Energy in Demand News, June 1-2, 2025

Austria and Slovenia are the only European countries whose defence ministries have committed to reaching net zero military emissions, according to an analysis of 30 European countries (EU 27 plus Norway, Switzerland and UK). An article in the Guardian on the analysis added that only about one-third have worked out the size of their carbon … Continue reading Energy in Demand News, June 1-2, 2025 →

Impact of cuts to US National Science Foundation by Trump administration

Established in 1950 the National Science Foundation (NSF )is an independent federal agency that supports science and engineering in all 50 states and U.S. territories. It has had a great impact. Touch-screen technology, speech recognition, digital sound recording and the internet were all developed using NSF funding. In an article on The Conversation website, Paul … Continue reading Impact of cuts to US National Science Foundation by Trump administration →

What roles do our pensions, investments and banking decisions play in supporting fossil fuel projects?

In an article on the Deutsche Welle website, Holly Young tries to answer that question and to look for green finance alternatives. What role does your money play in the climate crisis? Personal finance is a climate blind spot for many — lagging behind decisions on things like diet, travel or shopping when it … Continue reading What roles do our pensions, investments and banking decisions play in supporting fossil fuel projects? →

Social Climate Fund could subsidise up to 20 million heat pumps across Europe, new study finds

A new study finds that investing just one-third of the Social Climate Fund, the EU could subsidise up to 20 million heat pumps across the EU by 2032. This would be enough to reach all energy-poor households in nine EU countries and slash EU gas demand by 11% — nearly as much as the EU imported from Russia in 2024. The EU Social … Continue reading Social Climate Fund could subsidise up to 20 million heat pumps across Europe, new study finds →

Energy in Demand News, February 9, 2025

The EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) aims to reduce carbon emissions, put a fair price on the carbon emitted during the production of carbon intensive goods imported into the EU, and encourage cleaner industrial production through a methodology for calculating embedded emissions according to the Paris Agreement and the EU Fit for 55 package. … Continue reading Energy in Demand News, February 9, 2025 →

Update on Scotland’s green ambitions

The Energy Saving Trust has recently published its report on progress in Scotland entitled “Supporting Scotland’s Green Ambitions: December 2024 report.” The Energy Saving Trust receives many enquiries about how the programmes it delivers on behalf of the Scottish Government work and what changes they deliver on the ground. These are from both organisations seeking … Continue reading Update on Scotland’s green ambitions →

Energy in Demand News, December 15, 2024

BP and Shell are scaling back electricity ambitions to escape the ‘valley of death,’ according to the Financial Times website (behind a paywall). Over the past five years, the two companies had spent a combined US$18 billion to be major players in electricity. But now Shell has sold its retail electricity business in Germany, the … Continue reading Energy in Demand News, December 15, 2024 →

Energy in Demand News, November 24, 2024

The talks at COP29 ran 33 hours late, and came close to collapse. In the end richer countries pledged a record $300bn to help the developing world fight climate change, but the deal is facing recrimination that it comes nowhere near addressing poorer countries' challenges from global warming. The New York Times (behind a paywall) … Continue reading Energy in Demand News, November 24, 2024 →

“The EIB has integrated the energy efficiency first principle into its Energy Lending Policy”

In 2023, the European Investment Bank provided more than €21.3 billion for energy-related projects, of which €8.3 billion was for energy efficiency, jumping from €2.1 billion in 2014 – but the energy-efficiency gap remains challenging. Christoph Schwaiger writes on the Euractiv website how the EIB is taking lending in energy efficiency seriously. EIB sees … Continue reading “The EIB has integrated the energy efficiency first principle into its Energy Lending Policy” →

Energy in Demand News, November 17, 2024

It has been quite a first week at COP29. Azerbaijani president, Ilham Aliyev, defended Azerbaijan’s current exports of gas and plans to expand production told world leaders gathered in his country for COP29 that natural gas was a “gift from God” and he shouldn’t be blamed for bringing it to market. Kicking off the leaders’ … Continue reading Energy in Demand News, November 17, 2024 →