Ecologist: Europe's dash for gas is leading Halliburton, Chevron and Exxon to consider bringing hydraulic fracturing across the Atlantic
Luke Starr for the Ecologist guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 1 December 2010 12.47 GMT
Despite growing evidence from the US of a raft of negative environmental and social consequences of drilling for natural gas using the controversial hydraulic fracturing process, European energy companies are scrambling to secure licenses to roll out extraction projects this side of the Atlantic.
Hydraulic fracturing – also known as 'fracking' – is a process used in the vast majority of natural gas wells in the US, where millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals are pumped underground to break apart rock formations and release gas. Experts have increasingly expressed concern that the chemicals used in fracking may pose a threat underground or when waste fluids are transported or spilled.
As in the US, shale gas is being increasingly seen as a way to sever links with a volatile provider, only in Europe's case it is not Middle Eastern oil sheikhs but oligarchs at Russian giant Gazprom.
In August, US energy corporation Halliburton carried out the first hydraulic fracturing of a well in Poland on behalf of the state-owned Polish Oil and Gas Company (PGNiG). Energy consultancy Wood MacKenzie estimates the country's reserves could stand at 1.4 trillion cubic meters. The high numbers have got US companies Exxon and Chevron scrambling to drill test wells alongside smaller companies such as Three Leg Resources from the Isle of Man.
With more than half of Poland's energy needs supplied by coal, shale gas is seen as a way drastically to cut national CO2 emissions in line with EU targets. According to Dr Andrzej Kassenberg of the Institute of Sustainable Development thinktank, replacing coal power plants with gas would cut emissions by as much as 75 million metric tonnes.
Yet Kassenberg remains cautious. 'In the long term shale gas is still a fossil fuel, and in the short term it creates local problems related to nature conservation and water sources. There is a need to think of the worse-case scenario and prepare for it.'
Water supply in many regions of Poland is of low quality, a hang-over from the Communist era, and Kassenberg fears hydraulic fracturing will add unwanted stress. 'In areas with water shortages, shale-gas exploration will create problems for supply, although it is difficult to give a definitive conclusion because it is still not known exactly where exploration will happen.'
Another issue is infrastructure, which is currently not sufficient to support the potential gas boom. Wells will be located in rural areas, to which water will need to be regularly trucked, and fracking fluid trucked back out. There is also uncertainty about how gas will be transported. Whatever the outcome, traffic will be greatly increased.
'Construction of pipelines could cause problems, but so could the construction of roads,' adds Kassenberg. 'If roads are built to transport water and gas then it will open up pristine countryside to mass tourism, and could bring an additional negative impact to the environment.'
The Polish government, on the other hand, is largely ignoring stories of environmental impacts emanating from America. Shale gas has become an issue of national foreign policy and taken up with vigour by foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski.
In Britain, Cuadrilla Resources has completed a test well in the Bowland Shale formation between Pendle Hill and Blackpool, in Lancashire. The company is backed by Riverstone Holdings, a private equity firm in which ex-BP boss Lord Browne is a partner and managing director.
'I think it's very early days. It will take a lot of exploration and a lot of effort by small companies like us, and larger companies as well. But ultimately we are hopeful that we would find certain deposits here that would add to the net reserves of the UK,' Caudrilla co-founder Chris Cornelius told Channel 4 News earlier this year.
Across the North Sea, Shell has drilled three exploratory wells in the southern Swedish region of Skaane, and in September Gripen Gas AS was awarded five exploration licences in the Cambro-Ordivian Basin. Caudrilla Resources has secured licences to test for gas in the Netherlands and Spain, while US company Devon is exploring Denmark's shale potential.
ExxonMobil has concessions for Lower Saxony and North Rhine Westphalia in Germany, conducting five drillings, with two more test wells planned by the end of 2010, and owns 750,000 acres of leaseholdings in the Lower Saxony basin alone.
Despite the optimism and even if reserves were as vast as predicted, there is a chance that gas could stay in the ground because extraction is not commercially viable. Compared to the US, which has a plethora of oil and gasfield service firms, Europe is lacking in technical support. Take land rigs, for example: in the US there are approximately 1,500, but in Europe there are less then 100.
Geology is also a factor. According to Dr Quentin Fisher, a professor of petroleum geo-engineering at Leeds University, the lower permeability of shale in Europe could mean extraction is difficult compared to America.
'I don't think we currently know the volume of "shales" in Europe that are directly equivalent to those in the states,' he said. 'Much of the shale in Europe might have a much higher clay content than in the US, meaning that it could have a lower permeability and be more difficult to fracture hydraulically.'
