Guest essay by Eric Worrall
According to Dr. Fatih Birol, $4 trillion per year of global renewable investment would reduce European dependence on Russian Gas, though Russia is also to blame for the recent energy crisis for not sending more gas.
IEA: Green energy needed to avoid turbulent prices
By Jonathan Josephs
Business reporter, BBC NewsA failure to invest sufficiently in green energy means “we may well see more and more turbulence in the energy markets”, the head of the International Energy Agency has told the BBC.
Dr Fatih Birol said that “is not good news for the global economy”.
Energy prices in the UK, Europe and Asia have hit record highs in recent weeks triggering inflation concerns.
IEA’s annual World Energy Outlook warns clean energy and infrastructure need a $4 trillion a year investment.
Such an outlay would mean the world could limit the rise in global temperatures to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels, as agreed in Paris six years ago.
The warning has been timed to greet the COP26 climate change summit, due to take place in Glasgow at the end of this month. Dr Birol said it was up to world leaders to incentivise the necessary investment at the summit.
“If you push clean energy, energy efficiency, solar electric cars and other [solutions], you don’t need any more to use fossil fuels, you switch to clean energy sources.
…
Russia, which is one of the world’s biggest producers of natural gas has been accused of withholding supplies that could ease those price pressures for political reasons. Dr Birol said “Russia could have been, and still can be more helpful. Our numbers show that Russia can easily increase the gas it is sending to Europe by 15%, which could underscore that they could be qualified as a reliable partner.
“There are some statements coming from Moscow, which are helpful. But in addition to the statements, I would be very happy to see some gas volumes come to Europe”.
…
The IEA boss says that government money could be the trigger for renewed private investment in clean energy and the he is optimistic about what can be achieved in Glasgow.
“It’s also very important that in COP government leaders around the world come together, unite and give a unmistakable signal to investors, saying that you investor, you see we are united to build a clean energy future”, but that “if you continue to invest in the old energy [such as fossil fuels], you may well lose money”.
“If you invest in the clean energy, you can make handsome profits. That’s [the] political signal I hope will go to investors“.
Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-58901566
My question to Dr. Birol – how is Russia expected to supply more gas to Europe, without investing in “old energy”? Is IEA head Dr. Fatih Birol demanding Russian investors sacrifice themselves for the greater good of Europe?
Can you imagine what it must be like for Russian trade representatives discussing energy sales with their European counterparts? “You guys are evil, but please send some more evil right now, because your withholding of evil is evil”.
No doubt President Putin has tears of laughter streaming from his eyes, whenever he receives an update of the latest insanity of his trading partners.
If Europe isn’t able to order the quatity of gas they need, it’s not Russias fault, they fullfilled all orders.
“According to Dr. Fatih Birol, $4 trillion per year of global renewable investment would reduce European dependence on Russian Gas…”
Actually, NO it won’t. Technical reality (Intermittency and Diffusivity) kills this “pipe dream”.
Told you so in 2002. Nothing has changed. Still true in 2021.
Got that right. All the money in the world will not make the sun shine at night.
Bet you ‘All the money in the world‘, that the sun always shines 24/7 😎
If you are correct why do we have words like day and night?
You knew what he meant and typed that comment anyway.
The sun always shines, just not in the right direction for 12 hours of the day. The wind is always blowing somewhere but also dead calm under the several blocking highs dotted around the planet.
So John you didn’t know what Scissor meant either? And if you are going to be that picky the sun shines in ALL directions from the sun. We just cannot view it when what we call night is upon us. Are you and saveenergy the same person?
Dark sarcasm will get you demerits. Also, how can you have any energy, if the winds don’t blow within range. You can’t have any energy, if the windows don’t blow within range.
Nothing wrong with our average star.
But Europeans are dumber than the Soviets.
If anyone is spending $4 trillion a year, surely there must be a measurable return on investment, to monitor the effectiveness of the expenditure. At the moment it all for a “warm and fuzzy feeling”.
