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The UK is facing a critical moment in its energy policy: North Sea oil and gas production is declining, dependence on imported energy is increasing, while rising energy prices and climate change considerations pose further challenges. Energy Policies of the United Kingdom 2006, the second thematic review of an IEA country, addresses these challenges, focusing on energy investment, energy efficiency and the return of nuclear power to the political agenda.
World energy demand is surging. Oil, coal and natural gas still meet most global energy needs, creating serious implications for the environment. One result is that CO2 emissions, the principal cause of global warming, are rising.
This new study underlines the close link between efforts to ensure energy security and those to mitigate climate change. Decisions on one side affect the other. To optimise the efficiency of their energy policy, OECD countries must consider energy security and climate change mitigation priorities jointly.
The bookpresents a framework to assess interactions between energy security and climate change policies, combining qualitative and quantitative analyses. The quantitative analysis is based on the development of energy security indicators, tracking the evolution of policy concerns linked to energy resource concentration. The “indicators” are applied to a reference scenario and CO2 policy cases for five case-study countries: The Czech Republic, France, Italy, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.
Simultaneously resolving energy security and environmental concerns is a key challenge for policy makers today. This study helps chart the course.
The International Energy Agency's periodic review of Hungary's energy policies and programmes. This edition focuses on liberalisation of the electricity and gas markets, subsidies, security of gas supplies, and energy efficiency.
Unsustainable subsidies are pervasive in the industry, agriculture, transport and energy sectors of most OECD countries. They are expensive for governments and can have harmful environmental and social effects. Eliminating these supports requires comprehensive approaches which are supported by top political leadership, transparent in their potential effects on all parties, consistent over the long-term, and often accompanied by transition supports. This volume uses sectoral case studies to illustrate that achieving change in structural policies such as subsidies depends largely on good governance practices.
Over recent decades, natural gas has been an important element of secure, affordable, and environmentally responsible energy supply. But as production from IEA member countries declines, supplies will have to come from sources in more distant regions.
• What aspects of OECD gas markets need to be improved to deliver greater security and efficiency?
• What are the risks of increasing reliance on imports from Russia and the Middle East?
• Are strategic stocks of natural gas - similar to emergency oil stocks - a viable safety net to a supply disruption?
• Will there be enough investment in pipeline gas or will more need to be spent on LNG?
• What are the impacts of gas security on oil markets and power generation security?
• What do changes in the LNG industry mean for traditional contract terms?
The Natural Gas Market Review 2007, the second issue in a new IEA publications series, addresses key questions in this dynamic market. It offers a global appraisal of current trends in the light of the most recent historical data, including supply and demand projections to 2015.
Our climate is changing. Less certain, however, is the timing and magnitude of climate change, and the cost of transition to a low-carbon world. This book identifies how climate change policy uncertainty may affect investment behaviour in the power sector. For power companies, where capital stock is intensive and long-lived, those risks rank among the biggest and can create an incentive to delay investment. Our analysis results show that the risk premiums of climate change uncertainty can add 40% of construction costs of the plant for power investors, and 10% of price surcharges for the electricity end-users. Climate Policy Uncertainty and Investment Risk tells what can be done in policy design to reduce these costs.
Science and Technology is a key driver of economic growth, and it may also help provide answers for managing resources and reducing pollution, addressing climate change and preserving biodiversity, as well as reducing disease and safeguarding health and well-being, while maintaining the general quality of life. This publication provides the proceedings of an international workshop, held in South Africa, intended to address how international co-operation in science and technology can further the three inter-related aspects (economic, social and environmental) of the development process. The workshop focused on good practices in international S&T partnerships, specifically in the areas of water and energy.
What are the impacts on environmental effectiveness and economic efficiency of using an “instrument mix”, rather than a single instrument, to address a given environmental problem? What are the main arguments for using such instrument mixes, and are the instrument mixes currently in use actually well designed in response to these arguments? These are the main questions addressed in this report, which is based on a series of in-depth case studies. The case studies analyse instrument mixes applied in OECD countries to address household waste, non-point sources of water pollution in agriculture, residential energy efficiency, regional air pollution and emissions to air of mercury.
South Korea's energy sector has made great strides over the past three decades in terms of infrastructure and security. Though it has no links to nearby countries that would allow it to rely on electricity imports or piped natural gas, the country has rapidly electrified, built a diverse portfolio of electricity supply, developed a robust nuclear energy industry and become one of the pioneers in the liquefied natural gas trade. As the most recent member of the International Energy Agency (IEA), this progress is remarkable and its enhancement of its policy goals – adding economic efficiency and environmental sustainability to energy security – is commendable. Through analysis of its existing policies and comparisons with good examples in other IEA countries, this book provides critiques and recommendations for policy improvements.
An in-depth look at the energy challenges facing Germany, this book addresses such issues as the phasing out of nuclear power, levelling the playing field for competition in the gas and electricity industries, improved regulation, and environment policies that are working at cross-purposes.
CO2 emissions from energy production and consumption are a major contributor to climate change. Thus, stabilising CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere by reducing these emissions is an increasingly urgent international necessity. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) represents one of the most promising potential solutions to contain emissions resulting from continued use of coal and other fossil fuels. However, challenges such as a lack of legal and regulatory frameworks to guide near-term demonstration projects and long-term technology expansion must be addressed to facilitate the expanded use of CCS.
In October 2006, the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum (CSLF) convened with legal experts,to discuss the range of legal issues associated with expanded use of CCS and to identify ways to facilitate further CCS development and implementation Participants examined gaps and barriers to the deployment of CCS and identified recommendations to guide further development of appropriate legal and regulatory frameworks.
