International

Had the United Kingdom followed through with its £1 billion carbon capture and storage commercialization competition, the nation stood to reach its long-term climate goals £30 billion cheaper, according to an analysis issued Wednesday by the National Audit Office. The “[Department of Energy and Climate Change’s] bid for power sector CCS showed a return of […]

Many developing nations have begun to view green financing as integral to their economic, social, and environmental development, according to a report issued Monday by the United Nations Environment Program. “In seeing green finance as part of their development agenda, non-G20 developing countries are actively establishing approaches that: (a) draw from international best practice, (b) […]

New United Kingdom Prime Minister Theresa May’s decision last week to fold the nation’s Department of Energy and Climate Change into the newly formed Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy, is not entirely bad news, according to an editorial Monday by Matthew Billson, program director for the University of Sheffield’s Energy2050 program. “A focus […]

The U.K. Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) said Monday it has won approval to build two new vaults and an extension to a third vault at its Low Level Waste Repository (LLWR). With the approval from planners in Cumbria, the facility, located near Drigg, will continue operation through 2050, creating about 120 construction jobs, according to […]

Canada will introduce a plan for a national carbon price in the fall, Minister of the Environment Catherine McKenna said Friday on Bloomberg TV. “We need a national price on carbon, so that is what we are going to have in the fall,” she said during the interview. The minister dodged questions about what would […]

The United Kingdom expects to spend another £117 billion ($154 billion) on remediation of 17 of its oldest nuclear sites into the next century, according to the latest cost update issued Wednesday. That is down by about £1 billion from 2015, representing progress in cleanup over the past year, said Laurence Meehan, spokesman for the […]

The United Kingdom expects to spend another £117 billion ($154 billion) on remediation of 17 of its oldest nuclear sites into the next century, according to the latest cost update issued Wednesday. That is down by about £1 billion from 2015, representing progress in cleanup over the past year, said Laurence Meehan, spokesman for the […]

Dr. Abraham Van Luik, a senior physical scientist at the Energy Department who since 2010 led the Carlsbad Field Office’s International Repository Science Program, died July 9 in the remote town of Faywood, N.M., according to obituary notices posted online and a DOE spokesperson. Van Luik, who was born in the Netherlands and worked for […]

The Department of Energy has completed the purchase of 32 tons of heavy water from Iran for approximately $8.6 million, sparking a renewed congressional push to block similar future deals. The purchase is part of the United States’ effort to help Iran meet its commitments under the newly implemented multilateral nuclear deal. Heavy water, used […]

New United Kingdom Prime Minister Theresa May has decided to mix things up in the cabinet including scrapping the nation’s Department of Energy and Climate Change. The new Conservative Party PM announced Thursday the creation of a new department, the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, which will be led by former Secretary of […]

China doesn’t need new coal capacity, but power generators don’t seem to have gotten the message, according to a new report from Greenpeace. The environmental organization said two decades of rapid growth in coal-fired power generation coupled with with an increase in clean energy generation has “precipitated an unprecedented coal power overcapacity bubble, as power […]

The United Kingdom expects to spend another £117 billion on remediation of 17 of its oldest nuclear sites into the next century, according to the latest cost update issued Wednesday. That is down by about £1 billion from 2015, representing progress in cleanup over the past year, said Laurence Meehan, spokesman for the U.K.’s Nuclear […]

In the coming decade, China’s coastal regions will move away from coal for energy generation in a significant way, according to Xizhou Zhou, senior director of IHS Energy gas and power research in Asia-Pacific. However, he added Tuesday, coal plants will continue to be built inland for some time. IHS tracks every proposed coal plant […]

Not enough is being done to address the threat that climate change poses to the United Kingdom, according to a report issued Tuesday by the government’s advisory Committee on Climate Change (CCC). “The aim of the report is to assess the urgency of further action or research in the next five years, to help the […]

The Department of Energy has completed the purchase of 32 tons of heavy water from Iran for approximately $8.6 million, alongside a renewed congressional push to block similar future deals. The purchase is part of the United States’ effort to help Iran meet its commitments under the newly implemented multilateral nuclear deal. Heavy water, used in […]

