The world’s largest coal mining firm is to “aggressively” pursue solar energy and continue to close smaller mines.
Coal India Limited (CIL) plans to invest in a 3,000 megawatt solar energy project in a joint venture with state-run NLC India.
The company also wants to compete in India’s solar auctions and win projects by offering the lowest prices for clean power.
It marks a major shift for the firm, which produces most of India’s coal.
“Coal as you know, we’re going to lose business in the next two, three decades. Solar will take over (from) coal slowly as a major energy provider in the coming years,” CIL’s chairman Pramod Agarwal said in an interview with Reuters.
The company’s solar project with NLC India will be worth 125bn rupees ($1.73bn ; £1.26bn), with CIL expected to invest roughly half of that figure by 2024.
The group closed 82 mines in the three years to March 2020, and reduced its workforce by 18,600 employees.
Mr Agarwal said he expected further reductions to the workforce, with the savings potentially reinvested into solar wafer production.
Energy transformation
India currently uses about one billion tons of coal annually, making it the world’s second largest consumer behind China.
That’s slightly more than all US coal companies produced in 2019, according to figures from the US Energy Information Agency.
India is hoping for a significant shift in its energy mix over the coming years to help it meet its climate targets.
The country is a signatory to the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, and it has committed to reducing its emissions by up to 35% by 2030 from 2005 levels.
Last year, the country’s emissions fell for the first time in decades.
Although the lower emissions were partly due to strict Covid-19 lockdown measures, lower demand for coal was also a factor.
India hopes to generate 175GW of renewable energy capacity by next year, with a target of 450GW by the end of the decade.
On Friday, China set out an economic blueprint for the next five years, which was expected to substantiate the goal set out last fall by President Xi Jinping for the country to reach net-zero emissions before 2060 and hit peak emissions by 2030.
While the plan calls for a “major push” on clean energy development, a few aspects have left climate experts with questions about how exactly the world’s largest emitter will hit its stated climate goals. For example, the plan did not include a ban on new coal projects, nor did it set a “carbon cap” to define what peak emissions will be, instead setting a carbon intensity target that is the same as in the previous five-ear plan.
However, some are hopeful that the government will announce more detailed regulations on carbon-intensive construction and manufacturing industries later this year, and that more details will be laid out in an upcoming separate five-year plan for the energy sector. Fan Dai, director of the California-China Climate Institute at the University of California, Berkeley, told Quartz that the plan is “simply aggregating existing targets from last year.”
Dai added that “[t]here’s a lot of room for further development and ambition, especially around those targets that were missing that we hoped would be included.”
As reported by The Guardian:
China will reduce its “emissions intensity” – the amount of CO2 produced per unit of GDP – by 18% over the period 2021 to 2025, but this target is in line with previous trends, and could lead to emissions continuing to increase by 1% a year or more. Non-fossil fuel energy is targeted to make up 20% of China’s energy mix, leaving plenty of room for further expansion of the country’s coal industry.
Swithin Lui, of the Climate Action Tracker and NewClimate Institute, said: “[This is] underwhelming and shows little sign of a concerted switch away from a future coal lock-in. There is little sign of the change needed [to meet net zero].”
Zhang Shuwei, chief economist at Draworld Environment Research Centre, said: “As the first five-year plan after China committed to reach carbon neutrality by 2060, the 14th five-year plan was expected to demonstrate strong climate ambition. However, the draft plan presented does not seem to meet the expectations. The international community expected China’s climate policy to ‘jump,’ but in reality it is still crawling.”
Natural gas-fired generation continues to provide much of the electricity in the UK, but renewable power in total at times has taken the lead spot in the country’s generation mix over the past several months. The country has moved almost entirely away from coal, which a decade ago teamed with natural gas to provide three-quarters of Great Britain’s power.
The UK government in 2019 passed laws that require the country to reduce all greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050, beyond the previous target of at least an 80% reduction from 1990 levels. The UK also plans to phase out all coal-fired generation by 2025. Chris Skidmore, the UK’s Energy and Clean Growth Minister when the legislation was passed, at the time said, “We’re leading the world yet again in becoming the first major economy to pass new laws to reduce emissions to net zero by 2050 while remaining committed to growing the economy—putting clean growth at the heart of our modern Industrial Strategy. We’re pioneering the way for other countries to follow in our footsteps driving prosperity by seizing the economic opportunities of becoming a greener economy.”
