Category: Europe

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Europe UNFCCC

 December 21, 1993 – European Union agrees to ratify UNFCCC

Thirty years ago, on this day, December 21, 1993, 

“the European Union agreed to ratify the FCCC without any commitment to an energy/carbon tax. The debate continues, with all governments increasingly interested in raising revenue from energy consumption in the home and on roads.”

Boehmer‐Christiansen (1995; 185) 

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 356.5ppm. As of 2023 it is 421ppm, but check here for daily measures. 

The context was that the UNFCCC climate treaty had had far fewer teeth than the Europeans wanted, thanks to the successful resistance of US President George Bush, his Chief of Staff John Sununu and others. There were no targets and timetables for emissions reductions but at least they’d seen the back of George Bush having been defeated in the 1992 presidential election by Bill Clinton of the Democratic party, for what that was worth (not much when it came to climate.)

What I think we can learn from this

This is just one of those moments of history. Thirty years. And what has been achieved since then? Half of fuck all – though the Europeans will tell you that massively reduced their emissions so maybe that’s something I don’t know-  if the cause of that has been the same as in in the UK – deindustrialisation and some uptake of different forms of energy besides coal – that’s a question I could look into.

What happened next

We have kept tipping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere like there’s no tomorrow…

What do you think? Does this pass the ‘so what?’ threshold? Have I got facts wrong? Interpretation wrong? Please do comment on this post, unless you are a denialist, obvs..

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Carbon Capture and Storage Europe

December 17, 2008 – European Parliament says yes to funding CCS

Fifteen years ago, on this day, December 17, 2008, the European Parliament accepted a deal that included CCS funding via ETS. (source – Lerum Boasson and Wetestad, 2014:409)

“On 17 December 2008 the European Parliament passed the directive governing phase III of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), which will make available until 31 December 2015 up to 300 million free allowances from the new entrants’ reserve for the construction and operation of up to 12 demonstration projects of carbon capture and storage (CCS) and innovative renewable energy projects” (Hansard).

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 386ppm. As of 2023 it is 420ppm, but check here for daily measures. 

The context was that Europe was looking to improve the climate performance of its energy sector. I think industrial emissions were not such a big concern and certainly weren’t being approached via CCS as they are now. There were people pushing for CCS who absolutely hated it

There is a wonderful quote from the Liberal Democrat Chris Davies who was an MEP at the time 

“xxx”

Meanwhile the British were pushing forward with their CCS competition and down under Kevin Rudd had spaffed 100 million of Australian taxpayer money against the wall to create the Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute so things were looking up for this technology.

What I think we can learn from this

The European Union had convinced itself to go along with yet another American scheme. They’d gone along with emissions trading and now were doing the same for CCS. Has either been effective? No. So have the Americans been able to force the agenda onto people who not only ought to know better but do know better? Yes.

What happened next

Then it fell apart, like it always does.

What do you think? Does this pass the ‘so what?’ threshold? Have I got facts wrong? Interpretation wrong? Please do comment on this post, unless you are a denialist, obvs..

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Europe

August 9, 2013 – BP writes the rules (de facto)

Ten years ago, on this day, August 9, 2013, BP explains to the EU Commission how it is going to be…

The EU abandoned or weakened key proposals for new environmental protections after receiving a letter from a top BP executive which warned of an exodus of the oil industry from Europe if the proposals went ahead.

“The missive to the EU’s energy commissioner, Günther Oettinger, was dated 9 August 2013, partly hand-written, and signed by a senior BP representative whose name has been redacted.” http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/apr/20/eu-dropped-climate-policies-after-bp-threat-oil-industry-exodus

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 392ppm. As of 2023 it is 423ppm , but check here for daily measures. 

The context was

BP executives were literally writing EU energy policy. The context was that by this time the EU’s CCS ambitions were in tatters but it still needed to talk a good game. The oil companies were not interested in anything ambitious, why would they be? And so you see this kind of naked power play.

What I think we can learn from this sometimes the mask slips/is wrenched off –  it’s on occasions like this. 