Birol is an economist, like Mark Carney. Not a STEM bone in their body. Got their Ph.D. by participation in seminars, where they honed their oratory skills, and a lot of cash flow from their parents’ bank account to the appropriate university fund. Really equivalent to quack charlatan smooth talking travelling salvation show evangelists…worse in that they believe what they are saying, and aren’t computationally or statistically capable of analyzing what they believe.
Economy, like all Social Sciences, is not science at all. There are no falsifiable theories. Only opinions. You know what to do with those.
No, some of their opinions are clearly falsifiable.
It’s just that they never, ever try to falsify them.
Any wonder that it is called The Dismal Science?
What kind of economist says “government money could be the trigger for renewed private investment in clean energy“? This isn’t the thinking of an economist, it’s the thinking of an addle-brained government apparatchik.
It is really as simple as that. Somehow Europe thinks it is just gas on demand out of the pipe. They seem to understand that when electrical power consumption exceeds demand they have to introduce rolling blackouts. There is no condemning the green electrical supplier, or the wind farms or the solar operators.
And a gas system is much less responsive than the electrical grid. A gas system requires extraction, purification and delivery, which could take weeks. The only answer for Europe is to build gas storage tanks or other such system… or pay Russia to store excess gas in-country.
To ask any gas company to scramble because the politicians screwed up is simply unfair… and they ought to charge more if they have to scale up operations at the last minute for unplanned for demand.
Fulfilled all the long term contracts but does not sell on the spot market. Now the spot market is currently priced over long term prices by a significant factor, so why no releases to spot as all the profit is there.
Because the Russians are doing what is good for them, unlike the Europeans. Fantasies have costs.
By not selling into the spot market, they keep upward pressure on the price. Long term contracts come up for renewal all the time, so a high spot market price keeps the contract prices up also. Sacrifice short term gains for long term lock-ins; who wouldn’t?
“Sacrifice short term gains for long term lock-ins; who wouldn’t?”
Answer: Most business managers here in the U.S. They’ll take short term gains over long term solutions every time… anything to make the quarterlies look good.
John, the EU didn’t build plant and distribution to receive liquified gas which is the only way you can receive “spot”. Russia tried to sell them a longterm gas contract which they turned down.They thought they would be burning up with global warming and besides how would it look when you are supposed to be weaning from fossil fuels.
🎼♪♫♬ There,’ll be some changes made dooby doo.
Europe played along wth US’ anti-NS2 games and is now paying the price.
No sympathy.
IEA’s annual World Energy Outlook warns clean energy and infrastructure need a $4 trillion a year investment.
Such an outlay would mean the world could limit the rise in global temperatures to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels, as agreed in Paris six years ago.
__________________________________________________________
Such an outlay would really fatten up the wallets of the rent seekers involved in the Climate Change industry. However it wouldn’t do anything about global temperatures as if something needs to be done which it doesn’t.
And the U.S. Congress is haggling over a measly $3.5 trillion.
So, having more turbines will make wind blow
Right
Of course it will, don’t you know nuffink bout scientifcky thingamajiggybobs???
I’m, er, old school – heat rises rather than sinks etc
A phase change may help 😀
Brilliant idea!
One turbine produces wind for the second one.
There is complete panic breaking out in financial circles. Even Larry Summers, who actually handed finance over to central bankers as Treasury Sec in he 1990’s, correctly identifies these with their Woke ESG as the the inflation culprits.
Anyway Prince William will present an Earthshot Nobel-like Prize at Glasgow, hubris anyone?
PW is yet another Royal scientific expert in all things, just like his father!!!
“Earthshot”….I can’t believe they paid someone to come up with that….sounds like something one is forced to do in a campground that has insufficient latrines.
I will put forward my 2 cents worth and some of you will jump on me .
The only solution to Europe’s energy crisis that does not include using fossil fuels is NUCLEAR.