Boris Johnson, the UK’s prime minister, earlier in November announced plans for what his government has called a “green industrial revolution,” which includes expanding the country’s use of nuclear and hydrogen power. Johnson said the 10-point plan included as part of the initiative reiterates previous pledges to end the sale of fossil fuel-powered vehicles by 2030, and quadruple the amount of offshore wind power capacity within a decade. Though environmentalists praised much of the plan, some say its does not move fast enough to end the use of fossil fuels.
Carbon Price a Key
Global energy analysts have said the UK, even with continued reliance on some thermal power, has “cleaned up” its electricity mix faster than any other major world economy. Grant Wilson, a lecturer at the University of Birmingham who focuses on energy issues, told POWER that’s in large part due to the country’s price on carbon, now in place for several years, which accelerated the country’s move away from coal (Figure 1).
1. The Drax Power Station, with a generation capacity of nearly 4 GW, is the UK’s largest single-site power generator, and currently home to Europe’s largest decarbonization project. The Drax Group is converting the long-time coal-fired power plant in North Yorkshire to run on sustainable biomass. Courtesy: Drax Group
Wilson pointed out that “2019 saw the annual total for coal generation drop below solar and into seventh place [among all generation types] for the first time. Britain’s renewables also generated more electricity than coal and natural gas combined over a month for the first ever time in August [2019].” That trend has gotten stronger over the past year; government data released in October of this year showed that renewables’ share of UK electricity generation climbed to 44.6% in the second quarter of 2020, up nine percentage points on the year.
Wilson also noted that demand for power in the UK has trended downward for more than a decade, as the country has embraced energy efficiency measures. Wilson, along with Iain Staffell of Imperial College London, and Noah Godfrey of the University of Birmingham, noted what they called a “remarkable shift in Britain’s electrical system during the 2010s. The amount of electricity consumed fell by nearly 15% between 2010 and 2019, with the economy using 50 terawatt hours (TWh) less electricity in 2019 than it did in 2010.” Wilson said, “Britain now has the cleanest electrical supply it has ever had.”
Providing for Baseload Power
A caveat for the UK’s transition away from fossil fuels has been that any changes to the country’s generation mix must still provide for reliable sources of baseload power. While coal-fired generation supplied less than 2% of Britain’s electricity last year, natural gas today provides about 40% of the nation’s electricity. Wind power is in second place, supplying nearly 21% of the UK’s electrical demand in the past year, up from just 3% in 2010.
David McLeod, ULC Technologies UK head of business development, told POWER, “By 2030, it is likely that we will see a significant growth in wind and solar-powered energy, while the conversation around hydrogen is just getting started. Natural gas is still a major part of the UK’s power generation, and it will take some time for it to officially phase out. As the UK moves away from fossil fuels for power generation though, technology will be essential in assisting with this transition to ensure safety and efficiency.”
McLeod said his company plans to launch an unmanned aerial services program in 2021. Its “mission is to help utility and energy companies solve problems through the application of our unmanned aircraft technology. This includes looking at exciting applications for offshore wind companies to increase safety and reduce maintenance costs as the growth of renewable energy continues. Unmanned aircraft are great for capturing tremendous amounts of inspection data with very low risk, and that goes together with the need for machine learning (i.e. artificial intelligence) to process the data.”
As McLeod noted, changes in the UK’s power generation system enhance the need to introduce new technologies. Construction recently began on the first new synchronous condenser in the UK, under the National Grid’s Pathfinder program. The condenser, being built in Wales, is expected to provide critical support services to stabilize the grid as the UK moves away from thermal power generation and increases its use of renewable resources, including solar power (Figure 2) and energy storage.
2. The 72.2-MW Shotwick Solar Park was the largest solar installation in the UK when it was commissioned in 2016. Courtesy: British Solar Renewables
The UK government in late May threw its support behind plans to develop the country’s largest solar park, a £450 million ($555 million) joint venture between Hive Energy and Wirsol Energy. The Cleve Hill Solar Park, designed with 350 MW of generation capacity, will use 880,000 solar panels and be located near the towns of Faversham and Whitstable on the north Kent coast.
