COP21:
¶ Delegates at a UN climate conference in Paris have approved a draft text they hope will form the basis of an agreement to curb global carbon emissions. The 48-page document will be discussed by ministers on Monday. They will try to arrive at a comprehensive settlement by the end of next week. [BBC News]
BBC News
¶ The Paris climate conference today published a draft treaty that sets out a warming limit of 1.5° C above pre-industrial levels as its long term temperature goal. Seen as a victory for poor countries, it reduces limit of 2° C warming that had previosly been agreed to as a safe level warming. [The Ecologist]
¶ Dubai’s practices in energy efficiency and water desalination was showcased during the panel discussion held at COP 21 in Paris. UAE Minister of State and Special Envoy for Energy and Climate Change said Dubai aims to produce 75% of its energy using clean sources. [Emirates 24|7]
¶ At the Paris Climate Summit (COP21), the global nuclear lobby is in overdrive. The Breakthrough Energy Coalition, led by Bill Gates, was made public at the start of the conference. And the nuclear lobby is out in force, handing out thousands of copies of its propaganda book, Climate Gamble. [Independent Australia]
¶ United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced that a broad group of organizations and individuals, ranging from financial institutions to municipal mayors and business leaders, will continue momentum on multi-stakeholder climate on May 5 and 6 in Washington, DC. [Big News Network.com]
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
¶ The US, Japan, European and other developed nations are poised to consider boosting their annual financial assistance for developing nations to over $100 billion in 2020 and beyond in a bid to break a COP21 deadlock. The money would include both public and private-sector funds. [Nikkei Asian Review]
¶ Allegations of hypocrisy will be levelled at the UK when the Climate Secretary Amber Rudd appears at COP21. Prime Minister David Cameron impressed summit delegates with his passionate call to action, but his government’s changes may actually increase emissions of greenhouse gases. [BBC]
World:
¶ In less than 10 years, Uruguay has cut its carbon footprint without government subsidies or higher consumer costs, according to its head of climate change policy. In fact, he says now that renewables provide 94.5% of the country’s electricity, prices have gone down, relative to inflation. [Kitsap Sun]
¶ As renewable technologies become more cost-effective, investors are now waking up to opportunities in the previously unattractive green sector. Climate change is a reality and we appear to be in the middle of an energy revolution. Environmental investments are both right and smart. [Irish Independent]
Climate change is real, and so is the revolution that has emerged to tackle it.
¶ After four years of relative stability, crude oil prices have fallen dramatically over the past eighteen months. The decline in oil prices and certainty that they will not increase soon, have triggered discussions on the impact on Azerbaijan’s alternative and renewable energy industry. [Eurasia Review]
¶ In Japan, it was recently revealed that safety cables at nuclear facilities, including TEPCO’s Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant, were not separated from other cables, a violation of the country’s new nuclear safety standards. It was also revealed that regulatory authorities had failed to inspect them. [The Japan Times]
US:
¶ Instead of showing the benefits of carbon capture, a coal plant towering over pine trees and meadows in rural Mississippi is looking like another monument to an unfulfilled promise of carbon capture technology. Costs for construction have grown to $6.5 billion, over three times the original estimate. [Valley News]
Mississippi Power spokesman Lee Youngblood, talks about the carbon capture power plant in DeKalb. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)
¶ Renewable energy accounted for 100% of new US electricity generation capacity additions in October. Wind and solar made up 98% and the other 2% was biomass. For the year through October, solar and wind accounted for over 63% of all new US power capacity, according to FERC. [CleanTechnica]
¶ The recent closure of two cogeneration plants near Bakersfield, California, illustrates the regulatory, policy and market-based challenges facing small facilities selling electricity to the state’s grid. The plants, each of 35-MW plus heat, were commissioned in 1989. [The Bakersfield Californian]
Rio Bravo Jasmin
¶ Congress could be close to phasing out the tax credits that have, for years, supported the booming wind and solar energy industries. The wind and solar industry have allies among Democrats and others concerned about climate change, but many conservatives want to phase them out. [The Hill]
geoharvey 
December 6, 2015 at 2:20 pm
Reblogged this on nuclear-news.