In order to comply with the Paris Agreement, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under President Obama passed the Clean Power Plan, a standard that used the Clean Air Act to require carbon emissions from the power sector to fall 32% by 2030, relative to 2005 levels. The plan did not regulate individual power plants directly,...
The Key Energy Market Reform in the UK occurred in 2012 with the Electricity Market Reform, composed of two major parts. First, it ensured a capacity market for electricity. This promotes investment in low-carbon energy supplies to ensure future energy demand can be met when renewable energy supply is low. Second, there was the creation...
In the past 5 years, Ukraine has adopted a slew of laws in keeping with its commitments to European integration and becoming closer to the EU energy market. At the same time, the country has had some considerable difficulties in the implementation of this new legislation. Energy efficiency Laws “On the Energy Efficiency of Buildings”,...
During 2019, installations of new wind turbines in Thailand were at 322 MW, bringing the total wind power capacity to 1,532 MW. The 1,532 MW total wind power capacity “is half of the 3 GW target set by the Thailand government for 2036”. Furthermore, the 3 GW target for wind energy was set under Thailand’s...
Turkey’s demand for energy and natural resources is increasing day by day due to economic growth and population growth. Turkey shows the highest annual growth rate among OECD countries. Reliance on imports accounts for 3 out of 4 units of Turkey’s total primary energy supply. Unquestionably, Turkey’s top policy priority has been to secure its...
In 2018, Spain underwent a major energy reform, focusing in large part on the renewables sector, something Spain is very proud of and also something that Climate Scorecard often mentions in their Spanish country posts (see here and here). In early 2019, further energy reform was paused while Prime Minister Sanchez was having trouble putting...
Since the establishment of South Korea’s new climate system in 2015, the direction of the government’s energy policy has been to achieve the twin goals of “Nuclear Phase-out” and “Fossil Fuel Phase-out.” The country seeks to foster eco-friendly future energy to promote de-fossilization. Also, achieving nuclear phase-out in a way that stops the extension of...
The South African electricity supply industry remains dominated by the state-owned and vertically integrated utility, Eskom. Coal is the major driver of the energy sector in the country. Although coal is the utility’s primary energy source in South Africa, the use of renewable sources for electricity generation has increased in the last few years. As...
Saudi Arabia’s current energy production is close to 26.3 GW, 40% of which comes from oil, 52% from natural gas, and 8% powered from the byproduct of steam from desalination plants. Energy from renewable and nuclear sources currently sits at virtually 0% of energy production, although there are signs that this is changing. In 2016,...
At present, there is not much to report on energy sector reform in the Russian Federation. It would be useful to understand the reasons for this inaction when action is most needed. A recent paper published by Tatiana Mitrova and Yury Melnikov[1] (2019) on energy transition in Russia provides the necessary insight: “Russia, ranking fourth...
