
Joint letter – Time to strengthen EU-UK cooperation by linking the EU and UK ETS
In the run up to the EU-UK Summit on May 19th, Bellona and a broad coalition of EU and UK stakeholders are calling on the European Commission and the...
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Publish date: March 13, 2015
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Over the past year, the World Bank as well as broad range of world leaders, including UN climate chief Christiana Figueres, have acknowledged the reality of the carbon bubble and the threat of assets sunk into fossil fuel projects being stranded.
The carbon bubble already taking its victims
The dramatic fall in the oil price has already rendered a number of North Sea oil exploration activities unprofitable and accelerated the decommissioning of related infrastructure. Shell, being one of the major oil companies affected, has recently announced plans to begin decommissioning of its Brent Delta platform. Rig decommissioning may cost €20 billion over the next decade and 60% of those costs will ultimately be borne by the government in question through tax relief (read more on the costs of rig decommissioning here). Moreover, increasing pressure for climate action in the lead up to COP 21, where a post-2015 global climate deal will be agreed on, is likely to lead to more ambitious climate policies being put in place as well as an accentuation of those impacts on major oil companies.
In recognition of this reality, Shell recently filed a resolution, committing itself to publishing detailed analyses of how its business plans go hand-in-hand with climate change objectives. In the recent 2014 Strategic Report, Shell chairman Jorma Ollila refers to the deployment of CCS technology and the establishment of effective carbon pricing systems as the optimal ways of tackling climate change.
Shell has announced cuts in capital investment for 2015 and hopes that its investments in natural gas, biofuels and CCS would secure the company’s financial viability throughout the 2020s. What is more, the oil giant has secured UK government funding for a pilot CCS plant in Scotland, which aims to be the world’s first scale project at a gas-fired power station.
In the run up to the EU-UK Summit on May 19th, Bellona and a broad coalition of EU and UK stakeholders are calling on the European Commission and the...
The Carbon Removal Certification Framework (CRCF) has been formally approved by the Council on the 19th of November 2024 and entered into force on the 9th of December 2024, providing an official mandate for the Commission to develop methodologies on carbon farming and carbon removals. However, the technical documents and specifications are still being drafted and revised for input from the Carbon Removals Expert Group (CREG), of which Bellona is a member.
Recent reports suggest Commission is backsliding on 2040 target commitment. Flexibilities reportedly being discussed include a weaker traje...
Monday this week, Norwegian state-owned petroleum company Equinor (with partners Vår Energi and Petoro) started production at a new Arctic site, with...
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