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Publish date: October 13, 2009
Written by: Veronica Webster
News
The plants would have been built by DONG energy in Ayrshire in Scotland, Emdem in Germany and Kingsnorth in England.
DONG CEO Anders Eldrup says the company plans to reduce their CO2 emissions per kilowatt hour of electricity produced by 85 percent in time for 2040. The overarching aim is to base over 85 percent of DONG’s total energy production on CO2-free, renewable energy by this deadline.
In addition, DONG has scaled up investment in offshore wind farms following the construction of one near the coast of Jutland, in the North Sea. The company is looking to build another wind farm near the English coastline.
Despite this promising show of commitment to green energy, however, DONG continues to stand by the controversial planning of an unabated coal plant in Greifswald, Germany.
Anders Elrdrup highlights the lack of regulatory certainty perceived by industry – especially after 2012 when the Kyoto framework ceases to be effective – as a potential impediment to the rapid deployment of green energy.
“We run the risk that industry will withhold large scale investments in green technology until a clear signal is received from EU and national policymakers. If we are to carry out the so-called ‘green revolution’ we need to invest in green technology in a rapid and decisive manner. Uncertainty about the rules of the game after 2012 has the opposite effect,” he said to the internet news site Information.dk.
“A CO2 emission performance standard would give utilities that type of long-term certainty that the only coal- and gas-fired power plants that will still be around in a couple of decades from now will have to capture and store their CO2,” says Eivind Hoff of Bellona Europa.
Recent attacks on Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant "mark the beginning of a new and gravely dangerous front of the war," the UN atomic agency's director general said last week.
After years of inaction, Germany is working on its Carbon Management Strategy to resolve how CCS can play a role in climate action in industry. At the end of February, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action published first key points and a proposal to amend the law Kohlenstoffdioxid Speicherungsgesetz (KSpG). Bellona Deutschland, who was actively involved in the previous stakeholder dialogue submitted a statement in the association hearing.
In the midst of a global discussion on whether natural gas should be used as a transitional fuel and whether emissions from its extraction, production, transport and use are significantly less than those from other fossil fuels, Russia has developed ambitious plans to increase its own production of liquified natural gas (LNG) in the Arctic – a region with 75% of proven gas reserves in Russia – to raise its share in the international gas trade.
In this news digest, we monitor events that impact the environment in the Russian Arctic. Our main focus lies in identifying the factors that contribute to pollution risks and climate change.