South Africa has just been given a purse of $8.5 billion to help accelerated its move away from coal. But as the international climate negotiations wrapped up in Glasgow, a few key developments at home suggest that the continent’s biggest polluter is not in a hurry to end its relationship with coal. Leonie Joubert takes a closer look.
Year: 2021
Scotland’s Independence Bid Can Be Green
The Scottish government, pushed hard by environmentalists, has finally announced that it is unlikely to pursue oil exploration or extraction in the North Sea’s Cambo fields. This, together with the Green Party’s entrance into a government with the Scottish National Party (SNP), burnishes its climate credentials. But, ultimately, it must exit oil production entirely. From Edinburgh, Scotland, Paul Hockenos has the story.
Chevron’s political prisoner: Steven Donziger and the denial of environmental justice
More than a decade has passed since human rights attorney Steven Donziger helped win an unprecedented $9.5 billion judgment on behalf of 30,000 indigenous Ecuadorians against the oil giant Chevron that demonstrated how the company had dumped billions of gallons of oil waste into the Amazon’s forests and streams. But in 2016, a New York judge invalidated the verdict, claiming “shocking levels of misconduct” by Donziger and the Ecuadorian judiciary. The judge then granted Chevron the right to seize Donziger’s laptop, phone and passwords. When he appealed, he was hit with contempt charges and placed under house arrest. After two years of confinement, this summer another judge found Donziger guilty of contempt. Now in jail and largely ignored by the mainstream media, lead blogger and podcaster, Michael Buchsbaum summarizes Donziger’s story while providing links to where readers can learn more about Chevron’s shocking abuse of judicial power.
Universal basic income: the answer to a post-carbon South Africa
When South Africa emerged from the most severe of the COVID lockdowns in 2020, nearly one in three employable adults was jobless. The country’s escalating unemployment is a symptom of an unequal economy inherited from generations of colonial- and apartheid-era exploitation. Could a universal basic income be the answer to a more equitable post-carbon world? Leonie Joubert investigates.
Bad Laws and Poor Regulation Stunt Germany’s Clean Energy Drive
One task of Germany’s incoming government, regardless which party heads it, has to be to gut the blizzard of red tape. Paul Hockenos explains.
Romanian Power Move: Bucharest takes billions in EU decarbonization funds
After years of resistance, this September Romania promised to exit coal by 2032 ahead of receiving a €29 billion chunk of NextGenerationEU redevelopment money, some 40% earmarked for green and sustainable projects. But then Bucharest’s coalition fell and a caretaker government has since announced plans for a fleet of new fossil gas and biomass plants to power the country past coal. And during COP26 they signed a partnership with the United States to construct Europe’s largest new nuclear fleet. In this series, based on field research funded by a Fellowship from the International Journalists’ Program, lead blogger and podcaster Michael Buchsbaum, trains a spotlight on Romania’s controversial energy transition.
The Circular Economy Applies Renewable Energy’s Logic to Industrial Policy
The circular economy constitutes an energy-efficient economic model for a European economy of the 21st century. Paul Hockenos has the details.
Used vehicle imports to Latin America undercut greening the transport sector
A green transition in the transport sector is a challenge wherever you look. Yet in Latin America, where regulation is usually weaker than in industrial countries, this is even harder. European and American policy makers therefore have the duty to regulate their used light duty vehicles going towards Latino markets. Without such a change, Latin America will likely miss its climate targets. Rebecca Bertram reports.
CBAM! The Global Energy Transition Podcast – Episode 2
This summer the European Commission finally unveiled their “Fit for 55” policy package. Aimed at ensuring the European Union reduces emissions and reaches climate neutrality by 2050, a key part of their plan is phasing in a “Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism” or CBAM. Framed as a pollution solution, it’s been met with howls of protest, threats of trade wars and frustration from many corners.
To unpack CBAM’s complications, in this episode of the Global Energy Transition Podcast series, host Michael Buchsbaum, lead blogger of EnergyTransition.org interviews Silvia Weko, research associate with the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) at the University of Potsdam and Domien Vangenechten, policy advisor at climate change thinktank Third Generation Environmentalism (E3G) in their Brussels office. Authors of separate pieces on CBAM, they share insights into this controversial tool’s potential impacts and what to watch for as it gets hammered into shape going forward.
You can play the episode below, and it’s also available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
Shownotes:
You can read several of Siliva Weko’s recent publications including her recent CBAM piece here and follow her other research here and here on Twitter @SilviaWeko
To read Domien Vangenechten’s recent piece in China Dialogue, click here. Or click here to read more about him. Follow Domien on Twitter @DVangenechten1
Read more of host Michael Buchsbaum’s blogs for the Global Energy Transition here or visit his website here or follow him on Twitter @LMicalBuchsbaum
Audio from the podcast was mixed and edited by audio expert Christian Kreymborg.
Carbon fighting tool or economic bomb: Reviewing the EU’s new CBAM
In July the European Commission unveiled its Fit for 55 package aimed at pushing EU member states to reduce emissions by at least net 55% (compared to 1990 levels) by 2030. One of the most widely anticipated parts of the package – at least among policy wonks – is the introduction of the world’s first carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM). Intended to level the playing field between domestic and foreign producers of cement, steel, aluminum, fertilizers and electricity, CBAM’s real litmus test will be if it actually reduces overall emissions and incentivizes a greening economy both within and without the EU. But given how controversial and relatively weak the CBAM proposal is out of the gate, critics worry its presence will only distract from more effective climate strategies in the Fit for 55 plan. Worse, despite COP 26 in Glasgow, pushing CBAM could spark an international trade war. Lead blogger Michael Buchsbaum reviews the growing debate. Listen to our podcast on CBAM.