The EU has revealed its ‘fit for 55’ suite of policies, which extends to about 2,000 pages and is designed to take a pro-active approach to combating climate change and to introduce a suite of proposals aimed at making Europe ‘the first climate neutral continent in the world’. Fit for 30: striking a balance The … Read more

The UK Emissions Trading Scheme (UK ETS) was launched on 1 January 2021 to replace the UK’s participation in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS). As explained in our previous blog post (here), both schemes work on the basis of a reducing cap with freely tradable allowances, and they currently cover the same industries. … Read more

One of the aspects of the Government’s new Ten Point Plan is to make homes and public buildings greener. According to Government figures, homes in the UK made up 15% of greenhouse gas emissions in 2018, or 22% if electricity consumption is included. The Government anticipates £11 billion of private investment in this area over … Read more

In the later stages of the global pandemic, the importance of a green recovery has been emphasised across the globe, and ESG principles have permeated almost every aspect of life, including the financial markets. However, the acronym ESG has an enormously wide scope: where the move to net zero carbon emissions may be a longer … Read more

This week the Australian federal government announced a $1.9 billion funding package targeting new and emerging technologies for the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC). This provides important funding certainty to ARENA and CEFC and is expected to substantially assist in Australia’s energy transition towards a lower emissions energy … Read more

On 24 June Spain’s Official State Journal (Boletín Oficial del Estado) published Royal Decree-law 23/2020, of 23 June, which approves measures in relation to energy and other areas to stimulate economic recovery (“RDL 23/2020”). RDL 23/2020 entered into force on 25 June 2020, although it has yet to receive final approval from Spanish Congress. RDL 23/2020 contains measures that affect a number of different sectors, but it primarily contains provisions for the electricity sector, with a particular focus on the regulations governing renewable energy generation facilities. Some of the measures (such as the design of the new renewable energy auctions system, the regulation of hybridisation and storage and independent aggregation) were already included in the Bill on Climate Change and Energy Transition (Proyecto de Ley de Cambio Climático y Transición Energética) (the “Climate Change Bill”) , which was sent to Spanish Congress on 19 May (which we covered in another e-bulletin - see here). The approval of those measures in RDL 23/2020 means that they can be brought into effect immediately. Read more

On 19 May 2020, the Council of Ministers approved the Bill on Climate Change and the Energy Transition (Proyecto de Ley de Cambio Climático y Transición Energética (the “Bill”), which it sent to Spanish Parliament for processing and final approval. The Council of Ministers had made a commitment to pass the bill within its first 100 days, included in its Statement of Government in the face of the Climate and Environmental Emergency approved on 21 January 2020. The approval of the Bill brings an end to a administrative process that has been more than one year in the making. The Council of Ministers, in effect, took into account the first Draft Bill dated 22 February 2019, which was submitted to public consultation and successive reports issued by the different Ministries, considerations from the Advisory Council for the Environment and the Sector Conference of the Autonomous Regions, a report issued by the Spanish National Markets and Competition Commission (the “CNMC”) and a report issued by the State Council. The text finally sent to Parliament contains the modifications made to the initial Draft Bill throughout that process. Read more

If we look at the last few months, the energy markets have been hit by two crises. The first one, the most obvious, due to a slump in demand as a result of the lock-down and the halt in... Read more