuels (see EurActiv: MEPs seek reduced biofuel commitments), it is time to find the new “silver bullet” to tackle the climate and energy crisis. During two conferences held in Brussels this week, lobbyists for carbon capture and storage (CCS) pulled out all the stops to convince us that governments should… » read more
Posted by Willy De Backer
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Carbon capture and storage, coal, renewable energy, resource depletion, sustainability |
6 May, 2008
A few pointers to some must-read reports or articles which I discovered in the last ten days: Nicholas Stern’s latest report “Key elements of a global deal on climate change“: not much different from his 2006 Stern review for the UK government but rings the alarm bell a bit harder as very little has really… » read more
Posted by Willy De Backer
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aviation, Biofuels, Carbon capture and storage, Climate change, Stern report, sustainability |
9 April, 2008
Jeremy Bentham and Jeroen Van de Veer presented Shell’s latest scenarios Scramble and Blueprints to Brussels policymakers on 7 April. Their visions for the future look pretty grim although they were not very upfront about it and their plea for big government hand-outs for carbon capture and storage raises a lot of questions. The scenarios… » read more
Posted by Willy De Backer
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Carbon capture and storage, Climate change, coal, energy security |
19 March, 2008
In the Guardian, George Monbiot calls carbon capture and storage “another great green scam”. “Like biofuels and micro wind turbines, carbon capture and storage turns out to be another great green scam. It will come too late to prevent runaway climate change; the government has no intention of enforcing it; and even if it had,… » read more
Posted by Willy De Backer
One year after it presented its first climate/energy package, the European Commission published [press release] on Wednesday 23 January five further proposals dealing with the strengthening and extension of its greenhouse gas emissions trading scheme (ETS); the individual commitments of member states to reduce non-ETS-sector emissions by 2020; the support mechanisms to produce electricity from… » read more
Posted by Willy De Backer
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Carbon capture and storage, Climate change, European Commission, European Union, Global Warming, renewable energy |
3 July, 2007
The highly praised Shell-Statoil CCS (carbon capture and storage) project in the Norwegian Sea (Draugen) is not financially viable. That is the result of a joint feasibility study undertaken by both energy groups. The two energy companies have therefore decided to bury the project. This is the second setback in a few months for one… » read more
Posted by Willy De Backer
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Carbon capture and storage, Climate change, energy security, Shell, Statoil |
24 May, 2007
BP yesterday abandoned its plans to build a carbon capture plant in Scotland (Peterhead) after the UK government published its Energy White Paper and delayed a decision on subsidies for the planned poject. The plant, which was developed with the help of other companies such as Shell, was supposed to generate electricity from hydrogen, reducing… » read more
Posted by Willy De Backer
10 May, 2007
One month after the surprising report on coal reserves by the German Energy Watch Group, there is another report predicting a less rosy future for the black gold. According to Richard Heinberg on Global Public Media, the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre will, within the next few days, publish a new report “The Future of… » read more
Posted by Willy De Backer
