COP29: Climate agenda clashes with trade demands
At the COP29 Climate Summit, trade tensions are escalating. According to U.N. documents, and negotiators, China, Brazil, and a number of other developing countries have complained that perceived barriers, like the European Union’s carbon border levy will undermine climate efforts. Nearly 200 nations are fighting over the climate talks about a deal that would provide hundreds of millions of dollars per year to help poorer states cope with climate changes. The countries…
Thompson takes over from Founder Heavey, Tullow Oil
Tullow Oil plc (Tullow) announced the appointment of Dorothy Thompson as independent non-executive Director and Chair-designate of Tullow with effect from the conclusion of the Group’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) on 25 April 2018. It is anticipated Thompson will succeed Aidan Heavey, Tullow’s current Chairman and Founder, as Chair at the conclusion of the Board meeting scheduled for 20 July 2018. Aidan will retire from the Board at the same time. Thompson (57) brings extensive experience to Tullow having served for 12 years as CEO of Drax Group plc…
How Did the World's Miners Not See it Coming?
With this simple question, posed to Professor Luis Garicano of the London School of Economics in November 2008, Britain's Queen Elizabeth famously summed up the layman's astonishment that an obscure part of the derivatives universe could trigger a global financial crisis. A similar question might be posed of the world's miners right now. Having collectively bet the house on a commodities "supercycle" only to see the "super" part of that cycle dissolve in front of their eyes, they are now fighting the numerous fires engulfing their overstretched balance sheets.
Saudi Job Creation Slows on Oil Price Slump
Saudi Arabia's plans for economic reform foresee winding down 'jobs for life' in an inefficient state bureaucracy and replacing them with new careers in a dynamic private sector. That's the theory, at least. But in the short term, there is a problem: 2016 is set to be an abysmal year for job creation. Public spending is being slashed and growth forecasts for oil and non-oil portions of the private sector are gloomy. A tough market awaits first-time job seekers in the world's largest oil exporter…
China CO2 Emissions May Have peaked in 2014
Study says emissions could fall modestly from now. China's carbon emissions, by far the world's highest, may have peaked in 2014, according to a study published on Monday, potentially putting Beijing under pressure to toughen climate pledges perceived as too lax. China has promised to bring greenhouse gas emissions to a peak by "around 2030" as part of its commitments to a global pact to combat global warming, signed in Paris last year. Any evidence that the country has peaked much earlier could lead to concerns that its existing targets are too easy.
UN's Climate Chief Figueres to Quit
The U.N.'s climate chief said on Friday she will step down in July, at the end of a six-year term, and praised governments for reaching a 195-nation deal in Paris in December to shift the world economy from fossil fuels to cleaner energies. Christiana Figueres, a 59-year-old Costa Rican, said she would not accept any extension of her term as head of the Bonn-based U.N. Climate Change Secretariat after what she called the historic Paris Agreement. "We now move into a phase of urgent implementation…
Saudi Reform Efforts Wax and Wane with Oil Revenues: Kemp
"The GCC governments and peoples should realise that the boom period is over. We must all get used to a certain type of lifestyle that does not rely entirely on the state," Saudi Arabia's ruler warned. "The upcoming period needs the private sector to assume part of the responsibility which has up until now been carried by the state," he told his fellow leaders from the six Gulf Cooperation Council countries. The words could have come from Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman…
China's Greenhouse Gases Could Peak Early
China's emissions could peak by 2025, 5 years early; peak would help limit global warming. China's greenhouse gas emissions could peak by 2025, five years earlier than indicated by Beijing, a development that could help limit the mounting risks of global warming, a study by the London School of Economics (LSE) showed on Monday. The report, more optimistic about curbing the use of fossil fuels than a Chinese industry forecast on Monday, noted that China's "coal consumption fell in 2014, and fell further in the first quarter of 2015".
Enviro Activists Push Protest Pace
As hundreds of protesters joined environmental activists from South Pacific nations trying to blockade ships at the world's largest coal export terminal in Australia on Friday, Marshall Islands poet Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner appealed to world leaders "to put an end to the era of fossil fuels once and for all". At last month's U.N. climate summit in New York, she won a standing ovation from leaders for her moving performance of a poem on fighting climate change, written for her baby daughter.
Britain's Conservatives to End Onshore Wind Subsidies
British Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative party pledged to end government subsidies for onshore wind farms if it wins a national election next year, increasing uncertainty for investors in renewable energy. Michael Fallon, a Conservative energy minister, said that onshore wind still had a role to play in helping Britain meet its energy needs and renewable energy targets but that the industry no longer required government subsidies. "We now have enough bill payer-funded onshore wind in the pipeline to meet our renewable energy commitments…
