11 March (IEEFA Vietnam): Vietnam’s recently published draft power development plan for 2021-2030 (PDP8) has failed to acknowledge the importance of developing a more flexible system that can accommodate a changing technology mix, according to a new report from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA).
“After a decade filled with disappointments from the fossil fuel industry, planners successfully tested the dynamism of renewable energy in Vietnam’s fast-growing market,” says report author IEEFA Director of Energy Finance Studies Asia, Melissa Brown.
“Many conventional coal and gas-power projects failed to progress during the development process, only managing to meet half of the targeted capacity for 2016-2020.
“Solar power developers however over-delivered by five times, and they have done so in a fraction of the time.
“This evidence would surely inform the next stage of Vietnam’s power development.
Một trong những quy định tại Nghị định 117/2020/NĐ-CP quy định xử phạt hành chính trong lĩnh vực y tế (có hiệu lực từ 15.11.2020) đã quy định về xử phạt với hành vi lựa chọn giới tính thai nhi.
Phạt tiền từ 10 – 12 triệu đồng đối với hành vi dùng vũ lực để ép buộc người mang thai loại bỏ thai nhi vì lý do lựa chọn giới tính- Ảnh minh họa: Shutterstock
Quyền tiếp cận đất đai của phụ nữ thông qua hoạt động cấp giấy chứng nhận quyền sử dụng đất là yếu tố quan trọng đảm bảo thực hiện quyền bình đẳng giới. Tuy nhiên, thực tế triển khai quy định này cho thấy còn nhiều vướng mắc, bất cập. Bài viết phân tích, đánh giá thực trạng quy định và thực hiện quyền tiếp cận đất đai của phụ nữ thông qua hoạt động cấp giấy chứng nhận quyền sử dụng đất và đề xuất giải pháp để thực hiện tốt hơn quyền tiếp cận đất đai của phụ nữ. Tiếp tục đọc “Quyền tiếp cận đất đai của phụ nữ thông qua hoạt động cấp giấy chứng nhận quyền sử dụng đất”→
TS – 01/03/2021 07:15 – Vịnh Nha Trang, một trong những vịnh đẹp nhất thế giới, được đánh giá là có đa dạng sinh học cao so với nhiều vùng ven bờ khác ở Việt Nam, đã giảm tới 90% lượng san hô khỏe mạnh, phong phú so với bốn thập niên trước.
Rạn san hô khu vực Hòn Mun, vịnh Nha Trang. Nguồn: Ảnh do Ban Quản lý vịnh Nha Trang cung cấp/ Báo Người Lao động.
Đây là kết quả nghiên cứu được công bố vào năm ngoái của nhóm các nhà khoa học tại Viện Sinh thái học và Tiến hóa, Viện Hàn lâm Khoa học Nga và Viện Hải dương học tại Nha Trang công bố trên tạp chí Marine and Freshwater Research1. Tiếp tục đọc “Suy giảm 90% san hô ở Vịnh Nha Trang”→
Tính đến ngày 1.1.2021 cả nước đã có 101.029 công trình điện mặt trời mái nhà. Ảnh: TL.Biến tướng trong đầu tư điện mặt trời kết hợp sản xuất nông nghiệp.
Trong 3 tháng cuối năm 2020, khu vực Tây Nguyên đặc biệt là các tỉnh Đắk Lắk, Gia Lai, Đắk Nông, Bình Phước xuất hiện nhiều nhóm nhà đầu tư thuê đất của dân để làm dự án điện mặt trời áp mái và hứa hẹn người dân chỉ cần ký giấy tờ do bên họ chuẩn bị sẵn thì sẽ nhận được tiền thuê đất hằng tháng khoảng 30 triệu đồng/ha.
Nhóm đầu tư này mua gom đất nông nghiệp của các hộ dân, rồi làm thủ tục xin đấu nối với Điện lực Đắk Lắk (PC Đắk Lắk). Điều kiện để được đấu nối là phải có dự án nông nghiệp (chăn nuôi, trồng trọt), tận dụng tầng mái công trình lắp pin năng lượng. Theo quy định của Tập đoàn Điện lực Việt Nam (EVN), các công trình điện mặt trời trên 1 MWp (điện đấu lưới) phải được Bộ Công Thương phê duyệt. Vì vậy, nhóm nhà đầu tư này thành lập thêm nhiều công ty con, chia nhỏ dự án (dưới 1 MWp) nhằm lách luật. Tiếp tục đọc “Băm đất nông nghiệp làm điện mặt trời”→
Amid the urgent need to decarbonize, the industry that delivers one-tenth of global electricity must consult the public on reactor research, design, regulation, location and waste.
