Last week, three entirely separate but vitally connected events sent shockwaves in quick succession through the fossil fuel industry that are likely to have a lasting long-term impact.
Two were international. One was local.
On Tuesday, , damaging the other three units and plunging much of Queensland and almost half a million customers into a blackout.
Then, on Thursday night, monumental rulings – one by a Dutch court, the other by global investors – threatened to change the course of three of the world's biggest fossil fuel suppliers.
A court in The Hague ordered Royal Dutch Shell to drastically cut its emission reduction targets. It also held the company responsible for the emissions of its consumers.The ruling, which Shell plans to appeal, was unprecedented with the judge dismissing Shell's argument that governments alone were responsible for meeting the Paris Agreement targets.
Across the Atlantic later that very same night, shareholders in two of the world's biggest petroleum groups forced management to step up action on climate change.
Exxon Mobil was stunned when investors voted two representatives of a small activist hedge fund to the board of the energy giant, vowing to force the company to diversify away from fossil fuels. In a separate move, an overwhelming majority of Chevron investors voted in favour of setting emissions reductions targets for the company.
Just a fortnight after the federal government strengthened its resolve for a "gas powered" recovery by
committing $600 million to a gas-fired electricity generator in the NSW Hunter Valley, the global case for investment in hydrocarbons and fossil fuels has lurched into reverse.
written by Ian Verrender ...
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05-31/has-the-gas-fired-recovery-run-out-of-steam/100177438
Following from a debate 3 days ago when I made a comment in discussion with
@madamswer, Morrison's plan to invigorate NSW gas production may be under threat as the ROTW reduces reliance on gas for energy.
Certainly gas is a good interim measure for peaking electricity consumption.... but will peaking plants be economically viable with one estimate suggesting that the Govt's peaking plant at Kurri Kurri NSW would only be used 2-5% of the time. This is largely due to the high cost of gas fuelled electricity production, especially when compared with other production costs.
The EU has been taking global warming seriously for over 20 years, even though various EU nations have been reluctant to fund the transition to non-fossil fuel electricity. First thermal coal has become anathema and now gas is legally restrained from increasing production.
