By
Business Green staff
The impact of shale has the potential, if we are smart enough to grab it, to ripple through the entire European economy. Energy is a key economic marker, and if Europe turns it back on shale it also concedes a significant economic advantage to the rest of the world.
A story I've been following the last few months is where shale is starting to go beyond energy and out to other industries. A classic example of this is the US chemical industry.
Chemicals play nearly as important a role in the macro economy as energy. Petro-chemicals and natural gas are the feedstock for plastic and fertiliser. Eighty per cent of the cost of nitrogen based fertiliser is natural gas. Similarly, natural gas liquids like ethane are a major cost component of ethylene for plastic, which impacts everything made from, or wrapped in, plastic.
Europe must invest €2.9tn to meet 2020 emissions goal
Accenture and Barclays Capital study urges governments to deliver policies to boost low-carbon investment
By
Business Green staff
European firms and governments will need to spend €2.9tn over the next decade to deliver the renewable energy and low-carbon infrastructure necessary to meet 2020 emissions reductions targets.
That is the stark conclusion of a new study from Accenture and Barclays Capital released today, which aims to quantify the cost to Europe of meeting climate change targets that aim to reduce emissions across the bloc by 20 per cent againt 1990 levels.
The report predicts that on average Europe will need to boost its annual spending on low-carbon technologies to €290bn over the next decade, up from the €32bn spent in 2009 – a figure that was down on the 2008 peak of €36bn.
