Brazil has the potential and capacity to become a world leader in the near-zero carbon products of the future. Brazil’s energy mix is among the cleanest in the world, where renewables are responsible for 85% of electric power generation. The volume of clean power – combined with the country’s potential to produce green hydrogen – will prove critical to decarbonizing Brazil’s heavy industries.
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This report “Enabling factors of social acceptance of wind energy projects in La Guajira” by the Stockholm Environment Institute aims to identify enabling factors of social acceptance and, more broadly, of a just energy transition in La Guajira. Actors such as community advisers, national and regional public officials, and the environmental authority also play a crucial role in these processes.
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In this report “Carbon Capture and Storage in the United States” developed by the Congressional Budget Office examines the status, federal support, and future potential of carbon capture and storage (CCS). The federal government subsidies the development of CCS technology largely through funding for the Department of Energy
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Latin America is highly vulnerable to various natural hazards, affecting the region’s living conditions, resulting in the current people displacement and massive economic losses. Driven by the increasing needs for climate change mitigation and adaptation measures and investments, the region has been actively advocating for climate change investments.
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California recently passed the Voluntary Carbon Market Disclosures Act (AB 1305) (VCMDA). The new “anti-greenwashing” law is one of the first laws in the U.S. to not only regulate the voluntary carbon market, but also require entities – both public and private – to provide publicly available disclosures aimed at increasing transparency and accountability around certain climate-related claims and the use of voluntary carbon offsets (VCOs) .
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The key findings of this report indicate that Installations of wind and solar capacity are gathering speed in the EU and US. A record breaking 33 GW of solar PV will be built in the US in 2024. New wind projects in the EU are also breaking records, growing by about 18% in 2022. Renewables generate more electricity than either coal or nuclear power in both the US and EU. Wind and solar generated enough electricity in 2022 to power about 85% of all households in the EU.
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The key findings of this report indicate that the Biden administration’s fossil fuel project approvals are significantly undermining U.S. climate progress. Despite its claims that it’s advancing climate goals, the Biden administration is actively erasing the projected emissions reductions of its flagship Inflation Reduction Act and other demand-side climate policies by expanding fossil fuel extraction and infrastructure projects.
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The Latin America Energy Outlook, the International Energy Agency’s first in-depth and comprehensive assessment of Latin America and the Caribbean, builds on decades of collaboration with partners. In support of the region’s energy goals, the report explores the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead. It provides insights on the ways in which the outlook for the region and the biggest global energy trends are deeply intertwined.
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The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) undertook a modeling analysis of technical pathways for achieving sharp cuts in economy wide, energy-related, heat-trapping emissions in the United States. They optimized the analysis for the lowest energy-system costs to better understand both the challenges and the opportunities that would arise when taking an expansive, interconnected view of energy, the economy, and society. The analysis shows that the United States has viable pathways to get to net-zero heat-trapping emissions no later than 2050.
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North Carolina is making significant strides in the clean energy sector, with wind and solar providing nearly 10% of the state’s electricity. The state’s clean energy capacity, currently at 6,433 MW, is set to grow significantly by 2030 and is powered in part by over $15 billion in investments. And the sector – which currently employs nearly 10,000 North Carolinians – is poised for further expansion.
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The report emphasises the positive economic effects of OSW on domestic shipbuilding and supply chain, with more than 30 new vessels currently either ordered or under construction to bolster the industry’s operations. It offers critical insights into upcoming OSW projects and the locations of announced manufacturing facilities among other things.
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The report provides analysis and recommendations to support the growth of the sustainable finance market in the region. The previous update on this market was published in September 2021, and at the end of June that year Climate Bonds had recorded GSS+ debt volume of USD48.6bn originating from the region. By the end of 2022, the LAC GSS+ market had reached USD154.1bn.
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The regulatory component of IRENA’s Clean Energy Corridor of Central America (CECCA) initiative focuses on assessing solar and wind PPAs to ensure a level playing field for renewables vis-à-vis conventional generation, given that current frameworks appear to offer limited investment incentives for variable renewable energy (VRE). To support this work, IRENA developed this report to provide an overview on the use of firm capacity across countries in the region and for contracting power generated by renewables.
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To maintain affordability during this investment boom, US utility spending must be cost effective. Totex ratemaking is a regulatory innovation that could help keep utility rates affordable through the clean energy transition. By changing how regulators set the utility’s revenue allowance, it allows alternative solutions to compete with capital projects on a level playing field.
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The United States’ West Coast has vast, untapped offshore wind resources to help decarbonize the country’s energy system. Offshore wind would diversify generation resources while reducing land-use conflicts in the Western U.S., where 80 percent of customers are served by utilities with net-zero carbon emission mandates. Coastal states make up 57 percent of Western electricity demand.
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Leaders must steer their organizations through a minefield of changes and disruptions. How can they prioritize investments and initiatives as they look to deliver clean, just, and predictable energy in the years to come? The survey prepared by ICF answers pressing questions from nearly 200 utility executives—uncovering pain points and opportunities for utilities to get ahead.
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Despite economic uncertainty, however, the USEER analysis shows the energy sector experienced positive job growth, increasing 4.0% from 2020 to 2021, outpacing overall U.S. employment, which climbed 2.8% in the same period. Overall, the total number of energy jobs increased, from 7.5 million in 2020 to more than 7.8 million in 2021, after a steep decline in 2020. There are more than 3 million jobs, 40% of total energy jobs, that support reducing U.S. emissions to zero across several sectors.
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The largest increases in U.S. electricity generation in the next two years are likely to come from renewable energy sources, driven by expanded generating capacity from these sources. It is expected that renewable energy will provide 22% of U.S. generation in 2022 and 24% in 2023, up from a share of 20% last year. Solar capacity additions in the electric power sector total 20 gigawatts (GW) for 2022 and 22 GW for 2023.
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Ordinances No. 32/GM/MME and No. 33/GM/MME, both in effect as of December 17, 2021, issued by the Brazilian Ministry of Mines and Energy, determined the schedule for generation and transmission auctions in 2022, 2023 and 2024. Among energy auctions, reserve of energy and reserve of power auctions, and supply of isolated systems auctions, eight auctions of power generation are planned in 2022, seven in 2023 and other seven in 2024.
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To face a climate-altered future, the United States needs a resilient, affordable, and nimble electric system, one that can adjust and adapt to any situation, keeping the lights on no matter the challenge. Ensuring that the country has affordable and available electricity requires that Congress pass legislation now to support renewable energy and build a more resilient electric grid—the system that connects a source of energy such as a power plant to the consumers who use it.
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