Gas drilling projects resurrected around Europe, ignoring EU ‘advice’

Hands up if you want to risk your country running out of energy supplies! Oh…no takers. But…climate crisis…emissions…blah blah? Not now please, we’re too busy with more urgent matters – like power for next winter.
– – –
While the European Commission has shared three main ways to reduce Russian energy dependency – energy savings, renewables and diversification – many countries opted for their methods, including the revival of fossil fuel projects, says Euractiv.

Commission President Ursula von der Leyen recently warned EU member states not to backtrack on their long-term drive to cut fossil fuel use as a handful of nations turned to coal following a decision by Russia to limit their gas supplies.

Other countries decided to speed up or expand gas drilling initiatives, and some U-turned on previous decisions against drilling.

EU climate chief talks up hypothetical ‘green’ hydrogen

Credit: wheels.ca

Good luck with the costs and the leakage losses from shipping. Only last month the same source reported a study saying Germany’s global hydrogen plans could accelerate climate change. The study said ‘In the worst-case scenario, hydrogen could even prove 16 times more harmful than the widespread greenhouse gas.’ The EU obviously isn’t bothered by that study, or one by the British government warning of 13% leakage losses from tanker transport of hydrogen. ‘The 75-page report, Atmospheric Implications of Increased Hydrogen Use, explains that H2 is an indirect greenhouse gas, which reacts with other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere to increase their global warming potential (GWP)’. What real world problem do they think they’re trying to solve? Looks like yet another trip to cloud cuckoo land.
– – –
Hydrogen will be essential for Europe’s future economy, particularly to store and transport green energy, EU climate chief Frans Timmermans told the European Parliament on Thursday (28 April) — Euractiv reporting.

“I strongly believe in green hydrogen as the driving force of our energy system of the future,” said Timmermans in a meeting with the environment committee.

“Hydrogen is going to be a pivotal element in our economy of the future,” he added in a discussion that covered the impact of the war in Ukraine, the state of play with Europe’s new climate legislation and food security.

EU officials being trained to meditate to help fight climate crisis

Money to burn?

Take a deep breath…Sometimes there’s not much difference between a satirical spoof and a climate ‘crisis’ article.
– – –
Exclusive: Early results from ‘applied mindfulness’ courses suggests they have helped overcome despair that little can be done, says The Guardian.

Brussels officials are being trained to meditate to help them tackle the climate crisis as part of a new wave of “applied mindfulness” that seeks to take the Buddhism-inspired practice “off the cushion” and into hard politics.

EU in cloud cuckoo land: selects 100 cities for goal of ‘climate neutrality’ by 2030

[image credit: latinoamericarenovable.com]

Climate neutrality is an imaginary goal. In reality it doesn’t exist but the phrase serves as a peg to hang an EU publicity gimmick on, as they try to imply it can make people healthier — among other dubious assertions.
– – –
One hundred European cities have been selected to participate in an EU programme to rapidly cut emissions in urban areas, with the aim of reaching climate neutrality by 2030, says Euractiv.

Cities drawn from each member state will participate in the scheme, representing some 12% of the EU population.

A further 12 cities from outside of the bloc will take part.

The EU will invest €360 million to aid cities in their greening mission in 2022 and 2023, which it is hoped will spur further investments from the private sector.

Ireland’s climate targets problem: livestock numbers need to be reduced, say analysts

Irish farm [image credit: climatenewsnetwork.net]

Yet another climate folly induced by arbitrary targets. As usual they conveniently forget that most of their so-called ‘greenhouse’ gas is water vapour, which depends on the temperature. There’s so little methane in the atmosphere it has to be measured in parts per billion, but alarmism has taken over.
– – –
In order for legally binding climate targets to be met, and agricultural subsidies to be granted, the number of livestock on the island needs to go down says Buzz.

The size of herds both North and South of the border is being scrutinised. It is likely both cow and sheep herds on both sides of the border will need to be cut – and soon.

Brussels takes legal action against UK over use of British parts in wind farms

Offshore wind farm [image credit: Wikipedia]

Will Brexit bitterness ever die? Renewables are now mired in international politics.
– – –
Brussels has launched a legal challenge over the use of British parts in the UK’s offshore wind farms, reports the Telegraph.

The European Commission submitted its complaint to the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the first such move it has made since Brexit.

The UK Government asks offshore wind farm developers to say how many of the parts they are using are from Britain.

EU unveils plan to end reliance on Russian gas

A roadmap to cut imports of Russian gas by two thirds in a year – but they’ll need somewhere else’s gas, whether from fracking or not, plus some coal, instead. Gas storage is to be greatly increased. But how exactly they plan to ‘ramp up’ hydrogen production, and at what cost, remains to be seen. Climate obsessions will have to be shelved for a while.
– – –
The European Commission has outlined a new energy roadmap designed to cut reliance on Russian gas by two thirds in just a year, reports BBC News.

The plan envisages ending reliance on all Russian fossil fuels “well before” 2030.

In the short term, gas should be sourced from the US and Africa while some countries may need to use more coal in the months ahead.

