Impressive Milestones Achieved on Chinese Advanced Nuclear Power Projects

Aaron Larson
Thu, December 7, 2023

China National Nuclear Corp. (CNNC) announced on Dec. 6 that China’s independently developed high-temperature gas-cooled modular pebble bed (HTR-PM) reactor demonstrator had commenced commercial operation. The HTR-PM project was constructed at a site in Rongcheng, Shandong Province (Figure 1), roughly midway between Beijing and Shanghai in eastern China. Touted as “the world’s first commercially operational modular nuclear power plant with fourth-generation nuclear technology,” the achievement marks an important milestone, transitioning the technology from experiments to the commercial market.

1. Built on a site near Shidao Bay, also known as Shidaowan, the HTR-PM is the world’s first fourth-generation nuclear design to enter commercial operation. Courtesy: CNNC[/caption] Construction of the pioneering project began in December 2012, led by China Huaneng (which holds a 47.5% stake in the demonstration), along with CNNC subsidiary China Nuclear Engineering Corp. (CNEC, 32.5%), and Tsinghua University’s Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology (INET, 20%). Chinergy, a joint venture between Tsinghua and CNEC, served as the engineering, procurement, and construction contractor for the nuclear island. The HTR-PM features two small reactors, each with a capacity of 250 MWth. The reactors use helium as the coolant and graphite as the moderator. Each reactor is loaded (Figure 2) with more than 400,000 spherical fuel elements, or pebbles, each 60 millimeters in diameter, which is roughly the size of a tennis ball. Each pebble contains about seven grams of uranium fuel enriched to 8.5%. 

2. Fuel loading at the Shidaowan HTR-PM in China began in the spring of 2021. It involved putting 870,000 spherical TRISO fuel elements into the two small reactors that will drive a single 210-MWe turbine. Courtesy: CNNC[/caption] Heat from the reactor produces steam in a steam generator. Tsinghua has reported helium temperatures at the reactor core inlet run about 250C, while outlet temperatures reach about 750C. Steam at 13.25 Megapascal (MPa) and 567C is produced at the steam generator outlet. The steam is used to drive a single steam turbine connected to a 210-MWe generator. The demonstration project was first connected to the grid on Dec. 20, 2021. Significant testing has been done since that time to validate operation and demonstrate acceptability. CNNC said the HTR-PM design has broad applications in various fields including power generation and combined heat and power. It noted advantages include high safety, power generation efficiency, and environmental adaptability. Tsinghua has said more than 30 years of continuous research, conducted by hundreds of Tsinghua scientists, has gone into the project. Developers stepped from the basic research of key technologies, to a 10-MW experimental reactor (HTR-10) built at an INET site, and finally to the demonstration project that is now in commercial operation at Shidaowan. Notably, Tsinghua said 93.4% of the equipment used in the final HTR-PM project was manufactured domestically.
Linglong One SMR Milestone

Meanwhile, China also is leading the nuclear industry forward with construction of the world’s first multipurpose small modular reactor (SMR) demonstration project, known as Linglong One. The unit is sited in southern China on the island of Hainan. In November, CNNC announced the top head of the steel containment vessel for the unit was hoisted into place, signaling commencement of the peak phase of internal installation. The Linglong One project began construction at the Changjiang Nuclear Power Plant on July 13, 2021. Linglong One, also known as the ACP100 design, is a multipurpose pressurized water reactor design developed by CNNC following more than 10 years of independent research and development. CNNC has called it “another significant achievement of independent innovation after Hualong One, CNNC’s third-generation nuclear power technology.” In 2016, the Linglong One design became the first SMR to pass a safety review by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Each Linglong One unit has a generating capacity of 125 MW. The demonstration project is wholly owned by CNNC’s China National Nuclear Power. CNNC has said the design and construction of Linglong One are revolutionary and groundbreaking. Modular construction is its most prominent feature. On Aug. 10 this year, the core module of the Linglong One reactor was lifted and placed in the nuclear island (Figure 3). The pressure vessel, evaporator, and other key equipment were installed in one step. Through standardized design, single module production, and mass production, the construction period is shortened and costs reduced, while improving safety, the company said. The small size and simplified system make the SMR convenient for transportation and operation. 

3. The Linglong One core module is shown here being lifted for installation into the plant’s containment building. Courtesy: CNNC[/caption] In addition to generating electricity, CNNC said the Linglong One can also be used for seawater desalination, and heating or cooling, among other useful purposes. The company envisions it serving as self-contained energy sources for parks, islands, mining areas, and high-energy-consuming enterprises.

 —Aaron Larson is POWER’s executive editor (@POWERmagazine). POWER Senior Associate Editor Sonal Patel contributed to this article.

Cop28 is a farce rigged to fail, but there are other ways we can try to save the planet

The Guardian
Opinion
George Monbiot
Sat, 9 December 2023 

Photograph: Dominika Zarzycka/NurPhoto/Shutterstock

Let’s face it: climate summits are broken. The delegates talk and talk, while Earth systems slide towards deadly tipping points. Since the climate negotiations began in 1992 more carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels has been released worldwide than in all preceding human history. This year is likely to set a new emissions record. They are talking us to oblivion.

Throughout these Conference of the Parties (Cop) summits, fossil fuel lobbyists have swarmed the corridors and meeting rooms. It’s like allowing weapons manufacturers to dominate a peace conference. This year, the lobbyists outnumber all but one of the national delegations. And they’re not the only ones: Cop28 is also heaving with meat and livestock lobbyists and reps from other planet-trashing industries. What should be the most important summit on Earth is treated like a trade fair.

