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Posts under ‘International’

Shell announces 54pc profits rise

Oil giant Shell has announced bumper profits from 2011, up 54pc from the previous year. The company’s formula for success is astonishingly simple – it sold oil at much higher prices, compensating for losses in its other businesses. Oil prices at an average of $109 per barrel, up from $88 per barrel the previous year, [...]

Fracking for shale gas regulations sufficient

A report published by the European Commission has declared that the current rules regarding fracking for shale gas are sufficient The controversial new method of extracting gas by hydraulic fracturing (fracking) of rocks deep below the Earth’s surface is already covered by existing water and drilling regulations, and no new rules are needed until the [...]

5,000 Solar firms go bust in Germany in 2011

Germany’s once booming solar power industry is declining at an alarming rate, with 20,000 jobs being lost in 2011 alone. Germany once had the biggest solar industry in the world, providing around 150,000 jobs by 2010, but that bubble seems to be starting to burst, as demand for solar technology drops, government subsidies are cut [...]

COP17: Durban Platform means Kyoto II in 2015

After weeks of stalling climate talks, 194 countries finally managed to agree to sign up to Kyoto II in 2015, after agreeing a new text known as the ‘Durban Platform’. A week ago it looked likely that talks would fall apart as they did in Copenhagen , seemingly with China, India and the US all [...]

China, India & the US still at loggerheads after a week at 2011 Durban Climate Conference

Representatives from 194 countries around the world have been at COP17 in climate talks for the past week trying to get Kyoto II signed, but the US, China & India are barely even talking. With global carbon emissions higher than ever before, the UNFCCC is pushing hard for a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, but [...]

Rising gas prices push up energy bills

Wholesale natural gas prices are 40 per cent higher than they were this time last year. Despite criticism that green taxes and subsidies are pushing up energy prices, Ofgem remain certain that it is rising wholesale electricity prices that are to blame. An Ofgem report stated that wholesale gas is now 40% costlier than it [...]

Carbon emissions up as Chinese economy booms

Global carbon emissions are up 6 per cent to 33.5 billion tonnes – the largest increase in a single year, despite low growth in developed nations. According to new figures released by the US Department of Energy, China is now the largest polluter in the world, taking the crown that the USA has worn for [...]

‘Keep switching’, says Huhne at Energy summit

The UK has “relatively good electricity and gas prices”, the Energy Secretary said at the Energy Summit held on 17 October 2011. Mr Huhne said on Radio 4′s Today programme, that energy companies were “not the Salvation Army”. He added “We expect them to earn respectable returns for their shareholders but they need to be [...]

Weightman to release report on nuclear power

Energy Secretary Chris Huhne is expected to use the report on the Fukushima disaster by Mike Weightman to push the UK’s new nuclear power program. The report on what can be learned from the Fukushima disaster is expected to kick-start the UK’s nuclear programme, despite criticism from Greenpeace and other environmental groups that it has [...]

Germany pushing for European super-grid

Law stating that Germany must outlaw nuclear power generation by 2022 is encouraging more talk of an EU-wide electricity system. After the Fukushima disaster in Japan, Germany decided to shut down its 17 nuclear power stations by 2022, closing the 7 oldest ones immediately. This has turned Germany from a net exporter of electricity, to [...]