Connect with us

World

EU leaders head to COP27 as countries switch from gas to coal

Published

on

EU leaders head to COP27 as countries switch from gas to coal

Leaders from throughout the European Union are gearing up for the COP27, the UN Local weather Change Convention that goals to place the brakes on local weather change and restrict world warming to 1.5 levels Celsius, a theoretical aspiration that has change into more and more indifferent from the fact on the bottom.

There may be “no credible pathway to 1.5°C in place,” a UN environmental report concluded final month.

The EU has lengthy been thought-about a dependable advocate for the inexperienced transition, adopting far-reaching insurance policies and enshrining its 2050 local weather neutrality objective in regulation. The bloc has change into a type of experimental laboratory for local weather laws, with different international locations trying to see what works and what doesn’t.

Ultimately yr’s convention, the EU led efforts to slash methane emissions, defend tropical forests and assist South Africa’s decarbonisation. However issues have modified since Glasgow.

European leaders are heading to Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, within the midst of a extreme vitality disaster that threatens to deliver trade to a standstill and households beneath monetary stress.

Advertisement

Confronted with the prospect of widespread blackouts and rationing, international locations have made safety of provides their prime precedence, even when it comes with a excessive financial and environmental price ticket.

As low-cost Russian fuel vanished in a single day, some member states have been compelled to resort again to coal, essentially the most polluting fossil gas.

Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Greece and Hungary have all introduced plans to increase the lifetime of coal vegetation, re-open these which were closed or raise the cap on coal-burning hours.

Austria, which celebrated the closure of its final coal plant in 2020, additionally proposed to re-activate its system to deal with emergency shortages. The concept was blocked in the summertime by the opposition.

The Worldwide Vitality Company (IEA) estimates the EU’s coal consumption rose by 10% within the first six months of 2022, pushed principally by electrical energy demand, and can proceed to extend as winter nears.

Advertisement

“We count on coal consumption to additionally rise within the second half of the yr, pushed up by the necessity to save fuel for winter amid uncertainty over Russian flows,” the company stated in its July market replace, launched earlier than the indefinite shutdown of the Nord Stream 1 pipeline.

“Germany will account for the most important extra consumption,” it famous.

Globally, the IEA predicts coal consumption to achieve 8 billion tonnes, reversing a downward pattern and matching the all-time excessive set in 2013. Europe will account for about 5% of this burning.

‘We have to catch up’

This sudden rise in coal burning seems to contradict the EU’s said priorities for COP27, which embrace urging different international locations around the globe to “shut the guide on unabated coal via a phasedown and ending inefficient fossil gas subsidies.”

Growing nations typically accuse the West of hypocrisy and selfishness in the case of inexperienced motion, arguing rich international locations have a bigger position to play given their historic accountability in releasing greenhouse fuel emissions and warming up the planet throughout previous industrial revolutions.

Advertisement

The new-button concern of local weather reparations, the monetary compensations for the irreversible harm attributable to local weather change, is rooted on this very disparity.

The European Fee, which has spearheaded world-class local weather legal guidelines, blames the state of affairs on Russia’s “weaponisation” of vitality provides and estimates the gas-to-coal change may final for as much as three winters.

This can result in a rise in greenhouse fuel emissions within the brief time period however that will likely be offset by an accelerated deployment of homegrown inexperienced vitality, comparable to photo voltaic panels and wind farms, the manager says.

The bloc continues to be legally sure to slash emissions by a minimum of 55% by the top of the last decade.

“What that may imply is that we have to catch up within the second half of the last decade for any influence that the following couple of winters have on our emissions, if there are any, via that further coal use we want on a short-term foundation,” stated a European Fee spokesperson on Thursday, in response to a Euronews query.

Advertisement

“However I believe that’s a state of affairs which the vast majority of our worldwide companions perceive, they recognize the state of affairs we’re put in in the mean time, and so they perceive that Europe will stay a world chief when it comes to phasing out coal around the globe and when it comes to elevating ambitions.”

The European Fee has unveiled a brand new plan, dubbed REPower EU, that goals to mobilise as much as €300 billion in loans and grants to realize whole independence from Russian fossil fuels earlier than the top of the last decade.

The plans additionally intend to chop down the infamous crimson tape of inexperienced know-how and broaden the EU’s targets for renewable vitality for 2030, from 40% to 45% of all whole vitality produced.

REPower EU continues to be beneath dialogue and no cash has but been launched.

Advertisement
Continue Reading
Advertisement
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

World

Armed men fire on Haiti hospital reopening, killing at least 2

Published

on

Armed men fire on Haiti hospital reopening, killing at least 2
At least two people were killed and others injured on Tuesday when armed men opened fire on a group of journalists who gathered for a government press conference set to announce the reopening of Haiti’s largest public hospital, a witness to the attack told Reuters.
Continue Reading

World

US citizen imprisoned in Russia given new 15-year sentence in wake of espionage conviction

Published

on

US citizen imprisoned in Russia given new 15-year sentence in wake of espionage conviction

A Russian-born U.S. citizen who was already behind bars in Russia on a bribery conviction has been handed a second sentence for espionage.

Eugene Spector was sentenced to a new 15-year term for his espionage conviction, according to Russian news agencies. Spector was born and raised in Leningrad, Russia, but later moved to the U.S. and became a citizen.

A Moscow court brought espionage charges against Spector in August of last year, although details surrounding the case were not made publicly available.

RUSSIA ARRESTS US CITIZEN ON ESPIONAGE CHARGES: REPORT

Eugene Spector, a Russian-born U.S. citizen already imprisoned in Russia on a bribery conviction, has been handed a second 15-year jail term for espionage. (AP)

Advertisement

The U.S. State Department said it was aware of reports of a U.S. citizen in Russia being sentenced and that it was monitoring the situation.

Spector, a former executive at a medical equipment company in Russia, was sentenced in September 2022 to three and a half years in prison for enabling bribes to an aide of former Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich.

WALL STREET JOURNAL’S EVAN GERSHKOVICH REVEALS SHADOWY KREMLIN FIGURE BEHIND IMPRISONMENT IN RUSSIA

Jail

A Moscow court brought espionage charges against Spector in August of last year. (iStock)

The aide, Anastasia Alekseyeva, was sentenced to 12 years in April for accepting bribes of two expensive overseas vacation trips.

Advertisement

Dvorkovich was a deputy prime minister under former Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev in 2012 to 2018. Dvorkovich is currently head of the international chess federation FIDE.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Continue Reading

World

Passenger plane crashes in Kazakhstan: Emergencies ministry

Published

on

Passenger plane crashes in Kazakhstan: Emergencies ministry

BREAKING,

Passenger plane crashed near the city of Aktau.

An passenger plane flying from Azerbaijan to Russia crashed near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan, the Central Asian country’s Emergencies Ministry said in a statement.

Fourteen people had survived the crash and had been hospitalised, according to the local health officials.

“At the moment, 14 survivors have been taken to the regional hospital, including five in intensive care,” the health ministry’s regional department said in a statement. The Emergencies Ministry said fire services had put out the blaze

Advertisement

Azerbaijan Airlines said the Embraer 190 aircraft, with flight number J2-8243, had been flying from Baku to Grozny, the capital of Russia’s Chechnya, but had been forced to make an emergency landing approximately 3 km (1.8 miles) from the Kazakh city of Aktau.

Russian news agencies said the plane had been rerouted due to fog in Grozny.

Authorities in Kazakhstan said they had begun looking into different possible versions of what had happened, including a technical problem, Russia’s Interfax news agency reported.

More to follow.

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Trending