Thursday, 2 December 2010
Japan derails climate talks by refusing to renew Kyoto treaty
By Michael McCarthy, Environment Editor
Thursday, 2 December 2010
The world's climate negotiations in Cancun were faced with deadlock at their outset yesterday after Japan insisted it would not agree to renewing the Kyoto Protocol, the current treaty under which rich countries are cutting their emissions of greenhouse gases.
Kyoto, signed in the Japanese city in 1997, runs out in its current form at the end of 2012, yet its renewal carries enormous symbolic significance for the developing countries – who see it as a sign of good faith by industrialised nations in the fight against global warming – and who are not legally bound by it, as the rich countries are.
Richer countries, led by the European Union and US, would like to replace Kyoto with a treaty that brings all the world's countries into a legally binding pact to cut carbon emissions.
It was over this difference that negotiations collapsed at the UN climate conference in Copenhagen last December. Since then Europe has taken the lead in suggesting a way forward by having two new climate treaties, with Kyoto being renewed, as long as there was a parallel legally binding agreement which brought in all countries, including the US and China.
The Japanese refusal to renew the treaty, the first country to do so, throws this arrangement into jeopardy, and threatens to make a Cancun version of the Copenhagen deadlock likely, with the world further than ever from tackling climate change.
Japan takes the view that it will not agree once more to be legally bound to cut back on its emissions while its economic competitors – China, India and Indonesia (and also the US, which withdrew from Kyoto in 2001) – are not.
In Japan's first statement to the conference, Jun Arima from the ministry of economics, trade and industry insisted Japan wanted "a new single binding instrument with the participation of all major emitters". He said: "Japan will not inscribe its target under the Kyoto Protocol on any conditions or under any circumstances... Discussions focusing on a second commitment period will go nowhere."
The forthrightness of his statement at the outset of two weeks of talks between 194 countries has caused consternation among the G77 (the informal alliance of developing nations). Last year at Copenhagen they refused to give up Kyoto, and if a new Kyoto deal is not on the table at Cancun, it is likely there will no climate deal at all.
British officials in Cancun were trying to ascertain whether Japan's statement was a negotiating tactic. One source said: "It is possible the Japanese are trying to put pressure on the developing countries to start talking seriously about a new climate treaty."
Thursday, 2 December 2010
The world's climate negotiations in Cancun were faced with deadlock at their outset yesterday after Japan insisted it would not agree to renewing the Kyoto Protocol, the current treaty under which rich countries are cutting their emissions of greenhouse gases.
Kyoto, signed in the Japanese city in 1997, runs out in its current form at the end of 2012, yet its renewal carries enormous symbolic significance for the developing countries – who see it as a sign of good faith by industrialised nations in the fight against global warming – and who are not legally bound by it, as the rich countries are.
Richer countries, led by the European Union and US, would like to replace Kyoto with a treaty that brings all the world's countries into a legally binding pact to cut carbon emissions.
It was over this difference that negotiations collapsed at the UN climate conference in Copenhagen last December. Since then Europe has taken the lead in suggesting a way forward by having two new climate treaties, with Kyoto being renewed, as long as there was a parallel legally binding agreement which brought in all countries, including the US and China.
The Japanese refusal to renew the treaty, the first country to do so, throws this arrangement into jeopardy, and threatens to make a Cancun version of the Copenhagen deadlock likely, with the world further than ever from tackling climate change.
Japan takes the view that it will not agree once more to be legally bound to cut back on its emissions while its economic competitors – China, India and Indonesia (and also the US, which withdrew from Kyoto in 2001) – are not.
In Japan's first statement to the conference, Jun Arima from the ministry of economics, trade and industry insisted Japan wanted "a new single binding instrument with the participation of all major emitters". He said: "Japan will not inscribe its target under the Kyoto Protocol on any conditions or under any circumstances... Discussions focusing on a second commitment period will go nowhere."
The forthrightness of his statement at the outset of two weeks of talks between 194 countries has caused consternation among the G77 (the informal alliance of developing nations). Last year at Copenhagen they refused to give up Kyoto, and if a new Kyoto deal is not on the table at Cancun, it is likely there will no climate deal at all.
British officials in Cancun were trying to ascertain whether Japan's statement was a negotiating tactic. One source said: "It is possible the Japanese are trying to put pressure on the developing countries to start talking seriously about a new climate treaty."