Visitors to an industry exhibition in 2020 in China view a model nuclear-power reactor through augmented-reality headsets.Credit: Tang Ke/VCG via Getty
Ten years have passed since a catastrophic earthquake and tsunami damaged the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan, triggering the worst nuclear accident since the Chernobyl disaster in 1986.
The accident struck at a time of renewed hope and untested optimism surrounding a new wave of nuclear-energy technologies and the part they might play in achieving a low-carbon future. It led to retrenchment, amid fresh concerns over the technological, institutional and cultural vulnerabilities of nuclear infrastructures, and the fallibility of humans in designing, managing and operating such complex systems. Tiếp tục đọc “Nuclear energy, ten years after Fukushima”→
CAND – 07:59 20/02/2021 Việc chính phủ cầm quyền ở Myanmar nhanh chóng bị lật đổ sau một cuộc đảo chính của quân đội có lẽ sẽ là bài học đắt giá với rất nhiều chính đảng cầm quyền trên thế giới. Một trong những bài học đó là “phi chính trị hóa Công an, Quân đội”.
Sáng 1/2/2021, truyền thông trong nước và quốc tế đồng loạt đưa tin, Tổng thống Myanmar Win Myint, Cố vấn nhà nước Aung San Suu Kyi và một loạt nhân vật cấp cao khác của đảng Liên minh Quốc gia vì Dân chủ (NLD) cầm quyền bị Quân đội bắt. Người phát ngôn của NLD Myo Nyunt sau đó xác nhận thông tin và nói rằng với những gì đang diễn ra thực sự là một cuộc đảo chính. Tiếp tục đọc ““Phi chính trị hóa lực lượng vũ trang”- vấn đề nhìn từ Myanmar”→
LNG importers will bear climate-related risks of exporting countries, threatening energy security and electricity costs
The Texas energy crisis has become world news.
During last week’s extreme winter weather, surging electricity demand collided with falling generation, forcing the state’s grid operator to implement rolling blackouts. In many cases, blackouts lasted for over 24 hours, causing fuel and electricity supply shortages and disruptions throughout the gas supply chain. At least 4.5 million Texans were at one point without electricity and more than 30 deaths have been attributed to power losses, though the final toll could be much larger.
News of the Texas power crisis has spread throughout Asia, where energy growth markets such as Vietnam, the Philippines, and Bangladesh are considering U.S. liquified natural gas (LNG) imports as an alternative to coal-fired electricity generation. But the events in Texas have highlighted the risks inherent in LNG imports for both the energy transition and climate change adaptation.
Below are five lessons from the crisis for emerging markets in Asia.
Lesson 1. Gas/LNG volatility is here to stay.
It has been a tumultuous year in global LNG markets. The COVID-19 outbreak sent global LNG demand plummeting and Asian prices hit an all-time low of $1.85/MMBtu last May. U.S. LNG export facilities remained idle for much of the summer, oil and gas drilling fell by 40% internationally, and bankruptcies in the North American oil and gas sector soared to their highest level since 2016. Starting in the fall, a combination of production shut-ins, shipping delays, and cold weather caused Asian LNG prices to spike to a record high of $32.50/MMBtu.
The Texas energy crisis is another sign that volatility in global gas markets is likely to continue. High electricity demand combined with supply chain disruptions sent wholesale natural gas prices skyrocketing. At Texas’s Waha Hub, for example, prices jumped from $2.77 to $219, while spot prices in Oklahoma’s Oneok hub jumped to over $1,000/MMBtu. For gas producers able to keep wells operating, the Texas freeze was “like hitting the jackpot,” but for LNG exporters, power outages disrupted liquefaction trains and feedgas pipelines. Several LNG export terminals scaled back production, while Corpus Christi LNG and Cameron LNG went offline completely. Overall, 10 cargoes amounting to 1 billion cubic meters of gas were likely delayed from the already-volatile global LNG market.
Volatility in global gas markets is likely to continue
Lesson 2. Volatile prices can cause LNG-fired power plants in Asia and associated infrastructure to go under-utilised.
Volatile LNG prices create an increasingly challenging environment for price-sensitive emerging markets. High prices and difficulties sourcing gas can cause gas-fired power plants in importing countries to go underutilized. In turn, all the associated infrastructure – ports, regasification facilities, pipelines – are also at risk of being stranded. IEEFA recently estimated that volatile LNG prices put over $50 billion of natural gas projects at risk of cancellation in Vietnam, Bangladesh, and Pakistan.