Flexible Reserve Capacity
Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners, a global investment manager focused on lower-carbon and renewable energy infrastructure investment, has taken a lead role in the UK’s energy transition, including the National Grid program. The company over the past two years has developed, built, or acquired several assets including those dealing with flexible generation, grid support infrastructure, and demand response.
Those projects include more than 300 MW of flexible reserve capacity either operational or under construction across 21 sites in Wales, Scotland, and England. The company also acquired Flexitricity, among the first of a group of demand-response operators in Great Britain. Flexitricity has participated in UK power markets for more than 10 years, looking at customer demand management as decarbonization accelerates. The group works to create cost savings for energy consumers, while enhancing grid support during periods of high demand and higher power prices. The Flexitricity virtual power plant includes an aggregated 540 MW of distributed flexible power from a range of assets owned by customers across the UK.
ESG Impact
Rory Quinlan, who co-founded Quinbrook along with David Scaysbrook in 2015, told POWER the company “has specialized in the creation of new infrastructure assets that deliver real and tangible ESG [environmental, social, and governance] impact on behalf of its investors. Quinbrook is operating at the forefront of the accelerating energy transition to achieve ‘net zero’ emissions from the UK’s energy supply system.” Quinlan said Quinbrook “is currently constructing one of the UK’s largest diversified portfolios of reserve power assets for managing intermittency challenges arising from the rapid growth in wind and solar.”
One business Quinbrook has invested in is Velox Power, which comprises a diversified portfolio of reserve power and grid support infrastructure assets providing secure, dispatchable, peaking power using modern, high-efficiency gas engines. The technologies within the portfolio include gas peaking, landfill gas, and coal mine methane. More than 96% of the 357.5-MW portfolio within the Velox Power business have secured 15-year Capacity Market contracts.
Quinlan said the synchronous condenser is an important technological piece to support renewable generation resources. He told POWER that a “synchronous condenser is an electric generator/motor whose rotor can spin freely. Synchronous condensers are applying an established century-old technology to support the current operation of and transition to the power system of the future. With an increase in renewable penetration and the retirement of nuclear plants, generation from synchronous sources such as coal, gas, and nuclear is expected to decrease significantly in the future. This is creating increasing instability of system frequency and local voltage levels, which synchronous condensers are able to help control without displacing renewable energy generation.”
Challenges Await
Mark Chadwick, managing director of Sustainability Solutions at ENGIE Impact, told POWER that the UK’s transition to more renewable resources comes with challenges. “Renewable sources will continue to become a growing trend over the next several years. However, renewable sources typically connect to the grid with technologies that are not synchronous machines, which may have implications on the technical characteristics of the system, such as lower inertia, lower short-circuit power, strong fluctuations due to RES [renewable energy system] variability, and so on. These can pose challenges so it’s important to consider all the variables when transitioning to renewables.
“We’ll also expect to see new grid portions based on entirely new technologies. For instance, offshore wind is expected to become a significant part of the generation matrix for the UK and other countries that have access to the North Sea.” Chadwick added, “As the grid becomes more digitized over the next decade, it will offer an opportunity to increase the level of intelligence between the various agents that compose the power system and support the balancing function to ensure the equilibrium of supply and demand is maintained.
“For example, consider EV charging—a misalignment between the actual RES output and what was forecasted can have significant efficiency and cost implications. Overall, to truly transform the UK power grid, there must be better cross-sector collaboration among public and private entities in order to simplify the changes that will need to be made, particularly as it relates to the impact on consumers. We can envisage a power system that is digitally controlled, with connected devices such as electric vehicles able to provide grid balancing services by charging and discharging as required. We can also envisage a more decentralized system, with a far greater proportion of energy consumers also being producers.”
Migration to Renewables
CIL Management Consultants, an international investment advisory group with offices in London and also Chicago, Illinois, in a report provided to POWER said that for the UK to reach its carbon emissions reduction goals the country’s “energy generation will have to migrate to renewable sources. Energy distribution, storage and exploitation will need to adapt to accommodate this shift. [The country] will need to develop technology to capture and store carbon dioxide.” The group said it “is currently not possible to capture and store carbon on a large scale. In order to meet net zero by 2050, CCS [carbon capture and storage] will need to be operational by the mid-2020s and operating at scale by the 2030s.”
