Sam Morgan

Articles by Sam Morgan. Visit Sam’s bio

11 min
27/May/2022

A new way to count greenhouse gas emissions

 Regulators normally only keep tabs on the climate-bashing emissions produced within a country’s territory—discounting or even completely ignoring the carbon emitted during the manufacturing and shipping of imported goods. Sweden is bucking that trend with an ambitious new policy
12 min
18/February/2022

Fiscal reform may make or break EU green hearts

 A review of the European Union’s fiscal rules in 2022 could open the door for massive public investments into the energy transition. A political fight over the direction of that amendment will dictate just how ambitious Europe can afford to be with its green policies
12 min
16/December/2021

Cross-border cables hold a crucial role in the energy transition

 An interconnected transmission grid in Europe would result in lower prices and greater levels of clean energy. But several nations are falling behind on export capacity leading to some member states looking beyond the Union’s borders
12 min
16/November/2021

The neighbourhood approach to decarbonisation

 Thousands of buildings across Europe will need to be renovated on an unprecedented scale if climate and greenhouse gas reduction targets are to be met. Lawmakers’ minds are turning to how best to undertake the Herculean task
13 min
12/October/2021

Cities warmed by heated market for power contracts

 Once regarded as a high risk gamble, buying green electricity directly from generators under a mutually agreed power purchase agreement (PPA) has become big business in the commercial and industrial sector. City authorities eager to cut their electricity bills and buy renewable are looking to get into the market. The new demand is set to drive big growth in renewables
11 min.
14/May/2021

Battle lines drawn over CCS access to European funding

 The European Union is deciding which technologies and projects should have access to crucial funding. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology has its issues but some lawmakers and industries believe emission reduction targets cannot be met without it
9 min.
23/April/2021

A climate council should marry policies with ambition

 European Union climate policies need to become more ambitious as the bloc looks to hit its net-zero emissions goal for 2050. But a gap between what is agreed on paper and deployed in the real world means a risk of having to do more than one energy transition. Lawmakers are setting up an EU-wide advisory board to bridge that void
10 min.
05/March/2021

Metrics that inflate the cost of the energy transition are under attack

 Put garbage into an economic model and garbage comes out. By using a discount rate that inflates the cost of the energy transition, the EU’s executive body is undermining the bloc’s new and more ambitious carbon reduction goal. Behind the scenes, however, method may lie in the madness. Officials working on legislative updates are suspected of holding a negotiating trump card up their sleeves