Greek Quest to Save on Energy Bills Spurs Island-owned Renewables
Even with his 35-room beach-front hotel on the Greek island of Tilos close to fully booked, owner Michalis Kipraios worries his business might not "survive" sky-rocketing electricity bills, as the war in Ukraine drives up energy prices around the world.Tilos, 360 km (224 miles) southeast of Athens, is affected even though in 2019 it became one of the Mediterranean’s first islands to generate enough wind and solar power to meet most of its needs, including hosting thousands of tourists each summer.Tilos went the extra mile to go green by welcoming a private renewable power project…
UK Gov't Advised to Harness Pandemic to Speed Zero-carbon Aims
From creating jobs in home insulation to hiking dirty fuel taxes and expanding electric-vehicle charging, Britain's government should harness the COVID-19 pandemic to accelerate cuts in planet-heating emissions, an advisory panel said on Thursday.With public support for low-carbon shifts growing and the state spending billions to boost its flagging economy, now is "a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity" to ramp up the transition, said John Gummer, chair of Britain's Committee on Climate Change."If we are to emerge successfully from COVID-19…
Cambodia to Boost Clean Energy Use
Cambodia will push ahead with plans to use hydropower and coal to electrify the entire country by 2020, but solar energy will play some role, especially in remote areas, an energy ministry official said on Wednesday.The Southeast Asian nation has electrified rapidly since 2000, when only 16 percent of the population had access to power, according to the World Bank.Today, 87 percent of villages and 73 percent of households are connected to the grid, said Victor Jona, a spokesman for the department of energy at the Ministry of Mines and Energy.Hydropower accounts for 40 percent of the mix…
Mexican Wave Energy Project Moving Forward
Energy from the ocean breakers that pound Mexico’s Pacific Coast could soon be turned into electricity as an Israeli joint venture finalizes permits and financing for the country’s first wave energy plant.Wave power development has long lagged renewable rivals such as solar, but Eco Wave Power says it could prove an effective way to deliver power to coastal communities in countries such as Ghana or Kenya that have little access to electricity.“The ocean is the biggest renewable resource that we have and it’s completely untapped…
In British Virgin Islands, Hurricane Whips up Green Energy Transition
Nearly a year after Hurricane Irma knocked out power across the British Virgin Islands, electricity boss Leroy Abraham will be among the last residents to have their homes reconnected.But Abraham, general manager of the British overseas territory's electricity corporation (BVIEC), has barely had time to notice his own domestic outage."I was far too exhausted from giving everybody else electricity," said the 48-year-old, gazing at his two-storey house, which was wrecked by the ferocious storm that tore across the Caribbean archipelago last September.Abraham and other officials are working to avoid a repeat of the ordeal.
Cryptocurrency May Light Up Renewable Energy in Moldova
Moldova, a small, landlocked country in eastern Europe, imports three-quarters of its energy and has seen its energy prices rise by more than half in the past five years.But that could soon change, according to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), which this year will launch an innovative effort to power a Moldovan university with cryptocurrency-funded solar energy.The initiative with Sun Exchange, a South African solar power marketplace, will allow people to buy solar cells using SolarCoin, a cryptocurrency launched by blockchain start-up ElectriCChain…
New Projects in Brazil's Amazon? Not Without Congressional Approval, says court
Brazil's government has been told that development projects, including hydropower dams, in protected areas can no longer go ahead without the prior approval of lawmakers. Last week's ruling by the supreme court followed the use by the government in recent years of the controversial "provisional measure", a legal instrument that allowed the president to approve projects by reducing the size of protected areas. Campaigners said the decision should ensure the country's forests and reserves, including the Amazon rainforest, were better protected.
Total: Brazil Drilling No Risk to Amazon Reef
A French oil firm on Thursday rejected concerns that exploration off Brazil could damage a unique coral reef at the mouth of the Amazon river as it awaits final approval to start drilling. "Drilling activity will not impact the reef system," a spokeswoman for Total told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. The company is working closely with Brazil's environmental enforcement agency (IBAMA) and needs their go ahead before it begins to drill, she said in an email. It was not clear when a final ruling will be issued but Total says it expects to drill exploratory wells this year.
Climate-threatened Nations Aim for 100% Renewable Energy
A group of the countries most at risk from climate change said they would strive to make their energy production 100 percent renewable "as rapidly as possible", as part of efforts to limit global warming to below 1.5 degrees Celsius. The Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF), which numbers 48 nations, also committed to update their climate action plans submitted as part of the U.N. climate pact agreed in Paris last year and prepare low-carbon development strategies for mid-century, both before 2020. But they emphasised they would…
Powered by Google, UN Flexes Tech Muscle to Fight Climate Change
New Google-powered software will help the world tackle problems related to climate change, deforestation and food production, a United Nations agency said on Friday, as it presented its revamped online platform. Open Foris, U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) software, uses high-resolution satellite images to monitor the environment and changes in land use and forest cover. "We make maps that used to take three years in a week," Erik Lindquist, forestry officer at FAO, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. "Rather than preparing data to analyse we can spend time probing the data for answers.
