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Energy, Environment & Transport Pro Brief |
| Fri 15 November 2024 | View online
Estimated reading time: 4-5 minutes |
| Good morning ,
And welcome toFriday 15 November’s daily Energy, Environment and Transport Pro Brief.
Today we report on a new mapping tool, which flags is someone is trying to build an oil, gas or coal project in your neighbourhood.
And the Commission is moving against countries which have yet to file their national energy plans - but NGOs are more worried about the quality of already-submitted plans. |
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| | | New tracker for fossil fuel projects available |
| The Fossil Fuels Atlas, launched yesterday, is an interactive mapping platform which allows the public to identify the locations of existing and planned fossil fuel projects, and the protected territories and sensitive ecosystems potentially impacted by these projects.
The tool was developed by the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development (IGSD), and the Global Energy Monitor (GEM). |
| | A screenshot of the tool, with ‘global coal mines’, ‘oil & gas extraction’ and ‘oil pipelines’ selected. |
| “Companies and countries continue to expand fossil fuel production and are doing so into areas that are culturally and biologically important” the press release reads.
The organisations want the tool to function as ‘an early warning’ before such projects are developed.
“When you give people the tools to alert the public and policymakers to the damaging impacts that extraction poses to their own communities, livelihoods, and ecosystems – then they take action” said Sivan Kartha, SEI senior scientist and head of the Fossil Fuel Atlas team. [BM]
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| Gazprom must pay €230 million to Austria’s OMV for 2022 gas cut |
| Energy company OMV has been awarded €230 million through arbitration, after Gazprom cut supplies in 2022.
OMV intends to subtract the sum from bill payments to the Russian state-owned gas major.
In the summer of 2022, Gazprom halted supplies of Russian gas to Germany, citing the impacts of Western sanctions following the invasion of Ukraine. This saw Austrian utility OMV fall short of supplies normally routed via Germany.
The company then had to buy replacement gas on the costly spot market, incurring millions of euros of extra costs in the process.
In January 2023, OMV filed a request for arbitration – which it has now won. “OMV successfully receives arbitral award in relation to its German gas supplies from Gazprom Export,” the company announced on Wednesday.
But there’s a catch.
“It is expected that there may be a deterioration of the contractual relationship under the Austrian supply contract” which could include “a potential halt of gas supply,” the company cautioned.
Nikolaus J. Kurmayer reports on the implications for Austria, which still imports upwards of 80% of its gas from Russia.
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| 🟡 National energy & climate plans |
| Commission orders 13 countries to submit their NECPs |
| Yesterday the EU Commission ordered 13 countries to submit their ‘NECP’ national energy and climate plans. These plans, which should have been submitted by the 30 June deadline, detail how each EU country will achieve their 2030 climate target.
The Commission’s move targeted Belgium, Bulgaria, Czechia, Estonia, Greece, Croatia, Cyprus, Malta, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia.
This is the first step in the EU’s infringement procedure – countries have two months to respond. If the Commission is not satisfied with a country’s response, it may issue a reasoned opinion, before potentially referring the matter to the EU Court of Justice.
Reacting to the news, Romain Didi, legal expert at CAN Europe, said that the move is “a positive step for EU-wide accountability” but argued that the Commission should focus on the details of already-submitted plans too.
“These climate plans must show real ambition and clear actions to meet 2030 climate targets” he added.
On 6 November CAN Europe and several national NGOs filed a coordinated complaint with the Commission, urging the executive to launch infringement procedures against Germany, France, Italy, Ireland and Sweden.
The NGOs argued that the (already submitted) NECPs of these countries are insufficient. [PM/NK/DC]
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| | France wants to keep €1.6 billion for industrial decarbonisation |
| As part of the debate on France's 2025 budget, the government has introduced an amendment to safeguard €1.55 billion to support the decarbonisation of industry, the third most polluting sector in France in 2023.
“It's not a question of immediate expenditure, but of spending commitments. Industrialists will therefore be able to decide on investments that will actually be launched at a later date”, the office of French energy minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher told the press.
The sum is not insignificant, given that the country is looking for €60 billion in savings.
Prior to France’s budgetary crisis, only €4 billion were released, out of the €10 billion promised by Emmanuel Macron to support private and public investment in decarbonising industry.
The move comes as French industry is struggling. The country’s second-largest trade union currently lists 125 redundancy plans across France’s industry sector.
While it is not guaranteed that France will adopt a budget by the end of the year, the €1.55 billion amendment is likely to survive, as the parliamentary balances favour the governing coalition. [PM]
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| | Baku Bulletin: carbon market stalls, MEPs get their orders |
| After the COP29 presidency hailed a day one ‘breakthrough’ on global carbon markets, negotiators are now poured cold water on the prospects for a comprehensive deal.
The latest text on Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, which deals with carbon trading, has ballooned to more than 50 pages, with disagreement on the details still far reaching.
“We still have open questions and issues,” said the current German negotiator on the issue, Stefan Wenzel, citing a lack of clarity as to how “additional CO2 reductions can be achieved in a sustainable and comprehensible way through reforestation.”
MEPs have also adopted the European Parliament’s resolution on COP29, that will be binding on its 15 members attending the event. Most will attend during the summit’s second week.
The resolution calls for “high emission and high GDP” countries to chip in for global climate action, and makes the case for global carbon markets, among other things.
