In focus: How international are decarbonization efforts?

In Europe, we have been seeing an increasing amount of climate change evidence that makes us reconsider our outfit choices every day and if (not) bringing an umbrella was the right thing. A not-so-snowy winter, no nice spring weather, a lot of summer rain in Southeastern and Central Europe, but very dry in the North Sea countries – Denmark had two weeks without rain for the first time in 17 years – we wonder whether we are doing enough and how global are decarbonization efforts.

The Nordic countries had an unusually dry spring and Denmark had the driest May in 15 years, the Danish Meteorological Institute reported. This Scandinavian country is the frontrunner in green power as 50 per cent of its power system comes from renewable energy and there are days when everything is powered by only wind and solar power.

By setting a target to achieve 100 per cent green power by 2030, the Danes are planning to have backup capacity from hydrogen and energy storage. On 1 July, a new executive order came into force making it possible to issue guarantees of origin for hydrogen, meaning that Power-to-X actors can market and show that they trade in green hydrogen and use green hydrogen in their processes.

In the neighborhood, in a bid to further curb emissions, UK’s Jersey Oil & Gas and NEO Energy announced that their oil project on the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS) would entail the redeployment of a floating, production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) vessel that will be modified to enable electrification via floating offshore wind. In addition, the Hamburg Port Authority (HPA) has established a new corporate division focused on the expansion of renewable energies as well as shore power and electrification.

Going southern, the FloWatt tidal energy pilot set to be installed offshore Normandy, France, saw a subcontract for the front-end engineering and design (FEED) for the subsea installation scope awarded to Windstaller Alliance, the joint venture of Aker Solutions, DeepOcean and Solstad Offshore, with the intention of using the most efficient partner resources during the potential build-out of the project.

In Greece, the Greek electricity grid operator Independent Power Transmission Operator (IPTO or Admie) became a strategic investor in the EuroAsia Interconnector that is expected to bring an end to Cyprus’ energy isolation.

Most of these decarbonization efforts are coming from Europe – so where does the rest of the world stand? In this week now almost behind us, a lot of American and Asian countries made moves that make us think we are not too late.

Brazil’s government has published a new version of the country’s offshore wind roadmap following recent updates of the regulatory framework for energy generation and is planning to establish a regulative framework for offshore wind and green hydrogen by the end of the year.

International cooperation is coming from the U.S. with the Port of Los Angeles signing a new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Nagoya, Japan’s largest port by cargo throughput, to broaden cooperation on sustainability and operational efficiency initiatives, including green shipping corridor between the two ports.

Furthermore, as part of its path towards a global energy transition, Japanese trading company Mitsui & Co. reported it had completed the acquisition of 100 per cent of shares of STATS (UK), a provider of pipeline integrity solutions.

To conclude the story, the world definitely seems to be busy plotting against climate change. Worldwide investments in clean energy are projected to reach $1.74 trillion this year, a 7.6 per cent increase compared to $1.617 trillion in 2022, according to a recent report by the International Energy Agency (IEA).

If the results are as projected, 2023 would be the eighth straight year in which investments in green energy topped investments in fossil fuels, with the ratio growing in favor of clean energy each year since 2016.