Report: $12.7 Trillion Needed To Meet Paris Climate Accord’s Goal

via The Global Warming Policy Forum (GWPF)
http://www.thegwpf.com

A whopping $7.4 trillion will be spent globally on new green energy facilities in the coming decades, but another $5.3 trillion is needed to meet the goals of the Paris climate accord, according to a new report.

Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) is out with a new long-term energy outlook report, this time projecting a total of $12.7 trillion to keep projected global warming below 2 degrees Celsius by the end of the century — a goal of the Paris accord.

BNEF projects $7.4 trillion will be invested in new green energy capacity by 2040, and that global carbon dioxide emissions will be 4 percent lower in that year than in 2016.

But that’s not enough to keep projected warming below 2 degrees, the report warns.

BNEF says a “further $5.3 trillion investment in 3.9 [terawatts] of zero-carbon capacity would be consistent with keeping the planet on a 2-degrees-C trajectory,” according to an excerpt of the report obtained by Axios.

President Donald Trump announced U.S. withdrawal from the Paris accord in early June, arguing it would hurt American workers by transferring wealth from them to economic competitors, like China and India.

“This agreement is less about the climate and more about other countries gaining a financial advantage over the United States,” Trump.

China and India joined the Paris agreement in 2016, but neither plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions anytime soon. China said it would “peak” emissions by 2030 and India has been promised foreign aid to boost green energy production.

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via The Global Warming Policy Forum (GWPF) http://www.thegwpf.com

June 15, 2017 at 09:24AM

More Than Half of America’s Nuclear Reactors Are Losing Money

via The Global Warming Policy Forum (GWPF)
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More than half of America’s nuclear reactors are bleeding cash, racking up losses totaling about $2.9 billion a year, based on a Bloomberg New Energy Finance analysis.

Nuclear power plants are getting paid $20 to $30 a megawatt-hour for their electricity, Nicholas Steckler, an analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance, said in a report Wednesday. Meanwhile, it costs them an average of $35 a megawatt-hour to run. That puts 34 of the nation’s 61 plants out of the money, with almost all of the merchant reactors owned by Exelon Corp., Entergy Corp. and FirstEnergy Corp. appearing to be below break-even, he said.

The report underscores the increasing pressure nuclear power generators are facing even as cheap natural gas and renewable resources encroach on their share of the U.S. power market. States including New York and Illinois are now working to subsidize nuclear plants to keep them generating emissions-free electricity.

“It’s a real threat to carbon-emission reductions,” Steckler said by phone Wednesday. “How regulators confront this widespread challenge has massive implications.”

Entergy declined to comment on the profitability of its individual plants but said merchant nuclear generators selling power into wholesale markets are facing “financial challenges due to sustained wholesale power price declines and other unfavorable market conditions.” That’s why the company has shifted focus to the regulated utility business, it said in an emailed statement.

Exelon didn’t immediately have comment. FirstEnergy said it has already “publicly stated that our competitive subsidiaries are not profitable, which includes all of our competitive generating plants” and declined to disclose financial details for its individual generating units. The Akron, Ohio-based utility owner has said it may quit competitive power markets by mid-2018.

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via The Global Warming Policy Forum (GWPF) http://www.thegwpf.com

June 15, 2017 at 09:24AM

REPORT: $12.7 Trillion Needed To Meet Paris Climate Accord’s Goal

via Climate Change Dispatch
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A whopping $7.4 trillion will be spent globally on new green energy facilities in the coming decades, but another $5.3 trillion is needed to meet the goals of the Paris climate accord, according to a new report. Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) is out with a new long-term energy outlook report, this time projecting a […]

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June 15, 2017 at 09:01AM

2015-16 El Nino behind large-scale surface melting event in Antarctica

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The West Antarctic Ice Sheet, a landbound mass of ice larger than Mexico, experienced substantial surface melt through the austral summer of 2015-2016 during one of the largest El Niño events of the past 50 years, according to scientists who had been conducting the first comprehensive atmospheric measurements in the region since the 1960s. The […]

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June 15, 2017 at 09:01AM