Said Quinbrook’s Quinlan: “The drive to reduce the carbon intensity of power generated and consumed in the UK is economy-wide [and] this rapid transition of power supply infrastructure is expected to create attractive investment opportunities featuring both regular cash yield and capital appreciation.” He said “the next three to five years will be a critical phase” for the country’s energy transition as investors sort out which technologies will have lead roles in UK power generation.
The world’s power generation is about to become even more green, according to a new publication from the International Energy Agency (IEA).
The group on Nov. 10 published its “Renewables 2020″ report, and highlighted how generation capacity from both wind and solar will double across the next five years and surpass global generation from both coal and natural gas. The IEA said renewable energy this year is growing at its fastest annual pace in the past six years, despite the COVID-19 pandemic. The agency said the pandemic has in fact hastened the closure of older thermal power generation infrastructure; as an example, American Electric Power this week announced it would shut down nearly half its entire fleet of U.S. coal-fired power plants.
The IEA in the report said “the COVID-19 crisis is hurting—but not halting—global renewable energy growth,” noting that “renewable markets, especially electricity-generating technologies, have already shown their resilience to the crisis.”
90% of New Generation Is Renewable
“From January to October 2020, auctioned renewable capacity was 15% higher than for the same period last year, a new record,” the report said. “At the same time, the shares of publicly listed renewable equipment manufacturers and project developers have been outperforming most major stock market indices and the overall energy sector.”
The report said almost 90% of new power generation in 2020 will be renewable, with about 10% of new output coming from natural gas- and coal-fired plants. The IEA said a continuance of that trend would make renewables the world’s largest power source in 2025.
Fatih Birol, the agency’s executive director, in a statement, said, “Renewable power is defying the difficulties caused by the pandemic, showing robust growth while other fuels struggle. The resilience and positive prospects of the sector are clearly reflected by continued strong appetite from investors—and the future looks even brighter with new capacity additions on course to set fresh records this year and next.”
Birol continued: “Governments can tackle these issues to help bring about a sustainable recovery and accelerate clean energy transitions. In the United States, for instance, if the proposed clean electricity policies of the next U.S. administration are implemented, they could lead to much more rapid deployment of solar PV [photovoltaic] and wind, contributing to faster decarbonization of the power sector.”
John Lichtenberger, senior vice president of Core Solar, an Austin, Texas-based developer of solar power projects, recently told POWER, “the cost of solar technology has come down so much” that developing solar power is a “no-brainer, from an environmental standpoint and an economic standpoint. Renewables are not a novelty, they’re a legitimate cost-effective, environmental way to generate power. Solar technology [has] been refined and improved, and the cost has come down. The technology has become a commodity, [and] we’re seeing production across the globe.”
Global Energy Demand Falls
The IEA said the coronavirus pandemic is a major factor in a 5% decline this year in global demand for energy. The report, though, said “priority access to the grid and continuous installation of new plants are all underpinning strong growth in renewable electricity. This more than compensates for declines in bioenergy for industry and biofuels for transport—mostly the result of lower economic activity. The net result is an overall increase of 1% in renewable energy demand in 2020.”
The report said new deployments of renewable energy, led by China and the U.S., mean that “net installed renewable capacity will grow by nearly 4% globally in 2020, reaching almost 200 GW. Higher additions of wind and hydropower are taking global renewable capacity additions to a new record this year, accounting for almost 90% of the increase in total power capacity worldwide. Solar PV growth is expected to remain stable as a faster expansion of utility-scale projects compensates for the decline in rooftop additions resulting from individuals and companies reprioritizing investments. Wind and solar PV additions are set to jump by 30% in both the People’s Republic of China and the United States as developers rush to complete projects before changes in policy take effect.”
The agency said India and the European Union also will drive increases in renewable energy, which the report said will result in a record expansion of global renewable capacity additions of nearly 10% next year, the fastest growth since 2015. The IEA recently said that solar power today is now the cheapest source of electricity in history.