Discussions on climate finance continue in Baku. Experts have backed a China-G77 proposal for a $1.3 trillion annual target.
However little progress has been made, with the proposed Climate Finance Action Fund, which would divert money from fossil-fuel rich countries to developing ones, struck from the agenda.
Activists warn negotiators against being distracted by large financial figures in isolation.
“Any big shiny number that comes out as a result of these negotiations, without the quality, which means public grants-based finance, will be meaningless,” said Mariana Paoli, advocacy lead at Christian Aid, at a press briefing. [NK]
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| | Germany fails to protect its meadows, rules CJEU |
| Germany has not done enough to prevent the deterioration of its meadows, according to a ruling by the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) yesterday.
In the judgment the CJEU ruled that Germany’s lack of legally binding measures, against the over-fertilisation and early mowing of its lowland hay meadows and mountain hay meadows, violate the EU habitats directive
The country is now required to present appropriate management plans to prevent further deterioration of the meadows. If it fails to do so, it can be subjected to fines as punishment. [JS]
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| | Nuclear industry remains wary after commissioner hearings |
| The EU's nuclear industry is unconvinced by the performances of Teresa Ribera and Dan Jørgensen, the respective incoming commissioner for energy and executive vice-president for the clean transition, in their hearings in front of the European Parliament over the past week.
The pair were in the crosshairs of the nuclear industry, given their historical nuclear-sceptic stance.
Both candidates largely kept their statements close to their respective mission statements from Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, or to already existing or planned EU policies.
Teresa Ribera was willing to endorse the principle of ‘technological neutrality’ - a key phrase for the nuclear industry.
"This is the least we can do," Valérie Faudon, General Delegate of the French Nuclear Energy Society, told Euractiv, "but there is no ambition and no plan".
According to nuclear's defenders, technological neutrality should entail equal regulatory and financial treatment for all low-carbon energies. EU funds and rules, like the green investment taxonomy, the Innovation Fund, and the Just Transition Fund, should therefore be open to nuclear.
However, pro-nuclear energy advocates did not find such commitments in the statements by Jørgensen during his 5 November hearing.
French Liberal MEP (Renew) Christophe Grudler, acknowlged that the Dane did offer some support. But on the financing of nuclear power with EU funds, which Grudler considers to be the key issue, Jørgensen "made no headway."
The nuclear industry is similarly wary of the Spanish and Danish pair.
"We are deeply concerned by the fact that the Commissioner-designate intends to exclude new nuclear power plants from funding opportunities", Finnish energy giant Fortum told Euractiv.
Industry players are also closely following the Commission's delegated act on low-carbon hydrogen, which one player described as "the first real-life test of the Commission's approach to nuclear power."
Overall, the incoming commissioners' promises are not enough, industry lobbyists said.
"This is not the way to catch up with the United States and China", Faudon told Paul Messad.
Authorities across the Atlantic have just announced a plan to triple their nuclear capacity to 200 GW by 2050.
While Jørgensen was approved by MEPs shortly after his hearing, a decision on Ribera has become caught up in a wider row between the Parliament's major political groups.
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| | No Franco-German parliamentary meeting, no joint energy text |
| Bärbel Bas, president of the German Bundestag, announced yesterdat that the meeting of the Franco-German Parliamentary Assembly, scheduled for 2 December, will no longer take place.
Several German MPs expressed their disappointment about the cancellation.
According to a statement by the conservative parliamentary group of CDU/CSU, topics such as energy, Europe and security/defence would have been on the agenda.
The joint-gathering has not met since December 2023. A previous planned meeting in June 2024 was also cancelled.
“Especially in times like this we cannot afford further speechlessness”, says a note signed by centre-right MPs Armin Laschet, Volker Ullrich, Markus Uhl and Andreas Jung.
In a press release published yesterday, French MP Frédéric Petit (Modem, Renew) ‘regrets’ the cancellation of the session, which was due to vote upon his Franco-German resolution concerning an ‘Energy Union’.
In October, Petit told Euractiv that he feared that a postponement of the December session would result in his resolution being shelved indefinitely, due to forthcoming elections in Germany, and that there would be therefore no in-depth Franco-German work in 2025. [JS/PM]
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| Bulgaria, Romania sent to EU top court over wastewater treatment |
| When the Eastern European countries joined the EU, they were given a decade to get their urban wastewater treatment in line with the bloc’s requirements.
Yesterday the Commission decided it had waited long enough, and referred both countries to the EU Court of Justice.
The Commission said that in Bulgaria, wastewater is not collected properly in 10 urban centres with a population of more than 10,000; in another 20 it is collected but not treated sufficiently; and in 30 large urban centres it is discharged into sensitive areas with the bare minimum treatment – all of which should have been addressed by 2010.
In Romania, those violations occur in more than 150 large urban centres – and should have been addressed by 2015. [NK]
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| | Opinion: Commission must hold EU countries to account on NECPs |
| | | | | | Today’s brief was brought to you by Euractiv’s Energy, Environment & Transport team |
| | | | | Today’s briefing was prepared by the Energy, Environment and Transport team: Donagh Cagney, Paul Messad, Nikolaus J.Kurmayer, Bárbara Machado and Jasper Steinlein. Share your feedback or information with us at [email protected]. |
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