What happened next

Oh, you know, the 2015 Paris COP – everyone held hands, sang Kumbaya, announced Net Zero, 1.5 degrees all the rest of it. 

What do you think? Does this pass the ‘so what?’ threshold? Have I got facts wrong? Interpretation wrong? Please do comment on this post, unless you are a denialist, obvs.

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Carbon Capture and Storage Europe

Carbon Capture? Far from ready… June 17, 2008

Fifteen years ago, on this day, June 17, 2008, CCS turns out not to be good to go…

Ling, K. 2008. CLIMATE: Carbon storage technology is far from ready, utility execs warn. E&E News, 17 June.

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 388ppm. As of 2023 it is 423ppm, but check here for daily measures. 

The context was

Everyone, especially the Europeans, was running around talking about the wonders of CCS, we were in a hype cycle. And some of the people intimately involved, know the dangers. And what will happen if there is an over promising and under-delivering. 

What I think we can learn from this

And so the more sane members of a community will try and tamp down exuberance and excessive expectations. And that’s what appears to be happening in this case. 

What happened next

CCS got European Union support. But none of the projects got constructed. And here we are in 2023. And it’s still not clear that much CCS is going to happen – watch this space!

What do you think? Does this pass the ‘so what?’ threshold? Have I got facts wrong? Interpretation wrong? Please do comment on this post, unless you are a denialist, obvs.

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Carbon Pricing Europe

September 25, 1991-  European Commission proposes a carbon tax…

On this day, 25th September 1991 a carbon tax in Europe was proposed

“The other factor concerned the difficulties the [European] Commission has had in putting into practice the fourth arm of the strategy, the carbon/energy tax. The details of this tax were announced on 25 September 1991. It would be levied on the basis of 50 per cent on the carbon content of energy, and 50 per cent simply on the energy ,and would be set at US $3 per barrel of oil equivalent, rising to US $10 per barrel by 2000. However, by the time the details were announced, it had already become hampered, not least by highly intensive lobbying by European industry (according to the Economist, [19 May 1992: 91] the heaviest lobbying of the EC it has ever engaged in.”

Paterson 1996, p.88

On this day the PPM was

Now it is 420ish – but see here for the latest.

Why this matters. 

The basic things that needed to happen (or some of them) have been known for a very long time.  We couldn’t even get the basics right (thanks in large part to fierce and successful resistance by fossil-ised interests)

What happened next?

The tax got squashed by the diligent and determined efforts of vested interests

Categories
Carbon Capture and Storage Energy Europe Industry Associations Technophilia

Jan 19 (2015) -Four utilities pull out of an EU CCS programme…

On this day, Jan 19, in 2015 “four of Europe’s biggest power utilities, represented in Brussels by Eurelectric, have decided to leave the European Commission’s CCS Technology Platform ZEP.“

The four were Germany’s RWE AG, France’s Electricite de France, Sweden’s Vattenfall AB and Spain’s Gas Natural Fenosa.

The ZEP had been set up in the mid-2000s as “a coalition of companies, scientists and environmental groups seeking ways to capture and bury heat-trapping carbon emissions mainly from the exhausts of coal, oil and gas-fired power plants.”

[On the EU’s “Zero Emissions Power Plant Programme”. See also 2011 article in Nature about Europe and CCS.]

Why? Well, money at stake. As a Bellona press release titled “Utilities feign interest in CCS to get public bail out” said

“Of the move, Bellona Europa Director Jonas Helseth said: – In their poorly concealed attempts to attain capacity payments, Europe’s utilities have misused the trust of the European Commission and Europe’s CCS community. It’s shameless how Eurelectric proudly announces the formation of a new CCS taskforce and ‘calls on policymakers to push ahead’, while simultaneously pulling out of Europe’s largest and widest coalition working on CCS.”

What happened next

Is there any CCS? 

Why this matters.

We keep assuming we can deploy these technologies at massive scale, rapidly, despite all evidence to the contrary. It’s one of the ways we avoid looking at how much some of us are emitting.  There is trouble ahead.