A HUGE, narrative-breaking moment for the UK car market
New EVs are now cheaper than petrol cars on average, says Autotrader
Last yr CCC said price parity was due by 2028 – and it's already here
And EVs are already MUCH cheaper to run than petrol
🌐 NEW | Analysis: Global fossil power generation fell in March after Hormuz closure due to solar & wind growth
⚠️ Fall in gas-fired generation offset by large increases in solar & wind power, not coal
w/CREA's @laurimyllyvirta.bsky.social
energyandcleanair.org/fossil-power...
Wann der Bundesregierung Technologieoffenheit wichtig ist und wann nicht #Tankrabatt
The war in Iran is giving me pre-Covid shut down vibes. It's like February 2020. Life is proceeding fairly normally, we're joking about using hand sanitizer. Everyone assumes this will just be a blip. It's really just a few pandemic-nerds that are freaking out because they know what's coming.
Random thought - maybe re-prioritising the allocation of public space isn’t increasing “division” of society, but it’s just making pre-existing division between privileged vs. non-privileged groups more obvious - and the previously privileged don’t like it?
In some of Europe's sunniest countries 1 MWh of average solar generation is still worth more than 60 € (HR, BG, RO, HU, GR) and in IT it is worth more than 90€/MWh. (In 2026 it will likely be more.)
This compares to maybe 40-50 €/MWh of average cost of utility solar
www.bruegel.org/dataset/eu-r...
ItaliaMeteo is the only extreme weather monitoring agency in Italy, HQ’ed in Bologna. It was created a few years ago—after about 20 years of debate—to coordinate all Italian meteorological infrastructures and local agencies ahead of weather warnings in Italy.
Today the 🇮🇹 govt broke some news.
1/2
In 2023 BNEF estimated that 2 and 3 wheel electrics were denting demand by 1 million barrels per day so we can conservatively say electrification of transport is reducing oil by 2.5m b/d currently.
For context, the EU consumes about 14m b/d.
Meanwhile, Spain's massive investment in renewables is paying dividends now: with prices for Spanish industry and consumers low and stable compared with other European economies.
www.ft.com/content/ac77...
As EU lawmakers are looking to soften the continent's CO2 price, it's worth remembering that policy makers can overcome political constraints by complementing CO2 pricing with subsidies without sacrificing much economic efficiency, as I and @knittelmit.bsky.social show here: doi.org/10.1016/j.en...
An influential industry petition criticizing the European Union’s core climate policy implied its demands were supported by some 1,350 companies and associations.
Now some firms deny they signed up.
www.politico.eu/article/big-...
Heizung und Motor sind jetzt wieder Privatsache - aber für billigen Kraftstoff soll natürlich der Staat sorgen…
Just last week the German government gutted the heating law which was supposed to drive a transition away from gas.
The timing could not have been worse: Gas prices are up 50% today and this crisis could worsen significantly. This will happen again and again and the consumer pays the price.
Gas prices up by around 50% today.
A painful reminder that relying on imported fossil fuels is a risky strategy.
I'm so glad Italy is not working on any policies to structurally increase gas demand
“The European gas benchmark, TTF, surged nearly 50 per cent to €47.80 per MWh, the biggest daily move in more than four years.”
Time to structurally decouple our economic and social fortunes from fossil fuels! Any delay to the transition keeps us vulnerable to this.
www.ft.com/content/dac7...
Power generation from carbon-free sources grew 14%, covering all of the 4.8% growth in total power generation and pushing thermal power (coal, gas and biomass) down 0.7%.
Besonders überraschend ist, dass die Regierung auch Ölheizungen weiter zulassen will - und damit sogar hinter das alte GEG der Groko zurückfällt.
Warum die Grün-Öl-Quote, die das ermöglichen soll, kaum funktionieren dürfte, hatte ich schon im Wahlkampf mal für den Climate.Table aufgeschrieben:
Wenn man die Statements von Spahn & Hoffmann hört, wird deutlich, dass es der Union vor allem um Kulturkampf geht.
#Heizungsgesetz
So geht teure Klimapolitik.
Krass: Die Union hat sich praktisch komplett durchgesetzt. Der Kern der GEG-Novelle der Ampel wird komplett gestrichen, neue Gas- und sogar Ölheizungen können wieder ohne jede Beschränkung verbaut werden. Mehr Details gleich im Berlin.Table.
Hinkley Point C now expected to cost £49 billion.
Following pushback & reactions on the stock market, Friedrich Merz specified his stance on the ETS.
"I said that this event in Antwerp it is not the right instrument for generating revenue. Instead, it is the right instrument for enabling climate protection.. The ETS 1 .. has been very successful"
Tomorrow’s summit is a chance for EU leaders to stop chasing the wrong fixes — and finally sketch a response that matches the scale of Europe’s economic challenge.
Here, lucasguttenberg.bsky.social, @sandertordoir.bsky.social and I lay out what that could look like.
www.politico.eu/article/euro...
“Poland, Spain and the Netherlands are growing solidly, while Germany is stagnating, and France and Italy are continuing to underperform. What is seen as a European failure is actually a national one, as many of the most binding growth constraints ….
It’s time to stop hiding behind Brussels.” 💯
Bang on op-ed.
Not to mention the huge windfalls the sector received from the ETS free allowances, little of which was invested in modernising their sector.
Brought to you by the company that is the epitome of Germany‘s Russian gas dependence and opposes derisking from China. Someone here is out of touch with the times.
www.ft.com/content/226c... EU must reform ‘obsolete’ emissions trading system, warns BASF boss
This @nytopinion.nytimes.com op-ed on rare earths repeats a misleading story: that China dominates these industries mainly because of lax labor and environmental standards. It sounds intuitive, but it’s analytically wrong in ways that matter for policy. 1/
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/06/o...
These industries are not labor-intensive. They are capital-intensive, scale-dependent, and reliant on learning by doing. The key advantage wasn’t cheap labor, it was patient capital and system-level coordination. 5/