Export credit and development agencies from six developed nations have approved $4.4 billion in funding for oil and gas projects overseas since the start of 2023, research from campaigning group Oil Change International shows.

More than half of the total financing has been provided by the United States ($1.5 billion) and Italy ($1.2 billion), followed by Germany, Japan, the Netherlands and Switzerland.

Claire O’Manique from Oil Change International said the countries are “going rogue by backtracking on their commitment to end international public finance for fossil fuels”.  “Public money that should be going to support a just transition to renewable energy is instead being pumped into more climate-wrecking fossil fuel projects”, she added.

One pledge, many interpretations

Twenty countries signed up to the Glasgow Statement at Cop26 pledging to end new direct public finance for overseas fossil fuel projects by the end of 2022.

However, the signatories have interpreted the promise in different ways.

Mexico’s ruling party picks climate scientist for presidential run

The United Kingdom and France have stopped all public subsidies going to international fossil fuel projects. Italy carved out a wide range of energy security exemptions for the continued support of fossil fuel projects. Germany published a draft policy for its export credit agency last July planning to support new gas projects overseas until 2025. The US has not made its guidelines public.

The Glasgow pledge allowed exceptions in “limited and clearly defined circumstances that are consistent with a 1.5C warming limit”. The International Energy Agency warned last year that investment in new coal, oil and gas production was incompatible with limiting global warming to 1.5C.

LNG and oil expansion

The US and Germany have backed projects aiming to boost the production and trade of liquified natural gas (LNG), which has been in heightened demand since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The expansion of an oil refining facility in Indonesia’s Borneo has received support from the Italian and US export credit agencies. The US Export-Import Bank justified its backing of the project by claiming it would allow Indonesia to reduce its reliance on imported fossil fuels.

African leaders skirt over fossil fuels in climate summit declaration

Analysts and campaigners told Climate Home News that expansion of oil refining falls within the scope of the Glasgow agreement.

The majority of the $4.4 billion greenlit in 2023 comes in the form of state-backed guarantees provided by export credit agencies. These products limit the risk taken by companies selling services and goods in other countries, influencing investment.

Climate Home News has contacted the export credit agencies of Germany, Italy and the US for comment.

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The 1998 Energy Charter Treaty, which has around 50 signatories including European Union countries, lets energy companies sue governments over policies that damage their investments – a system initially designed to support investments in the sector.

But in recent years it has been used to challenge policies that require fossil fuel plants to shut, raising concerns in some European capitals that it is an obstacle to addressing climate change.

A Commission spokesperson told Reuters it will make legal proposals for a coordinated EU exit “in the coming weeks”, after EU countries – some of which already plan to exit the treaty – could not agree to pass reforms to it which would have allowed government to phase out protection for fossil fuels.

Latin America leads resistance to global shipping emission tax

“As it stands, the treaty is not in line with the EU’s investment policy and law and with the EU’s energy and climate goals,” the spokesperson said.

Four sources familiar with the discussions told Reuters the EU executive will make the proposal next week. Three of the sources said Brussels had considered a partial exit that would let some countries stay in the treaty, but opted against it over legal concerns.

Pressure has mounted on Brussels to lead an EU-wide exit after Denmark, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland and Spain announced they planned to quit the treaty. Italy left in 2016.

But the proposal is likely to be opposed by countries including Cyprus, Hungary and Slovakia, which have said they would prefer to stay in an updated version of the accord.

Spain proposes improved 2030 climate target as it awaits Supreme Court ruling

Any proposal will need backing from a reinforced majority of member states and support from the European Parliament, which has publicly backed the idea.

“A coordinated withdrawal would remove one of the main obstacles to realising the EU’s binding climate targets,” said Lukas Schaugg, an analyst at the International Institute for Sustainable Development think tank.

Treaty signatories last year negotiated reforms designed to address some of the climate concerns, but which received a mixed reception from EU countries and criticism from campaigners. The reforms would struggle to pass without EU support.

The unreformed treaty has a “sunset clause” that would protect existing fossil fuel investments in Europe for 20 years even after the EU quit.

Norway approves oil and gas fields despite Cop fossil phase-out push

Despite leaving in 2016, Italy was last year made to pay €190 million ($206 million) to a British oil company for restricting oil drilling.

European officials hope that they can arrange that the treaty is not enforced between EU member states, partly neutralising the sunset clause.

The reformed version would have let governments end investment protections for fossil fuels, a power the EU and UK planned to use to phase out protections in ten years.

Switzerland plans to remain in the treaty while the UK’s position is unclear. Other states in Central Asia and Japan have shown no interest in either reforming the treaty or leaving it.

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Modiano was appointed by the ideologically broad government of Mario Draghi in January 2022 and resigned yesterday, three months into the far-right government of Giorgia Meloni.

He tweeted: “Today, I am leaving the role of Special Envoy for Climate Change. It was an honor to be the first and a privilege to work with the incredible [ministry of the environment and energy security] team, the international community, and outstanding youth!”

