INTEGRATED RESOURCE PLAN: The Minister of Energy, Dipou Peters, has published the Integrated Resource Plan for energy. However, WWF-SA believes the plan has failed to take into account the most recent developments at Eskom (i.e. Eskom’s proposed increase tariff application and Eskom’s announcement that construction at Kusile has been postponed). See: http://www.fin24.com

CARBON FOOTPRINT: It is estimated that the 2010 FIFA World Cup will produce approximately 2 753 250 tonnes of carbon dioxide. Econ Pöyry, a Norwegian consultancy and engineering firm, has produced a feasibility study for a carbon-neutral World Cup. The report notes that while proposed greening measures and environmental standards can reduce the footprint, they will only affect the smaller components of it (i.e. intercity transport, intracity transport, stadium construction and materials, energy use in stadiums and in accommodation facilities). See: http://www.engineeringnews.co.za

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Tonga is a small island state in the  South Pacific Ocean. Its main exports include Cocnuts, Vanilla Beans, bananas and coffe beans, sold mainly to New Zealand and the U.S. In the past the country has tried to satisfy its energy needs by drilling for natural oil in regions that experts didn’t regard as suitable. Fact is, electricity is still scarce in many of the state’s islands, and a number of them even lack basic electricity supply.

As electricity generation from fossil fuels is being more and more regarded as unreliable and increasingly expensive, the government of the constitutional monarchy has become interested in renewable energy solutions. The island has potential for on and off grid technologies. Read more

The China Low Carbon Platform (CLCP) has been launched this week. CLCP is a new knowledge-sharing platform for low carbon energy and low carbon development for China. The aim of CLCP is to disseminate and share information in Chinese and English on low carbon energy systems and low carbon development strategies that reduce poverty and tackle climate change in China. A specific focus of the platform is on Chinese communities. The platform provides the following services:

• Free download of resources on renewable energy, other low carbon energy and low carbon development
• Free upload of own resources by platform users
• Blogs, chat rooms and a discussion forum to share experience and resources
• Regular news on low carbon energy and low carbon development

The platform is open to practitioners, researchers, policy-makers, businesses and everyone who is interested in energy and low carbon development in China.

The platform can be found within the Eldis Community at http://community.eldis.org/china .

Members are encouraged to contribute to the platform by posting blog items, participating in discussions and uploading their own publications in English and/or Chinese.

In February 2008, the Egyptian Supreme Council of Energy approved an ambitious plan to produce 20% of total electricity from renewable energies by 2020, including a 12% contribution from wind energy. This translates into more than 7,200 MW of grid-connected wind farms. The plan gives enough room for private investors to play a major role in realizing this goal, and the government anticipates that about 400 MW/year will be undertaken by the private sector, while the NREA will carry out about 200 MW/year.

In April 2009 the Egyptian government held its first ever tender on a BOO basis for 250 MW.  Seventy-two companies submitted offers and in November ten companies were shortlisted. The project developer will be required to design, finance, construct, own and operate the power plant for 20 years. The power produced would be sold to the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company. Read more

Today is the deadline under the U.N climate accord for rich countries to submit their targets in terms of GHG emissions, and for developing nations to declare their plans for reducing and slowing down emissions.

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India is getting focused in terms of increasing capacities of renewable power generation during preparations for crucial negotiations at the end of the month. New policies are being introduced in order to accelerate the transition. An important one was the announcement by India’s power tariff regulator in September about better feed-in tariffs for clean electricity. The move is  expected to promote new investment so that renewable electricity supply can expand to meet the goals stipulated in the National Action Plan. The latest is the crafting of rules for trading renewable energy certificates (RECs). The value of one such certificate will be equivalent to one megawatt hour of electricity.

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The Russian Ministry of Energy is focusing on developing and adopting additional renewable energy regulations in order to accelerate the further development of the renewable energy sector.

“It is true that we are the world’s leading nation in terms of energy resources. This does not mean, however, that we should consume these resources irresponsibly.” said President Dmitry Medvedev.

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The Copenhagen Accord acknowledges the scientific view that the increase in global temperature must be limited to no more than 2 degrees in order to keep our planet the way we know it. This view is shared by most countries, rich and poor. This political accord has set a January 31 2010 deadline for rich nations to present economy-wide emissions targets for 2020, and for developing nations to submit their voluntary plans to cut CO₂ emissions. These developing and emerging nations are to communicate those efforts every two years. Mitigation action that needs international support will be recorded with relevant technology, finance and capacity building support from industrialized nations.

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What happened recently in Southern Africa? Our Southern Africa Regional Secretariat put together a short list of the most important new from the region:

Electricity: Cabinet has approved the Integrated Resource Plan (IPR), formulated under the Electricity Regulation Act, and it will guide government on how it can meet the country’s electricity demands. see: http://www.buanews.gov.za

Air pollution: According to the South African Air Quality Information System, air pollution in the Vaal Triangle Area has exceeded government’s Air Quality Management Plan maximum allowance limits. See: http://www.fin24.com

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CDM must work to promote low-carbon energy

REEEP position: classify all renewable energy and energy efficiency technology projects additional

There is little dispute that the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is in urgent need of reform. The entire concept of additionality, where a project must show that it yields an outcome that would not otherwise have happened, is flawed when applied to low carbon energy technologies such as renewables and energy efficiency.

The first shortfall is that other than for small-scale projects, additionality is currently limited to demonstrating  financial additionality.  This theoretical construct does not work at the current low price levels for Certified Emission Reductions (CERs).  The whole system was initially designed for a market where the expected demand and prices would be much higher.

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