Sustainable Energy Law Notebook

Tre rettsakter av betydning for energisektoren blir behandlet i dag 30. april 2012 av EØS-komitéen. Disse gjelder: Rådsdirektivet 2008/114/EF av 8. desember 2008 om identifisering og utpeking av europeisk kritisk infrasktruktur og vurdering av behovet for å beskytte den bedre (EPCIP-direktivet) (Ansvarlig: Justis- og beredskapsdepartementet, JD). I brevet til Stortingets Europautvalg (p. 38 et seq), skriver UD at:  " JD har vurdert fire ulike modeller for implementering av EPCIP- direktivet, nærmere bestemt implementering gjennom en eksisterende lov, en fellesforskrift fastsatt med hjemmel i de sentrale sektorlovene på området, en systematisk innarbeiding av nødvendige bestemmelser i eksisterende sektorlover og -forskrifter eller en samlet implementering i en egen lov om europeisk kritisk infrastruktur. De ulike implementeringsmodellene er tidligere blitt kommunisert til berørte departementer gjennom Spesialutvalget for samfunnssikkerhet. ... Sivilbeskyttelsesl...

The Norwegian oil and gas company Statoil has released today its annual report reviewing its oil sands activities in Canada in 2011, so-called "2011 Oil Sands Report Card" . According to the information package published by the company, the report presents performance indicators which measure production and energy consumption as well as emissions and quality and use of air, water and land at the Leismer Demonstration Project and in the Kai Kos Dehseh (KKD) leases in northern Alberta. Production at the Leismer facility started in January 2011. Access the full report .

The European Commission has published today, 24 April 2012, a "non-paper" drafted by its services concerning the proposal for an Energy Efficiency Directive . The non-paper reflects the state of play of the discussions on the proposal for directive ahead of the Informal Energy Meeting of EU Ministers of 19-20 April 2012 (although the document was publicly released after the meeting). The non-paper presents new estimates in terms of reduced primary energy consumption based on the Council's version of the proposed directive dated 4 April 2012 .  Without saying it, the Commission's staff tries to demonstrate that the Council's version of the text will only reach a third of the original objectives : " The Council's version of the Directive is thus estimated to reduce primary energy consumption by about 58.1 Mtoe while the Commission's proposal would deliver a savings of 151.5 Mtoe, which is needed to close the gap (along with measures in t...

Norges vassdrags- og energidirektorat (NVE) har publisert 23. april 2012 en oppdatering av antall tilsendt og godkjente søknader under elsertifikatordninger per den dagen. NVE melder at 28 kraftverk har blitt godkjent for tildeling av elsertifikater . Dette  følger flere uttalelser fra NVE som varslet en nøyaktig vurdering av søknader (jf. forrige notat her ).  Antall godkjente søknader: 28 Installert effekt, totalt: 25 MW Midlere produksjon, totalt: 83 GWh/år Antall avslåtte søknader: 2 Antall ubehandlede sæknader: 142 Det er totalt 171 vannkraftverk og ett vindkraftverk som har søkt om godkjenning for rett til elsertifikater. Alle gokjente og avslætte søknader er vannkraftverk .

The third edition of the Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM3) will take place in Kondon (UK) on 25-26 April 2012. The conference focuses on transition to clean energy technologies , and related initiatives (best practices, cooperation,etc.). CEM was initiated by U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu at the 2009 UNFCCC COP/CMP in Copenhagen , with the idea of gathering ministers responsible for clean energy technologies from the major world economies, as well as ministers from a selected number of smaller countries with leading expertise in the field. The objective pursued by CEM meetings is to " serve as an important platform to advance international collaboration to accelerate the adoption of clean energy technologies worldwide ."  CEM1 was organised in the US. In 2012, CEM3 gathers 23 leaders from around the globe. The public agenda is available here .  CEM's work focuses mainly on 3 areas and includes related 11 clean energy initiatives : improve energy...

As announced in a previous post , the European Parliament adopted a resolution on 20 April 2012 in reaction to the announcement by Argentina's government to expropriate and nationalise the major stake of the oil company YPF in which the Spanish company Repsol holds a majority share . As the measure is expected to only be the first of several ones, the European Parliament has adopted a broader perspective in its resolution addressing the legal security of European investments outside the European Union . In the resolution (P7_TA-PROV(2012)0143) , provisional version available here , at p.38), the Parliament: REFERS TO the existing legal and political framework (among others): Commission's proposal for a regulation establishing transitional arrangements for bilateral investment agreements between Member States and third countries (grandfathering regulation) (COM(2010)0344); Commission communication of 7 July 2010 entitled "Towards a comprehensive European intern...

In the framework of the revised EU Emissions Trading scheme (EU ETS) established by Directive 2003/87/EC, the amending Directive 2009/29/EC defines a set of new provisions on carbon leakage . Carbon leakage relates to a situation where the additional constraints put on European industries as a consequence of the more stringent EU climate change obligations may affect their competitive situation and lead to re-localisation in countries without such constraints. Pursuant to Article 10 a.15 of the revised EU ETS Directive, a sector or sub-sector is " deemed to be exposed to a significant risk of carbon leakage " if: " the sum of direct and indirect additional costs induced by the implementation of this directive would lead to a substantial increase of production cost, calculated as a proportion of the Gross Value Added, of at least 5%; and the Non-EU Trade intensity defined as the ratio between total of value of exports to non EU + value of imports from no...

On 16 April 2012, Argentina's President, Cristina Fernàndez de Kirchner , announced the decision taken by the government to expropriate and nationalise by legislative means the major stake (51%) of the oil company YPF , in which the Spanish company Repsol holds a 57,43% share . YPF was privatised in 1999. The measure was widely supported at domestic level, in a country experiencing both an economic and social crisis. However, the measure was heavily criticised in Europe. Other sources also confirm that the Chinese state-owned company Sinopec had proposed to buy YPF. Argentina's Congress will have now to examine the controversial bill.  (Complete speech of the announcement of the nationalisation/expropriation. Click on the picture. In Spanish) As summarised by BBC  News , the "official" objective of the measure is to answer national concerns as to YPF management of petroleum resources : lack of investments, poor marketing/export policy, failure to get con...

Vous pouvez desormais lire sur le site de Actu-Environnement  une  chronique écrite conjointement avec Sarah Nataf du Cabinet Gossement Enckel (Paris) et moi-même du cabinet d'avocats SIMONSEN (Oslo) et intitulee: Système d'échange de quotas d'émission post-2012: analyse du projet d'ordonnance " Le Ministère de l'écologie, du développement durable, des transports et du logement a récemment soumis à consultation publique trois textes visant à la   révision du système d'échange de quotas d'émission de gaz à effet de serre news   (SEQE). La révision s'opérera en France par l'adoption d'une ordonnance, d'un décret et d'un arrêté. La nécessité de réviser le système d'échange post-2012 Depuis son commencement en janvier 2005, le SEQE n'a cessé d'être adapté afin de mieux servir ses objectifs et renforcer ce qui reste l'instrument central de l'Union Européenne en matière de lutte contre le changement climat...