Ukraine: The Guardian seizes another chance to press for less fossil fuels

Germany’s main gas supplier: Russia

Headline: ‘Is Putin’s Ukraine invasion about fossil fuels?’ asks The Guardian. Then says ‘no’, but raises its usual climate alarm topic anyway.
– – –
The continent has grown over-reliant on Russian gas – but Putin knows he is vulnerable to Europe cleaning up its energy sector.
. . .
Is this really another war over fossil fuels?

No. Energy resources are not the focus of this threatened conflict.

Vladimir Putin has a long history of territorial ambitions in former Soviet nations, which he made explicit this week, and of attempts to exert political control over Ukraine.

Putin is said by supporters to be concerned over the possibility of Nato expansion, although many analysts say this is a pretext.

The EU must give green light to nuclear and gas or face disaster – Net Zero Watch

Sawing off the branch of the tree you’re sitting on seems an unlikely sort of energy policy. However, it’s now the approach being pursued in much of Europe and elsewhere due to an obsession with the output of failing climate models.
– – –
London, 22 December – Net Zero Watch has warned EU leaders to reject last ditch attempts by campaigners to prevent the EU’s planned green taxonomy for gas and nuclear energy or face a political and economic disaster.

Despite Europe facing its worst energy crisis since the Second World War, campaigners are trying to prevent the EU from easing and encouraging the investment in desperately needed new natural gas and nuclear power plants and infrastructure, says Net Zero Watch.

Both low-carbon energy sources are included in the EU Commission’s proposed “taxonomy for sustainable activities” which is reported to be tabled at the end of the year.

EU countries struggle to agree approach to COP26 climate talks

EU countries can’t agree their best rate of economic decline due to expensive and damaging so-called climate policies that won’t have any measurable effect of the type they seek. Have they considered the possibility that there is no such rate?
– – –
European Union countries are struggling to agree their negotiating position for the COP26 climate change conference, with rifts emerging over timeframes for emissions-cutting pledges, according to officials and documents seen by Reuters, says Euractiv.

The EU is drafting its position ahead of the November COP26 talks, where countries will attempt to finish the technical rules to put the Paris Agreement into effect.

One issue they will try to settle is whether countries’ climate targets under the 2015 accord should follow a “common timeframe”.

Critics warn carbon price proposal would exacerbate energy poverty

No surprise that cranking up the cost of essentials is a greater burden for people on low incomes than for others. But nothing can be allowed to stand in the way of overblown climate obsessions, it seems. Carbon dioxide must be demonised no matter how tenuous the evidence against its tiny 0.04% share of the atmosphere, much of which pre-dates the modern era anyway.
– – –
Energy poverty could be exacerbated ad prices rise under the European Commission’s proposed revamped emissions trading scheme, the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) has warned, with other stakeholders raising similar misgivings.

Proposals under the European Commission’s Fit for 55 package include creating a new emissions trading scheme to impose a carbon price on road transport and buildings (ETS II), says Euractiv.

But stakeholders are warning that the move would hit society’s most vulnerable.

Carbon border tax: Europe’s climate fortress endangers Germany’s strength, say press critics

Pointless EU climate ideology is going in the opposite direction to its economic success. Protectionist barriers tend to annoy the victims, with unknown but likely repercussions. Any idea that harmless carbon dioxide is ‘dirty’ is a bad joke, but makes endless work for meddling bureaucrats.
– – –
The EU wants to impose a carbon border tax on Europe’s borders and thus protect domestic producers from dirtier (sic) producers from abroad, says Die Welt (via The GWPF).

Experts warn of a loophole that could hit German exporters seriously.

Federal Minister of Economics Peter Altmaier met two Vice-Presidents of the European Commission when he visited Brussels on Friday: Margrethe Vestager, who is responsible for digital, and Valdis Dombrovskis, who is responsible for economic issues.

The CDU politician wanted to talk to both of them about the steel industry – and about how European steel producers can economically survive the tightening of EU climate targets.

The plans for a CO2 border adjustment tax are also likely to have been an issue. Because the work of the Commission on legislative proposals for such a CO2 surcharge at the borders of the EU are ready to go.

The Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, which in Brussels is affectionately known as CBAM for short, aims to make imported products that are produced less climate-friendly overseas than in Europe more expensive at the borders of the EU.

This climate protection wall around the continent is intended to ensure that European producers with their higher energy costs and stricter environmental regulations remain competitive on their home market.

Full article here.

EU leaders brace for clash over astronomical cost of Net Zero plans

‘All pain for no gain’ springs to mind. Will voters accept this pointless self-harm to their economic welfare indefinitely, or turn against it?
– – –
As the astronomical cost of Net Zero plans are becoming more evident by the day, EU leaders face the prospect of growing discontent and revolt over the relentless rise in energy prices and consumer pain, say The GWPF & FT.

After years of assuring voters that renewable energy will make energy cheaper and Europeans better off, EU leaders are now forced to concede that these plans will actually hurt consumers very badly.

The EU Commission is proposing a series of far-reaching measures that will drive up the cost of running a car and heating homes.

If it goes ahead, households will have to shoulder not only rising energy costs, but also the rising cost of Europe’s record carbon price in their heating bills and fuel pump prices.