Wind and solar will never provide guaranteed electricity 24/7.
Of course this will never happen as Europeans are closing down nuclear power stations .
Europe will gradually get poorer and Asia will increase coal fired power plants and manufacture most of the worlds heavy equipment plus a lot of consumer goods for the rest of the world .
We have the same dumb government policies here in New Zealand .
Our Coal and gas fired Huntly power station sits above a large coal field .Guess what happens? NZ imports 1 million tonnes of coal to feed Huntly to keep our lights on .Our present government is anti nuclear but we have very good hydro power stations built by previous government but new hydro station are outlawed.
The first step should be to push for lower regulations and red tape around existing nuclear plants then push for new plants. One of the downfalls of current nuclear plants is the lack of ability to swing to meet increases and decreases of load, coal and gas (and hydro) have this ability. This swing flexibility is crucial for grids that have solar&wind which are intermittent.
Mr. Putin will be very, very glad to send all the gas the EU needs, as long as the EU pays for it. TINSTAAFL
Didn’t Putin agree to sell it to China?
This IEA boss doesn’t appear to have dementia … must be something else
Have you noticed that many of these failed authorities are headed by a female academic? Might that be the problem?
As with other Turks named Fatih, Mr. Birol is male, and he is not failing: He does rather well thanks to his Quango.
Looks like Putin is the winner here, he is offered a doubling of price of Russian gas without any more costs to him. The EU has nobody to blame but themselves and Putin gets richer.
“The EU has nobody to blame but themselves and Putin gets richer.”
AND the richer he gets the more readies he has to buy & or develop greater military hardware to achieve the Communists goal, total world domination, but they’ll have to take on the Islamists, their only competition in that particular arena!!!
I think you’re a bit out of date old chap – these days the Russians are practical capitalists: thanks to the gas and oil export revenues, most Russians enjoy a far better standard of living than their communist grandparents and they are not about to change that for the worse.
I also think the Russians are not particularly bothered about world domination any more, just keeping up appearances like the British managed end-of-empire. They have scaled back their ambitions to just defending Uncle Vladimir’s Back Yard (admittedly, a large yard to manage). They just can’t afford anything else.
There is only one strategic geo-competitor to the USA, and it ain’t based in Moscow. We have known this for more than two decades now.
And today, Europe is considerably left of Russia.
Putin s not interested in communism or in taking over the world either.
He will, however, take over anywhere that isn’t securely nailed down and has oil or gas deposits!
You are forgetting the UN.
“A billion here, a billion there and pretty soon you are talking real money.”
Those were the days!
How do people with so little understanding of energy infrastructure and why unreliables are such a destructive force get to make statements like this on the world stage?
Their solution to a sinking ship is to pour in more water.
drednicolson,
She’s rearranging the deck furniture on the Titanic!
Actually, sabotaging some life rafts might be more apt!
They say what’s required to say from their lofty positions.
$4 trillion/year could pay off a lot of European nation(s) national debt. Which would be far more beneficial to Europe than paying out $4 trillion/year to reduce Europe to distinctly, the haves and the have nots.
Philip,
Modern Monetary Theory claims that such spending is harmless; especially when compared to the horrors of an unmitigated Climate Apocalypse! Bai Den claims it has a “$0.00” price tag!!
Many politicians who espouse MMT seem to believe that most of their voters will believe them until it’s too late for correction! I mean, why encourage production and fiscal responsibility when there’s a good chance of getting away with bilking the taxpayers completely!?
Many Canadians have been sucked into believing MMT and it will work great right up until it doesn’t. The real issue is that 90% of this borrowing is not going to assets that produce value and pay for itself.
All lies all the time.
Pat,
MMT seems like just another Ponzi scheme; this one designed by really, really edumacated people to con politicians and/or their constituents!
