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In brief

The circular house, King Coal weakening, Delivering on Paris, Black and green utilities, G20 changing course, Greener energy investment

Less but greener global energy investment

Global energy investment fell by 8% in 2015, with a drop in oil and gas upstream spending outweighing continued robust investment in renewables, electricity networks and energy efficiency, according to World Energy Investment 2016. In a first-ever detailed analysis of investment across the global energy system, the International Energy Agency said investment in energy supply in the United States fell nearly $75 billion to about $280 billion in 2015, caused by low oil prices and cost deflation. The fall represents half of the total decline in global energy spending that year. Investment of $313 billion in renewable energy accounted for nearly a fifth of total energy spending last year, establishing renewables as the largest source of energy investment.

G20 economies reach eight per cent renewable energy

The world’s 20 largest economies, the G20, are slowly shifting away from dependence on fossil fuels. Over the past ve years their share of electricity from renewable energy, excluding hydropower, has increased 70%, to 8% in 2015. In the OECD the share of renewables in total primary energy supply reached 9.7% in 2015. Of potentially most significance is the new wind blowing from China. While the country still builds many coal plant, it is also the world’s largest clean energy market, accounting for close to a third of the $329 billion invested in the sector globally in 2015. After being regarded as a green laggard to Europe and the US for 20-30 years China could in 2015 boast a domestic wind turbine manufacturer, Goldwind, that had sold more capacity that year at home and abroad than any other company. Goldwind’s stated main mission is to reduce China’s fossil fuel dependency rather than to increase market share. morgenthaler_jpeg

Black and green divide

Several of the big energy companies are turning to renewables. German power giant E.ON has placed its bet on a renewable energy future, choosing to split the company into two, Uniper for conventional energy and E.ON for renewables. The boss of oil major Total, Patrick Pouyanne, has said that renewables will make up 20% of the French company’s assets within 20 years. Earlier this year, Statoil launched a green energy investment fund, pledging $200 million to it over the next seven years. Not all energy majors, however, shares the same belief in renewables. American Exxon sees little reason to diversify and is sticking with oil and gas as its core business. Likewise, BP continues in its core business, which it wholly returned to after Lord Browne left the company in 2007. During his reign as BP boss from 1995 to 2007, Browne made a name for himself by rebranding British Petroleum as “Beyond Petroleum.”

King Coal weakening

Coal is losing out globally. Several coal stations in planning have been dropped this year. In March, a total of 338 GW of coal capacity was under construction and 1086 GW in development, according to CoalSwarm, an environmental research group. Since then 14% of planned capacity has been dropped, a reduction of 159 GW, equivalent to nearly all coal capacity in Europe. Most of the shelved development was in China and India. In April, the Chinese government suspended 78 GW of pre-construction coal plant proposals, hinting that it may suspend all new coal plant construction until 2018. In India, the power ministry said in June that no new coal capacity was needed in the next three years beyond that already under construction.

The Circular House

At long last even the construction industry is beginning to embrace the principles of the circular economy. The first prototype house built from fully re-useable components, each of them digitally tagged with a QR code from window frames to door fixings, was recently showcased at the UK’s London Design Festival. ˮAs an industry we should aim to eliminate waste and design for re-use,ˮ says Stuart Smith of Arup, a global construction industry company with Danish origins. ˮVery few have tried to apply circular economy principles to the built environment,ˮ he adds. ˮOur aim has been to test if this approach could be widely adopted. ˮThe house is designed to be deconstructed with minimum damage, helping to retain the value of each component. Everything used in the construction is included in a ˮbuilding information modelˮ which acts as a virtual materials database to help others design and build using circular economy principles, says Arup. The Circular Building and accompanying Arup report, ˮThe Circular Economy in the Built Environment,ˮ are part of Arup’s push to accelerate the construction industry’s shift to a circular economy.

Delivering on the Paris promise

In the wake of the Paris Agreement signed in December 2015 it was also decided to place a greater burden of responsibility on rich countries than poor countries. Industrialised countries are expected to reduce emissions faster than their developing counterparts and to transfer technology to speed the transition of poorer countries to low carbon economies. To facilitate this, the UN has established the Climate Technology Centre and Network (CTCN). Since CTCN started to process requests in 2014, the demand for its technical assistance has grown steadily from 15 requests in September 2014 to 148 requests in September 2016. This trend is expected to grow much stronger when the Paris Agreement goes into effect in 2020.

ILLUSTRATION Anders Morgenthaler