The energy transition could proceed more quickly than large US oil producers were hoping, with growing pressure to decommission assets sooner than they expected, a Financial Times newsletter (behind a paywall) reported this week. “In any scenario, they’ll eventually need to pay big clean-up costs around the retirement of each individual fossil fuel site. In their annual reports, European oil companies provide extensive detail about the assumptions they make to assess these long-term liabilities, which make a meaningful impact on their balance sheets. US energy giants, in contrast, have kept these details largely behind closed doors. And according to one group of international investors, it’s time for the regulators to step in and force greater transparency around these risks.” This group of UK, European and US investors, who control an aggregate $3.75tn in managed assets, wrote to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) this week alleging that big US oil and gas companies are breaking the rules by not properly disclosing the calculations behind the environmental liabilities they report. “All the companies studied, on both sides of the Atlantic, provide an estimated net present value of the liabilities that they will face around the clean-up of their fossil fuel operations. But that present-day figure gives only a partial picture of the financial risk that the companies face.” Interestingly, the investor letter “warned that the six most valuable listed European oil companies, including BP and TotalEnergies, have given far more detail on this front than seven of their biggest counterparts in the US, which include ExxonMobil and Chevron.” Natasha Landell-Mills, head of stewardship at Sarasin & Partners, is quoted: “It’s a bit surreal. If you read the regulation, it’s very clear that there is a requirement for companies to disclose their critical forward-looking accounting assumptions, including the actual numbers used.” The newsletter ends: “Every investor will have their own expectations about the pace of the world’s transition away from fossil fuels. It makes sense that those who invest in energy companies should want some sense of how far those businesses’ assumptions align with their own.” So, what game are the oil companies playing?
This week, the IEA published its World Energy Outlook 2024. It is disappointing that progress on the COP28 commitment to double the rate of energy efficiency improvements by 2030 “looks far out of reach under today’s policy settings.” Disturbingly, “despite record clean energy deployment, two-thirds of the increase in global energy demand in 2023 was met by fossil fuels.” Let’s hope there is a wake-up call at COP29 – but it isn’t obvious.
In the context of COP29 in Azerbaijan in November, there is a global call to the UNFCCC to include cultural heritage, the arts and creative sectors in climate policy. Take a little more than six minutes to watch this. Meet this 10-year old indigenous kid drummer singing for climate action with his grandmother. Now what are you doing?
The IEA Technology Collaboration Programme on Energy in Buildings and Communities (IEA EBC TCP) and Annex 88 “Evaluation and Demonstration of Actual Energy Efficiency of Heat Pump Systems in Buildings” has a webinar series starting soon on “How can we estimate actual energy performance of heat pump systems in buildings for better design?” It is in two parts and you can register here.
In planning travel over the upcoming weeks, here is some useful ideas to help you along:
Lonely Planet’s train expert provides his top 5 rail journeys in Europe for 2024.
- The new European Sleeper train will travel between Brussels and Venice, passing through nine different cities. Bookings are now open. Here’s a breakdown of costs and other travel tips.
- For the best hikes in Europe in 2024, there are many good suggestions on the 57 hours website.
- For those who want to combine hiking with food and wine, check out the Hedonistic Hiking website.
- Climbing House provides the 11 Top Climbing Spots in Europe.
- Epic Road Rides provides their choice of the best places to cycle in September and October.
- The Guardian provides 15 tips for the reluctant camper to love life beneath the stars.
Jimmy Buffett (1946 2023), an American singer-songwriter, known for his tropical rock sound and persona, which often portrayed a lifestyle described as “island escapism” and promoted enjoying life and following passions [you should enjoy this], gives us his view of life: “Searching is half the fun: life is much more manageable when thought of as a scavenger hunt as opposed to a surprise party.”
EiD welcomes your views about this week’s selection of posts on the zero-carbon energy transition:
- New EEA report on Europe’s transport sector’s transition towards sustainability
- IPCC authors were asked to share their best guesses about where the world is headed
- “One limit after the other will be broken unless we manage to strand the necessary fossil assets and curtail opportunities for continuing to profit from oil and gas and coal”
- AI will greatly improve energy efficiency
- Clean energy technologies save households serious money, but the barrier to entry increased in 2024
- New EEA assessment on Europe’s water resilience
- The sudden collapse of carbon sinks was not factored into climate models – and could rapidly accelerate global heating
- Pace of decarbonisation of world GDP Is still far too slow
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Energy in Demand - Sustainable Energy - Rod Janssen 