News update
2014 Warmest Year on Record
The New York Times
Last year was the hottest on earth since record-keeping began in 1880, scientists reported, underscoring warnings about the risks of runaway greenhouse gas emissions and undermining claims by climate change contrarians that global warming had somehow stopped.
Groundbreaking Study Confirms: We Must Leave Fossil Fuels “In the Ground”
Common Dreams
A groundbreaking new study is confirming what green campaigners have long argued: in order to stave off climate disaster, the majority of fossil fuel deposits around the world—including 92 percent of U.S. coal, all Arctic oil and gas, and a majority of Canadian tar sands—must stay “in the ground.” This new research is first of its kind to identify specific national reserves that must remain untapped.
IEA Provides First Sign That Tide May Be Turning For Oil Prices
Oilprice.com
Last week, energy investors got the first of several reports that should confirm for Wall Street analysts that the physical markets for crude oil are responding to the sharp drop in oil prices. I believe supply/demand will work back to a balance during the second half of this year.
Oil, Saudi Arabia, and the End of OPEC
Elias Hinckley, The Energy Collective
Saudi Arabia’s decision not to cut oil production, despite crashing prices, marks the beginning of an incredibly important change. There are near-term and obvious implications for oil markets and global economies. More important is the acknowledgement, demonstrated by the action of world’s most important oil producer, of the beginning of the end of the most prosperous period in human history – the age of oil.
Carbon Counterattack: How Big Oil Is Responding to the Anti-Carbon Moment
Michael T. Klare, Tom Dispatch
Around the world, carbon-based fuels are under attack. Increasingly grim economic pressures, growing popular resistance, and the efforts of government regulators have all shocked the energy industry. But instead of retreating, the major oil companies have gone on the offensive, extolling their contributions to human progress and minimizing the potential for renewables to replace fossil fuels in just about any imaginable future.
At least one major oil company will turn its back on fossil fuels, says scientist
The Guardian, UK
The oil price crash coupled with growing concerns about global warming will encourage at least one of the major oil companies to turn its back on fossil fuels in the near future, predicts award-winning scientist and former industry adviser Jeremy Leggett. Now a solar energy entrepreneur and climate campaigner, Leggett points to Total of France as the kind of group that could abandon carbon fuels.
Obama visit: India-US to sign energy deal
Hindustan Times
India and the US are likely to sign an energy deal under which India could commit to generating 15-20% of its energy need from zero emission sources by 2030. The deal that would be signed during President Barack Obama’s visit this month will also have the US agreeing to support India’s efforts through the government’s flagship Make in India programme by investing in urban energy infrastructure and making energy-saving appliances as well as in research. The US has already committed to $1 billion for financing renewable projects in India.
China Buying Up Latin American Oil
Colin Chilcoat, Oilprice.com
China is pledging $250 billion in investment in Latin America over the next decade. The country’s oil-based financing is still an unproven gamble – and lower prices increase the default risk – but it’s shrewd move for what will soon be the world’s largest consumer of oil.