Report 14 May 2012 Is Europe giving up on energy efficiency? Virtually everybody agrees that energy efficiency is the number one energy priority for Europe, that it can provide growth, jobs, energy security and environmental benefits, and that it needs intervention by policymakers to really get going. So why is it so difficult for Brussels to agree on a legislative framework to drive energy efficiency? The EU's 27 member states and the European Parliament are further apart than ever in negotiations on a new EU energy efficiency law. The major measure on which a deal is likely to centre is a requirement for energy retailers to deliver 1.5% energy savings per year from their customers. Sonja van Renssen reports from Brussels. More
Advertisement		Analysis 10 May 2012 Italian free-market think tank in new report: "Replace emission trading scheme with a carbon tax" By Karel Beckman If the European Commission wants to stimulate "green growth", as its official policy states, then the Emission Trading System (ETS) is the wrong instrument. That's one of the major conclusions of a new study from the prestigious Italian free-market think tank Istituto Bruno Leoni (IBL). The authors, Stefano Clò and Emanuele Vendramin, argue that a carbon tax would be much more suitable to the goals of the EU's green growth agenda than an emission trading scheme. The ETS is the EU's flagship climate policy instrument, but it is widely criticized for being ineffective. More
Viewpoint 7 May 2012 Peak oil revisited: the real challenges are investment and sustainability, not availability By Noé van Hulst The general perception of global oil reserves is unnecessarily gloomy and far removed from reality, even among many policymakers and academics. This is dangerous because it obscures the real and serious economic and environmental challenges faced by the oil sector, argues Noé van Hulst. The Director of the new Energy Academy Europe calls on the oil industry to devote more effort explaining the public what the real challenges are. More		Viewpoint 7 May 2012 European gas market reforms undermine security of supply By Sergei Komlev Market reformists who are trying to put an end to oil-indexed gas contracts fail to understand the unique value of the current "hybrid" pricing system Europe enjoys in the gas market. If they get their way, Europe will lose the protection of long-term contracts altogether and will move to a purely hub-based short-term pricing model as exists in the US, warns Sergei Komlev, Head of Contract Structuring and Price Formation at Gazprom Export. This model, he says, is not suitable for an import-dependent market like Europe. It will leave Europe at the mercy of short-term market forces without any regard for security of supply. More
Recent posts "The sun is giving us time to come up with smarter solutions for the Energiewende" - 2 May 2012 Fritz Vahrenholt is convinced that the contribution of CO2 to global warming is being exaggerated and there is more time to come up with genuinely sustainable solutions. "We need a decarbonisation policy that favours gas" - 26 April 2012 Interview with Jean-François Cirelli, President of natural gas trade association Eurogas and Vice Chairman and President of French energy company GDF Suez. Repsol down - European mid-caps out - 23 April 2012 The nationalisation of Spanish oil producer Repsol's Argentinian assets points to a much wider problem for mid-sized European energy producers, notes Matthew Hulbert. What history should teach us about blockading Iran - 23 April 2012 Economic war against Iran will not bring the country to its knees. It might, however, lead to a war with incalculable consequences, say Juan Cole and Tom Engelhardt. Germany's stalled energy transition: waiting for the master plan - 19 April 2012 Germany is waiting for the Merkel government to come up with a plan that will show how the Energiewende's ambitious targets are to be met. Cheer up: the world has plenty of oil - 17 April 2012 Author Robin Mills argues that technological innovation has opened up huge new oil resources that can be exploited at competitive prices. The fate of the EU carbon market hangs in the balance - 12 April 2012 If European policymakers do not intervene soon in the EU's emission trading scheme, Europe's flagship climate policy risks sinking into oblivion. The EU's Energy Roadmap 2050: targets without governance - 10 April 2012 Severin Fischer and Oliver Geden of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs argue that the 2050 Energy Roadmap can only be successful if EU member states accept curtailment of their national sovereignty. It's finally coming: the great European gas market transformation - 5 April 2012 The existing structure of the gas market is about to undergo a radical restructuring. Experts are divided on the wisdom of the plans. "I don't think we can solve all our problems by tapping low-hanging shale-gas fruit" - 5 April 2012 An interview with astrophysicist Tom Murphy on renewable energy technologies, nuclear power, shale gas, resource depletion, climate change.

All articles published by European Energy Review are filed in our files section.