Sellafield Ltd. said this week it saved nearly $400,000 by using an advanced rolling scaffolding in the decommissioning of the First Generation Magnox Storage Pond at the Sellafield site. The scaffolding is easy to assemble, lightweight, and relatively inexpensive, according to a Sellafield press release. Money savings are derived from the work hours saved in assembly and […]

The upcoming presidential election will no doubt affect the United States’ implementation of the Paris climate change agreement, but its significance is not as great as it has been made out to be, according to Sarah Ladislaw, director of the Energy and National Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “It is […]

The United Kingdom’s parliamentary Energy and Climate Change Committee has launched an inquiry into the potential effects on energy policy of the nation’s decision to leave the European Union. The nation voted in late June to leave the European Union, a decision which has resulted in many unanswered question. “The UK energy sector has a […]

Canada’s Port Hope Area Initiative on Wednesday broke ground on the first of four above-ground storage cells that will ultimately hold 1.2 million cubic meters of legacy low-level radioactive waste for hundreds of years. The cell is expected to be completed toward the end of next year, and storage of waste from within the Ontario […]

The Boundary Dam Unit 3 carbon capture and storage project in Saskatchewan was online all but four days in June, operator SaskPower reported this week in a monthly update. “The facility needed to be taken down on separate occasions due to issues with the chemistry of the capture process,” the update explains. The amine used […]

The core of the Paris climate change agreement was negotiated in December, but much remains to be done to implement the accord. To help keep track of progress on the many tasks yet to be finished, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change on Thursday released its Paris Agreement progress tracker. “The progress tracker […]

Christiana Figueres on Thursday finally confirmed longstanding rumors that she would launch a bid to become the next U.N. secretary general. Just two days after leaving her post as executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Figueres said she had accepted a nomination for secretary general from her home country of […]

The United Kingdom must act quickly to develop a new plan for deployment of carbon capture and storage technology following cancellation of its £1 billion CCS Commercialization Competition, John Gummer, chairman of the U.K.’s Climate Change Committee, told Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Amber Rudd Wednesday in a letter. “A strategy should […]

The Petroleum Technology Research Center and the CO2 Commonwealth Research Center (CO2CRC) on Tuesday announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) “to prepare and execute joint research, facilitate the exchange of scientists and technical personnel, and encourage dedicated CO2 storage on regional, national, and international scales,” related to the Aquistore CO2 storage project […]

Researchers at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland, have received funding for a four-year study of the leakage potential of CO2 storage sites in the North Sea, Scottish Carbon Capture and Storage announced Wednesday. “Their findings will help to provide the tools for selecting the most suitable CO₂ storage sites as part of the […]

Canada’s Port Hope Area Initiative on Wednesday broke ground on the first of four above-ground storage cells that is intended to ultimately hold 1.2 million cubic meters of legacy low-level radioactive waste for hundreds of years. The cell in Port Hope is expected to be completed toward the end of next year, and storage of waste […]

Christiana Figueres on Tuesday officially stepped down from her role as executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Her exit was announced in February. “Today as I look back on the excitement of the last few years I realize that I am equally excited, if not more, for what is to come. […]

The German environment and economic development ministries are teaming up with the World Resources Institute (WRI) to help developing countries plan their nationally determined contributions to the Paris climate change agreement, the organizations announced Monday. The Paris Agreement is the first universal climate change agreement, requiring action from both developing and developed nations. Participating governments […]

The United Kingdom’s recently released fifth carbon budget, which sets a goal of cutting national emissions 57 percent from 1990 levels by 2032, is not stringent enough when viewed through the lens of the Paris climate change agreement, according to an editorial by University of Leeds climate mitigation researcher Kate Scott. “The UK government sets […]

Seven nuclear reactors, five of them in Japan, were permanently shuttered in 2015, the World Nuclear Association said Tuesday. The list encompasses Grafenrheinfeld in Germany, declared closed in June; Genkai 1, Mihama 1 and 2, Shimane 1, and Tsuruga 1 in Japan, closures dating to just after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami that were […]