French Minister of Ecological and Social Transition Nicolas Hulot on Wednesday (Sept. 6) presented a draft bill to phase out oil and gas exploration and production on French territories by 2040. The bill, presented to France’s Council of Ministers, is the first step to keep the campaign promises of Emmanuel Macron and was anticipated in read more…
Category: Energy
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IN DEPTH: Coal’s fate sealed by unstoppable greening of the power sector
The transformation of the power sector is key for meeting the 2°C temperature target set by the Paris Agreement; even more so considering that electricity and heat production is responsible for the largest share of greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions, contributing for 25 per cent of the total (IPCC, 2015). How are fundamentals of conventional and read more…
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IN-DEPTH: Developments in CCS technologies: time for direct air capture?
Carbon capture and storage technologies (CCS) are considered as one of the key mitigation tools to achieve the Paris Agreement goals. They differ from other solutions as they theoretically do not prevent industries from emitting according to their business as usual footprint, then capturing and storing the produced CO2 underground. The use of CCS as read more…
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EU Council reaches compromise on 2030 efficiency targets
The Council of the European Union agreed on June 26 upon its position on Energy Efficiency Directive. The general insight was reached after several proposals and discussions. This Council meeting was a continuum to agree on the EU Commission’s proposal for energy efficiency target and energy savings obligations under the European climate and energy framework read more…
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EU approves stricter limits on pollutants from large power plants
EU Member States approved on Friday (April 28th) new limits to the pollutants European large power plants are allowed to emit. As reported by Reuters and other environmental and health non-governmental groups, the decision imposes stricter caps on emissions of some toxic pollutants, such as nitrogen oxide (NOx), sulphur dioxide (SO2), particulate matter (PM) and, read more…
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SE4All Forum: current efforts are not enough
The 3rd Sustainable Energy for All (SEforAll) Forum took place in New York City, US, from April 3-5, 2017. The event was organized by the SEforAll, the UN initiative aimed at promoting actions toward universal, modern and sustainable energy access, and was an opportunity to launch and discuss partnerships and ideas, as well as to read more…
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IN-DEPTH: Has King Coal entered its twilight years?
Generation of electricity and heat worldwide relies heavily on coal, the most carbon-intensive fossil fuel. Except for the 1920s and 1990s, coal use in the world has been continuously increasing since the start of the Industrial Revolution. With the rapid and energy-intensive economic growth in developing countries such as China and India, since the 2000s read more…