Today, I am leaving the role of Special Envoy for Climate Change. It was an honor to be the first and a privilege to work with the incredible @MASE_IT team, the international community, and outstanding youth!

I leave in deeply grateful and, most of all, optimistic.

— Alessandro Modiano (@Al_Modiano) January 16, 2023

Luca Bergamaschi is the director of Italian climate think tank Ecco. He told Climate Home: “Losing one of Italy’s most capable senior diplomat represents quite a critical loss of capacity for Italian climate diplomacy.”

He added: “At the moment Italy doesn’t have a Special Envoy any longer and no one knows if Modiano’s envoy role will be replaced.”

Modiano led Italy’s negotiators at summits like the G20 ministerial meeting in Indonesia and Cop27 in Egypt.

He held meetings with foreign counterparts and announced financial support for climate projects.

World Bank adaptation funds slept through Pakistan’s record flooding

After elections in October 2022, a far-right coalition led by Giorgia Meloni formed a government, taking over from centrist Mario Draghi.

She renamed the “ministry of ecological transition” the “ministry of environment and energy security”.

Minister Roberto Cingolani, a physicist who had used Italy’s G20 presidency to push to phase out coal, was replaced by Gilberto Pichetto Fratin from the right-wing Forza Italia party.

Before joining government, Fratin said he supports Italy developing zero-carbon renewable and nuclear energy as well as fossil gas.

He opposed taxes on plastics and on measures to phase-out internal combustion engines.

“I still can’t imagine the Monza [Italian] Grand Prix [formula one race] without the roar of the engine of the cars on the track,” he said last June.

The post Italy’s climate envoy resigns, leaving diplomacy in doubt appeared first on Climate Home News.

After tens of thousands of Italians protested against the Ombrina Mare oil drilling project in 2015, the Italian government banned oil drilling within 12 miles of Italy’s shoreline. This prevented the project going ahead.

Represented by no-win-no-fee lawyers, the developer Rockhopper sued the Italian government under the controversial Energy Charter Treaty (ECT).

Despite investing just $40-50m in the project, the company claimed for foregone profits estimated at $200-300m. An ECT tribunal awarded €190m ($190m) plus interest.

The company’s share price doubled on the news. CEO Samuel Moody said he was “delighted” and the award would help Rockhopper drill for oil in the Falkland Islands.

Rockhopper’s share price doubled on the news

Paul De Clerck from Friends of the Earth Europe said: “It is scandalous that Italian citizens are now expected to pay Rockhopper €250 million for not destroying the Italian environment and the climate. It is all the more perverse that they get 8 times more than what they invested.”

Cleodie Rickard, trade campaigner at Global Justice Now, agreed, adding: “We need to get rid of this shadowy legal system that poses a threat to the climate – not in ten years time as governments are proposing at the moment, but right now… the UK and countries across Europe should exit the ECT in a coordinated withdrawal and put an end to the risk of being sued.”

The ECT is an energy investment treaty created after the end of the Cold War. It was designed to protect energy investments from arbitrary seizures in the former Soviet Union. Lately, fossil fuel investors have repurposed it to challenge climate policies that effect their profits.

British gas company Ascent Resources is suing the Slovenian government over its requirement for an environmental impact assessment to frack near a water source.

China hit by longest and strongest heatwave on record

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recently warned that investor-state dispute settlement mechanisms in trade agreements like the ECT “may lead to ‘regulatory chill’… [and] lead to countries refraining from or delaying the adoption of mitigation policies, such as phasing out fossil fuels”.

One study in Science found governments could be liable for up to $340bn in damages.

Italy left the ECT in 2015 but remains bound by its rules until 2035 because of the treaty’s 20-year sunset clause. Campaigners have called for ECT members to leave the treaty together and avoid the worst effects of the sunset clause by promising not to enforce its provisions on each other.

XR Salisbury and Global Justice Now outside the Rockhopper Exploration AGM today. The Salisbury-based company is using an obscure legal mechanism, the ISDS, to sue the Italian government after it banned climate-wrecking offshore drilling.
Italian government: Rockhopper: pic.twitter.com/oFvv2WKEq2

— Extinction Rebellion Salisbury (@SalisburyXR) June 28, 2022

EU member states were unable to agree to this. Instead, they and the UK have agreed to end ECT protection for new fossil fuel investments in August 2023 and existing fossil fuel investments 10 years after ratification of the updated ECT, in 2032 at the earliest.

Other member states like Japan, Switzerland, Turkey and several Central Asian countries will continue to protect fossil fuel investments and have their investments protected in other member states. The ECT is looking to expand into Africa and more of Asia.

The post British company forces Italy to pay €190m for offshore oil ban appeared first on Climate Home News.

Argentina’s president Alberto Fernández met German leader Olaf Scholz in May and Italian prime minister Mario Draghi at the G7 summit this week.