Cancún climate change summit: China's journey from Copenhagen
WRI: Green energy, efficient trains and carbon taxes have moved forward China's stance on climate change since the UN talks in Copenhagen last year, says Deborah Seligsohn
Deborah Seligsohn for WRI guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 1 December 2010 16.31 GMT
As negotiators arrive in Cancun for the next round of global climate talks, speculation once again hovers around China's positions. China is a tough negotiator, and we can once again see it expressing concern about its core issues, including developed country mitigation commitments, technology transfer and the adequacy of financing. But as we look to negotiating positions, it is also worth stepping back for a minute to reflect on what China is doing domestically and how China's efforts to promote energy efficiency and low carbon technologies can contribute to the global effort to combat climate change.
China's commitments for emissions control over the next decade – its 40-45% carbon intensity reduction target by 2020, as well as forestry and renewable energy goals – are not contingent on the international negotiations or on commitments by any other country. China bound its commitment domestically through a State Council decision even before last year's Copenhagen meeting, and it has said that the 40-45% carbon intensity reduction target will also be incorporated into its 12th Five Year Plan to be adopted by its National People's Congress in March 2011. The Five Year Plan is the key tool for directing policy at all levels of government.
In the past year China has been moving forward on domestic policy implementation, and key developments include:
Reforming the Renewable Energy Law to address problems with how new sources are added to the grid by funding more rural grid development and reinforcing fines on grid companies that don't purchase renewables as required.
Adding new requirements to improve energy intensity performance. China's goal for the 11th Five Year Plan (2006-end 2010) is a 20% reduction in energy intensity. This has proven a challenge, especially because of China's massive stimulus plan after the global economic downturn. During 2010 the Chinese government has responded by increasing the number of companies under rigorous energy efficiency plans, shutting down additional inefficient plants and equipment, and giving local governments new targets for energy efficiency, among other programs.
Major improvements in energy efficient transportation, including the world's largest high-speed rail program and new construction of both subway lines and bus rapid transit systems in dozens of cities. By next year it will be possible to travel the over 800 miles from Beijing to Shanghai by rail in 4 hours or about 200 miles per hour, as compared with 12 hours now. That means that China has made rail genuinely competitive with much more carbon-intensive air travel.
Improvement in energy efficiency standards in areas ranging from industry to buildings to appliances. Standard-setting doesn't get the kind of attention that carbon markets and negotiations do, but it is the true nuts and bolts of improving energy efficiency and reducing carbon emissions.
Investing in clean technology. China continues to invest heavily in wind, solar and nuclear power, as well as in experiments in carbon capture and storage. China is widely expected to soon overtake the United States in total installed wind capacity.
Exploring new policy options, including carbon taxes and carbon markets. China already uses a range of policy instruments to control the growth of greenhouse gases, including targets and quotas (from goals for renewable and nuclear energy, to the energy/carbon intensity goals), standards, and financial support for new technologies. It is now looking at new market-based mechanisms. It is widely expected that there will be experiments with these new approaches during the 12th Five Year Plan period, 2011 – end of 2015, although most do not expect to see them as early as 2011.
Increasing the political support for climate policy . China's Communist Party Plenum included a full paragraph supporting climate policy. While the statement did not break new ground in terms of policy concepts, it raised the political profile of climate policy in a country where local governments pay close attention to the central government's political priorities.
Improving its own measurement and information systems. Despite the contentiousness of international discussions about measurement, there is broad political consensus within China that measurement and reporting are crucial for ensuring domestic goals are met. The Party Plenum document lists improving these systems among the climate policies needed, and in fact the Chinese government has been working on these systems over the past year as it gets ready for its new Five Year Plan goals. What is even more striking is that we are now hearing demands for better systems not just from the central government officials charged with monitoring local performance, but from the localities that want to ensure they get credit for the changes they make. I attended a UK-sponsored seminar of central and local officials with climate responsibilities and local officials said, we know what to do, we want to make sure that it is measured properly so we get credit. This reflects a real change in local awareness both of the policies, but also of what they can do and creates bottom-up pressure for these improvements in monitoring.
So in arriving at Cancun, China would appear to have quite a bit to offer, and yet it often ends up appearing defensive. Part of the reason is illustrated in the discussion posted by the China Dialogue Beijing Office Director Meng Si on November 29. Meng interviews China's Climate Minister Xie Zhenhua, who speaks frankly about China's growing understanding of the importance of transparency, but also about his frustration in getting China's message out into the press. All sides of the climate debate seem to understand the importance of transparency, and Xie showed interest in using that to help resolve issues surrounding measuring and reporting. One point to keep in mind is that greater transparency is also needed on accounting for developed country emissions reductions and on the financial support to be given to developing countries. My WRI colleagues suggest new approaches to these issues in two new papers on accounting and climate finance.
