Clean Energy Policy News

April 22nd, 2012 by Zachary Shahan

Aside from the 20 or so clean energy policy and politics stories we’ve published in the past week, here are a few more from around the interwebs. Enjoy! (or not, depending on the story.)

UK Solar Subsidies

The UK government is being urged to delay deep solar subsidy cuts as new figures reveal that only 2 MW of solar were installed last week, less than half the amount installed at that time a year before. “Weekly government figures revealed that solar firms installed an average of 2MW each week since the start of April, marking a sharp decline from the 4.8MW average capacity installed in the same weeks last year.”

Investment

Clean energy investment fell off a cliff in the first quarter of 2012 in the EU and the US due to policy uncertainty, according to a recent Bloomberg New Energy Finance report. “After clocking up a record in 2011, new financial investment in clean energy in first quarter of 2012 was the weakest since the depths of the financial crisis in Q1 2009.”
The EU has committed to put €50 million into a clean energy development program for developing countries. This is “part of an ambitious UN plan to provide sustainable energy for all by 2030.”

Jobs

The “Green Economy” could be the solution to Europe’s current jobs crisis, EU leaders are proposing. “Over 20 million new jobs could be created in Europe’s green economy over the next decade if EU member states adopt Brussels’ new jobs package and make low-carbon industries central to their national employment plans.”

Carbon Taxes & Trading

Guangzhou is expected to launch its Carbon Emissions Exchange this June, the President of Guangzhou Exchange has announced. “The group is currently making preparations to launch a voluntary emissions trading mechanism which will be launch this year. The voluntary emissions trading will be replaced by mandatory quota-based trading from next year.”
China is set to start taxing air travel. The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) has said that revenue from this “will be used for aviation fuel efficiency and to cut CO2 emissions from aviation.” The EU is investigating whether it thinks this is sufficient to exempt China’s airlines from the EU’s carbon reduction laws for airlines.

Image: solar panels & money via Shutterstock

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Tags: carbon taxes, carbon trading, China, china airlines emissions, china airlines emissions tax, china airlines emissions trading, china carbon tax, china carbon trading, China Clean Energy, clean energy developing countries, clean energy investment, clean energy subsidies, Europe, europe clean energy, Europe solar, GCEE, Guangzhou, Guangzhou Carbon Emissions Exchange, UK, UK Clean Energy, uk clean energy subsidies, uk solar energy, uk solar subsidies

About the Author

Zachary Shahan spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as the director/chief editor. Otherwise, he's probably enthusiastically fulfilling his duties as the director/editor of Solar Love, EV Obsession, Planetsave, or Bikocity. Zach is recognized globally as a solar energy, electric car, and wind energy expert. If you would like him to speak at a related conference or event, connect with him via social media. You can connect with Zach on any popular social networking site you like. Links to all of his main social media profiles are on ZacharyShahan.com.