Solar Energy Firms Get Loans to Light up Rural Tanzania
When Tanzanian company ARTI Energy brought solar lights to Kiromo village in the eastern district of Bagamoyo eight years ago, local people were excited but found them expensive. "I really liked those lamps, but I could not imagine then that I would ever own one," recalled Kiromo resident Salum Ali. The company realised the upfront investment needed to buy modern lighting devices was beyond the means of the average rural Tanzanian. Guided by the belief that lighting is a basic human need, the Dar es Salaam-based sustainable energy firm decided to sell the lights on credit.
Could UAE Solar Push Lead a Trend for the Gulf?
As the Gulf states take steps to expand their use of clean energy, a bold plan by the United Arab Emirates to boost its use of renewable electricity from less than 1 percent to 24 percent in the next five years could be a game-changer for the region, experts say. Much of the world is moving away from oil for its electricity generation, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), which says that globally the fossil fuel has dropped from a 25 percent share to 3.6 percent over the last four decades. Countries in the Middle East, however, have been bucking the trend.
Solar Panels Power Business Surge in Tanzania
S amwel Nyakalege's life has recently become more of a grind - and that's a good thing. The 33-year-old miller from Bwisya village, on Lake Victoria's Ukara Island, is one of the first to benefit from a project to bring solar power to residents and business-owners. The entrepreneur, married with four children, has worked grinding millet, maize, rice and beans since 2007, but the high cost of fuel for his diesel generator made it hard to turn a profit. "I used to buy a litre of diesel for up to 3,000 Tanzanian shillings (about $1.40) and I needed at least 50 litres every week to run the generator.
India, Middle East Stakeholders Mull oil-for-food Scheme
India is in talks with some Gulf nations to buy oil to fill its strategic reserves and sell food in return, seeking to use its position as the world's third-largest oil importer to both secure energy supplies and boost exports. Indian Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan told reporters the idea was still fluid, but New Delhi had held preliminary conversations with the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Abu Dhabi's crown prince, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, have discussed the issue twice, Pradhan said. "We are discussing various models," Pradhan added.
Brazil Climate Change Plan Backfires, Doubling Steel Emissions
A plan to reduce climate-changing emissions from Brazil's steel industry has failed, causing the amount of carbon pollution produced by the sector to double in less than a decade, researchers said. Brazilian steel producers switched their energy source from coal to charcoal from forests, causing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions to rise to 182 million tonnes in 2007 from 91 million tonnes in 2000, according to a study published in the journal Nature Climate Change. "Increased global demand for steel, and a lack of available plantation forest in Brazil…
One Million Green Jobs Projected by 2030
Nearly one million new "green jobs" are expected to be created in China, the United States and the European Union by 2030 if the regions stick to their current pledges to curb global warming, scientists said on Tuesday. The three regions combined produce more than half the world's greenhouse gas emissions, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), so their policies are crucial for shaping a new global climate agreement to be finalised at a U.N. conference in Paris in December. The United States is due to submit its plans for slowing global warming to the United Nations this week…
Union: Workers Need Care as Renewables Replace Fossil Fuels
Coal, oil and gas workers need a secure future as the world moves away from fossil fuel use, and governments and companies must plan to ensure any new global climate change deal is fair for all those impacted, a top trade unionist said. So far there has been little effort to design a "just transition" to a fossil-free future, putting workers in dirty energy sectors on the defensive, said Sharan Burrow, general secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation. "We know that if governments and industry aren't visionary enough to engage in a dialogue…
UN Climate Deal Draft Must be Shorter, Clearer
Ministers working towards a new U.N. deal to tackle climate change, due in December, need a negotiating text that is shorter and more manageable than the current draft, the Marshall Islands' foreign minister said after informal talks in Paris. "It should be something that people can understand, be able to work with and negotiate from," chief diplomat Tony de Brum told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone from France. The current version of the draft text is a bewildering 85-page list of options, incorporating the demands of the nearly 200 nations participating in the process. At the last round of formal U.N.
Thieves Fry Kenya's Power Grid to Cook Fast Food
(Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The morning scene is increasingly routine for Kenyans. When it's time to start the day, the power is already out. Somewhere nearby, the shell of a wrecked electrical transformer lies on its side underneath the pole where it had been fixed 20 feet off the ground. The culprit is an unusual one: A vandal who is selling the toxic oil, drawn from the transformer, to chefs who use it for frying food in roadside stalls. Five liters of the viscous, PCB-laden liquid sells for $60. It looks like cooking oil, but lasts much longer, users say.
Climate Change Investment Up As Clean Energy Surges
Global investment in activities to reduce planet-warming emissions and vulnerability to climate change grew 18 percent to $391 billion in 2014, as private backing for renewable energy technologies surged, researchers said. More money than ever before was channelled into action to curb climate change and its impacts, after funding levelled off in 2012 and declined in 2013, according to an annual report from the Climate Policy Initiative (CPI), an advisory group. "Two weeks out from the international climate negotiations in Paris…