It’s not surprising that the two decisive measures these negotiations should have delivered at the outset – agreements to leave fossil fuels in the ground and to end most livestock farming – have never featured in the final outcome of any Cop summit. Nor should we be astonished that these agreements favour non-solutions such as carbon capture and storage, whose sole purpose is to provide an excuse for inaction.


The appointment of Sultan Al Jaber as president of Cop28 could be seen as this fiasco’s denouement. His day job is chief executive of the United Arab Emirates’ state oil company, Adnoc. Adnoc is now planning a massive expansion of its oil and gas operations. Before the meetings began, Al Jaber was planning to use them as a lobbying opportunity to sell his company’s products to delegates. In arguing with people calling for more effective action, he recited classic fossil fuel industry tropes, including that old favourite: if we were to phase out fossil fuels, we’d go back to living in caves. Fossil fuels present the real threat to civilisation. There have been some uninspiring presidents of the international climate summits, but none so manifestly unsuited to the role.

Perhaps it’s unsurprising that, of 27 summits completed so far, 25 have been abject failures, while two (1997’s Kyoto protocol and the Paris agreement, in 2015) have been half-successes. If any other process had a 3.7% success rate, it would be abandoned in favour of something better. But the world’s governments carry on doing the same thing in the expectation of different results. You could almost imagine they wanted to fail.

The first and most obvious reform is to shut out the lobbyists. But the fossil fuel lobby, grotesque as it is, is by no means the only problem with the way these jamborees are run. The process itself is terminally crocked.

The only global negotiations that are organised like the climate summits are other environmental summits, such as the UN biodiversity conferences. When states want something to happen – trade agreements, for example – they use different methods. The failure of the Cop meetings is baked in. In 1994, Saudi Arabia, backed by other members of the oil cartel Opec, insisted that all general decisions must be made by consensus. Because this question was never resolved, the UN’s rules on decision-making remain in draft form.

The result is that the oil states got what they wanted, by default. What “consensus” means is that every nation has a veto: 198 delegates can agree to a measure, but it can be blocked by the 199th. The most lethal interests prevail, by design. The only way such impasses can be resolved is by a determined president “gavelling” decisions through: insisting that a consensus has been reached and hoping no one calls their bluff. It’s not easy to picture Al Jaber playing this role.

Since this horrible farce began 31 years ago, plenty of people have proposed reforms. The proposals fall into three categories. One is to improve the way consensus decisions are made. Well-meaning as these are, they’re futile: you can tweak the process, but it will remain dysfunctional.

Another approach is to replace consensus decision-making with voting, an option that remains, in draft form, in the UN rules. The obvious objection is that a majority would impose decisions on other nations. But this reflects a narrow conception of what voting could do. There are plenty of ways of ensuring everyone can be heard, without relying on crude binary choices. One of the most promising is the Borda count, a decision-making method first proposed in 1435.

The modified Borda count developed by the de Borda Institute looks especially useful. First, the delegates agree on what the principal issues are. These are then turned into a list of options, on which everyone is asked to agree (the options could range from the immediate phase-out of fossil fuels to planetary Armageddon). The options are listed on a ballot paper, and each delegate is asked to rank them in order of preference. A scoring system awards points for every ranking. The more options a delegate ranks, the more points each one is worth to them. This enables complex decisions to be made without excluding anyone.

The third approach, which could run alongside the second, is to bypass the Cop process by developing new binding treaties. The professor of environmental politics Anthony Burke suggests an approach modelled on the 2017 treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons, the 1997 anti-personnel mine ban convention and the 2008 convention on cluster munitions. In these cases, states and citizens’ groups frustrated with a lack of progress began building treaties without the participation of the powerful nations – the US in particular – that sought to resist them. They developed enough momentum not only to push the treaties through the UN general assembly, but also to establish new diplomatic norms that made defiance of the treaties much harder to justify, even for nations that refuse to ratify them.

Burke proposes treaties on deforestation and the elimination of coal, and a stronger version of the fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty that others have developed. He suggests that if they don’t immediately gain the support of the general assembly, they can begin as regional treaties, establishing, for example, deforestation-free zones. He argues that these treaties should be folded into an overarching greenhouse convention, supported by an International Climate Agency, modelled on the International Atomic Energy Agency.

However we do it, we need to break the power of the Earth-devouring industries before they break us. Otherwise, we will keep watching as yet another year is wasted, yet another of our last chances scorches and shrivels. Soon, there will be no years left.

George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist

Supermarkets must ensure products don’t contribute to illegal deforestation, says Steve Barclay

Emma Gatten
Sat, 9 December 2023

Palm oil in products will only be allowed under the new legislation if it is from trees that have been legally felled - SAMSUL SAID/BLOOMBERG

Supermarkets will be forced to ensure that products on their shelves do not contribute to illegal deforestation, the environment secretary will announce today.

Steve Barclay will say palm oil, cocoa, beef, leather and soy products will be covered by the legislation, in an attempt to stop British products contributing to deforestation, in a speech at the Cop28 climate conference in Dubai.

Agricultural expansion causes an area the size of the UK to be ploughed up each year to meet British demand for products.


“I find it heart-rending to see the way illegal deforestation is destroying the habitats of tigers, jaguars, orangutans and many other endangered species, and I know many people across the world feel the same,” Mr Barclay said.

“It’s why we are cleaning up supply chains to make sure that big businesses in the UK aren’t responsible for illegal deforestation.

“It also means shoppers can be confident that the money they spend is part of the solution, rather than part of the problem.”

The legislation was first introduced in the 2021 Environment Act, but could not be enforced until the Government had laid out the products to which it would apply.

Green groups have said the laws do not go far enough because they only cover illegal deforestation.