The report said that total installed wind and solar PV capacity is on track to overtake natural gas in 2023, and coal in 2024—and said that generation from all renewable resources will become the “largest source of electricity generation worldwide in 2025,” supplying one-third of global power output.
The IEA report said, “Solar PV alone accounts for 60% of all renewable capacity additions through 2025, and wind provides another 30%. Driven by further cost declines, annual offshore wind additions are set to surge, accounting for one-fifth of the total wind annual market in 2025.”
The Government has launched a $70m fund to help businesses switch from fossil fuels, such as coal and gas, to clean energy for process heat.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and energy minister Megan Woods announced the fund in New Plymouth on Wednesday, and said it would allow business and industries to access financial support to switch away from boilers run on coal and gas, to cleaner electricity and biomass options.
Process heat is the steam, hot water or hot gases used in industrial processing, manufacturing and space heating.
Jacinda Ardern is mobbed by students at Witt in New Plymouth. ANDY JACKSON/STUFF
“Reducing greenhouse gas emissions from process heat is win-win for our climate and our recovery,” Ardern said in a statement. “It provides much-needed financial support to business to assist with the often costly transition of plant and equipment to clean energy sources.”
Ardern said the $70m fund would create jobs and stimulate the economy, while demonstrating the Government’s commitment to future-proofing New Zealand’s Covid-19 recovery.
“I have set out that the economic recovery from Covid and addressing climate change are priorities for the new Government,” she said. “This fund creates jobs while lowering emissions and is the exact sort of initiative that will help us to build back better from Covid.”
Ardern poses for a selfie while at New Plymouth’s polytech. ANDY JACKSON/STUFF
According to the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA), 79 per cent of the process heat in New Zealand is used in the industrial sector, in sawmills, pulp and paper mills, and food processing plants (including dairy).
The final 21 per cent is used in the commercial sector, in shops and office buildings, the public sector, in schools, hospitals, prisons and public administration buildings, and in the agricultural sector, mainly for glasshouses.
Ardern meets with Colleen Tuuta during her visit to Witt on Wednesday. ANDY JACKSON/STUFF
About half of the country’s process heat demand comes from burning coal or natural gas.
It counts for about 9 per cent of our total emissions, and 27 per cent of our energy-related emissions.
Woods said this fund would be key to reducing those emissions in the coming year.
“The new fund will target New Zealand’s largest energy users to accelerate their uptake of electrification and other technologies that will dramatically lower emissions from this sector, and create clean energy jobs.”
Jacinda Ardern caught up with her aunt, Marie Ardern, and New Plymouth MP Glen Bennett during her visit. ANDY JACKSON/STUFF
Woods said a minimum of $15m was available in the first round, which opened on Wednesday.
“Successful applicants will likely already have a plan in place to decarbonise their process heat, and will be able to demonstrate value for money as well as their contribution to the economic recovery by boosting economic activity and providing local employment.”
Green groups have long criticised the Jawa 9 & 10 coal power project over its devastating impacts on public health and the environment. Now, a study has revealed the project would also be unprofitable for its investors.
The 2,000-megawatt Jawa 9 & 10 coal-fired power project planned to be built near the Indonesian capital city Jakarta would result in significant losses for investors if it goes through, a new pre-feasibility study released on Thursday (18 June) has revealed.
The analysis conducted by Korea Development Institute (KDI), an autonomous policy-oriented research organisation, shows the present value of cash flows pumped into the power project would exceed that of inbound cash flows by US$43.58 million over the station’s lifetime.
Almost three-quarters of the project volume is financed through loans provided by lenders such as Singapore bank DBS, Siemens Bank, Korean public banks, as well as Malaysian and Indonesian banks, which include Maybank, CIMB, Bank Negara Indonesia, Exim Bank of Indonesia and Bank Mandiri, among others.
However, South Korean utility Korea Electric Power Corporation (Kepco) is the only foreign firm backing the project that will hold a share of ownership in the plant. It is poised to lose US$7.08 million in equity investments, according to the study, which was obtained by Seoul-based non-profit Solutions for our Climate.
Other equity investors associated with the venture include Jakarta-based power and petrochemical firm Barito Pacific and Indonesia Power, a subsidiary of Indonesia’s state utility Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN), which provides the land for the station.