EU project wants ‘Lifestyle changes to keep the world from warming up’

Money to burn?

The supposed model citizen of the future will have a prescribed minimalist lifestyle pattern to follow, using as few resources as possible and generally living small under various restrictions not seen today, if this kind of thinking – backed by EU finance – is anything to go by. All to be determined with the aid of ‘citizen thinking labs’.
– – –
Scientists widely agree that we must limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius to avoid catastrophic climate impacts, claims Phys.org. [Talkshop comment – ignoring all the scientists that disagree with human-caused warming theories].

Environmental scientist Laura Scherer investigates how we should change lifestyles to achieve this temperature goal.

Her research is part of the 4.8-million-euro Horizon 2020 project EU 1.5° Lifestyles.

Europe’s heavy industry unlikely to survive Net Zero

Irsching 4 gas power plant, Bavaria [image credit: E.ON]

Government interfering in commercial markets for ideological reasons may well work out badly, and this looks like an obvious example. Bowing down to climate dogma doesn’t do anybody any favours.
– – –
It is becoming ever more evident that much of Europe’s heavy industry is unlikely to survive the EU’s unilateral Net Zero policy, says The GWPF & Financial Times.

The EU’s carbon price reached a new record high of 45 euros ($54) a tonne on Tuesday.

As the carbon price is expected to increase much further in the next few years, European industrial groups are desperately calling for the introduction of a carbon border tax, hoping that it will save them from international competitors that are able to produce much cheaper.

Europe’s Green Deal in trouble as Biden administration warns EU against carbon border tax

European Union map [image credit: Wikipedia]

Call it the Grim New Deal. Everyone must dance to the EU’s climate-obsessive tune – they wish – or pay trade penalties. But opposition is already mounting.
– – –
Europe’s Green Deal and its planned carbon border tax are in serious trouble as the Biden administration raises concerns about its potentially disastrous fallout on international trade and relations, says The GWPF.

According to the European Commission the EU’s Green Deal and its 2050 Net Zero target are threatening the very survival of Europe’s industries unless a carbon border tax is enforced upon countries that are not adopting the same expensive Net Zero policies.

LEAK: EU considers expanding role of gas in green finance

Germany’s main gas supplier: Russia

Countries like Germany must know that once all their nuclear and coal plants have been closed (by order), their security of electricity supply would be heading towards zero without gas and imports. Saying it’s just a question of peak demand is nonsense, and they know that as well, but still pursue their delusional energy policies. What happens after 2050 when the gas is turned off is a mystery.
– – –
The European Commission is reconsidering the position of gas in its sustainable finance taxonomy by recognising the fossil fuel’s role in keeping the lights on during peak electricity demand, according to a leaked document seen by EURACTIV.

The EU executive is currently drafting a rulebook for sustainable finance, drawing up a complete set of criteria defining what can be considered as a “green” investment in the European Union.

Europe’s unforeseen (?) renewables problem

Unforeseen? They must be joking. It has been painfully foreseeable for years to many of us, except maybe some of the more blinkered climate obsessives. The trouble is, as the article notes, ‘there is no silver bullet solution’ (except ones they don’t want to hear about).
– – –
As the share of renewables in the EU energy mix increase, so do problems with grid overloads and blackouts, says OilPrice.com.

Earlier this month, something happened in Europe. It didn’t get as much media attention as the EU’s massive funding plans for its energy transition, but it was arguably as important, if not more.

A fault occurred at a substation in Croatia and caused an overload in parts of the grid, which spread beyond the country’s borders. This created a domino effect that caused a blackout and prompted electricity supply reductions as far as France and Italy.

Conform to EU’s ‘carbon’ obsession – or pay its trading price

H/T The Global Warming Policy Forum (GWPF)

How is this dogmatic ‘do as we do or else’ approach, of trying to impose narrow-minded climate views on the whole world, not going to stoke up a pointless trade war?
– – –
If UN climate summit (COP26) fails to deliver, the EU will press ahead with unilateral carbon border taxes, EU official warns.

The European Union’s proposed carbon border charge is essential to the survival of its own industries and the bloc will impose the levy on non-EU competitors unless they commit to lowering their emissions, the bloc’s climate policy chief said on Monday.

The EU’s executive Commission is expected to propose its carbon border adjustment policy before the end of June as part of a broader package of climate laws aiming to cut emissions by 55% before the end of the decade.

8 January 2021: Europe just skirted blackout disaster

‘The donkey goes on to the ice until it breaks’ – German proverb [image credit: evwind.es]

European leaders are too fond of their so-called climate policies to take much notice of practicalities like engineering limitations. The fragility of the power supply can only get worse under existing policies, if these warning signals are ignored.
– – –
On 8 January 2021, the European electricity grid only just missed a large-scale collapse, says The Global Warming Policy Forum (GWPF).

Around 13:04 p.m. there was a sharp drop in frequency that could have paralysed Europe. The cause was apparently a power failure in Romania.

According to the Austrian blackout expert Herbert Saurugg, it was the second most serious major incident in the European network to date.