The impact of bottled water on natural resources is 3,500 times higher than for tap water, scientists have found. The research is the first of its kind and examined the impact of bottled water in Barcelona, where it is becoming increasingly popular despite improvements to the quality of tap water …
Read More »IEA’s Roadmap Shows Difficult Journey to Net Zero
Polarised responses to the International Energy Agency report on achieving net zero emissions by 2050 reveal the enormous challenges of the goal and differences about whether it is realistic in the timeframe. Like the Rorschach inkblot test, reactions to the report reveal more about the reader’s own views on how …
Read More »Achieving Climate Target Will Create Millions of Energy Jobs
Meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement would create 8 million jobs by 2050, a new analysis published in the journal One Earth found. Currently, 18 million people globally work in the energy sector, which the study defines as only those within the energy system, not adjacent sectors like energy …
Read More »How Accelerating the Pivot to Solar Energy can Help Mena Countries
Between 2018 and 2020, the solar power capacity of Vietnam leapt to 16.5 gigawatts from 0.1 gigawatts. In the same period, the sunny Mena region added only 3.1 gigawatts in its entirety. The region has made some important strides in solar power but it needs to find the way to …
Read More »Saudi Arabia Is Set to be a Major Player in Hydrogen
The use of hydrogen as an energy source has gained a lot of attention in recent years. Up to a few years ago, little was known or debated about hydrogen energy and its economic and environmental impact on society. I myself had little knowledge of the hydrogen energy market until …
Read More »Japan’s Hydrogen Economy to Power the Tokyo Olympic Games
When the final torch bearer lights the Olympic cauldron in the Japan National Stadium on July 23, it will mark not only the start of the Games, but a new chapter in the country’s drive towards a sustainable future. For the first time in the history of the Games, hydrogen …
Read More »Blue Hydrogen has a Methane Problem
Amid the global transition to clean fuel, conventional oil and gas companies appear to have found a way to stay relevant: blue hydrogen. Hydrogen, typically produced by breaking methane inside liquefied natural gas into hydrogen and carbon, is labeled as blue, when all carbon emissions from this process are captured, …
Read More »EU Energy Tax Plan Seeks to End Hidden Advantage for Fossil Fuels
A proposed new EU-wide fuel taxation system based on energy content rather than volume seeks to end incentives for petrol and diesel, aiming instead to support the uptake of green biofuels, renewable hydrogen and synthetic fuels. The European Commission tabled a revision of the 2003 energy tax directive on Wednesday …
Read More »China’s Huge Energy Storage Ambitions could be the Key to Unlock Net Zero
China is proposing a policy to accelerate energy storage deployments, with its core a target to take the country’s storage capacity excluding pumped hydro to 30GW by 2025 – triple the level of Wood Mackenzie’s current forecast. Although the five-year timeframe could prove challenging from an economic standpoint, China has …
Read More »Existential Threat to Natural Gas in Europe
It is ironic that at a time when natural gas is under existential attack in Europe, high prices are conspiring with those aiming for its demise. Even though such high prices are a temporary phenomenon, they are encouraging and hastening the switch to renewables. High gas prices in Europe are …
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