In both meetings, Fernández discussed support for a gas liquefaction facility which would allow Argentina’s fracked gas to be stored and transported by sea to Europe. Both Scholz and Draghi agreed to further talks on the issue, he said.

Con el presidente del Consejo de Ministros de Italia, Mario Draghi, dialogué sobre la posibilidad de que su país participe en los proyectos existentes en la Argentina para instalar plantas de licuación de gas y exportarlo.

Seguiremos potenciando los intercambios. pic.twitter.com/LO3O75GV5o

— Alberto Fernández (@alferdez) June 27, 2022

Germany and Italy are among developed countries that committed to end their support for overseas fossil fuel projects by the end of 2022 during the Cop26 climate talks in Glasgow. But at the G7 leaders’ summit this week, both Berlin and Rome pushed the group to water down this commitment.

In a joint communique, the group of wealthy democracies “stress[ed] the important role increased deliveries of LNG [gas] can play” in accelerating the phase out of their dependency on Russian energy and “acknowledge[d] that investment in this sector is necessary in response to the current crisis”.

“In these exceptional circumstances, publicly supported investment in the gas sector can be appropriate as a temporary response,” the statement adds.

Speaking to reporters at the summit, Scholz said “the future does not lie in gas” but “in the short-term, gas is going to be necessary and there can be investments in the transitional phase which are going to have to be supported”.

Draghi echoed his German counterpart’s comments, telling the press: “It’s quite clear that in the present situation, we’ll have short-term needs that will require large investments in gas infrastructure in developing countries and elsewhere.”

Dutch government issues world-first cap on flights from European hub

But analysts told Climate Home News the gas facilities the Argentinian government wants to develop will take too long to build to meet Europe’s short-term need for alternatives to Russian gas.

E3G oil and gas campaigner Euan Graham said: “New public finance for LNG facilities is the dangerous act of a [German] government in crisis mode. By the time it comes online, EU member states could have already eliminated Russian gas.”

For Argentina to export its gas to Europe, it will need a pipeline from the Vaca Muerta gas field to the coast and a liquefaction facility to turn the gas into a liquid known as LNG which can be transported on ships for export.

The Nestor Kirchner pipeline, linking Vaca Muerta with a port on the Atlantic coast, was announced in 2018 but has been hit by political scandals and construction has yet to begin.

Indonesia is learning lessons from South Africa’s tough energy transition deal talks

Mike Fulwood, of the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, told Climate Home that liquefaction facilities usually take about four years to build. “Argentina may take longer,” he added.

According to E3G analysis of the European Union’s recent REPowerEU energy plan, the EU will require 50 billion cubic meters a year of additional LNG up to 2025. After that, the bloc should begin to reduce its LNG demand by replacing it with clean technology like renewables and heat pumps.

The EU’s ‘fit for 55’ package to meet the union’s climate objectives this decade entails reducing gas demand 30% by 2030 on 2021 levels, the E3G analysis found. Italian think-tank Ecco, which did the same analysis but included more recent public statements from the European Commission, put the number at more than 40%.

Ecco policy adviser Annalisa Perteghella told Climate Home: “These projects have long payback periods, meaning that either we are locking-in new gas infrastructure or we are creating stranded assets”.

EU and UK will end investment protection for fossil fuels in 10 years

Alejo Di Risio, from the Argentinian Association of Environmental Lawyers, echoed the concern that an expensive pipeline and liquefaction facility risk being built and not be used for their whole intended lifespan. “Stranded assets are highly likely,” he said.

If the facilities are built, this will encourage production in Vaca Muerta, one of the world’s “carbon bombs” which, if fully exploited, will contribute to blowing the world’s carbon budget, he added. According to the US Energy Information Administration, Argentina has the third-biggest shale gas reserves of any country in the world.

It will cause local environmental and social damage too, Di Risio said. A report by the Socio-Environmental and Energy Justice Alliance last year found that fracking at Vaca Muerta had caused tremors, multiplied landfills, damaged farming yields and that the waste was burnt by fossil fuel companies.

Waste ponds containing toxic fracking chemicals are putting the northern Patagonia ecosystem at risk (Photo: Greenpeace)

An influx of well-paid oil workers into rural Patagonia has caused a ‘gold rush effect’, the report found. It has pushed up the price of food and housing and brought prostitution and the trafficking of women and drugs. “Families with scarce resources [have] pile[d] up on the edge of towns,” it adds.

Oil jobs are well-paid but the conditions are “dire,” Di Riso said. That’s “because of the wind, because of the weather, because [workers] have to go really far from the cities…it’s a harsh climate and pretty desolate,” he said.

Asked for a message for Scholz and Draghi, Di Risio said: “What people don’t want to carry out in their own territories shouldn’t be carried out in other territories that are turned into sacrifice zones”.

A German government spokesperson declined to comment. At the time of publication, the Italian government had not responded to Climate Home’s request.

