Three things you shouldn't miss this week
1) Chart: Mapping the US carbon cap. Necessary emission reductions for existing power plants broken down by state:
2) Article: Solar to match coal in China by 2016, threatening fossil dominance - Wuxi Suntech Power expects the cost of electricity from solar modules match to coal-powered stations in China as soon as 2016.
3) Commentary: The Global Energy Market’s Moment of Truth - this is not a temporary market blip but a fundamental shift.
Is the writing finally on the wall for fossil fuels? In the last fortnight we’ve seen new rules on coal emissions in the US, the prospect of a cap on coal consumption in China, and a report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) highlighting the risks to fossil fuel investment.
Though the focus of the IEA report was energy investment, what came across was the spectre of peak oil. The agency sees the brief US shale boom “running out of steam” in the 2020s, forcing the world back into the arms of the Middle East where there is a risk that “investment fails to pick up in time to avert a shortfall in supply”. The numbers show the oil and gas industry sprinting to stand still: “More than 80% of the cumulative $17.5 trillion in upstream oil and gas spending is required to compensate for decline at existing oil and gas fields.”
resilience