Finance & VC
Some of the World’s Top Oil Companies Are Banding Together to Invest in Renewables
Here are some of the stories we’re reading this morning.
by GTM Editors
November 02, 2016
Reuters: Oil CEOs to Unveil Renewable Energy Fund in New Climate Push
Top oil companies including Saudi Aramco and Shell will join forces to set up an investment fund to develop technologies to cut carbon emissions and promote renewable energy, sources said on Wednesday.
The chief executives of seven oil and gas companies -- BP, Eni, Repsol, Saudi Aramco, Shell, Statoil and Total -- will announce details of the fund and other steps to reduce greenhouse gases in London on Friday.
The sector faces mounting pressure to take an active role in the fight against global warming, and Friday's event will coincide with the formal entry into force of the 2015 Paris Agreement to phase out man-made greenhouse gases in the second half of the century.
Green Car Reports: Now Toyota Can Make Electric Cars
Toyota is one of the world's three largest carmakers, along with General Motors and Volkswagen Group.
Having placed its bets for the future of zero-emission transport on hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles, it's by far the most resistant of the three to the notion of battery-electric cars.
But a recent news story might possibly indicate a crack in the company's intransigence.
Forbes: China Is Now The World's Leading Energy Financier -- What Does That Mean For Climate Change?
According to a new study by Boston University’s Global Economic Governance Initiative, China is now the world’s largest provider of development finance for energy. Its twin policy banks, the China Development Bank (CBD) and the Export-Import Bank of China (CHEXIM), hold $2 trillion in assets. That’s almost three times the $700 billion held together by six Western-backed development banks. From 2007 to 2014, on average, CDB and CHEXIM together provided $13.5 billion a year in energy finance to foreign governments compared to $10 billion a year loaned by the World Bank.
These banks also fund the overseas expansion of Chinese national oil companies by giving them massive lines of credit at discounted rates.
Reuters: In Rare Move, China Criticizes Trump Plan to Exit Climate Change Pact
China on Tuesday rejected a plan by U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump to back out of a global climate change pact, saying a wise political leader should make policy in line with global trends, a rare comment on a foreign election.
The world is moving towards balancing environmental protection and economic growth, China's top climate change negotiator told reporters, in response to a query on how China would work with a Trump administration on climate change. . .
"If they resist this trend, I don't think they'll win the support of their people, and their country's economic and social progress will also be affected," Xie Zhenhua said.
Guardian: Hinkley Point C Will Not Cost Taxpayers Extra, Says EDF Energy Boss
The chief executive of EDF Energy has vowed that the £24bn Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant will be built by 2025 and will not result in extra costs to UK taxpayers.
In evidence before the House of Lords economic affairs select committee, Vincent de Rivaz dismissed parallels with two nuclear plants EDF is building in France and Finland, which have suffered delays and cost overruns.
He said planning of the two projects had been “flawed” and there had been “underestimation” of their costs but insisted EDF had learned lessons from these setbacks. “The assumptions made on cost and schedule were wrong, dead wrong. We have dramatically changed the approach by which we prepared this project,” he said.
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