11 November 2022

Norway's Cloudberry to invest billions of SEK in Swedish wind power

Norway's Cloudberry plans to invest billions of SEK in electricity production in southern Sweden. The company recently announced that it will apply for a permit to build a large wind farm worth approximately SEK 10 billion near the nuclear power plant in Oskarshamn. Some of the advantages of the location are the shallow water, access to the harbour and a strong connection point to the main grid nearby. The wind farm aims to be able to produce 3 TWh per year and to be ready around 2030. The company also plans to build the Stenkalles wind farm in Vänern, with 18 wind turbines and a total capacity of 100 MWh.

Dagensps

Danish companies amongst the best at setting ambitious climate targets

According to a report conducted by the Danish Global Compact Network in cooperation with Axcelfuture and the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Danish companies are leading the way in setting climate targets through the International Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). By 2030, the most traded listed companies in Denmark alone will have reduced the annual emissions in their global value chains by four times as much as Denmark in total. With 112 companies affiliated to SBTi, Denmark has the second highest proportion of SBTi affiliates in the OECD in terms of total number of companies, after Switzerland.

Danskindustri

COP27

US coal phaseout plan meets divided response at COP27

A US Energy Transition Accelerator (ETA) proposal to create a system that would help to finance the phaseout of coal power by raising funds from the sale of carbon credits to polluting companies triggered a deeply divided response at its COP27 launch. The idea for new types of carbon credits linked to the replacement of coal power with renewable energy in developing countries was unveiled by US climate envoy John Kerry at the UN summit in Egypt at a packed event. The project was described as potentially “catalytic” by Kerry, who said the system could be “up and running by no later than [next year’s] COP28”. But Rachel Kyte, co-chair of the Voluntary Carbon Markets Integrity Initiative sais “the proposal was a “massive distraction, … There has been an extraordinary effort to build the rules [of the carbon credit market]. You can’t short-cut that,” she added. The ETA was “not baked yet”. A senior European official also said there were “massive concerns in some circles” about the idea. (Financial Times)

No Republicans in Sharm el-Sheik

Nancy Pelosi, who was in Sharm el-Sheikh, said that Biden had asked for the release of more climate funds. “We have a responsibility, we made a commitment.”  But, she said, “it is a challenge, and we haven’t succeeded yet, to get the global funding that we need to be good neighbours on this planet”. She brought two planes of US lawmakers with her and not one Republican came. “We have to get over that. I place my confidence in their children to teach them,” she said (Climate Home News).

But loads of lobbyists

636 oil and gas lobbyists have been registered to attend Cop27, analysis of the provisional list of attendees by NGOs shows. That’s 100 more than attended at Cop26 last year. If they were to form a delegation, it would be larger than any African one. COP28 host UAE brought 70 delegates with fossil fuel interests – more than any other country (Climate Home News).

World Bank tells rich countries, give us more cash for climate

Reuters reports that the Bank is ready to provide financial support for action on climate change in the world's poorest countries, but will need new funding from rich donor countries to do so. As the world's largest multilateral lender, the Bank could make a "decisive contribution" to further scaling up climate finance, but this would depend on additional support from member countries, including the US, UK and Germany. The World Bank Group has provided $31.7 billion in climate finance to countries in fiscal year 2022, the highest total to date. Nevertheless, the bank's record on climate change is facing increasing scrutiny, including a lack of timelines for phasing out fossil fuel financing and a failure to leverage enough private capital for every dollar of development. In an interview with Reuters, US Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Alexia Latortue said the US was working closely with the World Bank to develop and implement reforms aimed at improving the bank's lending capacity by the end of the year.

Reuters

Brussels must do more to tackle EU energy crisis, says Czech minister

Brussels is moving too slowly to prevent a worsening of the EU energy crisis next year as it tries to break a deadlock over a gas price cap designed to ease pressure on industry and consumers, Czech Energy Minister Jozef Síkela has warned. He praised action to build new energy infrastructure in the wake of Russian cuts to European gas supplies, but said the EU must "move on" or risk economic losses that would undermine public support for Ukraine. Efforts to resolve the energy crisis have stalled. EU governments are in dispute with the European Commission over the introduction of a gas price cap, which could prevent prices from returning to record highs in the summer. The European ambassadors will discuss the latest set of proposals before a meeting of energy ministers on 24 November and have a further meeting on 19 December. However, Síkela said he was willing to call as many additional ministerial meetings as needed to end the deadlock and move the legislation forward. At the same time Síkela warned that the situation will get worse next winter and that gas supplies could fall to near zero, so we need to act immediately to deal with the crisis.

FT

What we're reading

• Time to be brave: Investors ponder massive fossil free investments in steel and hydrogen (RenewEconomy)
• Joe Biden’s energy agenda survives the midterm vote (Financial Times)
• EU struggles to save face at COP27 (Financial Times)
• US beats EU as magnet for green investment, says Iberdrola (Financial Times)
• Brussels must do more to tackle EU energy crisis, says Czech minister (Financial Times)

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