We are in the midst of the zero-carbon energy transition but it will be a rocky road that, realistically, we could see coming. How much commitment has there really been and how quickly can the resolve dissolve. Witness some troubling quotes just from this week:
- As reported by Reuters, the CEO of state oil giant Saudi Aramco, Amin Nasser, at a conference in Houston, said: “We can all feel the winds of history in our industry’s sails again . . . It is time to stop reinforcing failure,” referring to green hydrogen as an example of a fuel that has been the focus of energy transition policies, but which is still too expensive for widespread commercial use. “In fact, there is more chance of Elvis speaking next than the current plan working,” he said.
- At the same conference, US Energy Secretary Chris Wright, said: “The Trump administration will end the Biden administration’s irrational, quasi-religious policies on climate change that imposed endless sacrifices on our citizens.” Furthermore, “The Trump administration will treat climate change for what it is, a global physical phenomenon that is a side-effect of building the modern world,” he added. “Everything in life involves trade-off.”
- From the same conference, the Washington Post quotes Chevron CEO Mike Worth: “We’re seeing some reality come back into the conversation . . . “We’ve got really well-qualified people in the Trump administration. … I think the conversation is going to reset to where it always should have been.”
- The Financial Times quotes Sultan al-Jaber, who served as President of COP28: “It [COP] needed a course correction because people were being unrealistic,” he says. “And plus there was no real progress happening. Everything was going in circles.” Instead, Jaber says, he wanted to use his relationships in the oil industry to make “the energy business part of the solution.”
- The New York Times quotes Lee Zeldin, the new head of the Environmental Protection Agency: In a two-minute-and-18-second video posted to X, Mr. Zeldin boasted about the changes and said his agency’s mission is to “lower the cost of buying a car, heating a home and running a business. . . . From the campaign trail to Day 1 and beyond, President Trump has delivered on his promise to unleash energy dominance and lower the cost of living,” Mr. Zeldin said. “We at E.P.A. will do our part to power the great American comeback.” Nowhere in the video did he refer to protecting the environment or public health, twin tenets that have guided the agency since its founding in 1970.
A separate Financial Times article (behind a paywall) reports that more than half of the world’s most populated cities are getting wetter (these include Colombo, Mumbai and Kuala Lumpur), according to an academic study involving Bristol and Cardiff universities, on behalf of the aid group WaterAid. At the same time, the article notes that 44 % of urban centres are getting drier. That includes Los Angeles, Riyadh, Paris and Cairo. [Note that the EiD team in Paris is still seldom seen without an umbrella.] Supposedly, every degree of warming of the atmosphere means it has the capacity to hold 7% more water.
Mark Carney has now become Canada’s 24th Prime Minister. One of the Climate Alliances he nurtured, The Net Zero Banking Alliance, has been going through a rough period, suffering the departure of all its major US members following Trump’s election win. A Financial Times newsletter (behind a paywall) reports that currently, NZBA members must pledge to reduce the carbon emissions attributable to their financing to align with a scenario of net zero global carbon emissions by 2050, and global warming this century no greater than 1.5C. But there are proposed changes. They would be expected to align with the Paris Agreement goals, but the requirement to align with a 1.5C scenario would be removed. Hmmmm.
In planning travel over the upcoming weeks, here are some useful ideas to help you along:
- Country Living Magazine provides 3 European train routes set to transform travel in 2025.
- Much Better Adventures provides us with 10 of the best winter walks in Europe.
- For those who want to combine hiking with food and wine in Europe and Australia, check out the Hedonistic Hiking website.
- Cycling for Softies provides us with the 15 Best Cycling Holidays in Europe 2025.
- Torino (Italy) is embracing a new era, transforming from an industrial powerhouse into a flourishing tourism destination: Torino Named European Capital of Smart Tourism 2025.
The quote this week comes from Albert Einstein (1879-1955), the German-born theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate, best known for developing the theory of relativity: “The world is in greater peril from those who tolerate or encourage evil than from those who actually commit it.”
EiD welcomes your views about this week’s selection of posts on the zero-carbon energy transition:
- New EEA briefing on risk of human exposure to harmful toxins coming from rising temperatures due to climate change
- Fears of ‘1.5-washing’
- Why would anyone question the UK government’s commitment to net zero?
- Blog by Jane Marsh – The Circular Economy of Energy: Why Recycling Metals Is a Climate Imperative
- Chart of the week from DWS
- New Report from the US Solar Energy Industries Association: Solar Adds More New Capacity to the Grid in 2024 Than Any Energy Technology in the Past Two Decades
- New report on nuclear power’s global stagnation and decline
- The world’s first full-scale carbon-neutral cement plant could be operating in Canada within three years
Please send your comments on any of the posts. Please recommend EiD to your friends and colleagues.
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Energy in Demand - Sustainable Energy - Rod Janssen 