LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) – Scotland, fresh from hosting the COP26 climate summit, on Monday awarded offshore wind project concessions for almost £700 million ($960 million, 840 million euros). Crown Estate Scotland announced in a statement that it has granted 17 concessions via an auction process to energy companies including BP, Royal Dutch Shell and SSE, as well as Spain’s Iberdrola and France’s TotalEnergies. The final awards received a total of 74 bids, totalled £699.2 […]
Tag: energy
US bill aims to end China’s ‘chokehold’ on America’s rare earth supplies
WASHINGTON, D.C., United States (AFP) – Two US senators have proposed a law aiming to end China’s alleged “chokehold” on rare-earth metal supplies, a statement by the lawmakers said Friday. The law — proposed by Democrat Mark Kelly and Republican Tom Cotton — would aim to ensure the United States can guarantee its supplies of rare-earth minerals. “The Chinese Communist Party has a chokehold on global rare-earth element supplies, which are used in everything from batteries […]
EU moves to label nuclear, gas energy as ‘green’
BRUSSELS, Belgium (AFP) – The European Union is planning to label energy from nuclear power and natural gas as “green” sources for investment despite internal disagreement over whether they truly qualify as sustainable options. The proposal, seen by AFP on Saturday, aims to support the 27-nation bloc’s shift towards a carbon-neutral future and gild its credentials as a global standard-setter for fighting climate change. But the fact the European Commission quietly distributed the text to […]
China to scrap subsidies for electric vehicles
China will end subsidies for electric and hybrid cars at the end of the year, authorities have announced, saying the strength of sales in the sector meant state support was no longer needed. In a statement published Friday, the Ministry of Finance said purchase subsidies would be reduced by 30 percent from the beginning of 2022 before being scrapped completely by the end of the year. “Given the growth of the industry for vehicles with […]
Human cost of China’s green energy rush ahead of Winter Olympics
by Poornima WEERASEKARA Agence France-Presse BAODING, China (AFP) – Beaten, forced off their land, cheated out of money, and even falsely imprisoned — farmers in China say they are paying a heavy price as authorities rush to deliver on ambitious pledges to ramp up national green energy output. China has vowed the upcoming Winter Olympics 2022 will be the first Games to be run entirely on wind and solar energy, and have built scores of […]
Gas field tremor terror haunts Dutch villages
by Jan HENNOP Agence France-Presse GARRELSWEER, Netherlands (AFP) – Teacher Daan Schoolland was asleep with his partner when the earthquake struck the northern Dutch hamlet of Garrelsweer in the middle of the night. “It was like a wave, we could feel it coming towards us,” the burly father-of-three recalled. “When I woke up, the whole room was still shaking and my kids were crying in terror.” The 3.2-magnitude earthquake in November was the largest for […]
Wildlife concerns blunt Germany’s green power efforts
by Florian CAZERES Agence France-Presse CHORIN, Germany (AFP) – Germany is expanding its power grid to aid the transition to renewable energies, but local residents in some areas are holding up the process over concerns about wildlife. “I am not saying that the energy transition is not necessary. But we don’t want these pylons,” Hartmut Lindner, 75, told AFP. Lindner has been campaigning for 15 years against a planned high-voltage power line in the Schorfheide-Chorin […]
Biden calls for carbon neutral federal government by 2050
WASHINGTON D.C., United States (AFP) – President Joe Biden is to sign an order Wednesday to make the federal government carbon neutral by 2050 via a panoply of clean-energy initiatives including electric vehicles and environmentally friendly buildings. The executive order, announced by the White House, directs the government to replace its fleet of gas-guzzling vehicles with electric cars and trucks by 2035 and ensure federal buildings are carbon-free by 2045. “The president is building on […]
Rolls-Royce launches nuclear reactor business
LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) – UK aircraft engine maker Rolls-Royce on Tuesday launched plans to build small low-cost nuclear reactors to help cut the nation’s carbon emissions. The news comes as Britain pushes ahead with large-scale projects, including Hinkley Point C which will be the nation’s first new nuclear plant for a generation. Rolls-Royce said it had created a new Small Modular Reactor (SMR) division after clinching a cash injection of £405 million ($547 million, […]
Protesters demand climate action in global rally
by Kelly MACNAMARA and Patrick GALEY Agence France-Presse GLASGOW, United Kingdom (AFP) – Tens of thousands of protesters braved rain and wind in Glasgow Saturday as part of worldwide demonstrations against what campaigners say is a failure of crunch UN climate talks to act fast enough to tame global warming. Dozens of events were planned worldwide to demand cuts in fossil fuel use and immediate help for communities already affected by climate change, particularly in […]
Oil-rich UAE to burn waste to make power
by Carolyn Lamboley Agence France-Presse SHARJAH, United Arab Emirates (AFP) – With rubbish piling up in the desert, the United Arab Emirates has found a new way to get rid of its trash — incinerators that will turn it into electricity. The UAE, one of the world’s top oil exporters, is building the Gulf region’s first waste-to-power plants to ease its chronic trash problem and, at the same time, its reliance on gas-fuelled electricity stations. Green […]
EU avoiding ‘rash decisions’ on energy price rises
LUXEMBOURG, Luxembourg (AFP) – The impact of surging gas and electricity prices globally threatens the EU’s energy market, but the bloc will not react hastily, officials said on Tuesday. An emergency meeting of EU ministers in Luxembourg to discuss the issue largely backed 11 member countries in rejecting proposals from Spain and France for deep-rooted reforms to the market. The ministers recognised the price hikes “jeopardised the integrity of the European energy market,” the chair of […]