Solutions for our Climate director Youn Sejong said while loan investors were less at risk because their investment would be paid off first, the fact that the project itself was valued negative should still be a wakeup call for the banks supporting it.
“Investors backing the project should pull out given the estimated unprofitability. Because the construction has not commenced, this is the best time to withdraw from the project with no sunk cost involved,” he told Eco-Business.
The project, which is to add two power plant units to the Suralaya coal-fired power station in Cilegon, a city in Indonesia’s Banten province, is expected to be in operation from 2024. The new plant units will use ultra-supercritical technology to enable higher efficiencies and lower emissions.
Besides the Jawa project, Kepco is planning to acquire a share in the planned Vung Ang 2 project in Ha Tinh province, Vietnam. Its stake in the venture would see the company build two 600-megawatt coal plants carrying a price tag of US$2.24 billion.
This is despite a recent estimate by the KDI that the net value of the Vung Ang 2 project stands at negative $158 million, with Kepco’s planned investment valued at negative $80 million.
Around the globe, pressure is mounting on governments and companies to drop coal, the world’s single-biggest contributor to man-made global warming, amid increasingly dire warnings of climate change.
Both the Jawa and the Vung Ang ventures have received heavy criticism from environmental activists and health experts in recent years, who have urged the corporations backing them to recognise the reputational, legal and environmental risks involved in the investments.
A 2019 report by environmental campaigners Greenpeace that modelled the health impacts of the Jawa project concluded the station would cause 4,700 premature deaths over its lifetime.
The new assessment comes as the Korean government puts together its Green New Deal package, a collection of sweeping policies geared towards ending South Korea’s contribution to climate change. The move was announced as part of the Liberal Party of Korea’s election manifesto earlier this year.
Following Moon Jae-in’s recent landslide victory, the government is expected to implement a carbon tax, foster investment in clean energy, and phase out domestic as well as overseas coal power financing.
Last month, the world’s top asset manager BlackRock, which owns shares in Kepco, raised concerns over several coal projects the utility firm is involved in.
According to the KDI, Kepco’s financial plan for the Jawa project takes an overly optimistic view of the expected amount of power sales and potential power transmission rates.
The firm has also likely underestimated engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) costs and not taken into account the financial difficulties currently facing Korean company Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction, the venture’s EPC contractor, amid the coronavirus crisis.
This increases the risk of budget overruns and project delays, although they would only indirectly affect Kepco as the EPC contractor would be required to bear the added costs.
The KDI pointed out the global transition to renewables indicated coal’s decline and could entail negative consequences for the Jawa power plant units.
At the same time, the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, which has yet to peak in Indonesia, may affect the project as it wreaks havoc on supply chains and project timelines while reducing electricity consumption. Youn said: “Planning of the Jawa 9 & 10 project was based on a gross overestimation of power demand growth.”
“Kepco should consider participating in the project only after closely examining the particular economic and market conditions in Indonesia,” reads the KDI’s report.
Despite the bleak profitability outlook, however, Kepco pursues its investment plans and seeks to obtain its board’sapproval on the investment in the next board meeting scheduled for the end of June, according to Solutions for our Climate.
Earlier this month, the company announced through the media that the project passed the new pre-feasibility study, although the project score indicated that investments should be “considered with caution”, said the non-profit in a statement released on Thursday (18 June). In total, the firm looks to commit US$51 million to the Jawa venture.
In its statement, Solutions for our Climate said: “Kepco’s hasty decision to invest in the Jawa 9 & 10 project is likely to undermine the Korean government’s initiative towards a clean energy transition and sustainable economy.”
Australia’s Great Barrier Reef suffered its most extensive coral bleaching event in March, with scientists fearing the coral recovers less each time after the third bleaching in five years.
February 2020 was the hottest month on record since records began in 1900, Professor Terry Hughes, Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University, told Reuters Newsagency.
“We saw record-breaking temperatures all along the length of the Great Barrier Reef, there wasn’t a cool portion in the north, or a cool portion in the south this time around,” Professor Hughes said. “The whole Barrier Reef was hot so the bleaching we have seen this year is the most extensive so far.”
