By Bruno De Wachter / Published on Tue, 2008-12-30 06:30
In the second half of 2008, the global financial crisis has dominated the news media. What will be the effect of this crisis on the sustainable energy market? Will it bring this young market to a standstill, or will it bring about new opportunities? The following is an attempt to group the pessimistic and the optimistic arguments.
Read full story
By Angelo Baggini / Published on Thu, 2008-09-18 09:00
Year: 2006
Policy Status: In force
The
final report of a national commission set up in 2005 "to present a concrete strategy to break Sweden's dependence on oil by 2020" outlines measures aimed at securing long-term energy supply, reducing climate impact and making better use of energy resources from forestry and agriculture.
Targets proposed by the
Commission on Oil Independence include improvements in overall energy efficiency of at least 20%, 40-50% cuts in the use of petrol and diesel in road transport, 25-40% less oil in industry, and a complete phase-out of oil used in the heating of residential and commercial buildings.
The commission also calls for pilot and demonstration plants to start production of "second generation biofuels" such as synthetic gas fuels, forest-based ethanol and biogas from the bio-based raw materials.
Promotion of vehicles running on alternative fuels would continue in part through public procurement requirements, with the aim of making Swedish cars on average 25-50% more efficient by 2020.
To meet the Commission's strategic targets, fuel efficiency should be included as a factor in environmental
classification of cars and consideration should be given to introducing an energy-labelling system. A special centre for energy efficiency should also be established.
Read full story
By Bruno De Wachter / Published on Thu, 2008-01-24 08:30
Energy Efficiency (EE) efforts have fallen off
The International Energy Agency (IEA) compiled an interesting graph, based on information about 10 European countries plus the U.S., Canada, New Zealand and Japan. It can be found on the Executive Summary of the book 'Energy Use in the New Millennium: Trends in the IEA countries', published on the IEA Web site. The graph shows the annual growth of energy consumption (actual energy use) and how much energy savings have contributed to restricting this growth (energy efficiency improvements). The period from 1973 to 1990 is compared with the period from 1990 to 2004.
The graph shows that the actual growth in energy use has increased. It also shows that energy efficiency improvements have fallen off considerably. In fact, the hypothetical growth of energy use without energy efficiency improvements was larger in the former period than in recent years.
Does this mean that energy efficiency as an energy source is slowly running dry? Not according to the IEA. They still see significant scope in those countries for adopting more cost-effective energy-efficient technologies in buildings, industry, and transport. The IEA concludes in this study that the oil price shocks in the 1970s did considerably more to control growth in energy demand than climate policies implemented since the 1990s. However they do add the consideration that the study does not fully reflect the impact of many policies recently initiated.
Read full story
By Sergio Ferreira / Published on Thu, 2008-01-03 12:46
Yesterday, the barrel of oil was traded at over 100 dollars at the New York market. This is likely the effect of a normal New Year’s “rush” from buyers coupled with the instability and violence in Nigeria and Argelia, two OPEC members.
The “cocktail” of current instability and the growing demand from countries like China and India does not draw a clear scenario – the price can go down 20 dollars or go up until 120 or 150 dollar a barrel in a few weeks. Nevertheless, experts state that the price will not go down to much lower levels. The IEA even admitted in a recent report the possibility of rupture on the global supply market.
But how does our life change with high prices of oil?
There is not a great danger on inflation rocketing because of the high value of Euro face to dollar.The most direct impact will be on fuel and energy prices that will inevitably have an effect on all other products and activities, particularly transport.
Experts state that even with this escalade, the “shock” caused by the demand growth from India and China together with speculation is having less serious effects than the 70s oil shock caused by the cartelization of prices by OPEC. This, because western countries are less dependant on oil. And here lies the big issue.
Read full story