Some 70 per cent of deforestation for global products is illegal, but there is little understanding of where goods on British shelves come from.
Clean up supply chains

Several supermarkets have already vowed to clean up their supply chains to stop illegal deforestation for products such as soy.

Under the new legislation, businesses that have a global annual turnover of £50 million and use over 500 tonnes of regulated commodities a year will be banned from using them if sourced from land used illegally.

These businesses will also be required to undertake a due diligence exercise on their supply chains and to report annually.

Tanya Steel, CEO of WWF, which has pushed for the legislation, said it was “an important first step to getting illegal deforestation off UK shopping shelves.”

“However illegal deforestation is only part of the picture – with wildlife numbers plummeting and wild habitats facing destruction, we must stop felling forests, full stop,” she said. “Forests absorb 30% of the carbon we emit from burning fossil fuels, so nature is clearly our greatest ally in tackling climate change.”

Major food companies ‘acting like Big Tobacco’ by selling addictive and harmful products

Laura Donnelly
Sat, 9 December 2023

A study in 2017 found that poor diet was responsible for 10.9 million deaths globally in 2017, compared with eight million for tobacco - E+/SOLSTOCK

Processed food manufacturers pose as big a risk to public health as tobacco companies, a leading food expert has claimed.

Dr Chris van Tulleken, associate professor at University College London, said the mass-produced food industry was acting in a similar way to Big Tobacco firms by selling addictive products which could be harmful.

He claimed major food companies were putting the pursuit of profits above public health, especially when marketing snacks and processed foods to children.

“These companies are using the same techniques as tobacco firms to create and then market addictive food, especially to children,” he said. “Poor diet has overtaken tobacco as the leading cause of death globally – and poor diet means an ultra-processed diet.”

Ultra-processed foods go through multiple processes during manufacturing, are often high in salt and sugar, and contain additives, emulsifiers and preservatives.

They are typically lacking in fibre and nutrients but are high in calories.

Most junk food is ultra-processed, including ready meals, frozen pizzas, shop-bought cakes and potato-based snacks. But many foods which have traditionally been considered “healthy” are also ultra-processed, including supermarket sliced bread, “low fat” and “diet” foods and drinks, and packaged snacks aimed at preschool children.

Speaking at the Unicef UK Baby Friendly Initiative Conference in Harrogate last month, Dr van Tulleken said: “We have a real crisis of industrialised, processed foods being marketed to children… We are sure that these foods have addictive properties for both children and adults.”

Dr van Tulleken, who is the author of Ultra-Processed People, described ultra-processed food as “food made with the cheapest possible ingredients which is made with the purpose of generating money for an institutional investor”.

Poor diet a bigger killer

An analysis of deaths in 195 countries, published in The Lancet in 2019, found poor diet is now responsible for more deaths worldwide than tobacco.

The study, led by the US-based Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, found poor diet was responsible for 10.9 million deaths globally in 2017, compared with eight million for tobacco.

Tobacco companies have a long history of interest in mass-produced foods.

American cigarette makers Philip Morris and R J Reynolds owned some of the world’s biggest food manufacturers, including General Foods, Kraft and Nabisco, from the 1980s to the mid-2000s, during which time there was a surge in worldwide consumption of ultra-processed foods.

The companies – now merged as Kraft Heinz – continue to sell Heinz baby food and snacks, as well as popular brands like Heinz beans, Philadelphia cheese spread and Capri-Sun drinks.

“It’s not just that these [food manufacturers] are comparable to tobacco companies, they were the tobacco companies,” Dr van Tulleken added. “The tobacco industry used its knowledge about flavour and marketing to create and market addictive food, especially to children.”

Healthier choices

A spokesperson for the Food and Drink Federation, which represents the food industry, said: “Processing allows us to make the safe, delicious and nutritious food and drink enjoyed by households across the country each day and ensures consumers have a range of choice on the supermarket shelves with products at every price point… Over a number of years, we have invested a great deal in changing the recipes of our products to remove fat, sugar and salt and to add more fibre, fruit and vegetables. We’ve also reduced portion sizes and launched new, healthier products.”

The Department for Health and Social Care said it had introduced calorie labelling in restaurants and required pre-packaged foods to carry “a variety of information to aid shoppers – including a list of ingredients and nutritional data”.

A government spokesperson said: “We are taking strong action to encourage healthier food choices and to tackle obesity – recognising that it is the second biggest cause of cancer and costs the NHS around £6.5 billion a year – while respecting the importance of individual choice.”

UK Employers watering down private healthcare perk as NHS backlog soars


James Fitzgerald
Fri, 8 December 2023 

Healthcare perks are being watered down

Employers are watering down private healthcare perks after premiums rose by 60pc due to NHS delays.

Firms are removing dependent cover from policies, asking staff to ‘co-pay’ on claims and in some cases restricting cancer support to reduce the cost of delivering the workplace benefit, according to consultancy firms.

Insurers paid out a record of nearly £3bn in claims last year, the Association of British Insurers said, as NHS backlogs caused a growing number of employees to use their workplace scheme for the first time.

The increase has led to premiums rising by between 20pc and 60pc and piling more cost on their employers who pay for the schemes.


Luke James, of health insurance consultancy Mercer Marsh Benefits, said: “Twenty per cent rises in premiums is on the low end of the cost rises. Our figures show that we are seeing 40pc to 60pc premium rises in the UK and across Europe. It’s huge, and we don’t expect much to change in 2024.

“All of this is driving up costs for employers [who offer private health cover]. I think the issue we have is that it is the No1-valued employee benefit, so it isn’t something an employer can decide not to offer anymore. If a member of staff is unwell, employers need their employees to get better and back to work.”

