September 12, 2024
Introduction The EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), many years in the making, is revolutionary. CSRD will replace the questionable smorgasbords of stand alone inserts on corporate sustainability profiles. It does so by requiring firms to provide detailed framed descriptions on integrating sustainability into all facets of corporate decision-making. This includes Scope 3 considerations on […]
May 29, 2024
Short lifespan illusions An imagined slump in fully electric vehicle (EV) sales reflects short-lived illusions of a society-wide osmosis. According to Cox Automotive report on U.S. EV prospects, 2024 Path To EV Adoption, high EV prices and fear of there not being enough public charging units available have taken hold. Broken down, the study indicates […]
Nuclear debacles: UK, Canada, U.S., IEA and others
Nuclear cost and time overruns
While nuclear power has gained interest as a low carbon solution, cost and time overruns have dampened this interest.
A Boston University study of 400 nuclear plants over 80 years indicated that, on average, building nuclear plants cost double the before construction projections, and 64% exceeded their timelines. Average costs go 120% over original budgets, with the majority more than doubling.
High maintenance costs add to the unattractiveness of the nuclear option, in particular, the old reactors...
China’s electric vehicles go global: Protectionism won’t work
Electric vehicle (EV) imports from China will account for 25% of EV sales in Europe in 2024.
Now China-based EV and battery firms are on the verge of coming to North America and there is no such thing as batteries without content from China. This is the context for U.S. protectionist legislation.
What follows is a most comprehensive plethora of reasons on why 1) protectionism won’t work and 2) North American and European EV manufactures are vulnerable to disruptive market threats...
China green shift global impact greater than COP
Expectations for COP29 in Azerbaijan, based COP28 in the United Arab Emirates?
The light getting in though the cracks is few countries are immune to competition with China’s sweeping expeditious green transition.
China’s brisk energy transition intentions are three-fold, decarbonization of its economy, domination of global clean tech manufacturing and reduced dependence on imported fossil fuels.
Renewables
The COP28 final statement calls for a tripling of renewables capacity by 2030. China had an objective to triple renewables capacity by 2030 too, but China...
Shell, two CEOs, two cultural shifts: Green transition to business-as-usual
New vison, clean tech acquisitions and fossil fuel divestments
Under the leadership of Shell CEO, Ben van Beurden, 2014 to 2022, it really seemed that...
Fossil fuel euphoria to meltdown: EU energy crisis to transition
The European Union (EU) target for an energy transition and energy independence is 2027. EU just-in-time fossil fuel substitutes from countries other than Russia...
Recent Posts
Ukraine green reconstruction: Global model opportunity
Many stakeholders from Ukraine, the European Union and around the globe, including just-in-time working groups, international financing institutions and the private sector, are currently engaged in "Made in Ukraine" green reconstruction agenda. The challenges are colossal.
Half of Ukraine’s power generation infrastructure has been destroyed or badly damaged. It makes little sense to reconstruct a tangled web of centralized energy distribution networks. Rather the emerging consensus among key players is for decentralized area-specific clean energy solutions that can be built...
Perfect storm for the green economy and fossil fuels alike
Investments in clean tech deployment in 2022, US$1.1 trillion, were for the first time ever, equivalent to that spent on fossil fuel production. The story behind these historic stats is that of a current perfect storm and circumstances leading up to the present.
The combination of the Ukraine war; high fuel prices; European Union energy independence and electric vehicle (EV) strategies; the U.S Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law; China’s new 5-year plan; and tectonic changes in other countries...
Electric vehicles and equipment for mining decarbonization
As with most environmental solutions, electric mining equipment (EME) offers opportunities for reducing capital and operating expenditures, while providing a host of solutions to address risks. These lower risks include decarbonization; curtailment of colossal ventilation expenses to evacuate fumes, particulate matter and heat from diesel engines; and improved employee health and working conditions. Higher profits, diminished risks and enhanced social acceptability associated with EME, are hard to beat.
Upfront capital expenditures
Contrary to common public perceptions, according to an Ernst &...
Critical minerals: Global and Canadian portraits
Global developments in a nutshell
For the rest of this century, most of the world’s needs for critical minerals can be accommodated from mined resources in democratic countries and 95% recycling of battery content. China and the European Union have policies in place to optimize electric vehicle (EV) battery recycling.
Australia towers above the rest as a source of half of global lithium resources.
Canada and the U.S. provide financial support for advancing critical minerals activities.
Howbeit, China’s critical mineral importation practices are...
Big Oil, renewables, electric vehicles + clean tech: Fossil fuel windfalls
Prior to the Russian barbaric invasion in Ukraine, announcements made by the oil and gas majors seemed to imply they were engaged in energy diversification. This diversification has been typically presented as that of increasing the proportion of their assets in clean technologies while reducing the exploitation of fossil fuel reserves.
Now, with the oil and gas companies earning windfall profits linked to the Ukraine war, inflation and European urgent short-term requirements for fossil fuel sources substitutes, the real truth...
Canada’s indecent descent on climate since 2021 fed election
The Canadian federal election of September 20, 2021 brought the Liberals back to power, once again as a minority government. As with previous elections, the Liberal election campaign leading up to voting day, placed a major emphasis on addressing climate change. Though the Liberals failed to deliver on previous emission reduction targets, this time things appeared to be different in that a former climate activist, Steven Guilbeault, was appointed the Minister of the Environment and Climate Change Canada.
What has...