The post Germany, Italy moot support for gas export facility in Argentina appeared first on Climate Home News.

Cingolani will decide how Italy spends its €82 billion share of EU recovery funds earmarked for green projects. Italy is the largest recipient of the EU’s $672bn recovery fund, receiving €222bn or nearly 30% of the whole package.

Luca Bergamaschi, co-founder of new Italian climate think tank Ecco, welcomed Draghi’s government and the creation of the new ministry but questioned Cingolani’s appointment.

“This is the first time that an Italian prime minister has fully embraced – as a top-level and cross-government priority – the notion of environmentalism,” he said of Draghi.

The creation of the ministry, which takes over energy policy responsibilities previously shared with other departments, was praised by Spain’s minister for the ecological transition Teresa Ribera. Portugal and France have similar ministries.

Un nuevo ministerio de #TransizioneEcologica en #Italia para facilitar un futuro sin emisiones.Enhorabuena! Una excelente oportunidad para fortalecer el trabajo común!
“Roberto Cingolani:uno scienziato per guidare l’Italia verso un futuro a emissioni zero” https://t.co/L76uCAMREl

— Teresa Ribera (@Teresaribera) February 12, 2021

Cingolani will chair a new inter-ministerial committee for the ecological transition. He joins the government from Italian weapons company Leonardo-Finmeccanica, where he was chief technology officer.

Until his appointment, he wrote a regular climate column for Italian newspaper La Repubblica, where he warned climate change risked making dystopian Kevin Costner film Waterworld a reality.

In his last column dated 16 February, he claimed the European Union was the only advanced economy to have significantly reduced its carbon emissions since 2008. Meanwhile, he criticised the US for its high level of per capita emissions and its slow rate of decline, and China and India for their rising emissions.

Great move from #MarioDraghi to pick a Scientist to promote the Italian transition towards the European Green Deal – looking forward to seeing @LDO_CTIO in action #Cingolani https://t.co/2Q5M3DYZEu

— Paolo Melchiorre (@Melchiorre_P) February 13, 2021

Cingolani has previously been supportive of methane gas. In February 2020, he told oil and gas company Eni’s in-house magazine that while fossil fuels “are very polluting,” renewables were also flawed.

“At the moment,” he concluded, “gas is one of the lesser evils. In the medium and long-term, it is the most sustainable resource”.

Bergamaschi said these comments meant environmentalists were sceptical of his appointment. “All eyes will be on his approach to gas”.

Roberto #Cingolani, il fisico-politico, manager di #Leonardo guiderà il super ministero per la #transizioneecologicasolo finte #rinnovabili come l’#Idrogeno e il #gas …Sempre ospite alla #Leopolda di #Renzi …in una parola #Eni! #Vomito https://t.co/FsqtmCrriH

— dukana (@dukana2) February 12, 2021

Gas produced around half of Italy’s electricity in 2019, with renewables generating most of the rest of its electricity production.

“Italy is the world champion of gas infrastructure and gas power plants,” said Bergamaschi. “For energy security, it’s job done. Any new gas is a purely ideological choice.”

Activists at Greenpeace have called on Draghi to step up his predecessor Giuseppe Conte’s climate ambitions.

They say Italy should increase its 2030 renewable electricity target from 55% to 70% and invest in vehicle charging infrastructure to meet its 2030 target for six million electric vehicles.

EU member states divided over green reforms of energy investment treaty

Bergamaschi welcomed the appointment of the new infrastructure and transport minister Enrico Giovannini.

He said the economist was an advocate for sustainability and would help combat Italy’s “huge problem of air pollution in cities”.

Italy is hosting the G20 leaders summit in October and former prime minister Conte’s government pledged to make climate action one of its three priorities.

In the same month, Italy is hosting a youth leaders climate summit and a pre-Cop climate conference in Milan before the formal UN climate talks in Glasgow, UK, in November.

Bergamaschi said the preparations for the summits would not be disrupted by the change in government. If anything, he said, Draghi would strengthen Conte’s climate goals.

The post Italy creates ecological transition ministry but campaigners warn against gas support appeared first on Climate Home News.

While the European Union is pushing for updates of the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) to make it more climate-friendly, Japan has resisted any changes.

Ahead of a second round of negotiations on modernising the pact this week, Luxembourg’s energy minister Claude Turmes said in a webinar the EU might quit the treaty if there was no progress.

“I would not rule out that if nothing moves, if there is not sufficient movement, then you would have no other option than to collectively step out. That was also a discussion raised by France, although I can’t confirm the French government’s commitment,” he said.

Marjolaine Meynier-Millefert, a French lawmaker from president Emmanuel Macron’s party, said reform was preferable to ditching the treaty, but “if we are forced to do so then there would be no other option than to do so”.

On Tuesday, 139 lawmakers in the European Parliament issued a statement warning the treaty “is threatening the climate ambition of the EU domestically and internationally”. They said the EU should withdraw unless it can achieve a rewrite of the pact to scrap protections for fossil fuel investors.