This publication provides policymakers with a detailed summary of the main legal issues surrounding the CCS debate, including up-to-date background information, case studies and conclusions on the best legal and regulatory approaches to advance CCS. These strategies can be used to enable further development, deployment and demonstration of CCS technology, potentially an essential element in global efforts to mitigate climate change.
This volume contains data on energy supply and consumption in original units for coal, oil, gas, electricity, heat, renewables and waste. Historical tables summarise data on production, trade and final consumption. The book also includes definitions of products and flows and explanatory notes on the individual country data. In Energy Balances of OECD Countries 2004-2005, the sister volume of this publication, the data are presented as comprehensive energy balances expressed in million tonnes of oil equivalent.
This volume contains data on the supply and consumption of coal, oil, gas, electricity, heat, renewables and waste presented as comprehensive energy balances expressed in million tonnes of oil equivalent, to enable analysis across different types of energy. Detailed tables cover2004 and 2005 for all OECD countries and related regions. Historical tables covering selected years from 1960 onwards summarise production, trade and final consumption data as well as key energy and economic indicators. The book also includes definitions of products and flows, explanatory notes on the individual country data and conversion factors from original units to tonnes of oil equivalent. More detailed data in units related to each type of energy are published in Energy Statistics of OECD Countries 2004-2005, the sister volume of this publication.
Nur wenige Länder können einen so starken Effekt auf die Energiepolitik in Europa ausüben wie Deutschland. Auf Grund ihrer Größe und strategischen Lage spielt die Bundesrepublik eine entscheidende Rolle auf den Energiemärkten der Region, weshalb eine vernünftige Energiepolitik und starke Energiemarktgestaltung unerlässlich sind. Diesbezüglich macht die Bundesrepublik weiterhin bemerkenswerte Fortschritte. Sie hat die Reform ihrer Strom- und Erdgasmärkte fortgesetzt, einen Zeitplan für die Beendigung der Kohlesubventionen aufgestellt, ist im Begriff, wichtige Klima- und Umweltziele zu erfüllen und hat die Themenkreise Energie, Effizienz und Umwelt im Rahmen ihres EU-Ratsvorsitzes und ihrer G8-Präsidentschaft ganz oben auf die weltpolitische Agenda gestellt. Die Internationale Energie-Agentur (IEA) begrüßt diese Anstrengungen.
Gleichwohl bleibt noch einiges zu tun, um Deutschlands Energiepolitiken und -märkte weiter zu verbessern. Der geplante Ausstieg aus der Kernenergie in den kommenden Jahren hätte erhebliche Auswirkungen auf den Energiemix des Landes und gibt daher Anlass zu Besorgnis in Bezug auf Versorgungssicherheit, Wirtschaftlichkeit und Umweltverträglichkeit, für Deutschland ebenso wie für Europa insgesamt. Und auch wenn bereits Fortschritte erzielt wurden, muss doch mehr getan werden, um wirklich gleiche Bedingungen für alle Marktteilnehmer und damit die Voraussetzung für die Entwicklung von Wettbewerb auf den Strom- und Gasmärkten zu schaffen. Dazu bedarf es einer effektiven Trennung der Netzaktivitäten und starker Befugnisse für die Regulierungsbehörden. Die Umweltpolitik des Landes schließlich fördert zwar die Erfüllung ehrgeiziger Zielvorgaben, ist jedoch mit hohen Kosten verbunden – und gelegentlich geraten Maßnahmen in verschiedenen Politikbereichen miteinander in Konflikt.
Diese Veröffentlichung befasst sich eingehend mit den energiepolitischen Herausforderungen, vor denen Deutschland steht, was durch eine kritische Analyse anhand von Vergleichen mit nachahmenswerten Beispielen aus anderen IEA-Ländern und Empfehlungen zur Verbesserung der Politik ergänzt wird. Damit soll Deutschland der Weg in eine nachhaltige Energiezukunft aufgezeigt werden.
Ireland’s remarkable economic growth over the last 15 years had strong effects on the energy sector. Due to rapidly increasing demand, Ireland has become much more dependent on international energy markets than it was in the past. This review analyses the energy challenges facing Ireland and suggests solutions, focusing on moving ahead with market reform and increasing the energy efficiency of the Irish economy. Establishing the “All-Island” electricity market will be of critical importance. Sharper focus on energy efficiency in all sectors of the economy, but in particular in transport and buildings, must be a priority. Finally, to achieve its ambitious goals for renewables in energy supply, Ireland will have to provide ample resources for research and development, to allow technologies such as ocean power to move from the laboratory to the market.
Despite four years of high oil prices, this report sees increasing market tightness beyond 2010, with OPEC spare capacity declining to minimal levels by 2012. A stronger demand outlook, together with project slippage and geopolitical problems has led to downward revisions of OPEC spare capacity by 2 mb/d in 2009. Despite an increase in biofuels production and a bunching of supply projects over the next few years, OPEC spare capacity is expected to remain relatively constrained before 2009 when slowing upstream capacity growth and accelerating non-OECD demand once more pull it down to uncomfortably low levels...
Coal Information brings together in one volume essential statistics on coal. It therefore provides a strong foundation for policy and market analysis. Part I of the publication provides a review of the world coal market in 2006, while Part II provides a statistical overview of developments, which covers world coal production and coal reserves, coal demand by type (hard, steam, coking), hard coal trade and hard coal prices. Part III provides, in tabular and graphic form, a more detailed and comprehensive statistical picture of historical and current coal developments in the 30 OECD member countries, by region and individually. Part IV provides for selected non-OECD countries summary statistics on hard coal supply and end-use statistics for about 40 countries and regions worldwide. Complete coal balances and coal trade data for selected years are presented on 16 major non-OECD coal producing and consuming countries.