Jeremy Leggett in the FT: Europe is on the brink of a trade war with China in one of the fastest-growing global industries. America and China are already engaged in battle. The job-rich and emissions-low solar photovoltaics industry is heading for severe impairment, at best.” (more…)
Solarcentury
The company I founded in 1998 to design and supply solar energy solutions for the built environment. Solarcentury
Solar Aid
The charity I founded in 2006, with a 5% contribution of Solarcentury profits, to help deliver solar lighting to Africa. Solar Aid
Archive for the ‘Oil’ Category
“Call a truce in the no-winners solar war.”
May 7, 2013 Clean Energy, Climate, Coal, Commentaries, Finance, Gas, Nuclear, OilBet on Obama backing the Keystone XL pipeline: John Dizard.
May 3, 2013 Climate, OilIn the FT: “Many, if not most, of the headline-dominating Washington political fights are less significant than they appear to be. ….However, the fight between TransCanada, the sponsor of the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline from the Alberta tar sands to the US Gulf coast, and the North American environmental movement is a lot of noise about a very important matter.” (more…)
The vital role of foundations in the retreat from fossil fuels.
May 1, 2013 Clean Energy, Climate, Coal, Commentaries, Finance, Gas, OilAlliance magazine: “On 18 April Carbon Tracker, a UK-based foundation-led initiative, released its second report, Unburnable Carbon: Avoiding wasted capital and stranded assets. We need a managed, rapid and complete retreat from the use of fossil fuels if disastrous global warming is to be avoided, Jeremy Leggett, chair of Carbon Tracker, tells Caroline Hartnell.” (more…)
Scant evidence that US gas will stop growing oil demand: FT Alphaville.
April 29, 2013 Coal, Gas, OilKate MacKenzie in the FT: “We’ve been reading a lot lately about the potential for cheap natural gas to replace oil-derived transport fuels in the US — and perhaps globally. Much of this excitement overlooks some fundamentals of energy and commodities in general and the US natural gas sector in particular.” (more…)
US cities join 350.org fossil-fuel divestment campaign.
April 25, 2013 Climate, Coal, Gas, OilGuardian: “The cities of San Francisco and Seattle have pulled their money out of fossil fuel companies, taking a climate divestment campaign from college campuses to local government. The campaign group 350.org said on Thursday it had won commitments from a total of 10 cities and towns to divest from 200 of leading fossil fuel companies.” (more…)
Exxon’s oil and gas production falls.
April 25, 2013 OilFT: The two giants “reported earnings and production that were roughly unchanged in the first quarter of the year as they struggled to increase their oil and gas output.” (more…)
Two minutes that I hope might begin turning the climate tide.
April 20, 2013 Clean Energy, Climate, Coal, Commentaries, Finance, Gas, OilJL open e-mail: “I am living in hope that if this 2 minute animation of the latest CarbonTracker findings holds huge potential in the climate debate. Its not just the way that it portrays the findings of our latest Carbon Tracker report, launched at a packed event last Thursday in Bloomberg’s HQ in the heart of the City of London. Its the nature of the arguments. You don’t even have believe in the danger of climate change to see that. You just have to believe that its worth having a pension that doesn’t evaporate on you.” (more…)
“How your pension is being used in a $6 trillion gamble.”
April 19, 2013 Climate, Coal, Commentaries, Finance, Gas, OilBill McKibben and Jeremy Leggett in the Guardian: “Suppose you weren’t worried that we humans are destroying our water supply and eroding our ability to feed ourselves by burning coal and gas and oil and hence changing climate. Suppose you thought that was all liberal hooey. What might worry you about fossil fuels instead? How about a six trillion dollar bet, including a big slug of your own money, on people not doing what they have said they are going to do, and that some have already sworn to do in law?” (more…)
Utica Shale disappoints as a tight oil prospect.
April 15, 2013 Gas, OilBloomberg: “U.S. drillers that set up rigs amid the rolling farmland of eastern Ohio on projections underground shale held $500 billion of oil are packing up.” (more…)
Shell and Gazprom join forces to exploit Siberian tight oil.
April 5, 2013 Gas, OilFT: “The new deal will see the two companies join forces to develop parts of the Bazhenov shale, a vast formation in western Siberia that is one of the largest accumulations of unconventional oil in the world. Oil executives call it “Russia’s Bakken”, a reference to the formation in North Dakota that has driven a huge increase in US oil production.” (more…)
NASA’s Hansen on Obama and the tar pipeline: he must act.
April 4, 2013 Climate, OilJim Hansen in the LA Times: “Researchers now say that the Alberta tar sands contain 360 to 510 billion tons of carbon — more than double that of all oil burned in human history.” (more…)
Citi predicts end of oil demand growth this decade.
April 1, 2013 Gas, OilSeth Kleinman, head of the Global Energy Strategy at Citi, in the FT: “….the consensus is wrong. This is due to the substitution of natural gas – often obtained through the hydraulic fracturing of shale rock, or fracking – for oil, and fuel-efficiency mandates in many key countries. The prospect of oil demand hitting a plateau this decade is much more feasible than the market seems to think.” (more…)
Bergen City Council proposes pension fund sell major carbon holdings.
March 23, 2013 Climate, Coal, Finance, Gas, OilByluftlisten: “The City Air List (Byluftlisten) in the Bergen City Council on March 22, 2013 submitted a proposal to sell the city pension fund’s holdings in companies with significant fossil fuel reserves. The «unburnable» carbon risk consists in significant portions of such holdings becoming worthless if global climate policy succeeds.” (more…)
Bergen City Council considers proposal to sell fossil fuel shares.
March 23, 2013 Change for Good, Clean Energy, Climate, Coal, Finance, Gas, OilByluftlisten: “The City Air List (Byluftlisten) in the Bergen City Council on March 22, 2013 submitted a proposal to sell the city pension fund’s holdings in companies with significant fossil fuel reserves. The «unburnable» carbon risk consists in significant portions of such holdings becoming worthless if global climate policy succeeds.” (more…)
“Peak oil ‘theorists’ dying out, like the Flat Earth Society.”
March 22, 2013 OilColin Sullivan on EnergyWire: “The theorists wrote books and rose high in academic departments. …..They found themselves at the vanguard of a movement that essentially said, “Oil is finite, so pay attention!” ….There’s one big problem: Those behind the theory appear to have been dead wrong,” (more…)
Average oil price so far in 2013 is $114. >2012, >2011, >2008.
March 10, 2013 Gas, OilPeakoil.com: “Brent Crude, which has become the de facto world benchmark price for crude oil, has also just posted back-to-back years of record prices, higher than even the average daily price in the fateful year of 2008.” (more…)
Oxford alumni condemn choice of Shell to fund earth sciences lab.
May 8, 2013 Clean Energy, Climate, Commentaries, Gas, OilGuardian: “Jeremy Leggett among 100 signatories to letter opposing oil firm’s likely influence over university’s climate change studies.” (more…)
Tags: Shell