Uniper uses investment treaty to fight Netherlands coal phaseout

The ECT is a pact signed in the 1990s to boost investment flows between western and post-Soviet countries. Provisions to deter states from grabbing private assets have been retooled by energy companies to fight climate policies.

Last year, German utility Uniper threatened to sue the Dutch government under the treaty, because a national plan to phase out coal burning would force the early closure of Uniper’s power station near Rotterdam.

The European Union has proposed amendments that reinforce governments’ “right to regulate” on issues like public health and the environment. But any changes must be passed unanimously and so can be blocked by any of the ECT’s 53 signatories.

A written submission from Japan published by the ECT secretariat in October 2019, before modernisation talks began, asserts 26 times: “Japan believes that it is not necessary to amend the current ECT provisions”.

Among the proposals rejected by Japan are language on the “right to regulate” and changes to the investor-state dispute resolution (ISDS) mechanism.

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Leaked ECT notes seen by Climate Home News show that, ahead of the first round of negotiations in July 2020, Japan expressed “great concerns” about an EU plan for a multilateral investment court to replace the ISDS.

Japan was supported in this by Kazakhstan. In the notes, both nations said “modernisation should be minimal”.

According to Yamina Saheb, a former head of the ECT energy efficiency unit and observer of the negotiations, the 12-strong Japanese delegation in July made no proposals to change the text and called for 2020 discussions to be limited to clarifying national positions.

Japan’s position as the largest single donor to the ECT and the vice chair of the modernisation negotiations means it is influential.

Pia Eberhardt, a researcher at Corporate Europe Observatory, told CHN Japan’s opposition means “it’s very unlikely that we will see any of the changes which we would need to see to make this agreement compatible with climate action”.

Countries promise green recovery at Japanese virtual summit, keep quiet on fossil bailouts

Japan’s reluctance to change the ISDS mechanism reflects the fact that, unlike many European countries, it has never been sued by foreign investors.

On the other hand, Japanese companies have used the ECT to take legal action against governments. So far, these have only been renewables companies angry at a decision by Spain’s previous government to cut subsidies and increase taxes – but fossil fuel companies could use the treaty in a similar way.

Japan is the only G7 country still building coal-fired power plants, both in Japan and overseas. According to Mission 2020, Japanese public finance is behind 24.7 GW of coal power in other countries. That is larger than Australia’s entire coal fleet.

These coal power plants are in India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Chile and Morocco. None of these countries are signatories to the ECT but several are either in the process of acceding or are observers.

And in 2016, the Japanese government changed the law to allow its state-run JOGMEC agency to buy foreign energy assets.

Guterres tells India coal business ‘going up in smoke’ as investors back clean tech

Italy and Russia have left the ECT, although a ‘sunset clause’ means the treaty’s provisions apply for 20 years after they leave.

Russia withdrew from the treaty in 2009, when former shareholders of the Yukos energy company used the ISDS to claim compensation for assets they said had been expropriated by the Russian government.

Italy withdrew from the ECT in 2016. The government said this was to reduce costs associated with membership but it may also have been a response to renewable energy companies taking legal action over a reduction in solar power subsidies.

The post Japan blocks green reform of major energy investment treaty appeared first on Climate Home News.

Spain’s incoming centre-left prime minister Pedro Sánchez named climate hawk Teresa Ribera on Tuesday to lead a new super-ministry spanning energy and environment.

Ribera previously served as secretary of state for climate change 2008-11. Since then, she became director of the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (Iddri) in Paris and sat on the board of several climate-related organisations. She is known as an advocate for clean energy and international cooperation on climate change.

Laurence Tubiana, a key French architect of the Paris Agreement, and former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark were among the first to congratulate her on the appointment.

A great great choice and a big push for Europe ambition! go Teresa go !we will be with you .@Teresaribera https://t.co/e1fDqoZQs8

— Laurence Tubiana (@LaurenceTubiana) June 5, 2018

Adding my congratulations to @Teresaribera who is named as Minister of Environment, Energy & #ClimateChange in new Govt of #Spain . A valued colleague on International Peer Review of German #SusDev Strategy. @RNE_DE @adolfoayuso @JOorthuizen @Africa_activist @MartinezSoliman https://t.co/1f9ZIbjJ7K

— Helen Clark (@HelenClarkNZ) June 5, 2018

Congratulations to @Teresaribera, the new Spanish energy/climate/environment minister. An excellent appointment!

Spain has already been bearing the brunt of climate impacts, and now has the opportunity to be at the front on climate action.https://t.co/XE6ul0KpqP

— Jonathan Gaventa (@jonathangaventa) June 4, 2018

The change of government follows a vote of no confidence in former premier Mariano Rajoy on 1 June, after leading members of his party were convicted of corruption.

