Reuters (December 23)
In 2024, “the global trade war will shift from fossil fuels to metals and raw materials. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine highlighted the risk of relying on autocratic states for energy. Even if Europe’s gas crisis eases, Western manufacturers’ focus will switch to reducing China’s dominance in materials key to a cleaner economy.”
Tags: 2024, Autocratic, China, Cleaner, Dominance, Energy, Europe, Fossil fuels, Gas crisis, Global, Invasion, Materials, Metals, Raw materials, Relying, Risk, Russia, Shift, Trade war, Ukraine
Oilprice.com (October 24)
OPEC recently forecast “that demand for oil is going to continue rising at least until 2045.” In contrast, the just released Energy Outlook from the International Energy Agency forecasts that “demand for oil, natural gas, and coal is set to peak before 2030, which undermines the case for increasing investment in fossil fuels…. While the agency does admit that investment in fossil fuels will remain necessary, it claims the growth era is over.”
Tags: 2030, 2045, Coal, Demand, Energy Outlook, Forecast, Fossil fuels, Growth era, IEC, Investment, Natural gas, Oil, OPEC, Over, Peak
New York Times (September 18)
“Children born today will very likely live to see the end of global population growth.” Estimates range from the 2060s to 2080s, but “all of the predictions agree on one thing: We peak soon. And then we shrink. Humanity will not reach a plateau and then stabilize. It will begin an unprecedented decline.” It’s not too soon “to start talking about what this means. “Waiting until the population peaks to ask how to respond to depopulation would be as imprudent as waiting until the world starts to run out of fossil fuels to begin responding to climate change.”
Tags: 2060s, 2080s, Children, Depopulation, Fossil fuels, Global, Humanity, Peak, Population growth, Response, Shrink, Unprecedented decline
New York Times (August 13)
“Across the country, a profound shift is taking place that is nearly invisible to most Americans. The nation that burned coal, oil and gas for more than a century to become the richest economy on the planet, as well as historically the most polluting, is rapidly shifting away from fossil fuels.” The energy transition is further along in other places like Europe, but “the United States is catching up, and globally, change is happening at a pace that is surprising even the experts who track it closely.”
Tags: Coal, Economy, Energy transition, Europe, Fossil fuels, Gas, Invisible, Oil, Pace, Planet, Polluting, Profound shift, Richest, Surprising, U.S.
Houston Chronicle (July 15)
“The $3.5 trillion budget proposed by top Democrats represents the biggest move yet by President Joe Biden to attack climate change, including provisions such as clean energy standards for power grids, fees on methane emissions from oil and gas drilling, and increased incentives for electric cars.” If enacted, the legislation, “would set in motion a historic shift from fossil fuels and deliver a blow to the oil and gas producing regions across Texas, which have powered the nation’s economy for a century.”
Tags: $3.5 trillion, Biden, Clean energy, Climate change, Democrats, Drilling, Emissions, EVs, Fees, Fossil fuels, Gas, Historic, Methane, Oil, Power grids, Shift, Texas
The Guardian (May 18)
“The enormous plastic waste footprint of the top 20 global companies amounts to more than half of the 130m metric tonnes of single-use plastic thrown away in 2019. Single-use plastics are made almost exclusively from fossil fuels, driving the climate crisis, and because they are some of the hardest items to recycle, they end up creating global waste mountains. Just 10%-15% of single-use plastic is recycled globally each year.”
Tags: Climate crisis, Enormous, Fossil fuels, Plastic, Recycle, Single-use plastic, Top 20, Waste footprint
Reuters (October 18)
“The prospect of Aramco selling a piece of itself has had Wall Street on tenterhooks since Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman first flagged it three years ago.” But it looks like the IPO will again be delayed, possibly until next year, to “bolster investor confidence” by reassuring them of the company’s recovery from recent attacks. The sought-after $2 trillion valuation remains in question as “countries have been accelerating efforts to shift away from fossil fuels to curb global warming.”
Tags: Aramco, Confidence, Fossil fuels, Investors, IPO, MBS, Recovery, Valuation, Wall Street
The Economist (July 6)
A profound “energy transition is under way: from fossil fuels to clean energy. Of all the oil majors, Shell’s attempts to navigate it…are the most intriguing.” With a $52 billion acquisition of BG Group, Shell became “the biggest listed gas producer” while its oil reserves have dropped “lower than those of its Western peers…. Shell is bolder than its rivals in forecasting huge global demand for clean power over the next 30 years. And it is the only firm to link its executive’s pay to progress in reducing emissions across its operations.”
Tags: BG Group, Clean energy, Clean power, Energy, Executive pay, Fossil fuels, Gas, Oil majors, Reserves, Shell, Transition
LA Times (December 19)
While the Trump administration is busy removing references to issues it would rather not acknowledge and covering them up with doublespeak, “the reality is that…the burning of fossil fuels by humans, spewing carbon and other greenhouse gases into the air… has increased the temperature of the Earth’s atmosphere and oceans. And unless we take quick and radical steps… the world as we know it will change, with species die-offs, coastline changes, more intense major storms and altered drought and rain patterns. And it will happen whether Trump uses the words ‘climate change’ or not.”
Tags: Carbon, Climate change, Die-offs, Doublespeak, Drought, Fossil fuels, Greenhouse gases, Reality, Storms, Trump
Salon (November 26)
“A wholesale collapse of Pine Island and Thwaites would set off a catastrophe. Giant icebergs would stream away from Antarctica like a parade of frozen soldiers. All over the world, high tides would creep higher, slowly burying every shoreline on the planet, flooding coastal cities and creating hundreds of millions of climate refugees. But “what we do now will determine how quickly” this ensues. “A fast transition away from fossil fuels in the next few decades could be enough to put off rapid sea-level rise for centuries. That’s a decision worth countless trillions of dollars and millions of lives.”
Tags: Antarctica, Catastrophe, Climate refugees, Collapse, Flooding, Fossil fuels, Icebergs, Pine Island, Shoreline, Thwaites, Tides