Mr James said to manage costs, employers are instead limiting the cover or asking employees to ‘co-pay’ on claims.

“They are also removing some treatments from the cover but these are short-term quick wins that are not sustainable for employers,” he added.

In eyecare alone, 640,000 people are in the queue for an NHS appointment or treatment, according to analysis by the Association of Optometrists, leaving them at risk of going blind. The average wait time is over a year.

According to research publication Corporate Adviser Intelligence, there were 60,995 British businesses covered by the country’s biggest insurers at the end of 2022, including Canada Life and Aviva, a 5.2pc jump year-on-year.

The employer typically pays for the cover but, in some cases, employees pay the excess if a procedure, care, or treatment is above an agreed threshold. The cost of insurance depends on age, risk, and health - with a comprehensive policy costing around £25 a month for a 20-year-old, and more than £150 for someone in their 80s.

Rachel Western, of consultancy firm Aon, said some businesses are removing dependent cover, which is common for workplace health policies, to save some money.

“We are seeing clients considering the longer term impact of premium rises, so conversations we have with clients are looking at lots of ways to limit cost in the future,” she said.

According to Ms Western, these cuts to employee health benefits include adding in excesses, reducing outpatient cover, restricting cancer benefits to avoid some high-cost exposures, restricting network options and looking at who the benefit covers – if this should be restricted or managed.

She said: “Private medical care has always been a high spend for workplaces but we are heading towards a place where private health cover is becoming one of the biggest costs in a workplace budget.

“The big risk is if that moves into these people getting more treatment and higher costs then these [workplace] schemes are going to potentially become unaffordable for corporate businesses, or a large part of their annual budget.

“There are three main ways a corporation can reduce costs on a private health scheme: cover people for less, or make people healthier – focus on preventative medicine and health and wellbeing strategies – and some element of contributions [from employees].

“Also, there is a lot of dependent cover in place [in workplace schemes], that could become something that corporates look at [cutting]. Scrapping these options will not be seen well by employees and businesses need to weigh up whether these benefits are affordable – and how they offer them.”

UK
Lorry driver strikes threaten Christmas food shortages at Asda

Daniel Woolfson
Fri, 8 December 2023

A woman pushes a shopping cart at an Asda superstore at the Gateshead Metrocentre, in Gateshead

Asda is facing walkouts from lorry drivers over Christmas in a fresh blow to the supermarket’s billionaire owners, the Issa brothers.

Around 80 lorry drivers at the retail giant’s operations hub in Rochdale are plotting strike action over the festive break.

Union chiefs at Unite said the industrial action, which is due to take place across several dates in December and on January 2, could lead to shortages of chilled foods on supermarket shelves.

The workers, who are employed by the supply chain company Wincanton, have argued they are being paid £1.24 an hour less than counterparts doing the same role at a different Asda facility in Lutterworth.

They also claim to be receiving lower rates for overtime, as well as for night, weekend and bank holiday shifts.

The workers in Lutterworth are employed directly by Asda.

It is understood Asda plans to use its own drivers on days the strikes take place to limit disruption.

The threat of shortages comes as traditional supermarkets like Asda prepare for festive competition with discounters Aldi and Lidl, which have acquired market share during the cost of living crisis.

Asda’s market share has fallen to 13.4pc in November, according to recent Kantar data, down from 14.2pc in January of this year.

Difficulties retaining customers have coincided with political scrutiny over Mohsin and Zuber Issa’s ownership of Asda, as the brothers have faced questions over high levels of debt and complex business structures.

Mohsin and Zuber Issa have come under scrutiny as a result of the complex corporate governance structures they employ - on Super / Alamy Stock Photo

MPs have quizzed the Issas over whether billions of pounds in borrowings could prevent them from offering lower prices for consumers as inflation eases.

Over the past year, the Issa brothers have been scrambling to pay down debts by selling off assets across their sprawling empire, which includes fast food chain Leon and petrol forecourts business EG Group.

Unite regional officer Paul Lomax said: “Asda shoppers will be disappointed that shelves could run bare during the festive period, but this is entirely the fault of Wincanton and Asda for denying our members pay parity.

“Strike action can only be avoided if Wincanton makes a vastly improved offer, the ball is now firmly in its court.”

A spokesman for Asda said: “These negotiations are between Wincanton and Unite and we would encourage them to reach an agreement that is acceptable to both parties.

“We employ a large number of Asda delivery-driver colleagues who deliver to our stores every day and we are confident that customers will be able to get everything they need in store to enjoy a wonderful Christmas.”

A Wincanton spokesperson said: “We can confirm that we are currently in constructive talks with Unite and Asda to find a solution which is satisfactory for all parties based at our site in Rochdale. We have made a competitive offer which we hope is accepted, and which is currently under consideration by Unite and its members.”

UK
Claire Coutinho hands £30m to US mini-nuke project rivalling Rolls-Royce

Howard Mustoe
Fri, 8 December 2023

Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho has awarded Florida based Holtec the government funding - Chris J. Ratcliffe/Bloomberg

Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho has handed £30m in government funding to a US designer of mini-nuclear reactors which plans to accelerate operations in the UK.

Holtec, based in Florida, has been competing with Rolls-Royce and other companies to secure taxpayer backing to explore low-carbon energy sources.

Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) are seen as a potential supplier of green energy to rival wind farms and solar energy.

They are smaller than full-size nuclear power plants and can be factory-built, cutting costs through mass production.

Holtec is developing a reactor that can be cooled in an emergency without external power.

A single 160MW Holtec reactor will occupy six hectares, the equivalent of 10 football pitches, making it suitable for industrial sites.

The firm’s main business comes from selling equipment to manage spent nuclear fuel.