Based on her record, Ribera can be expected to promote a faster transition away from coal to clean energy. A member of Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE), Ribera has previously criticised Rajoy’s ousted government over its resistance to closing coal plants. “There is still an incredible inertia on the subject of climate,” she told Euractiv in November 2017.

Sánchez does not have a majority in parliament, however, which may constrain his government’s ability to effect change.

Teresa Ribera: World’s vulnerable must be at the heart of a low carbon transition

Meanwhile Giuseppe Conte, the law professor named to lead Italy’s populist coalition, promised in his inaugural speech on Tuesday to speed up the decarbonisation of the economy.

The coalition agreement between the 5-Star Movement and right-wing League parties puts a strong emphasis on the green economy. League’s manifesto states: “Man and environment are two sides of the same coin. Whoever fails to respect the environment fails to respect himself.”

It is short on specific policies to back up the rhetoric, however, noted E3G expert Luca Bergamaschi. “For now we can expect continuity with previous commitments and actions. Unless the new government develops a credible strategy and moves rapidly towards implementation, the government contract and the speech of the new PM will be just words.”

Seven EU member states have launched a campaign for the bloc to increase its 2030 climate target, in line with the Paris Agreement. Backing that initiative could be “a good first step” for the new government to prove its climate credentials, Bergamaschi said.

Caitlin Tilley contributed to this article.

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Several countries are grappling with the effects of this extreme heat, which include wildfires and water restrictions.

Temperatures have soared past 40C in parts of Italy, Greece and the Balkans, with the extreme heat spreading north into the Czech Republic and southern Poland.

Some areas are having their hottest temperatures since 2007 when severe heat also brought dangerous conditions to the southeast of the continent.

The heat is associated with a high pressure system over southeast Europe, while the jet stream guides weather systems over Britain and northern Europe. In 2007 this type of split weather pattern across Europe persisted for weeks, bringing heavy rains and flooding to England with scorching temperatures for Greece and the Balkans.

Europe is a very well-studied region for heatwaves. There are two main reasons for this: first, it has abundant weather observations and this allows us to evaluate our climate models and quantify the effects of climate change with a high degree of confidence. Second, many leading climate science groups are located in Europe and are funded primarily to improve understanding of climate change influences over the region.

The first study to link a specific extreme weather event to climate change examined the record hot European summer of 2003. Since then, multiple studies have assessed the role of human influences in European extreme weather. Broadly speaking, we expect hotter summers and more frequent and intense heatwaves in this part of the world.

We also know that climate change increased deaths in the 2003 heatwaves and that climate change-related deaths are projected to rise in the future.

To understand the role of climate change in the latest European heatwave, I looked at changes in the hottest summer days over southeast Europe – a region that incorporates Italy, Greece and the Balkans.

I calculated the frequency of extremely hot summer days in a set of climate model simulations, under four different scenarios: a natural world without human influences, the world of today (with about 1C of global warming), a 1.5C global warming world, and a 2C warmer world. I chose the 1.5C and 2C benchmarks because they correspond to the targets described in the Paris Agreement.

As the heatwave is ongoing, we don’t yet know exactly how much hotter than average this event will turn out to be. To account for this uncertainty I used multiple thresholds based on historically very hot summer days. These thresholds correspond to an historical 1-in-10-year hottest day, a 1-in-20-year hottest day, and a new record for the region exceeding the observed 2007 value.

While we don’t know exactly where the 2017 event will end up, we do know that it will exceed the 1-in-10 year threshold and it may well breach the higher thresholds too.

Climate change is increasing the frequency of hot summer days in southeast Europe. Likelihoods of the hottest summer days exceeding the historical 1-in-10 year threshold, one-in-20 year threshold and the current record are shown for four scenarios: a natural world, the current world, a 1.5C world, and a 2C world. Best estimate likelihoods are shown with 90% confidence intervals in parentheses. (Credit: Author provided)

Whatever threshold I used, I found that climate change has greatly increased the likelihood of extremely hot summer days. The chance of extreme hot summer days, like this event, has increased by at least fourfold because of human-caused climate change.

My analysis shows that under natural conditions the kind of extreme heat we’re seeing over southeast Europe would be rare. In contrast, in the current world and possible future worlds at the Paris Agreement thresholds for global warming, heatwaves like this would not be particularly unusual at all.

There is also a benefit to limiting global warming to 1.5C rather than 2C as this reduces the relative frequency of these extreme heat events.

As this event comes to an end we know that Europe can expect more heatwaves like this one. We can, however, prevent such extreme heat from becoming the new normal by keeping global warming at or below the levels agreed upon in Paris.

Andrew King is a climate extremes research fellow at the University of Melbourne. This article was first published on The Conversation.

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Strip-mining for lignite flattens the landscape in east Germany

By Silvia Giannelli, Anja Krieger and Elena Roda

When the bulldozers are gone, not much is left. “Over there was the village of Kausche, around 800 people lived there,” former school teacher Reinhard Kapelle points north over the vast, scarred landscape towards an indefinite point in the cloudy sky.

