Bill Gates' Investment Group Launches European Clean Energy Fund

A new $111 million clean energy innovation fund has been launched with the goal of getting capital intensive startups off the ground.

Bill Gates, billionaire and co-chair of the
 Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation,
 during a panel session at the World
Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. 

The initiative is the work of Breakthrough Energy Ventures, the $1 billion fund launched by Bill Gates in late 2016. It has pulled together a coalition of corporate and private investors including SAP, GE, Jeff Bezos, Vinod Khosla and Jack Ma.

Breakthrough Energy Ventures Europe (BEV-E) has been launched in partnership with the European Commission. The European Investment Bank (EIB) and BEV are providing half the capital each. It is described by BEV as a “pilot” offering the potential for a scaling up of the cooperation beyond the initial funds.

Read the Forbes story by John Parnell - “Bill Gates' Investment Group Launches European Clean Energy Fund.”

Minister's blast: Power company 'record profits' must stop

The federal government has launched a strident attack on the nation's largest power companies accusing them of making runaway profits as it prepares to introduce new laws that would allow it to break up energy businesses and set prices.

Bloomberg has forecast energy company profits to
 jump more than a quarter over the next two years.

Federal Energy Minister Angus Taylor on Sunday used a combination of company statements and analyst forecasts to claim the three largest power companies - AGL, Origin and EnergyAustralia - would see their collective profits almost double in the five years from 2015 to 2020.

Read the story from The Age by Cole Latimer - “Minister's blast: Power company 'record profits' must stop.”

UN Climate Change Launches First-Ever Annual Report

UN Climate Change News, 30 April 2018 – UN Climate Change today launched its first-ever Annual Report, laying out the key 2017 achievements and pointing to the future of the climate change process.

"Climate Change is the single biggest threat to life, security and prosperity on Earth," said UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa. “This annual report shows how UN Climate Change is doing everything it can to support, encourage and build on the global response to climate change.”

The report covers many areas of the 2017 work of UN Climate Change, which includes the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, Kyoto Protocol and Paris Agreement, as well as their bodies, institutional arrangements, organs and the secretariat.

For example, at the UN Climate Change conference (COP23) presided over by Fiji last November, almost 30,000 people from all levels came together in Bonn, Germany, to drive action on climate change. The conference saw financial commitments amounting to almost USD 1 billion to tackle climate change.

Read the report - “UN Climate Change Launches First-Ever Annual Report.”

World-first coal to hydrogen plant trial launched in Victoria

A world-first trial to use brown coal to make hydrogen has been launched in Victoria's east as a pilot 'clean energy' project that is expected to create 400 jobs — but critics and coal industry experts alike said new measures will be needed to tackle the carbon emissions generated.

The Loy Yang brown coal mine in Victoria's Latrobe
 Valley. The mine is owned by AGL.

A demonstration plant will be built in the Latrobe Valley as part of the $496 million project to develop technology to produce hydrogen from the region's vast reserves of coal.

The hydrogen would be shipped from the Port of Hastings to Japan under the deal with Kawasaki Heavy Industries, J-Power, Iwatani Corporation, Marubeni and the Japanese Government.

The Federal and Victorian Governments are providing $100 million towards the cost of the trial.

Speaking from the launch at Loy Yang mine, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said hydrogen was a fuel of the future.

Read the story by Kellie Lazzaro from ABC News - “World-first coal to hydrogen plant trial launched in Victoria.”

Powering Past Coal Alliance Membership Blows Out Past 50

The Powering Past Coal Alliance, launched only last month by the UK and Canada at COP23, has seen its membership blow out past 50 countries, regions, and businesses, according to news revealed at the One Planet Summit held in France on Tuesday.

The Powering Past Coal Alliance membership has blown out past 50.

