Portrait of Vladimir Putin, Source kremlin.ru,
Author Russian Presidential Press and Information Office

Guest essay by Eric Worrall

The alleged Russian conspiracy which is supposed to be helping populists win elections worldwide has now been blamed for a fall in EU nation state support for European renewable energy policies.

How A Populist Europe In Thrall To Russia Threatens Climate Change Action

“We are in a really dangerous moment.”

By Arthur Neslen
26/06/2018 7:45 PM AEST

As a growing number of European countries tip toward the far right politically, attempts to curb climate change are coming under pressure. The region’s race to cut planet-warming greenhouse gases is generating friction, and some Members of European Parliament and experts point the finger of blame at Russian big energy interests and populist governments in thrall to them.

This month, a bid to raise the European Union’s supply of renewable energy to 35 percent of the electricity mix by 2030 was stymied by a bloc of EU states led by populist governments in the Visegrad countries ― Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia ― even though it had the support of the European Parliament and European Commission.

The same bloc of countries helped whittle down proposals for a binding 40 percent energy conservation target, despite signs of accelerating climate change from the Antarctic to the African savannah.

“We see a pattern of populist governments clearly opposing ambitious climate and energy regulations, which is in line with the primary Russian economic interest: exporting fossil fuels and nuclear technology,” Benedek Jávor, the vice-chair of the European parliament’s environment committee and a Hungarian Green MEP, told HuffPost.

Russia supplies more than a third of Europe’s gas but this could be reduced to nothing by an ambitious energy saving target, according to analyses by several think tanks and consultancies.

…

Hungary, for example, which is becoming an increasingly authoritarian government under far-right leader Viktor Orbán, is a valued advocate for Russian gas infrastructure and is also building a Russian-financed €10 billion ($11.5 billion) nuclear reactor outside Budapest.

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Russia’s energy agenda plays to a wider audience than extreme nationalists. Gas and nuclear are both seen as relatively lower carbon options than coal, which could “bridge” the path to a mid-century world powered solely by renewables. However, some climate studies suggest that, where gas is concerned, the bridge could also burn the chances of limiting global warming to no more than a 2 C temperature rise above pre-Industrial levels ― the target the majority of scientists say cannot be exceeded if we are to avoid the worst effects of climate change.

Several academic papers have found that investment in gas could crowd out desperately needed funds for renewable energy while providing few emissions-cutting benefits.

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Read more: https://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/entry/europe-populism-russia-climate-action_us_5b30b86fe4b0321a01d33adf

In my opinion HuffPost are making it up as they go. If renewable energy was viable, gas wouldn’t have an opportunity to “crowd out” renewable investment, because renewable investment would make sense on its own terms.

As for Huffpost’s evidence free allegation that Russia is pushing populism to undermine the green agenda, in my opinion it would make far more sense for the Russian government to support the green agenda – to support anti-fracking, anti-nuclear and renewable energy advocacy movements.

More fracking in Europe would undermine Russian gas sales. A Nuclear power renaissance in Europe would undermine Russian gas sales. Useless green energy “investments” not so much.

Of course I’m not suggesting Russia is doing anything of the sort. Why risk scandal and exposure, when liberal green European politicians are doing everything in their power to wreck European energy independence without outside help?

Methane bubbles being expelled from the sea floor.

From OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY and the “there’s a joke in there somewhere” department comes this report on ocean reports.

Scientists use hydrophone to listen in on methane seeps in ocean

NEWPORT, Ore. – A research team has successfully recorded the sound of methane bubbles from the seafloor off the Oregon coast using a hydrophone, opening the door to using acoustics to identify – and perhaps quantify – this important greenhouse gas in the ocean.

The next step, researchers say, is to fine-tune their ability to detect the acoustic signature of the bubbles so they can use the sounds to estimate the volume of methane in the offshore reservoirs.

Results of the study have just been published in the journal Deep-Sea Research II.

“The bubbles in the streams make sound, and the frequency of the sound is related to the size of the bubble,” said Robert Dziak, an acoustics scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and lead author on the study. “The smaller the bubble, the higher the pitch. And the larger the bubble, the lower the sound pitch, but the more methane it contains.

“Our ultimate goal is to use sound to estimate the volume and rate of methane gas exiting these seafloor fields,” added Dziak, who has a courtesy appointment in OSU’s College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences.

In recent years, scientists have found hundreds of bubble streams emanating from methane deposits off the Pacific Northwest coast, but they have no way to determine how much methane is stored there. Methane is found both as an icy hydrate deposit and in a gas phase within the sediments of the continental margins.

It potentially could be a new energy source, or it could pose a serious environmental threat as a greenhouse gas.

The research team used the remotely operated vehicle (ROV) Hercules from the Exploration Vessel (E/V) Nautilus, owned and operated by the Ocean Exploration Trust, to deploy a hydrophone about 10 kilometers off Heceta Bank on the Oregon continental margin in 1,228 meters of water (about three-fourths of a mile deep). The acoustic signatures of the bubbles from the seep site are depicted in the hydrophone record as a series of short, high-frequency bursts, lasting 2-3 seconds.

The researchers then compared the sound record with still images from the ROV and found their estimates of bubble size from the hydrophone record matched the visual evidence.

This June, a project led by OSU researchers Tamara Baumberger and Susan Merle and utilizing the E/V Nautilus will map additional methane seep sites off the Pacific Northwest coast. Dziak and OSU researcher Haru Matsumoto will work with the team to deploy a hydrophone into the depths of Astoria Canyon at the site of a high-rate methane seep and leave it there for 2-3 days.

The expedition will feature a live, 24/7 broadcast on http://www.nautiluslive.org.

“The frequencies are so high on some of these recordings that the data drive fills up quickly on battery-operated hydrophones,” Dziak said. “However, this new experiment will record for a longer time period, allowing us to see how seafloor methane emissions vary over time, and how they may be influenced by the ocean tides.”

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The paper: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S096706451730084X?via%3Dihub