Since the value of associated infrastructure is dominated by fixed costs, per unit natural gas prices depend largely on total gas demand. This means that to realize any economic benefits from imported gas, costs must be spread over a wider consumer base than currently exists in many south and southeast Asian countries. The decision to import LNG is therefore not an incremental one. Rather, it will lead to new sources of financial vulnerability resulting from long-term, large-scale fossil gas lock-in. Without major storage capacity, volatile LNG prices will be a constant threat to the affordability of gas and gas-powered electricity in import markets.
Lesson 3. LNG imports come at the cost of domestic energy security.
By importing greater volumes of LNG, Asian countries become more vulnerable to supply disruptions in global gas markets and geopolitical dynamics beyond their control. With increasingly severe and frequent weather events caused by climate change, Asian importers are not just assuming the risks of climate-related disruptions in their own country, they are also assuming risks of climate-related weather events in exporting countries. In Texas, generators were not required to invest in cold weather safeguards, leaving them vulnerable to unpredictable weather events.
LNG import infrastructure in Asia is highly vulnerable to extreme weather
LNG import infrastructure in Asia is also highly vulnerable to extreme weather. While numerous countries rely on floating storage and regasification units (FSRUs) as cheaper alternatives to land-based import terminals, FSRUs are difficult to operate in poor weather conditions. In 2018, Bangladesh announced it would cancel plans to build additional FSRUs because they were unreliable during the monsoon season. In Malta, the inoperability of FSRUs during storms has caused the complete shut-down of the country’s gas-fired power plants.
Lesson 4. Grid expansion and modernization must take centre stage.
Some commentators have suggested the solution to climate-related blackouts is to build more generation capacity, but all power sources are susceptible to outages when weather events occur. In Texas, 30,000MW of thermal capacity was forced offline – including 40% of natural gas capacity and a nuclear reactor – as well as 17,000MW of wind capacity. As a result, wholesale electricity prices skyrocketed to the state’s $9,000 per MWh cap, up from their average of $30.
Along with generation capacity, grid reliability depends largely on transmission infrastructure and interconnections to other areas. The Texas grid is highly isolated from surrounding power systems, limiting power imports from nearby markets. In small portions of the state connected to other grids, cities experienced brief blackouts compared to the rest of the state.
A greater emphasis on system-level planning in emerging Asian markets, rather than a myopic focus on generation, could improve the efficiency of existing generators, enable the installation of greater capacities of domestic renewable energy, and lower wholesale electricity prices during times of short supply.
Lesson 5. The energy transition is a humanitarian issue.
The COVID-19 pandemic and the Texas energy crisis have exacerbated the risks inherent in LNG imports and revealed the flaws of centralized generation capacity buildouts. In Texas, blackouts disproportionately affected low-income communities, while electricity bills for some households that maintained power spiked into the tens of thousands of dollars. The total cost of electricity sold in Texas from February 15-19 was $50.6 billion, up from $4.2 billion in the prior week. For Asian countries already grappling with high electricity prices, the risks of LNG imports and associated infrastructure lock-in are simply too high. Instead, reliability and resilience are key to keeping costs down and the lights on.
As a lethal pandemic, economic and physical insecurity, and violent conflict ravaged the world, democracy’s defenders sustained heavy new losses in their struggle against authoritarian foes, shifting the international balance in favor of tyranny.
As a lethal pandemic, economic and physical insecurity, and violent conflict ravaged the world in 2020, democracy’s defenders sustained heavy new losses in their struggle against authoritarian foes, shifting the international balance in favor of tyranny. Incumbent leaders increasingly used force to crush opponents and settle scores, sometimes in the name of public health, while beleaguered activists—lacking effective international support—faced heavy jail sentences, torture, or murder in many settings.
The winter storms that swept across the U.S., particularly Texas, upending the energy market and knocking out power for millions of people, have delivered a windfall for Macquarie Group, with the Australian bank lifting its profit outlook for 2021 by as much as 10 percent, just two weeks after warning that earnings would be “slightly down”.
“Extreme winter weather conditions in North America have significantly increased short-term client demand for Macquarie’s capabilities in maintaining critical physical supply across the commodity complex,” according to the company, which is the second-largest supplier of gas in North America after oil major BP, as quoted by Reuters.
UNICEF unveils ‘Pandemic Classroom’ at United Nations Headquarters in New York to call attention to the need for governments to prioritise the reopening of schools
Chris Farber/UNICEF via Getty ImagesOn 1 March 2021, a view of UNICEF’s ‘Pandemic Classroom’ installation at United Nations Headquarters in New York, United States of America. To call attention to the education emergency wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic, and to and raise awareness of the need for governments to keep schools open, UNICEF unveiled ‘Pandemic Classroom’ – a model classroom made up of 168 empty desks, each seat representing one million children living in countries where schools have been almost entirely closed since the onset of lockdowns.
CVD 