Nuclear Minister Andrew Bowie said the Government is rapidly expanding Britain's nuclear power capacity - Geoff Pugh

Nuclear Minister Andrew Bowie said: “As the Government that revitalised the UK nuclear industry, committing public funds to nuclear for the first time in a generation, we’re rapidly expanding our nuclear power capacity to move towards a cleaner energy mix and help deliver net zero.”

Holtec and Rolls-Royce are up against French state-owned power producer EDF, US designer NuScale Power, Westinghouse Electric Company and GE-Hitachi in bidding for SMR orders from the UK.

NuScale, which already has design approval in the US for its model, was dealt a blow last month when its maiden deal to build six plants in Utah collapsed.

Depending on its size and design, the price of an SMR could start at $100m, rather than the tens of billions that traditional nuclear power stations cost.

Hinkley Point C in Somerset was estimated to cost around £26bn in 2015, for example, but could now end up costing £33bn, according to latest estimates.

Tom Greatrex, chief executive of the Nuclear Industry Association, said: “This funding shows the UK is committed to its new nuclear programme which needs to be rolled out at pace and at scale to ensure we ramp up nuclear so we can deliver clean power for net zero and good, green jobs for our communities.

Sunak’s North Sea drilling plan is purely ‘symbolic’, says former BP chief

Jonathan Leake
Sat, 9 December 2023 

Rishi Sunak’s planned expansion was little more than a political gesture, says Lord Browne - Simon Dawson/Bloomberg

Former BP chief Lord Browne has said Rishi Sunak’s decision to expand North Sea drilling is “not going to make any difference” to Britain’s energy security and is “symbolic”.

Lord Browne, who is now among Rishi Sunak’s lead scientific advisors, said he was “surprised” by the Prime Minister’s decision to grant new licences to drill in the North Sea annually.

Speaking in Dubai, where he has been attending the Cop28 climate talks, Lord Browne declared that the UK continental shelf was dying as an oil and gas resource and suggested Mr Sunak’s planned expansion was little more than a political gesture.

He told The Telegraph: “I’ve always thought that most of the North Sea and [the Atlantic] West of Shetland is at the end of its exploration life. So I was quite surprised at this plan. It’s a bit more symbolic, I think, than real.

“Someone wants to make a point that there’s freedom of choice here. It’s not going to make any difference in terms of the volumes found, and even in carbon dioxide produced if it’s used.”

North Sea drillers face not just dwindling supplies, but also a deeply unstable political environment. The last two years alone have seen offshore taxes raised from 40pc to 75pc, with Labour promising more to come should it win the coming election.

Lord Browne suggested that the UK’s offshore operators are now just planning to make as much money as they can and then quit.

“This is not an industry that is going to invest the same amount of money every year… People recognize that when governments become unreliable, that will stem the investment.

“And if there is nothing left to do [no remaining oil and gas], then people will naturally say fine – now we’re in the endgame. Let’s just take as much money as we can.”

Industry disagrees, with Mike Tholen of Offshore Energies UK suggesting the North Sea is the “foundation of energy security” and the platform on which to build a renewable sector.

However, Lord Browne’s comments carry weight given his reputation as arguably BP’s more influential former chief executive.

They are even more striking given Lord Browne’s current role as chair of the Government’s Council for Science and Technology – a group of the UK’s most senior scientists appointed to advise Rishi Sunak. On this issue, however, they appear not to have been consulted.

Lord Browne led BP between 1995 and 2007 during a period of fossil fuel expansion so successful that he became known as the industry’s “sun king”. However, the 75-year-old no longer regards himself as an “oil and gas man”, instead arguing he is now focused on investing in green energy.

“I stepped down as chief executive of BP in 2007. But even while I was with BP, I was trying to say, actually, energy is changing.

“I’ve been migrating, I would say, over the last 16 years, into an investor that invests in climate change. I don’t feel like an oil and gas person.”

That declaration may surprise his former colleagues, many of whom remain at BP.

Lord Browne’s links with oil and gas go back to his childhood when his father was an executive at Anglo-Persian Oil, now BP, and the family lived in Iran. His book, Beyond Business, describes how seeing a giant fire raging after a 1958 oil well blowout is what inspired him to enter the industry.

In 1966, as a graduate physicist, the then John Browne followed his father to BP, taking on exploration and production roles all over the world before eventually running BP’s exploration division.

He has overseen the discovery and extraction of billions of barrels of oil and gas – but that, he says, is now all over.

“We have to do something about climate change.”

His Damascene conversion began at BP with a controversial attempt to rebrand the company as “Beyond Petroleum”. BP managers tend to get embarrassed about the rebrand now but the underlying aim – of evolving the company for a post-fossil fuel era – has survived multiple leadership changes.

Lord Browne said this is because the science on climate change has become ever more convincing.

“We are dealing with something which is most likely to be an existential threat for humanity. Unless we alter our path, the world’s temperature by 2100 will be 3C higher than today.

“It changes where people can live, where you can grow crops, and living conditions for so many people, probably in a fatal way. The obvious answer is to stop putting greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.”

So far, there is zero sign of that happening. Annual global greenhouse gas emissions have risen from the equivalent of 33 billion tonnes of CO2 in 1990 – the Cop conference’s benchmark year – to 54 billion tonnes last year with no sign of a decline.

Some see the UN’s annual conferences as simply creating the pretence of action where none exists to soothe an increasingly concerned public.

The conferences are now huge – Lord Browne is among 70,000 people attending the Dubai meeting. Leaks to the BBC included claims that UAE officials planned to use the conference as an opportunity to strike oil and gas deals.

If Cop really is about tackling fossil fuel emissions, won’t future generations see it as the UN’s greatest failure?