Among a raft of announcements from the One Planet Summit held in France on Tuesday, the UK and Canada announced that membership to their Powering Past Coal Alliance — which was only launched last month at COP23 in Bonn, Germany — has now blown past 50 countries, regions, and businesses, including the State of California, Sweden, New Zealand, Italy, and France, as well as high-profile corporations such as Unilever, Virgin Group, and EDF.

The Powering Past Coal Alliance wants to accelerate the transition away from coal and toward “low-carbon, climate-resilient economies” and is bringing together “a diverse range of governments, businesses and organisations that are united in taking action to accelerate clean growth and climate protection through the rapid phase-out of traditional coal power.”

Read the Joshua S. Hill story from CleanTechnica - “Powering Past Coal Alliance Membership Blows Out Past 50.”

13 top universities form ‘Climate Change Coalition’

Leading universities across North America have launched the ‘University Climate Change Coalition’ to leverage their research and resources to spur local climate action.

Universities band together to spur local climate action.

The coalition, also known as UC3, was announced by Janet Napolitano, President of the University of California and former Homeland Security secretary under the Obama administration.

With universities from the United States, Canada, and Mexico, the new initiative will aim to fill the rising gap in local climate action, especially after the US government is making deep cuts to numerous science agencies and rolling back environmental regulations aimed at mitigating climate change. 

Read the ClimateAction story - “13 top universities form ‘Climate Change Coalition’.”

NGOs to Singapore banks: Act on climate change and stop funding coal

A few weeks after the Singapore government launched an initaitive declaring 2018 the Year of Climate Action, a coalition of international green groups has issued an open letter calling on the country’s powerful banks to stop financing coal power in Asia.

A dump truck at a coal mine owned by Banpu Public
 Company Ltd in a paddy field in Kerta Buana village
in Kutai Kartanegara, East Kalimantan. 

In a letter published on Wednesday, NGOs including Australia’s Market Forces, Friends of the Earth US and Japan, and Indonesian group Wahli said that if global warming is to be capped below 2˚C below pre-industrial levels to avoid the worst consequences of climate change, Singapore’s banks must follow the lead taken by their European and North American counterparts and stop funding new coal power plants. 

Read the Eco-Business story - “NGOs to Singapore banks: Act on climate change and stop funding coal.”

Tesla’s big battery a shining light for SA but storms leave neighbours in the dark

The world's biggest lithium ion battery has been launched in South Australia, with Premier Jay Weatherill declaring it an example of SA "leading the world”.

Tesla's lithium-ion battery will store power from the Hornsdale windfarm.

Mr Weatherill travelled to the site of the battery near Jamestown in the state's north with Romain Desrousseaux, the deputy chief executive officer of French renewable energy company Neoen, which will operate the 100-megawatt Tesla battery attached to its Hornsdale windfarm.

Tesla boss Elon Musk — who travelled to South Australia twice this year to mark significant milestones for the battery — did not visit for this event.

Mr Weatherill made light of the billionaire's non-attendance, pointing out Mr Musk had delivered on his promise to deliver the battery within a 100-day deadline or deliver it free.

Read the ABC News story by Nick Harmsen - “Tesla’s big battery a shining light for SA but storms leave neighbours in the dark.”

CSIRO launch program to make Australia hydrogen fuel leader

The CSIRO has launched new Future Science Platforms to make Australia a renewable energy exporter and hydrogen fuel hotspot.

Australia is seeking to become a world
leader in hydrogen fuel technology.

It is investing $13.5 million into hydrogen fuel research and tailored health solutions.

Hydrogen fuel has been touted as a major future energy source. The development of a Hydrogen FSP will support the creation of technologies that will enable Australia to export its solar energy and a low-emissions energy source.

"Under our strategy 2020, we're committed to increasing funding for science that underpins innovation and will reinvent and create new industries and jobs for Australia's future," CSRIO chief executive Larry Marshall said.

Read Cole Latimer’s story in today’s Melbourne Age - “CSIRO launch program to make Australia hydrogen fuel leader.”