Tuesday 8 November 2016

Say After Me: GDP Trumps GHG ...

While we await the outplaying of the Ameri-farce, here's an amusing story:
Greece set to win €1.75bn from EU climate scheme to build two coal plants
Yes, and lignite plants to boot.   Lignite! 
"You couldn’t make this up,” added Imke Lübbeke, WWF Europe’s head climate and energy policy. “The ETS was intended to reduce greenhouse gas emissions but it now risks being abused to facilitate investments in the new coal plants, which would operate well within the 2060s. This would violate climate targets and is in no way compatible with the leadership role the EU aspires to play in global climate policy and carbon markets.”
Well, there you go.  (In case you were wondering, I didn't make up "Imke Lübbeke", either.)  Law of unexpected consequences, plus my old motto of GDP always trumping GHG.  And this coupled with two other Grauniad stories this week:  hydro power turns out not to be 'clean', and wind turbines are conducting a massacre of bats.   

Life is never as simple as we hope, is it?  We feel their pain.

ND

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nuclear power stations don't emit methane or kill bats, and they work when the Sun isn't shining.

Don Cox

dearieme said...

"the leadership role the EU aspires to play": ah, the old Fuhrerprinzip again.

rwendland said...

OT a bit: ND, do you have any inside knowledge on the likely effect of 20 of France's 58 nuclear reactors being offline, with a rolling programme through the winter, due to the Le Creusot Forge steel carbon-content "irregularity" fisco?

Looks to me like a big electricity supply issue for this winter across Europe, and a big hit on EDF profits. Surprisingly little yet in MSM. Best refs I've found so far are from a trade mag and the FT:

http://www.powermag.com/frances-nuclear-storm-many-power-plants-down-due-to-quality-concerns/

https://www.ft.com/content/f86a3c6c-9c60-11e6-a6e4-8b8e77dd083a

and if you want detailed technical info from a nuclear engineer:

http://www.greenpeace.org/france/PageFiles/266171/Note_LargeAndAssociates_EN_26092016.pdf

Nick Drew said...

Mr W - I learned about this from the French mag Le Point (often worth taking a look at - e.g. this piece http://www.lepoint.fr/politique/nucleaire-la-feuille-de-route-energetique-de-la-france-critiquee-28-10-2016-2079238_20.php), but the sources you've found seem to cover the ground very well (haven't read the whole of the 1st & 3rd yet - thanks for the links)

the knock-on for all the many countries to which EDF usually exports electricity will be lengthy: and as the FT says, EDF is dead keen to press ahead with more interconnectors, all of which will be 2-way ...

my own summation of this is that it points out just how flaky EDF is: you'll know that long ago I predicted they'd need to get a euro-bailout for their astronomical decommissioning liabilities

Hinkley is yet doomed! hahah

Blue Eyes said...

I recall several years ago there were strikes in the French energy industry and the UK was exporting power at some pretty scandalous prices :-)

Let's hope for a windy winter... not too windy, of course.

Ravenscar. said...

All those years financially hammered in the single market has so depressed Greece to Third World status and therefore she qualifies for EU emissions trading handouts.

and lignite burning, is beyond fucking parody.

rwendland said...

ND, I see Reuters have picked up on this French nuclear reactor closure and inspection programme, so I guess the MSM will catch up in a couple of days:

http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-france-power-winteroutlook-idUKKBN1332C6

I can't deny I've had a bit of a giggle over Hinkley. A sorry saga that keeps giving. Interesting this story did not fully escape from ASN until the Hinkley contract was finally signed.

The nuclear engineer's report has a timely reminder that if EDF cannot get Flamanville fully working by 2020, the UK Credit Guarantee is dropped. So EDF will have to find even more finance!

Also that Le Creusot Forge failed to fully record the manufacturing parameters of the Flamanville pressure vessel! They seem to have found flawed records and quality paperwork going back to 1965! There have been suggestions falsifications of quality records took place. This is going to be a tricky one for EDF now that it seems the French nuclear regulator is showing firm independence.

Greenstick said...

@ MSM will catch up in a couple of days:

Also see Private Eye this week.