Environment

China, the world’s biggest buyer of crude, is set to start 2022 with a subdued appetite for oil. For that, you can blame — or thank — Beijing’s increasingly tough line on the virus, pollution, and rule-breakers. The winter months are usually the time when refiners buy crude to replenish …

Chinese authorities recently presented a draft plan to reduce heavy metal emissions by 5% by 2025. As noted previously here, the move comes after Beijing moved to stabilize surging coal prices. The government moved to increase both coal imports and domestic output. The Dalian coking coal price surged to $694 …

Carbon fees as high as US$35/t could decrease US energy-related CO2 emissions by as much as 19% compared to 2020 levels, according to analysis from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA). In its ‘Analysis of Carbon Fee Runs Using the Annual Energy Outlook 2021’, EIA projects that these emissions would …

How many times has the Conference of the Parties – the annual UN climate conference – been held in a major oil and gas exporting country? Only twice, compared with 14 in Europe and four times in Germany. So, the decision to hold 2023’s Cop28 in the UAE is a …

A new agreement involving nations, companies, and cities aims to eliminate fossil fuel vehicles by 2040, bringing the globe one step closer to abandoning gas-powered cars. The Glasgow Declaration on Zero Emission Cars and Vans, which was introduced at this year’s COP26 climate summit, is the first of its kind. …

China and the US have signed a joint declaration on enhancing climate action over the next decade in a bid to achieve the goals set in the 2015 Paris Agreement. The announcement was made at the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland which …

China’s pledge to stop building coal power plants abroad could lead to a sharp drop in the number of coal plants being completed in Asia, according to a study released on Wednesday (Nov 10). President Xi Jinping’s announcement in September that China would no longer build coal plants overseas could …

The number of geothermal power plants in Japan has quadrupled since the 2011 nuclear disaster in Fukushima, northeastern Japan, according to industry data. Despite the surge, showed in the Thermal and Nuclear Power Engineering Society data, geothermal power accounts for only 0.3 percent of the country’s total power output because …

Saudi Arabia’s 2060 net-zero emission target may be derailed by “unforeseen circumstances” because achieving the target depends on a number of factors, including evolution of technology, the country’s energy minister said Nov. 3. “Depending on what happens, we could bring that [2060] date much earlier and I hope much earlier, …

In its International Energy Outlook 2021, the EIA projects that global energy-related carbon dioxide emissions will increase for countries both inside and outside of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) over the next 30 years under current laws and regulations. Between 2020 and 2050, the EIA projects that …