Sustainable Energy Law Notebook

Working Group I of the United Nations International Panel for Climate Change (IPCC)  made public its contribution to the fifth Assessment Report (AR5) on 27 September 2013. WGI focuses on the physical science knowledge as to climate change . Hereafter follow some quotes directly from the report. Those underline the level of seriousness of climate change and the direct link to human activities. Observed changes in the climate system: Atmosphere - " Warming of the climate system is unequivocal , and since the 1950s, many of the observed changes are unprecedented over decades to millennia." - "In the Northern Hemisphere, 1983-2012 was likely the warmest 30-year period of the last 1400 years ( medium confidence )." - "Continental-scale surface temperature reconstructions show, with high confidence , multi-decadal periods during the Medieval Climate Anomaly (year 950-1250) that were in some regions as warm as in the late 20th century. These regional...

Today, 28 September 2013 , the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will release its new assessment of the state of science as to climate change as well as scenarios for the future. A good article and video have been posted on the CNN website :

Avisen Nationen henviste til mitt arbeid med elsertifikatordningen i en artikkel datert 29. august 2013. Saken gjelder mulighet til å utvide ordningen til småkraftverkprosjekter bygd ut mellom 2004 og 2009 .

The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate has released a new map of the Norwegian Continental Shelf updated as of 21 June 2013 . The map includes all production licenses, name of the operators, transport system by type of fuel (oil, gas, oil and gas, condensate). The NPD has also released maps by sectors: The Barents Sea, The Norwegian Sea and the North Sea.  All maps available at:  http://www.npd.no/en/Maps/Map-of-the-NCS/  

The European Commission came on 29 July 2013 with an official statement denying any plan to " encourage or make state aid for nuclear power easier ." This statement comes after several allusions to such projects in the press. Read the full statement here .

A lot has been said and written on the Keystone pipeline multi-phase project  which transports oil sand bitumen between Alberta, Canada, to the United States and ultimately to the Gulf Coast Area near Houston. The currently debated phases awaiting approval concern phases III and IV of the project (so-called " Keystone XL proposal "). Phases I and II are completed. Here follows a transcript of President Obama interview with the New York Times (NYT) realised on 24 July 2013, where he addressed the issue and summed up his last stance on the issue (underlinings are mine):

France's Court of Auditors has released on 25 July 2013 a report assessing the national policy in the field of promotion of renewable energies .  The conclusions (in French) of the report are available on the website of the Court . A comment in English of the report will be shortly posted on this blog. Hereafter follow the 8 recommendations of the Court in their original version: •    mettre en place un dispositif centralisé du suivi statistique permettant de donner toute la visibilité requise pour éclairer les décisions, notamment en matière de connaissance des coûts de production par filière, des emplois et des marchés ; •    simplifier le régime juridique applicable à la production d’énergies renouvelables (géothermie, éolien terrestre) ; •    mettre en œuvre une planification et une cartographie des énergies renouvelables en tenant compte des contraintes de raccordement aux réseaux électriques ; •   ...