The New, Safer Nuclear Reactors That Might Help Stop Climate Change

BP might not be the first source you go to for environmental news, but its annual energy review is highly regarded by climate watchers. And its 2018 message was stark: Despite the angst over global warming, coal was responsible for 38 percent of the world’s power in 2017 — precisely the same level as when the first global climate treaty was signed 20 years ago. Worse still, greenhouse-gas emissions rose by 2.7 percent last year, the largest increase in seven years.

A photograph taken in 2016 shows the central
confinement vessel of a prototype fusion reactor
 built by Tri Alpha Energy (now TAE Technologies). 

Such stagnation has led many policymakers and environmental groups to conclude that we need more nuclear energy. Even United Nations researchers, not enthusiastic in the past, now say every plan to keep the planet’s temperature rise under 1.5 °C will rely on a substantial jump in nuclear energy.

But we’re headed in the other direction. Germany is scheduled to shut down all its nuclear plants by 2022; Italy voted by referendum to block any future projects back in 2011. And even if nuclear had broad public support (which it doesn’t), it’s expensive: Several nuclear plants in the US closed recently because they can’t compete with cheap shale gas.

Read the story from MIT Technology Review by Leigh Phillips - “The New, Safer Nuclear Reactors That Might Help Stop Climate Change.”

BP moves into electric vehicles market with Chargemaster acquisition

BP has announced its purchase of the UK’s largest electric vehicle charging company.

BP has bought Chargemaster.

The oil giant has entering into the agreement with Chargemaster, which operates over 6,500 charging points across the UK. The company will now be rebranded to BP Chargemaster and become a wholly owned BP brand.

The news is expected to scale-up the availability of electric charging points with BP planning to invest in ultra-fast charging infrastructure across the existing network and its own 1,200 service stations. This will include the 150 kilowatt chargers which can enable 100 miles of range in only 10 minutes of charging.

Read the Climate Action story - “BP moves into electric vehicles market with Chargemaster acquisition.”

This could be the next big strategy for suing over climate change

Two California coastal counties and one beach-side city touched off a possible new legal front in the climate change battle this week, suing dozens of major oil, coal, and other fossil fuel companies for the damages they say they will incur due to rising seas.

A Delta plane lands as a U.S. Airways plane
 waits to take off at San Francisco airport. 

The three cases, which target firms such as Chevron, ExxonMobil, BP and Royal Dutch Shell, assert that the fossil fuel producers are collectively responsible for about 20 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions between 1965 and 2015. They claim that industry “knew or should have known” decades ago about the threat of climate change, and want companies to pay the costs of communities forced to adapt to rising seas.

“We’re already living the impact of sea level rise,” said Marin County Supervisor Kate Sears. She said a county vulnerability study found hundreds of county businesses and other assets could be at risk in coming years.

Read The Washington Post story - “This could be the next big strategy for suing over climate change.”

BP ditches plans to drill for oil in the Great Australian Bight

BP said the decision not to go ahead with
its plans to drill for oil in the Great
Australian Bight was purely commercial.

BP has decided not to go ahead with its controversial plans to drill for oil in the commonwealth marine reserve in the Great Australian Bight.

It had boasted that the Great Australian Bight had the potential to be as big an oil field as the Gulf of Mexico, where there are now more than 4,000 oil rigs.

Karoon, which just announced its plans to explore for oil last week, said the bight held “the world’s last underexplored Cretaceous basins”.

The move comes despite the company already investing millions in the venture, with a state-of-the-art oil rig being prepared in Singapore.

It is unclear where that leaves other companies with exploration licences in the region, including Chevron, Santos and Karoon.

Read The Guardian story - “BP ditches plans to drill for oil in the Great Australian Bight.”

Oil, coal, cement and mining sued as greenhouse gas emissions violate human rights

Typhoon Haiyan, known locally as Yolanda,
struck in 2013 and was one of the 
most powerful storms ever recorded.

The world’s largest oil, coal, cement and mining companies have been given 45 days to respond to a complaint that their greenhouse gas emissions have violated the human rights of millions of people living in the Philippines.

In a potential landmark legal case, the Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines (CHR), a constitutional body with the power to investigate human rights violations, has sent 47 “carbon majors” including Shell, BP, Chevron, BHP Billiton and Anglo American, a 60-page document accusing them of breaching people’s fundamental rights to “life, food, water, sanitation, adequate housing, and to self-determination”.

The move is the first step in what is expected to be an official investigation of the companies by the CHR, and the first of its kind in the world to be launched by a government body.

Read John Vidal’s story inThe Guardian - “World's largest carbon producers face landmark human rights case.”

CEOs just want climate certainity for Christmas

A

ll business wants for Christmas is a global carbon price, a long term climate goal and regular UN reviews to ensure all countries are pulling their weight.

That’s the assessment of Peter Bakker, formerly CEO of TNT Netherlands, now running the Geneva-based World Business Council for Sustainable Development.

The 200-strong body represents some of the world’s top banking, energy and manufacturing businesses, counting Kellogg’s, L’Oreal, Infosys, Chevron, BP and Shell as members.

It’s a loose coalition, but one that carries clout, given the trillions of dollars members have to invest.

Bakker told Climate Home he is relatively “neutral” over current plans for a global climate deal, set to be signed off 12 days before Santa starts dropping off presents.

Read the Climate Home story - “CEOs to the rescue: Can business save the world from climate change?”

Skepticism about carbon dioxide push from oil and gas companies

S

ix large European oil and gas companies are asking governments across the world to charge them for the carbon dioxide they emit.

In a letter released Monday, Shell, BP, Total, Statoil, Eni, and the BG Group told the chief of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change that a price on carbon “should be a key element” of an international agreement to address global climate change. The letter came while U.N. negotiators met in Bonn, Germany to work towards that agreement.

For those who want to fight climate change, this is good news. But it’s not totally unprecedented. Other high-emitting companies, including Shell, have expressed support for a carbon price before. And big oil companies have been expecting some sort of carbon price for a long time — the biggest ones have already incorporated it into their business plans. Exxon Mobil, ConocoPhillips, Chevron, BP, Shell; they’re all financially prepared for a carbon price if and when it comes their way.

Read the ClimateProgress story - “Why You Should Be Skeptical Of Big Oil Companies Asking For A Price OnCarbon”.

Energy giant in climate outlook bind

B

P’s annual Energy Outlook report, released in February, details the results from modelling of what it sees as the “most likely” energy scenario out to 2035.

In this scenario global fossil use increases by 33%, consistent with a scenario the International Energy Agency (IEA) uses to describe the trajectory towards global warming of 6C – far beyond the accepted “safe” limit of 2C.

In its public presentation of the report, and elsewhere, BP admits that climate change is a problem, and that current carbon emission projections seem unsustainable, so what’s going on?

Yes, what is going on?

Read about it here on The Conversation - “BP’s extreme climate forecast puts energy giant in a bind”.