Posts Tagged ‘policy’

16 December 2008

Obama names energy team

President-elect Barack Obama has named the energy team for his new administration. Obama has nominated Nobel Prize-winning physicist and alternative energy advocate Steven Chu as his Secretary of Energy. Chu is director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and is a Professor of Physics and Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of California, Berkeley.

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15 December 2008

The Sustainable Development Commission highlights UK Government’s renewable energy progress

The Sustainable Development Commission has released data highlighting the UK Government's progress towards meeting its own sustainability targets.

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15 December 2008

Australia targets climate change action

The Australian Minister for Climate Change and Water, Senator Penny Wong, has returned from the United Nations Climate Change negotiations in Poznan, Poland.

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15 December 2008

Australia to bring forward investment in renewable energy

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has announced plans to bring forward the full amount of the Renewable Energy Fund, around AUS$500m, for investment in the next 18 months.

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12 December 2008

New Zealand considers biofuel law change

New Zealand Energy and Resources Minister Gerry Brownlee has proposed a bill to repeal the obligation placed on oil companies to sell a certain proportion of biofuel.

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11 December 2008

EU Renewable Energy Directive needs urgent agreement says renewable energy industry

The UK Renewable Energy Association has urged the European Union to reach a political agreement on the draft EU Renewable Energy Directive without delay.

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10 December 2008

EPIA applauds the European Renewable Energy Directive

The European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA) applauded the agreement reached on the European Renewable Energy Directive.

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9 December 2008

Europe’s energy organisations call for strong government funding

Major European energy organisations have issued a letter to all heads of government in advance of the European Council Meeting on 11 December 2008, calling for strong funding to support the development of 12 industrial scale carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects by 2015.

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9 December 2008

EcoSynthetix receives $750,000 funding from Michigan state pension fund as part of government initiative

US bio-based technology company EcoSynthetix has received a $750,000 investment from the Michigan state pension fund.

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27 November 2008

UK passes climate change and energy legislation

Three new Acts of Parliament, the Climate Change, Energy and Planning Bills have been passed this week. The acts will help facilitate the UK's transition to a low-carbon economy, deliver a long-term, secure energy supply, and enshrine in law ambitious targets to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by 80 per cent, according to Energy and Climate Change Secretary, Ed Miliband.

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25 November 2008

UK needs to pick up pace on climate change targets, Miliband

'We have set tough targets for climate change, and in my view we need to pick up the pace even on what we have achieved - and I want to highlight some key priorities.'

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25 November 2008

Chancellor Darling sacrifices environmental sustainability for fiscal sustainability, KPMG

Commenting on the UK Chancellor Alistair Darling's announcements on the environment, Frank Sangster, head of the Environmental Tax and Incentives Group of KPMG in the UK said, ‘The Chancellor has effectively prioritised fiscal sustainability over environmental sustainability.'

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25 November 2008

EU renewable energy targets could be a costly and risky affair for UK, report

The UK Government's efforts to meet its EU 2020 renewable energy targets, even if unsuccessful, may force the UK to adopt an unnecessarily costly and risky approach to reducing carbon emissions, according to the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee.

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20 November 2008

US Department of Energy, Environmental Protection Agency promote energy efficiency

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and US Department of Energy have released an action plan promoting energy efficiency.

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19 November 2008

Obama: My presidency will mark a new chapter for climate change

US President-elect Barack Obama has reaffirmed his status as the man to change the US' green economy, in a video released online. He states that there are few challenges facing the world today that are more pressing than tackling climate change.

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6 November 2008

Missouri adopts clean energy initiative

The US state of Missouri has adopted a clean energy initiative stating that the state's three large investor-owned utilities must source 15 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2021. With Missouri's adoption of these new standards, more than half the states in America have adopted renewable portfolio standards.

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22 October 2008

Biofuels: Understanding the EU regulatory regimep

In an effort to mitigate climate change and reduce dependency on foreign energy supplies, the European Union has been promoting the production and use of biofuels made from agricultural commodities for the last ten years. As biofuels are expensive to produce, relative to fossil fuels, the Community and its Member States are using both legislative and policy measures to encourage their development, according to this special report from DLA Piper.

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22 October 2008

Hawaii announces 70 per cent clean energy target

Hawaii will seek to have 70 per cent of its energy use derived from clean energy sources by 2030, in an agreement drawn up between Hawaiian Electrical Co. and Hawaiian Governor Linda Lingle.

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21 October 2008

Environment: EU publishes its proposals to meet its 2020 emissions reduction targetp

At the March 2007 European Council summit, EU member states committed themselves to cutting the EU’s greenhouse gas emissions by 20 per cent by 2020, compared with 1990 levels, with a promise to move to 30 per cent if other industrialised countries follow suit.

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3 October 2008

New German Renewable Energies Act adoptedp

On 1 January 2009, the new German Renewable Energies Act, the material economic framework for renewable energy projects in Germany, will enter into force. It contains a number of amendments to the regulation of renewable energy plants in Germany, including new remuneration rates for electricity generated from renewable energies and provisions on direct marketing of such electricity. This briefing from law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer looks at the implications of this new act.

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