With economic instability, the Ukraine war, and increased fossil fuel prices there is a disturbing trend toward nations deepening their fossil fuel dependence. For instance:
- Chinese premier calls for more coal production as electricity demand soars: Records for electricity usage broken in Shandong, Henan and Jiangsu after early summer heatwaves
- UK close to deal with EDF to keep coal-fired power station open
- Germany turns to coal as Russia cuts gas supplies
- Climate change: Green energy ‘stagnates’ as fossil fuels dominate
- Ontario energy grid emissions set to skyrocket 400% as Ford government cranks up the gas
This all brings up a familiar fear: at a time when humanity can only avoid disaster through cooperation, there is a serious risk that increasingly strained circumstances will instead drive a selfish and ultimately hopeless logic of individual self-protection among states. Thus, the hope that a more acute experience of the impacts of climate change will drive a rejection of climate denial and public demand for strong mitigation policy may not be well justified. With all the structural barriers to climate action, our worsening global situation could become inescapably self-reinforcing.
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A new report released on Wednesday by the nonprofit Sightline Institute shows that a combination of grassroots activism, regulatory hurdles, and oscillating energy prices has blocked 73 percent of the 55 fossil fuel export projects proposed on the coasts of Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia over the past 10 years. Since 2012, only six projects have been completed — three coal export terminal expansions and three propane export terminals — while 40 were scrapped. The rest are moving forward but have not yet been finished.
https://grist.org/beacon/a-decade-of-wins-against-fossil-fuel-projects/
A DECADE OF SUCCESSES AGAINST FOSSIL FUEL EXPORT PROJECTS IN CASCADIA
The region counts 40 canceled oil, gas, and coal export projects since 2012.
https://www.sightline.org/research_item/a-decade-of-successes-against-fossil-fuel-export-projects-in-cascadia/
‘Gold rush’ for gas production threatens to lock in global heating | Climate crisis | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jun/08/gold-rush-for-gas-production-threatens-to-lock-in-global-heating
China’s coal plant approvals up despite climate goals: Greenpeace | Environment | Al Jazeera
https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2022/7/20/chinas-coal-plant-approvals-up-despite-climate-goals-greenpeace
Mr Biden, who came to power promising a green revolution, plans to suspend petrol taxes and visit Saudi Arabia to ask it to pump more oil. Europe has emergency windfall levies, subsidies, price caps and more. In Germany, as air-conditioners whine, coal-fired power plants are being taken out of mothballs. Chinese and Indian state-run mining firms that the climate-conscious hoped were on a fast track to extinction are digging up record amounts of coal.
This improvised chaos is understandable but potentially disastrous, because it could stall the clean-energy transition. Public handouts and tax-breaks for fossil fuels will be hard to withdraw. Dirty new power plants and oil- and gasfields with 30- to 40-year lifespans would give their owners more reason to resist fossil-fuel phase-outs. That is why, even as they firefight, governments must focus on tackling the fundamental problems confronting the energy industry.
https://www.economist.com/leaders/2022/06/23/how-to-fix-the-worlds-energy-emergency-without-wrecking-the-environment