Foreign News

Bulgaria’s government approved Wednesday plans to add a new reactor at its Soviet-era nuclear power plant at Kozloduy, effectively ditching another project to build a new plant at Belene. At its weekly session the cabinet backed “the building of unit 7 at Kozloduy with the available equipment from the project for the Belene nuclear power plant,” the government press service said in a statement. The decision followed energy ministry talks with the US nuclear engineering company Westinghouse for a hybrid solution for a new unit at Kozloduy with US technology that would make the maximum use of Russian equipment which Bulgaria has already purchased for Belene.

Nuclear Power Daily 20th Jan 2021 read more »

US Special Envoy on climate change John Kerry has said the country will now push for rapid action after four years of “reckless behaviour” under Donald Trump. Mr Kerry said that withdrawing the US from the Paris agreement had threatened people’s futures all over the world. One of President Biden’s first acts following his inauguration was to re-apply to join the climate pact. Mr Kerry said the US would now move forward with “humility and ambition”.

BBC 21st Jan 2021 read more »

Joe Biden’s pledges of strong action on the climate crisis have buoyed international hopes that 2021 can be a breakthrough year, resetting the world on a greener path to net zero greenhouse gas emissions.

Guardian 21st Jan 2021 read more »

President Biden’s first climate moves send strong signal in key year for global action.

Independent 22nd Jan 2021 read more »

President Joe Biden’s time in the White House could have significant impact on the climate crisis and give the world a fighting chance of keeping global temperatures in check, scientists say.

Independent 21st Jan 2021 read more »

Make no mistake, returning to the Paris climate agreement is not mere symbolism – it is an act cloaked in powerful, political significance. While re-joining the pact involves the simple signing of a letter and a 30-day wait, there could be no more profound signal of intention from this incoming administration. Coming back to Paris means the US will have once again have to follow the rules. Those rules mean that sometime this year the US will have to improve on their previous commitment to cut carbon made in the French capital in 2015. This new target, possibly for 2030, and President Biden’s commitment to reaching net zero emissions by 2050, will be the guide rails for the US economy and society for decades to come.

BBC 20th Jan 2021 read more »

Joe Biden will spend his first hours as president trying to obliterate much of the Trump administration’s deregulatory agenda, restore public land protections and re-establish the United States as a global leader on climate change policy. Biden will sit in the Oval Office later today and sign a sweeping executive order to rejoin the Paris Agreement and undo President Trump’s rollback of greenhouse gas policies, said Gina McCarthy, Biden’s national climate adviser.

Scientific American 20th Jan 2021 read more »

Joe Biden has made a desire to unleash a new era of bold US climate action a central plank of his electoral mandate, and all the signs since his victory last November suggest he is serious about delivering on his promises. A seriousness that culminated in his evocative warning in his inaugural address yesterday that the world was experiencing a “cry for survival” from the planet itself.

Business Green 21st Jan 2021 read more »

Joe Biden’s pledges of strong action on the climate crisis have buoyed international hopes that 2021 can be a breakthrough year, resetting the world on a greener path to net zero greenhouse gas emissions. Climate experts cheered the inauguration of the new US president, who has vowed to rejoin the Paris agreement, rethink US reliance on fossil fuels, and devote hundreds of billions of dollars in stimulus spending to low-carbon economic growth.

Guardian 21st Jan 2021 read more »

Independent 20th Jan 2021 read more »

What is the Green New Deal and how does Biden’s climate plan compare? Just weeks after the US election, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other progressive members of “the squad” rallied outside the Democratic National Committee headquarters demanding Joe Biden embrace the Green New Deal. “We are all here today because of the movement … because at the end of the day, dollars don’t vote, people do,” Representative Ocasio-Cortez said at the rally on 20 November. During the election campaign, President Biden said that he would not pursue a Green New Deal, and instead laid out his own $2trillion plan for addressing the climate crisis. But the president’s plan has drawn criticism from the progressive wing of the Democratic Party who say the proposals do not go far enough.

Independent 20th Jan 2021 read more »

If Donald Trump had hoped to up-end the global consensus on climate change by leaving the Paris Agreement, he has proved ineffectual. As Mr Trump rowed back on environmental regulations and dismissed global warming as a hoax, the rest of the world finally started to get to grips with the need to cut carbon emissions. That Joe Biden is more serious than any previous US president about tackling climate change therefore says as much about the time we’re in as it does about the man himself. Mr Trump’s actions have left the US as a laggard in climate action, trailing the EU and China on carbon neutrality commitments. If the Biden administration has any hope of being at the forefront of this new global reality, the race will be on.

Telegraph 19th Jan 2021 read more »

UK sets out renewable Africa hopes at summit. The UK has grand hopes to extend its links with Africa, particularly in the renewable space where there is clear scope for facilitating investments and supporting increased generation.

Energy Voice 21st Jan 2021 read more »

An electricity mix based on “very high shares of renewable energies” is technically possible, according to the conclusions of a still non-public study by the IEA and RTE, to which Context had access. Parallel to the work carried out by the State to build new nuclear reactors, the report worries the industry.

Contexte Energie 19th Jan 2021 read more »

A study by Criirad, an independent laboratory, shows that radioactive releases from the Golfech nuclear power plant accumulate downstream in the Garonne. The presence of tritium or carbon 14 in aquatic plants remains below regulatory standards. For environmental protection associations, the accumulation of this radioactive waste, whose longevity is important, poses a problem.

20minutes 19th Jan 2021 read more »

At the heart of Franco-Algerian memory: the fight against those irradiated from the Sahara. This January 20, historian Benjamin Stora submits to the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, his report on Franco-Algerian memory. The nuclear tests carried out until 1966 in the Sahara are one of the disputes between the two countries. Investigation.

Le Monde 20th Jan 2021 read more »

Germany receives, quite rightly, a very significant focus when it comes to climate transitions around the world. The country is huge, central to the European Union, and embarking on an ambitious approach to decarbonising its economy. It is a sensitive time in the country, with the imminent departure of long-time Chancellor Angela Merkel, and a ‘climate election‘ due this year. In a series of tweets published on Monday, Agora Energiewende’s project manager for the ‘international coal transition’, Phillip Litz, published a series of new graphics showing how Germany’s progress, to date, has been partly powered by a diverse array of ownership structures across several renewable energy technologies.

Renew Economy 19th Jan 2021 read more »

The next US President Joe Biden says he wants to restore the nuclear deal with Iran – making it a top foreign policy priority. Donald Trump pulled out of the agreement in 2018 and during his time in office the two countries came to the brink of war. So, with so much hostility – and mistrust – between Washington and Tehran, will President Biden be able to revive the deal?

BBC 20th Jan 2021 read more »

New York to build miles of new power lines in renewables push. New York State is moving forward with hundreds of miles of new power lines, the kind of push clean energy advocates would like to see copied across the country. Long-distance transportation is an essential, albeit unglamorous, part of strategies to replace fossil-fueled power plants with emission-free sources. Large solar and onshore wind farms are located on rural land and need a conduit to energy-hungry cities.

FT 18th Jan 2021 read more »