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 Shell was taking climate change seriously. In 2017, Ben van Beurden purported that the “biggest challenge” for the company was to acquire public acceptance. He asserted “If we are not […]
October 19, 2023
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 has got liquefied natural gas (LNG) and oil exporters and importers euphoric. These latter stakeholders are in for a big surprise. The EU REPowerEU strategy may see gas demand peak in […]
September 4, 2023
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...
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...
Recent Posts
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...
China: Largest emitter to green gamechanger, but…
China is several years ahead of other developed countries on the migration to a green economy, in clean technology production capacity, massive market penetration and green investments. China already has an extraordinary global green export potential. China leads in renewables, electric vehicles and battery production, incrementally regulating plastic solutions, high-speed rail, private clean tech investment, government environmental support and green bonds. China’s concurrent climate actions are gamechangers destined to have huge global competition impacts on energy, economic, transportation, industrial...
Electric vehicle battery recycling: Competing with mined materials
The environmental footprint of an electric vehicle represents a sectorial industrial revolution, including the first lifecycle end of an EV battery. With existing technologies, 95% of an EV battery can be recycled for inclusion in a new EV battery and/or energy storage. The remaining 5% can be handled by third party recyclers. Because the price of mined lithium is rising exponentially, recycled EV battery materials are set to compete with mined content. With high recycled content, the emissions of...
Canada’s 2030 climate plan: Designed to fail
Canada’s 2030 Emissions Reduction Plan (ERP) was made public March 29, 2022. Since the country's oil and gas sector with methane included, plus transportation components, together, represent about half of Canadian emissions, one would have thought these sectors would be objects of strong climate initiatives. Yet, for these sectors, the ERP appears to be the product of accommodation of industry lobbies. The action items stupendously lack integrity and are weak. As such, the ERP like all previous government emission...
Fossil fuel methane climate emergency: Solutions
Methane emissions are underrated at one third of global warming gases, largely because fossil fuel sector methane emissions are underestimated by 70 percent. Current data indicates the energy sector accounts for 40 percent of man-made methane. Consequently, the COP26 non-binding pledges of over 100 nations for a 30 percent reduction by 2030 are not only dreadfully inadequate, but also, without standardized measuring, reporting and verification standards, oil and gas industry methane greenwashing is rampant. The draft European Union (EU)...
Green hydrogen, no panacea: Deep dive
Green hydrogen, produced with electrolysers to separate hydrogen from water, uses clean energy as a power source. Green hydrogen will not be with cost competitive with grey hydrogen for some time, perhaps not until 2030. Grey hydrogen, derived from steam reformation of natural gas, represents 98 percent of global hydrogen consumption, and is primarily used for industrial processes. To replace grey hydrogen with green hydrogen would require a doubling of global electricity generation with primarily solar and wind sources. ...