Lord Browne counters: “It’s easy to say these UN Cop conferences are just useless talking shops… but some of them do achieve something. I think the one in Paris did achieve something by setting targets for nations. Whether we reach the targets is a different question.”

The Paris talks in 2015 saw 196 countries sign up to a legally binding agreement to limit global warming to no more than 2C, with the ambition of keeping it below 1.5C. In practice, it would mean greenhouse gas emissions peaking by 2025 at the latest and declining 43pc by 2030. There is no sign of either target being reached.

Oil and gas companies including BP that have sought to focus more on renewable energy have subsequently shifted back to oil and gas.

Lord Browne admits the dilemma. “These publicly listed companies have shareholders who look at the returns available right now. They are doing exactly what the signals from the investors are leaving them to do, which is to maximise returns based on their skills.”

Oil and gas companies are always likely to choose pleasing investors over saving the planet, he believes, so it is down to governments to create the rules and incentives to cut emissions. They are doing spectacularly badly, he thinks.

“I think the world has failed. I wouldn’t blame the Cop talks – they are just a set of meetings, a conference. But the world has failed because it has not figured out the right incentives to persuade people to reduce greenhouse gases.”

Lord Browne left BP in 2007 after making false statements to a UK court after a British tabloid “outed” him as gay. Lord Browne has called the incident a “such a bad error of judgment”.

However, all these years later the people and policies he brought in are still guiding the company today.

Tony Hayward, who was mentored by Lord Browne as his successor, had his tenure ended early by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster. Next was Bob Dudley, another executive promoted by Lord Browne.

Mr Dudley stepped down in 2020 and was replaced by Bernard Looney, another of Lord Browne’s favourites. He was forced out after failing to reveal details of his relationships with multiple colleagues. Interim chief executive, Murray Auchincloss, was also a Lord Browne protege.

What’s striking is that all four have broadly followed the “beyond petroleum” path laid out by Lord Browne two decades ago.

What advice does he have for BP now? “I think they need to recognize that there are many voices out there, and that they need to not be arrogant.

“Companies don’t have a right to exist. They only exist when people buy their product. They should be mindful of that and respect what people say, meaning moving with regulation, reducing CO2 releases, and being part of society.

“It would be really wrong for a company to say ‘We’re here, you need us and there’s nothing you can do about it’. That’s just not true in the end, customers will go elsewhere.”

We really could triple renewables by 2030, but it won’t be a breeze


Jillian Ambrose

THE GUARDIAN
Sat, 9 December 2023 

Photograph: Ina Fassbender/AFP/Getty Images

In the past week almost 120 global leaders have pledged to triple the world’s renewable energy capacity before 2030 in a bold attempt to slash the global consumption of fossil fuels.

As the second half of the Cop28 UN climate conference in Dubai unfolds in the week ahead, more countries may join the calls for a global target of 11 terawatts (TW) of renewable power by the end of the decade, three times higher than the 3.629TW in place at the end of 2022.

Tripling the world’s renewables by 2030 is an “ambitious yet achievable goal”, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). Based on the rate of growth for wind and solar power in recent years, the world is on track to meet this target.


But the global energy watchdog has warned that “stronger policy actions by governments” will be required to surmount the obstacles that threaten to slow the progress of wind and solar power developers. Overcoming challenges, such as rising costs, uncertain supply chains and grid bottlenecks, is considered essential for leaders struggling to hit their goal of limiting global heating to within 1.5C of pre-industrialised levels.

Tripling the world’s renewables would halve the global demand for coal power by 2030, according to estimates, which would deliver almost half the reductions in methane – a potent greenhouse gas – needed from the coalmining sector this decade.

“This is crucial for 1.5C,” said Dave Jones, the global insights lead for climate thinktank Ember. “The tripling goal would take renewables to the next level, with solar and wind reaching 40% of global electricity generation by 2030. Together, these would unlock deep economy-wide fossil fuel reductions and ensure that oil, coal and gas demand not only peak this decade but see a meaningful fall.”

The goal has won the support of 118 countries, which could pave the way for a historic opportunity to cement the ambition in the Cop28 final text. In practice, not every country would be increasing its renewable capacity threefold to hit the global target. Some countries starting from a lower level would need to more than triple their wind and solar power, while for others with a high share of renewables already, it would not be feasible to triple their capacity again.

Chinese wind turbine maker Envision Energy believes meeting the international pledge by 2030 would be “easy”. “This is not visionary,” its chief executive, Lei Zhang, told journalists at the Dubai summit. “If you look at the wind and solar growth rate in the past, you see triple is not difficult because all renewables have been lower cost than fossil fuel.”

Increasing capacity may have been simple in recent years with the help of low interest rates and generous government support schemes, but the sector’s progress for the rest of the decade is less certain. Rising inflation and the disruption to the global offshore wind supply chains has taken a toll on the biggest offshore wind developers in the last year by raising costs by over 40% in some cases. Higher interest rates have pushed up the cost of financing.

More than 90 gigawatts of wind capacity was installed globally across 55 markets in 2022, 14% less than in 2021, according to data from S&P Global. The figures show that global offshore installations more than halved to 9GW in 2022, driven by steep declines in mainland China and the UK.

The future growth of solar power looks relatively assured as global manufacturing capacity is set to reach 1TW a year in 2024, according to the IEA. Still, solar power projects are expected to face a more difficult time connecting to power grids, which require a dramatic rewiring to cope with the extra demand.

Fatih Birol, head of the IEA, has urged governments to “open their eyes” to the scale of the task facing them. Advanced economies will need to lay at least 23m km of power lines by 2040 to meet their renewable energy goals, the IEA says, and on a global level, 80m km of cable will be needed.