Professor Hughes added that he was now almost certain that the Reef was not going to recover to what it looked like even five years ago, not to mention 30 years ago. If the global warming trends continued the Great Barrier Reef would be destroyed, he said.
“We will have some sort of tropical ecosystem, but it won’t look like coral reef, there might be more seaweed, more sponges, a lot less coral, but it will be a very different ecosystem.”
The Great Barrier Reef, covering 348,000 square kilometres was UNESCO world heritage listed in 1981 as the most extensive and spectacular coral reef ecosystem on the planet, according to the UNESCO website.
Renewables have generated more electricity than coal for the last 40 days, surpassing previous records.
Wind, solar and hydroelectricity have produced more electricity than coal since March 25, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration analyzed by the Institute for Energy Economics & Financial Analysis (IEEFA).
That tops the previous record of just nine consecutive days of renewables beating out coal in power generation.
Coal’s decline comes as a number of sectors set goals for renewable generation.
A number of utilities have announced their intention to cease their reliance on coal and close coal-fired power plants by dates ranging from 2030 to 2050.
Big-box retailers like Target have also made pledges to transition to renewable energy to power their stores.
But many states are also pushing the shift toward green energy, increasing renewable energy mandates for utilities within their borders.
The latest streak for renewables comes amid an overall decline in electricity demand as the coronavirus shutters businesses around the country — limiting the need to rely as heavily on coal.
Low natural gas prices and warm weather also help fuel the shift.
IEEFA previously predicted that renewable generation would consistently surpass coal by 2021.
“But in the first quarter of 2020, renewable generation unexpectedly exceeded coal, and with this strong performance continuing in the second quarter, there is an increasing chance that the milestone could occur this year,” the group said.
America’s JP Morgan Chase has pumped more than the GDP of Finland into fossil fuels expansion since the Paris climate accord of 2015, while Japan’s and China’s mega banks have also been ‘failing miserably’ in their response to climate change over the last four years, a report from a coalition of NGOs has shown.
It’s as if the penny hasn’t dropped for the financial services industry that climate change is not only an increasingly disruptive environmental phenomenon, but a grave risk to the stability of the global economy.
Financial support for the fossil fuel industry has increased every year since the Paris Agreement came into being in 2015, according to a new report, Banking on Climate Change 2020, from a collective of environmental groups including Rainforest Action Network, BankTrack and Indigenous Environmental Network.
The Paris Agreement recommended that global warming be capped at 2°C above pre-industrial levels to avoid the most devastating effects of climate change. To do so, scientists say greenhouse gas emissions, the bulk of which come from the burning of fossil fuels, must be slashed.
However, the report found that 35 global banks have not only been maintaining but expanding the fossil fuels sector, with more than US$2.7 trillion in investments made since 2015.
It is unconscionable for banks to be approving new loans and raising capital for the companies that are pushing hardest to increase carbon emissions.
Alison Kirsch, climate and energy leader researcher, Rainforest Action Network
United States-headquartered banks JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citi and Bank of America have accounted for 30 per cent of all fossil fuel financing from the major global banks since the Paris accord.
JPMorgan Chase, which recently announced it will close one-fifth of its branches in the US in response to the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic, pumped US$269 billion—more than the gross domestic product of Finland—into the fossil fuels sector over the last four years, notably in fossil fuel expansion, Arctic oil and gas, offshore oil and gas, and fracking.
In Asia, Tokyo-headquartered Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) was the region’s biggest fossil fuel financer and the world’s sixth-biggest financier, investing US$119 billion since 2015.
The investments in fossil fuels made by the world’s biggest 35 banking institutions between 2016 and 2019. Source: Banking on climate change report.
Counting out coal
China’s mega banks were found to be world’s biggest financiers of coal—the single biggest driver of greenhouse gas emissions—since the Paris Agreement. China Construction Bank and Bank of China are the biggest bankers of coal mining, pumping US$25 billion into the sector between them. The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Bank of China were the heaviest funders of coal power globally, investing US$42 billion combined, according to the report.
However, financial support for the carbon-intensive fuel is dwindling globally, the report noted. Finance to the top 30 coal mining companies fell by 6 per cent between 2016 and 2019, while finance to the top 30 coal power companies shrank by 13 per cent.