The elite and their talking heads don’t even realize that Trump just gave us an example of how to actually grow an economy and reduce debt! You $h!tcan regulation, encourage production (especially in the energy sector) and punish foreign countries engaged in unfair trade practices with tariffs! Oh, I almost forgot, you also lower corporate taxes to make us more competitive with the rest of the world! Taxes revenues reached their highest levels ever; and the rich and large corporations paid more taxes as they brought capital back from overseas to profit in the US market boom!
Right now the idiots in the Bai Den Regime are reversing EVERYTHING Trump did to get the economy growing! Instead of rising wages, the American worker can now look forward to soaring prices and shortages as inflation goes out of control, and the administration ineptly tries to fix supply chain problems! They remind me of a homeowner who tries to fix a backed up toilet by shoving more stuff down the drain, rather than calling in a plumber!
Hey, but at least Mayor Pete got two months maternity leave to deal with the trauma of adopting two children; that’s sure showing women great respect!
That is Keynesian Theory. Monetary theory states that the supply of money controls economic activity through pricing, thus affecting inflation/deflation.
The conclusion one draws from these theories is that Keynesian theory recommends government intervention into all markets via government spending through fiscal policy while Monetary theory recommends limited government intervention and affecting inflation and stimulating an economy by increasing or decreasing the supply of money.
Or, if that $4 trillion/year were actually printed, burning bills directly could keep a lot of people warm.
Thank you Fati
Isn’t this a true joy:
Quote:“There are three suppliers offering tariffs not subjected to Ofgem’s price cap. These deals can be pricier as they support production of renewable energy and prices are likely to rise for these customers due to the ongoing crisis”
here
Thus folks using the abundant free and getting ever cheaper Renewable Energy are seeing their prices rise bigger and faster than the old silly old denialist pharts stuck on fossils.
what am I missing here – dementia possibly?
Back to Fati – does that quote not say that you are already getting the money you ask for yet there is still A Crisis
<enquiring mind mode> What created the ‘ongoing crisis‘
Easy. Some ‘other crisis’ created it
OKaaaay
What created that crisis?
etc etc etc
What is the Real Crisis that’s unfolding.
haha – You know me!!! 😀
You know exactly what the craic is
Thankfully Auntie Beeb comes to your rescue on the off chance you don’t, or the pasta, beer and doughnuts have trashed your mind. Yes Fati, I’m looking at you.
See the real stars of the ongoing crisis in this video from the BBC
(Where’s RGB of Duke these days? He hated those creatures with as much vehemence as I do – and as we all should. They, along with their Ovine cousins, have turned 33% of Earth’s Land Surface to desert and are running ever greater riot)
Notice how the Magically Thinking BBC gets Cause & Effect more wrong than A Really Wrong Thing could ever ever be?
ho hum, that’s Climate Science innit
4 trillion here, 4 trillion there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money.
But seriously, this green revolution will destroy everything built since the Egyptians.
This has really put the makers of the Monopoly board game in a bind.
The highest denomination (UK) is £500
It’ll never be enough.
Current owners, Hasbro, should develop a green energy version complete with a £500 billion note or three….
Maybe there’s a ‘woke’ market for adding wind turbines be solar panels for property instead of hotels? That way the rents could be increased exponentially!
European Schmarotzer
And dare I ask just where they think that $4 trillion dollars is coming from?
Think about the quantitative and then put your mind at easing.
No idea but the good news is neither does anyone else! It should (if there was any justice) be redirected from University research grants into climate change and renewable energy subsidies – in one fell swoop nobody would be interested in building wind or solar plants and the idiots that have been screaming for them will be too busy looking for a real job. I think everybody here knows just how unlikely that particular option will be.
Once again, I believe that a mirror could come in handy to answer this question.
Let us not forget that Fatih Birol is
Chairman of the World Economic Forum (Davos) Energy Advisory Board
what’s not to like?
tomo,
When did real life Bond villains decide it was safe to come out from the shadows?
I guess with so many politicians stuffed in their pockets they feel well protected!
I know …..