So far China and India, two of the world’s biggest polluters, have not backed the pledge despite setting ambitious renewables agendas of their own. India is aiming to triple its renewable capacity by 2030, said Ember. It found that China was responsible for two-thirds of global growth in solar and wind in the first half of 2023, while official forecasts predict the country will double its renewable capacity by 2030.

UK

RED TORIES
Labour recruits City grandees as it declares it is ‘no longer sneering at business’


Michael Bow
Thu, 7 December 2023 

Labour has been on a long charm offensive within the business community to help feed into its election manifesto - Labour Party

Labour has hired 10 City grandees to advise the party as it declared it is “no longer sneering at business”.

Shadow economic secretary Tulip Siddiq MP has recruited advisers such as London Stock Exchange chief David Schwimmer, Prudential chair Baroness Shriti Vader and Bank of England director Sir Ron Kalifa, who will sit on the panel to help steer the party’s policy.

She said the group will debate issues like capital markets, competitiveness and consumer protection to help feed into the party’s election manifesto next year.


The move is designed to erase the anti-business era of Jeremy Corbyn and present Labour as a closer ally to the Square Mile.

Ms Siddiq said: “The message I have heard from the City time and time again is the need for the next Government to provide long-term stability and a clear sense of direction on policy priorities.”

She told the Financial Times that Labour has stopped “sneering at business”, having built on recent discussions with banks, insurers and asset managers.

Leader Sir Keir Starmer and shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves will unveil the panel on Friday as part of a review of the party’s approach to financial services.

The duo are in Edinburgh to mark one year since the Edinburgh Reforms, a raft of measures announced by Chancellor Jeremy Hunt to revive London’s flagging financial centre.

Key members of the 10-strong panel also include the chairs of Abrdn, Legal & General, Schroders and Barclays.

The members are sitting independently on the panel rather than as representatives of their companies.

Labour has been on a long charm offensive within the business community to help shore up its support.

Ms Reeves’ so-called scrambled eggs and smoked salmon offensive has kicked up a gear in recent months as Britain edges closer to the next election

Dozens of executives from financial institutions such as JP Morgan and Blackstone met the Labour leadership ahead of the Government’s Global Investment Summit earlier this month.

Closer to home, Labour’s plans to accelerate the rollout of banking hubs to help give people more access to cash has also triggered debate.

Many banks are shutting branches due to a fall in cash payments, although Labour’s move may complicate that process.

Other representatives on Labour’s City panel include Yorkshire Building Society chief executive Susan Allen, Amadeus Capital founder Anne Glover and the former chair of the Financial Conduct Authority Charles Randell.

\Labour MPs oppose house building in defiance of Keir Starmer’s fight against Nimbys

Ruby Hinchliffe
Thu, 7 December 2023 

keir starmer

Labour MPs are openly lobbying against more homes being built up and down England, despite Sir Keir Starmer’s pledge to side with the builders “not the blockers”.

Helen Hayes, MP for Dulwich and West Norwood, lobbied against a development in her constituency for 100pc affordable housing.

In an application for 76 homes, she responded saying the seven-storey building – set to be built on a site next to a train station – would be “too tall”.

In the West Midlands, MP for Birmingham Erdington Paulette Hamilton objected to one home being turned into seven flats. She said the plans, which would have housed people with learning disabilities, “might add to anti-social behaviour in the area”.

Anna Clarke, policy director at The Housing Forum, said “a fair bit” of the Labour opposition to new house building she’s seen has been urban MPs opposing high density areas.

She added: “This could lead to more pressure on greenbelt or other urban fringe or new town building, to avoid having to go too high on the density of cities.

“The problems will come for Labour if they win, and are actually proposing building in places where their own MPs are under pressure to oppose.”

But house building is not just a point of contention for urban constituencies.

In East England, Labour MP Alistair Strathern – who won the mid-Bedfordshire by-election in October – promised on his canvassing pamphlet “no new builds without proper infrastructure”. Just under a third of Mr Strathern’s constituency sits on the green belt.

At least 32 Labour MPs – including shadow secretaries of state Lisa Nandy, Ed Milliband and Yvette Cooper – hold seats in constituencies where half or more of land is classified as green belt, according to Telegraph analysis of data from The Countryside Charity (CPRE).

John McDonnell, Labour MP for Hayes and Harlington, said at a local level protecting the green belt is an undeniable vote-winner.

He told The Telegraph any changes to green belt policy will need to recognise “the reality” of the green belt’s role and the “scale of support there is for its protection”.

Shadow state secretary for health and social care, Wes Streeting, is MP for Ilford North – where 47.9pc of it is on the green belt.

Back in 2017, he helped locals win a campaign against Redbridge council which wanted to build 850 homes on 21 football pitches and nine cricket squares.

But Sir Keir has made his stance clear: if elected prime minister, this land won’t be protected in full at the expense of missed house building targets.

The Telegraph understands that tough rules and conditions will come with the release of any green belt land.

In both 2021-22 and 2022-23, just under 235,000 new homes were built each year – some 65,000 short of the Government’s much-debated 300,000 new builds target.

As a result, Sir Keir has taken the decision to make Labour the party of housebuilders. “We’re the builders, not the blockers,” he has said time and time again – going as far as to identify as a ‘yimby’, or ‘yes in my backyard’.

In his party conference speech, addressing “those who say ‘we don’t want Britain’s future here’”, he said: “A future must be built and that is the responsibility of the Government, otherwise we will end up in a rut. We’ll get shovels in the ground, cranes in the sky, and build Labour’s next generation of new towns”.