Though China’s banks are a noteable exception, the report found that 26 of the 35 banks in the report now have policies restricting coal finance, which has helped to push the finance sector away from coal. China’s big four banks do not have any climate policies in place.
A growing minority of the world’s biggest banks—now 16—now also restrict finance to some oil and gas sectors. The report said European banks have the toughest fossil fuel lending restrictions. France’s Crédit Agricole, the Royal Bank of Scotland and Italy’s Unicredit are said to have the most progressive climate policies.
Banking on Paris
The majority of the world’s top banks are signatories of frameworks such as the United Nations’ Principles for Responsible Banking and the Equator Principles, which commit banks to align their business strategies with the Paris Agreement.
But because potential emissions from the coal, oil and natural gas already in production exhaust the carbon budget for the 2°C warming limit of the Paris Agreement, any bank that supports the further expansion of the fossil fuel sector is Paris-incompatible, the report noted.
Alison Kirsch, climate and energy leader researcher, Rainforest Action Network, said that it is “crystal clear” that banks are “failing miserably” in their response to climate change and the decarbonisation of the global economy.
“As the toll of death and destruction from unprecedented floods, droughts, fires and storms grows, it is unconscionable and outrageous for banks to be approving new loans and raising capital for the companies that are pushing hardest to increase carbon emissions,” she said.
The report emerges at a time when the ongoing Covid-19 coronavirus is threatening to derail investment in renewable energy, according to the International Energy Agency.
Quarantining and lockdowns have forced many countries’ industries to shut down, with many factories closing their doors.
Nitrogen dioxide emissions are a major air pollutant, and are closely linked to factory output and vehicles on the roads.
NO₂ emissions can be a good indicator of global economic activity—and the changes are visible from space.
A dramatic decline. Image: Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air
The Emissions Impact of Coronavirus Lockdowns
There’s a high chance you’re reading this while practicing social distancing, or while your corner of the world is under some type of advised or enforced lockdown.
While these are necessary measures to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, such economic interruption is unprecedented in many ways—resulting in some surprising side effects.
The Evidence is in NO₂ Emissions
Nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) emissions, a major air pollutant, are closely linked to factory output and vehicles operating on the road.
As both industry and transport come to a halt during this pandemic, NO₂ emissions can be a good indicator of global economic activity—and the changes are visible from space.
These images from the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), as well as satellite footage from NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), show a drastic decline in NO₂ emissions over recent months, particularly across Italy and China.
NO₂ Emissions Across Italy
In Italy, the number of active COVID-19 cases has surpassed China (including the death toll). Amid emergency actions to lock down the entire nation, everything from schools and shops, to restaurants and even some churches, are closed.
Italy is also an industrial hub, with the sector accounting for nearly 24% of GDP. With many Italians urged to work from home if possible, visible economic activity has dropped considerably.
This 10-day moving average animation (from January 1st—March 11th, 2020) of nitrogen dioxide emissions across Europe clearly demonstrates how the drop in Italy’s economic activity has impacted the environment.
That’s not all: a drop in boat traffic also means that Venice’s canals are clear for the time being, as small fish have begun inhabiting the waterways again. Experts are cautious to note that this does not necessarily mean the water quality is better.
NO₂ Emissions Across China
The emissions changes above China are possibly even more obvious to the eye. China is the world’s most important manufacturing hub and a significant contributor to greenhouse gases globally. But in the month following Lunar New Year (a week-long festival in early February), satellite imagery painted a different picture.
With China slowly returning to work, this reduced consumption could rebound. Image: CREA/WIND/Graphic: Jason Kwok, CNN
Back to the Status Quo?
In recent weeks, China has been able to flatten the curve of its total COVID-19 cases. As a result, the government is beginning to ease its restrictions—and it’s clear that social and economic activities are starting to pick back up in March.
With the regular chain of events beginning to resume, it remains to be seen whether NO₂ emissions will rebound right back to their pre-pandemic levels.
This bounce-back effect—which can sometimes reverse any overall drop in emissions—is [called] “revenge pollution”. And in China, it has precedent.
— Li Shuo, Senior climate policy advisor, Greenpeace East Asia