As far as films are concerned I’ve found myself going back to Brazil….
wow. $ 4 , 0 0 0 , 0 0 0 , 0 0 0 , 0 0 0 .
only $ 5 0 0 for every person on earth.
how can any of you be so selfish to not want to SAVE OUR PLANET for such a measly contribution?
“how can any of you be so selfish “
It isn’t hard when you know how easy it is to spend other peoples’ money
If I gave to all the NGOs currently advertising for £3 per month, I’d have to take out a mortgage.
Get emotional and you lose all objectivity in an instant.
fretslider,
I think you encompass the entire purpose of our “modern” schools in your last sentence! Emotions over objectivity; especially anger, fear, and envy!
That was the key to the success of Greta’s creators
We Don’t Have Time
So the way to fix a broken leg is to break the other one?
That’s post modern medicine
Yes, you can crawl better
I didn’t know that Kathy Bates was even working in this maladministration! My bad!
A man found a brass lamp, and rubbed it.A genie appeared “‘Your wish is my command”
“I’d like a doing that touches the ground!”
“Your wish is muy command” and with a mighty swipe of his scimitar he cut the man’s legs off…
How many calories do they get by burning 4 trillion in scrip? Can’t they use wood instead? Probably about as much as they’ll get from what they’d buy with it, given the degree of inflation that would result.
When are the people of Europe going to rise up, drag these lie spewing scumbags into the streets and hang them? Is it going to be the same as Hitler, we have to go do it?
The difference being that you have the same problem in the USA.
Ain’t that the truth! Speak out against the left and you are labeled a domestic terrorist. Funny, that is the same thing King Georgie did in 1775. Look how that turned out.
The solution: more oil & gas… and wait for it… coal.
Net “zero” emissions equals rationing.
Marxists & communists are drooling at the prospect.
“Russia is also to blame for the recent energy crisis for not sending more gas.”
Brussels dorks refused to sign long term contracts because of the signal it would send re Crisis Global Warming. The head of the IEA is clearly not trained in energy matters if they don’t realize that a supplier can’t make the giant investment needed for just a temporary stop gap supply
“IEA: Green energy needed to avoid turbulent prices”
‘GangGreen energy’ IS the cause of ‘turbulent’ prices. You are selling energy from tech that doesn’t work! You know you need to twin renewables with gas or coal sources of electricity for backup and you want this to be a secret! This winter is going to be a stern teacher for hitherto ineducable designer-brain morons.
“If you invest in the clean energy, you can make handsome profits.”
Yes, indeed, but the heyday is over. Most of your ‘GangGreen’ energy companies have gone broke. The reverse Robin Hood formula for supplying power turns out to be bad for investors and customers alike. BTW, with investors going broke, where did the Trillions the taxpayer/customer forked over go?
Exactly – Russia needs the contracts to ensure the idiots in Brussels don’t just flip-flop as soon as they get over the worst.
The solution is simple, lock up the not vaccinated workforce that will shut down industry and business and the need for energy will be reduced. Fables without the animals. And build a second pipeline from Russia.
The great synthetic energy crisis continues.
Pour it on, the serfs must suck it up and row harder…with fossil fuels.
You can’t fix stupid with more stupid.
But you can augment it
They keep using this word “investment”, which tends to imply it’s a good thing, and that maybe we’ll see a benefit from all this “investment”.
Meanwhile, in reality-land, we’re learning that some “investments” are enormous money pits, and the people investing our money aren’t our friends.
“They keep using this word “investment”, which tends to imply it’s a good thing,”
Yes, that’s why they use that description. It’s psychological warfare.
The key phrase is “reduce European dependence”. So five bucks would likely also “reduce”. In other words, if no one says how much reduction, then the statement is likely true, but also meaningless.
Planned population and an intermittent/renewable blight. It sounds like an episode of The Outer Limits. That, or an X-Files. Perhaps the Europeans should have their leaders tested.