The effects of lignite, or brown coal, extraction are obvious here in the east German region of Lusatia. An observation deck framed by banners of the Swedish energy company Vattenfall permits a glimpse onto the mine: what was once green farmland has turned into a raw brown landscape.

On the horizon, you can see the silhouette of the power plant fed by the coal, called Schwarze Pumpe – the Black Pump. To feed it, Vattenfall’s massive machines have stripped the soil down 90 to 130 meters. Everything overground had to go.

Among the communities left are the towns of Proschim and Welzow. But under Vattenfall’s plans, as soon as 2024, the village of Proschim will also vanish. Its 360 inhabitants are deeply divided on the issue.

Volker Glaubitz, Proschim’s deputy mayor, is in favour of Vattenfall’s plans. “There must be renewable energy in the future, but right now it is too expensive,” he argues.

Volker and Ingrid Glaubitz are in favour of the new mine

Across the street, farmer Johannes Kapelle disagrees: “Coal is something that belongs to the past,” he says, proudly presenting his solar panels on the roof and the wind mills behind his house.

Proschim produces more electricity from renewables than it can consume. “So this is really a forerunner village in Brandenburg,” says Daniela Setton, energy expert of Friends of the Earth Germany, “and for this to be destroyed by lignite mining… ridiculous, we cannot accept this.”

Proponents of lignite say it can bridge the gap left as Germany phases out nuclear, but sustainability experts say it is not the best option.

“These are the dirtiest power plants there are,” explains Corinna Klessmann of Ecofys, a consultancy in renewable energy, efficiency and climate policy.

Power plants fed by lignite need to run day and night. They cannot be booted up and down to occasionally substitute temporary shortages of renewables, like in the winter times, when there is less sunlight.

“Gas-fired power plants are a good bridge technology, a good supplement to fluctuating renewable energies, because they are very flexible,” says Klessmann.

But with a gas market depending on Russian imports, the crisis in Ukraine, and lignite coal being the cheapest option, the exploitation of lignite comes in handy for many. The contradiction to Germany’s image as a leader of the energy transition is evident.

Johannes Kapelle shows off his solar panels
(Pic: IPS News)

Lusatia has become a focal point for the struggle behind the German government’s “Energiewende” strategy, aimed at making the country a world leader in renewable energy.

The goals are ambitious: until 2020, Germany plans to reduce its CO2 emissions by 40%. But the country is only on track to reach 30% and is not obliged to achieve its self-imposed goal.

“That’s what we criticise. We say it should be fixed by law,” says Daniela Setton of Friends of the Earth.

Germany already produces 25% of its energy from renewables, so it is the lignite-fired power plants that pose the challenge. And Germany is still the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases in the European Union.

European ambitions

The European Union has a triad of goals for the year 2020, the so called 20:20:20 targets.

First, the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 20% compared to the 1990 levels; second, an increase of the share of renewables in the EU’s energy mix to 20%; and third, the a 20% improvement in energy efficiency. These goals are all part of a directive that is now binding for all member states.

But it is up to the single countries to decide what policies to put in place in order to achieve the goals. The EU sets no specific restrictions on the extraction and production of fossil fuels, only an overall emission cap.

The EU’s main policy to discourage coal burning is the emissions trading system (ETS), which puts a price on carbon dioxide pollution for power generators and heavy industry.

But with the economic crisis, demand for emissions allowances dropped and the price with it.

Setton says: “The prices are so down that for example in Germany lignite is the most attractive option on the market.”

The ETS covers the EU’s largest industrial plants including power generation and manufacturing industry. These sectors are responsible for around 45% of the EU’s total greenhouse gas emissions.

Meanwhile, negotiations are ongoing among energy and environment ministers of all member states  to renovate their commitment with new targets for 2030.

In order to keep global warming under the 2°C threshold, the EU has set a roadmap  to cut its greenhouse gas emissions 80% to 95% by the mid-century.

The agreement for the 2030 targets is set to be finalised during a European Council meeting on 23 and 24 October.

REPORT: Danish minister tours Europe to promote 2030 deal

Italy is set to preside over that meeting and the inevitable last-minute disagreements.

Whether binding or not, and more or less ambitious, not everyone agrees on the impact of the EU targets in fighting climate change.

“In my modest opinion [they are] completely irrelevant, it’s numbers thrown at random,” says Ugo Bardi, professor of physical chemistry at Italy’s University of Florence.

“What counts is how fast you can go through the transition, and you have to go fast, otherwise it would be too late to… avoid the well-known tipping point of climate change”.

Bardi argues that fossil fuels need to be used wisely to enable the transition to renewables. But in his home country Italy, the economic and societal dynamic is pushing in the opposite direction.

Italy has strong potential for hydroelectric and solar power. It got 13.5% of energy from renewable sources in 2012 and is set to increase that to 17% by 2020.