Robert Colvile, director of the Thatcher-founded think tank Centre for Policy Studies, said the acid test will be whether Sir Keir can overrule the objections of his own MPs.

He added: “It will become more of a problem if Labour end up winning many of the home counties seats that they’d need for a majority. The line will hold up until the election, but it is if Labour makes it into power that we’ll see whether the party actually really means it.”

In an attempt to placate both sides, Sir Keir has come up with a ‘grey belt’ classification. This would reclassify “low-quality” land on the green belt as ‘grey belt’ in order to let developers build more new homes on it.

But some fear the ‘grey belt’ idea will backfire and lead to good quality green belt land slipping through the net too. Richard Knox-Johnston, of the London Green Belt Council, said major developers already hold options on lots of green belt land.

If developers were to let that land fall to waste or make it look ‘undesirable’, they may then – under a Labour government – be able to build on it, Mr Knox-Johnston said.

Asked over email whether this was a worry, Labour MP John McDonnell simply replied: “Exactly”.

Birmingham MP Paulette Hamilton objected a home in her constituency being turned into flats citing the potential for anti-social behaviour - Ben Birchall/PA Wire

Since 2009, 140,042 homes have sprung up on land previously classified as part of the green belt, according to construction data firm Glenigan.

This has angered nimby homeowners and campaigners, who say there is no need to spoil green spaces with new construction when there are other ways targets can be met.

One reason they cite is the more than one million homes in England yet to be built but granted planning permission over the past 12 years – a statistic analysed by Channel 4’s FactCheck.

Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves has said she will tackle nimbyism by giving residents in new development hotspots something in return. She told The Times that homeowners deserve a “sweetener” if developers build right next to them.

But Elizabeth Woodward, planning policy lead at the CPRE, said this raises “concerns” over individual payments being seen as “bribes” to support certain planning applications.

She also questioned how Labour would choose who is and isn’t impacted by new developments, adding: “Where do you draw the line? Why should Number 28 get a subsidy and not Number 29?”

Ant Breach, of think tank Centre for Cities, said since Labour “seized the house building mantle”, expectations have been raised and that much of the party’s economic strategy now depends on it – including more construction jobs and more opportunities for investment.

He continued: “When it comes to housing, ‘sweeteners’ are difficult. Objections to new development are rarely about house prices or financial compensation.

“It’s not material concerns which locals are raising in the planning process, it’s concerns about infrastructure not keeping up with building.”

Rather than £5,000 or £10,000 for 2,000 houses built near them, Mr Breach said local authorities should be incentivised to invest in amenities and new infrastructure.

A Labour Party spokesperson said: “A generation and its hopes are being blocked by a Conservative prime minister too weak to stand up to his own party, who has allowed planning permissions to collapse, pushed house building off a cliff and exacerbated a housing crisis causing misery for millions.

“The Labour Party is serious about grasping the nettle and delivering a reformed planning system where the Tories have failed, restoring the local house building targets Rishi Sunak scrapped, jump-starting planning, and delivering a housing recovery plan.

“Labour will back the builders not the blockers, and take the tough choices that deliver the homes our country desperately needs.”

UK employers limit hiring permanent staff amid economic stresses


Richard Partington

 Economics correspondent

THE GUARDIAN
Thu, 7 December 2023 

Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

Britain’s largest recruiters have warned the Bank of England that demand for permanent hiring among UK businesses has plunged at the second fastest rate since the pandemic, amid worsening headwinds for the UK economy.

Ahead of the central bank’s decision on interest rates on 14 December, the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) trade body said lingering economic uncertainty and hesitancy to commit to new hires had weighed on activity in November.

A monthly snapshot of the UK jobs market produced by the REC and the accountancy firm KPMG, tracked closely by Treadneedle Street, showed availability of new job candidates increased at the fastest rate since December 2020.

But permanent staff appointments dropped at the second quickest rate since June 2020, when the first Covid-19 lockdown triggered an economic collapse.

The bank’s policymakers, including its governor, Andrew Bailey, are closely monitoring Britain’s jobs market for evidence of inflation persistence after pausing a round of 14 consecutive interest rate increases in September.

With the economy under growing pressure from higher borrowing costs, the bank is widely expected to keep interest rates unchanged at the current level of 5.25%.

Bailey has said that rates would need to remain high for a prolonged period to tackle stubbornly high inflation. However, the latest figures from the REC and KPMG showed few signs that the jobs market could add significantly to inflation in future.

According to the latest figures, starting salary inflation dipped to a 32-month low, while job vacancies declined for the second time in three months. It comes before official figures on the state of the jobs market due on Tuesday from the Office for National Statistics

Claire Warnes, skills and productivity partner at KPMG UK, said employers were reining in hiring and pushing ahead with redundancies in response to “sustained economic slowdown”.

She said: “Businesses want to plan for the year ahead, but the prospect of faltering UK economic growth means the certainty they need isn’t there. This is now impacting starting salaries, as pay inflation isn’t as sharp as in previous months. With the Bank of England looking like it will be keeping interest rates high for now, businesses will need to stay resilient to manage this period of flux.”

The survey from the REC and KPMG showed that employer confidence receded amid the current economic climate. This, in turn, led to hiring freezes and reductions in vacancies, with the sharpest declines in London.

Neil Carberry, chief executive of the REC, said that 2023 had been a “testing year” for recruiters, but that there was anecdotal evidence that employers might be holding back until the new year to resume their hiring plans.

However, he said wage growth could strengthen next year if employers found it harder to recruit following the government’s announcement of tougher migration rules this week. “For policymakers any return to growth will put strain on a labour market with embedded shortages – this week’s pro-election rather than pro-economy decision on immigration will exacerbate that.”