Deborah Seligsohn for WRI guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 1 December 2010 16.31 GMT
As negotiators arrive in Cancun for the next round of global climate talks, speculation once again hovers around China's positions. China is a tough negotiator, and we can once again see it expressing concern about its core issues, including developed country mitigation commitments, technology transfer and the adequacy of financing. But as we look to negotiating positions, it is also worth stepping back for a minute to reflect on what China is doing domestically and how China's efforts to promote energy efficiency and low carbon technologies can contribute to the global effort to combat climate change.
China's commitments for emissions control over the next decade – its 40-45% carbon intensity reduction target by 2020, as well as forestry and renewable energy goals – are not contingent on the international negotiations or on commitments by any other country. China bound its commitment domestically through a State Council decision even before last year's Copenhagen meeting, and it has said that the 40-45% carbon intensity reduction target will also be incorporated into its 12th Five Year Plan to be adopted by its National People's Congress in March 2011. The Five Year Plan is the key tool for directing policy at all levels of government.
In the past year China has been moving forward on domestic policy implementation, and key developments include:
Reforming the Renewable Energy Law to address problems with how new sources are added to the grid by funding more rural grid development and reinforcing fines on grid companies that don't purchase renewables as required.
Adding new requirements to improve energy intensity performance. China's goal for the 11th Five Year Plan (2006-end 2010) is a 20% reduction in energy intensity. This has proven a challenge, especially because of China's massive stimulus plan after the global economic downturn. During 2010 the Chinese government has responded by increasing the number of companies under rigorous energy efficiency plans, shutting down additional inefficient plants and equipment, and giving local governments new targets for energy efficiency, among other programs.
Major improvements in energy efficient transportation, including the world's largest high-speed rail program and new construction of both subway lines and bus rapid transit systems in dozens of cities. By next year it will be possible to travel the over 800 miles from Beijing to Shanghai by rail in 4 hours or about 200 miles per hour, as compared with 12 hours now. That means that China has made rail genuinely competitive with much more carbon-intensive air travel.
Improvement in energy efficiency standards in areas ranging from industry to buildings to appliances. Standard-setting doesn't get the kind of attention that carbon markets and negotiations do, but it is the true nuts and bolts of improving energy efficiency and reducing carbon emissions.
Investing in clean technology. China continues to invest heavily in wind, solar and nuclear power, as well as in experiments in carbon capture and storage. China is widely expected to soon overtake the United States in total installed wind capacity.
Exploring new policy options, including carbon taxes and carbon markets. China already uses a range of policy instruments to control the growth of greenhouse gases, including targets and quotas (from goals for renewable and nuclear energy, to the energy/carbon intensity goals), standards, and financial support for new technologies. It is now looking at new market-based mechanisms. It is widely expected that there will be experiments with these new approaches during the 12th Five Year Plan period, 2011 – end of 2015, although most do not expect to see them as early as 2011.
Increasing the political support for climate policy . China's Communist Party Plenum included a full paragraph supporting climate policy. While the statement did not break new ground in terms of policy concepts, it raised the political profile of climate policy in a country where local governments pay close attention to the central government's political priorities.
Improving its own measurement and information systems. Despite the contentiousness of international discussions about measurement, there is broad political consensus within China that measurement and reporting are crucial for ensuring domestic goals are met. The Party Plenum document lists improving these systems among the climate policies needed, and in fact the Chinese government has been working on these systems over the past year as it gets ready for its new Five Year Plan goals. What is even more striking is that we are now hearing demands for better systems not just from the central government officials charged with monitoring local performance, but from the localities that want to ensure they get credit for the changes they make. I attended a UK-sponsored seminar of central and local officials with climate responsibilities and local officials said, we know what to do, we want to make sure that it is measured properly so we get credit. This reflects a real change in local awareness both of the policies, but also of what they can do and creates bottom-up pressure for these improvements in monitoring.
So in arriving at Cancun, China would appear to have quite a bit to offer, and yet it often ends up appearing defensive. Part of the reason is illustrated in the discussion posted by the China Dialogue Beijing Office Director Meng Si on November 29. Meng interviews China's Climate Minister Xie Zhenhua, who speaks frankly about China's growing understanding of the importance of transparency, but also about his frustration in getting China's message out into the press. All sides of the climate debate seem to understand the importance of transparency, and Xie showed interest in using that to help resolve issues surrounding measuring and reporting. One point to keep in mind is that greater transparency is also needed on accounting for developed country emissions reductions and on the financial support to be given to developing countries. My WRI colleagues suggest new approaches to these issues in two new papers on accounting and climate finance.
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