But at the same time, prime minister Matteo Renzi has signed a law promoting oil and gas exploration and storage. It says these activities “have strategic interest and are of public utility, urgent and not deferrable”.

Donatella Bianchi, president of WWF Italia says: “These actions are dangerous and counterproductive for the future of the country. When deciding over fundamental choices, we need far-sighted and innovative proposals that take account of the growing environmental awareness of citizens.”

Indeed, the lack of a clear, long-term plan in Italy’s energy strategy makes it hard to see the possible new quest for oil and natural gas as a bridge technology, as might be argued for Germany’s lignite. On the contrary, they rather seem the product of a money-oriented choice driven by the economic crisis.

In Italy, explains Bardi, “the GDP has been contracting for seven years in a row and […] the government desperately tries to find money to pay the debt.”

In richer European countries with a growing economy, the energy transition is still a viable and affordable project.

The reversion in Germany to carbon-intensive energy is a result of the old industry’s attempts to remain in control and get as much as what’s left of the cake.

As the case of Proschim shows, even in the country of the “Energiewende”, fiery struggles take place between winners and losers of the transition.

But compared to Italy, Germany still has a quite easy time to carry out its ambitions, as the economy is still growing.

The transition towards renewables and efficiency becomes more difficult for those countries that experience a long-term recession.

Silvia Giannelli, Anja Krieger and Elena Roda are freelance journalists. Their travel and research was co-funded by the European Council’s Mediane programme.

The post The energy bridge: How EU countries justify fossil fuels appeared first on Climate Home News.

It will to encourage them to partner with the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) scheme, which works with corporations to save costs by cutting waste and building sustainable supply chains.

Over 100 companies have already signed up to Italy’s National Environmental Footprint Program, launched in 2009. The Government plans to invite the 100 leading firms to join this year.

“It’s important because Italy is at an early stage of disclosing our reporting data,” CDP’s Italy Director Diana Guzman told RTCC.

Venice is having to adapt in the face of rising sea levels and unpredictable weather patterns (Pic: Ed King)

“In terms of government action they are still working on building capacity within corporations, and discussing what carbon footprints mean.

“CDP is the next natural step for companies to report and disclose on those emissions.”

According to the European Environment Agency, Italy’s greenhouse gas emissions have declined by just 4.9% since 1990, a poor record compared to the UK (28.1%) or Germany (26.4%).

Italy has a relatively low profile on environmental issues, rarely making a scene at the UN climate talks, although it did boast one of the largest EU pavilions at the Rio+20 summit in 2012.

The country has limited energy resources, but high levels of sunny days encouraged the government to roll out a €6.7 billion solar PV funding programme, which will see around 17GW of installed.

CDP Chief Executive Paul Simpson welcomed the news as another sign Italian business is moving towards a more sustainable platform.

“In 2012, we saw a 30% increase in the number of companies responding to us in Italy with 46 of the top 100 Italian companies disclosing to CDP and this new partnership will further boost reporting,” he said.

“It is a great development, which we are working to replicate with other national governments around the world.”

The post Italy calls on business to embrace environmental reporting appeared first on Climate Home News.

Italy’s Minister for Environment has told RTCC that the Rio+20 summit marks the point where emerging economies need to take responsibility for ensuring their economic growth is achieved in as sustainable fashion as possible.

Speaking at the Rio+20 summit in Brazil, Corrado Clini told RTCC: “We have to take into account that in the last 20 years, the economy in the world has changed. In ’92 the developed countries were asked to commit to the sustainable development of all the planet.”

RTCC Video: Ed King talks to Minister Clini at the Pavilion TV studio in the Rio Conventions Pavilion at the Earth Summit in Brazil about common but differentiated responsibility, Italy’s role at the conference and what the Summit could achieve…

“In 2012 we have to say the former developing countries, the emerging economies have the responsibility to join a common objective in the development of sustainable technologies for addressing the future, of feeding economic growth with low carbon technologies and with effective technologies.”

As countries begin the final preparatory talks before the high-level section of the Rio+20 Summit next week, countries are still at odds over many aspects of the text.

In a similar trend to the climate change negotiations under the UNFCCC, the idea of common but differentiated responsibility – the historic responsibility of the developed world for the problems we currently face – is a key sticking point for many countries.

While Clini stresses that this idea should not be abandoned, he urges the emerging economies – some of the fastest growing economies in the world – to step up and accept their share of the responsibility moving forward.

While he does not expect to see a global treaty come of the discussions taking place in Brazil, he hopes that they will set a new pathway for action over the coming decades, which takes into account the current economic reality and provides a new format for negotiations which will see emerging economies partner with Europe.

“In the end if you look at the reality of the economy we can say that after Rio+20 we should change the format,” he said. “We should start to consider how to join the developed countries and the emerging economies in a common objective to the future of the planet.

“Today we have mainly a common responsibility.”

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