StatoilHydro and ONGC cooperate (India)

February 9, 2008 (The Norway Post) –

 StatoilHydro and the Indian oil company ONGC have agreed to jointly explore the potential of developing Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), and CDM (clean development mechanism) projects in India.

A memorandum of understanding has been signed by StatoilHydro’s Mrs Alexandra Bech Gjørv, Senior Vice President New Energy, and Mr Michel Myhre-Nielsen, CCS business development manager, and ONGC’s Mr A. K. Hazarika, Director, and Mr N. K. Mitra, Director.

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China’s Angang to sell $218 mln of carbon credits

February 11, 2008 (Reuters) – Anshan Iron and Steel Group, the parent of China’s third-biggest steel firm Angang Steel Co. Ltd., will sell $218 million of greenhouse gas credits to two international carbon credit investors, China’s Xinhua news agency said on Saturday. The company, based in northeast China, said it would sell 13 million tons of carbon credits to the European Carbon Fund (ECF) and Camco International.

Thailand’s greener energy future

February 11, 2008 (Bangkok Post) – To cope with high oil prices and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Thailand must pursue four options: development of renewable energy, energy efficiency, nuclear energy and carbon capture and storage. However, renewable energy has certain limitations, and options for each country are different depending on availability of natural resources, technologies and manpower. This is why the Thai government has mainly concentrated on renewable energy based on domestic raw materials and wastes.

Financial incentives together with the provision of information to investors and consumers have proved to work wonders, for instance in the promotion of biofuels. The consumption of gasohol (E10) more than doubled in 2007. With the introduction of E20 in 2008, daily demand for ethanol should reach two million litres by 2011 when new cars capable of using E85 should be on sale.

6 Key steps to meet Singapore’s energy needs

February 10, 2008 (Lin Yanqin and Esther Fung) Spiralling oil prices, growing global demand for energy, limited and uncertain supplies from oil-producing countries, climate change from greenhouse gas emissions – these are the challenges faced by a Singapore dependent on imports for energy needs.But even if Singapore has to be a “price-taker” in meeting its energy needs, it can still turn “energy challenges” into “energy opportunities”.

To help make this happen, a master plan – outlined in the National Energy Policy Report – was unveiled by the Minister for Trade and Industry Lim Hng Kiang yesterday, with six strategies mapped out for Singapore’s energy future.

Steps will be taken to improve energy security by diversifying energy sources and the mix of fuels currently used to generate electricity. Plans are also in place to grow the value-add of the energy industry, now worth 20 billion, into a $34-billion industry by 2015, and triple the number of jobs to 15,300.

3-Pronged Profits from China’s Worst Winter

February 10, 2008 (Seeking Alpha) – It was the worst winter in half a century in the Middle Kingdom, throwing China into a coal energy crisis and giving us several ways to play China’s power problems.

You probably saw the unbelievable photos like this one:

Those are some of the hundreds of thousands of travelers stuck at a train station in Guangzhou, one of the industrial capitals of the new China. Guangdong (better known to English speakers as Canton), where Guangzhou is located, is the richest province in the country, an export titan and magnet for tens of millions of migrant workers from other parts of China.

These folks sat on their haunches for days on end, waiting for crews to clear the country’s iron roads and let them get home for maybe the only time this year – this week’s Lunar New Year celebration.

Letter from Shell CEO

From: Jeroen van der Veer, Chief Executive
To: All Shell employees
Date: 22 January 2008 Subject: Shell Energy Scenarios

Dear Colleagues

In this letter, I’d like to share reflections about how we see the energy future, and our preferred route to meeting the world’s energy needs. Industry, governments and energy users – that is, all of us – will face the twin challenge of more energy and less CO2.

This letter is based on a text I’ve written for publication in several newspapers in the coming weeks. You can use it in your communications externally. There will be more information about energy scenarios inthe months ahead.

By the year 2100, the world’s energy system will be radically different from today’s. Renewable energy like solar, wind, hydroelectricity and biofuels will make up a large share of the energy mix, and nuclear energy too will have a place.

Mankind will have found ways of dealing with air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. New technologies will have reduced the amount of energy needed to power buildings and vehicles.

Fukuda pledges $40 billion to combat climate change

January, 26, 2008 (Bloomberg) – Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda vowed to cut carbon emissions and earmark funds to help developing nations cope with global warming, in a bid to take a leading role in combating climate change. Over the next five years, Japan will spend $30 billion on new environmental technology at home and provide another $10 billion for developing countries, Fukuda said in a speech today at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Fukuda also proposed a 30 percent improvement in energy efficiency globally by 2020.

An Oil Giant’s Green Dream

January 21, 2008 (Time) – If you filled your tank with gasoline today, or warmed your home with natural gas, there’s a decent chance you sent some money to Abu Dhabi. The capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is blessed with fossil fuels, including the fourth-biggest reserves of oil in the world. Selling that petroleum at record prices has helped Abu Dhabi achieve the highest per-capita GDP in the world – wealth that’s visible in every luxury hotel rising from the desert or spotless Mercedes prowling the streets. All those fossil fuels also mean that Abu Dhabi citizens have among the biggest carbon footprints in the world, and the emirate’s exports are a big, if indirect, contribution to global climate change.

So it might come as a surprise to learn that Abu Dhabi is this week hosting the world’s first Future Energy Summit, a three-day gathering of more than 4,000 entrepreneurs, analysts and officials from the alternative energy world, including heavyweights like green designer William McDonough and Icelandic President Olafur Grimsson. (Also present was Prince Charles, who gave a speech via hologram.)

Hong Kong Exchange plans emissions trading center

January 16, 2008 (Forbes) – Sitting right at the doorstep of the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitter, China, top officials at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange do not need any more evidence to support their optimism about the market potential of a new initiative for a trading center for emissions-related products. All they need do is look out the windows of their harborfront office, to a hazy horizon regularly clouded by pollution and smog. The Hong Kong Stock Exchange, a listed company that doubles as a market regulator, has hired consultants to look at the possibility of introducing trades of carbon emissions-related products and is moving to draw up a concrete plan by the year end. According to a new policy direction set forth by its board, it will build on its existing business and expertise in initial public offerings, exchange traded funds and index-linked products to “focus on environmental and greenhouse gases markets.”

Avoided deforestation credits head for the voluntary carbon markets

January 4, 2008 (ClimateChangeCorp.com) – Two Indonesian states determined to halt deforestation are getting ready to sell their forest carbon credits on the voluntary markets.

The Indonesian provinces are not prepared to wait for an international agreement on forestry, they want to start selling forestry credits on the voluntary markets now.  The governors of West Papua province and Aceh signed an agreement with the governor of the Amazon region in Brazil at the UN post-Kyoto talks in Bali. They agreed to work together to preserve their rainforests and to help establish international funding to avoid deforestation.