Investments in the global energy sector during 2016 totalled 1.7 billion dollars (1.5 billion euros), equivalent to 2.2% of global GDP, but also representing a 12% decline compared with a year earlier. This is the second consecutive annual drop
MADRID | The Corner | Winter’s coming and Europe finds itself in a complicated position. The (declining) production of the continent’s energy import has traditionally fallen short of (growing) consumption . In 2012, 53.7% ofEurope’s energy consumption was based on imports – up from in 44% in 1996, according to UBS. Brussels admits the share of imported energy is likely to rise to 100% in oil and above 80% in gas by 2030.
Bungling with Russia over Crimea will send the West knocked out with a bloody nose. One way or another, it was a crisis a long time coming. Europe has arguably sleepwalked into a reluctant confrontation with Russia. The continent’s next-door behemoth of a neighbor, saddled by a man it secretly detests the most, is also its largest energy supplier, irascible trading partner and purveyor of most maladies diplomatic.
MADRID | By Carlos Díaz Güell | Spain has become one of the countries facing more arbitration claims from investors due to the bonus cuts to renewable energy, only behind Venezuela, Argentina and Egypt. And yet the government feels quite calm about it, according to official sources. The last one to sue has been British fund InfraRed Capital Partners. It also litigates for the bonus cut to renewable energy companies,claiming that Spain hasn’t respected legal safety of investors, violating the Energy Charter and expropiating them of their rights.
MADRID | By Fernando Barciela | As the election day approaches, we bring you a series of special interviews focused on economic perspectives for the EU citizens and companies. Today we focus on the telecom sector, which is experiencing a deep transformation in the continent. Former chairman of Spanish Telefonica Luis Solana, currently responsible for the company’s entrepreneurship activities, comments on the main challenges ahead, as well as the need of surveillancance over the EU banking and energy sectors, and the inevitable downsizing of the welfare state in the region. Nonetheless, he was a socialist elected MP in Spain for five years during the transition period.
BERLIN | By Alberto Lozano | The German ambitious switch from nuclear and carbon-based energy toward renewables remains the biggest challenge for the first EU economy. The country’s industrial sector and consumers are worried about how much they will have to pay in terms of prices, competitiveness and jobs.
COMMENTS FROM ASIA-PACIFIC by Ray Kwong | Beijing and Moscow have been talking about building a 2,500-mile pipeline to link China with Russia’s plentiful natural gas for over 10 years, but thus far China has refused to pay Russia’s price. That may soon change, however, as China faces both supply gaps beyond 2017 and growing public anger over pollution.
By Ognyan Minchev, non-resident fellow with the German Marshall Fund of the United States’ Balkan Trust for Democracy | The clash between the Russian oligarchic model of economic and political control and a Western-style democratic system produces structural instability in the Eastern part of Europe, which may prove a strategic challenge for the EU.
Mainstream Renewable Power, the global solar and wind energy company, announced it is successfully tapping credit lines to increase its capital base. Mainstream, which is Europe’s leading independent offshore wind developer, signed this week a corporate facility for up to €60 million provided by Macquarie Group. According to the terms of the transaction, Mainstream will receive an initial €40 million corporate loan with provision for an additional €20 million at a future date…
By Luis A. Torralba, in Valencia | Electricity producers in Spain have managed to weather the crisis under the umbrella of extraordinary income from non-recurring profits. But the markets, in spite of historically high dividends, are letting the uncertainty over the pending energy sector reform drag stocks down with a vengeance. Some declarations bring little help. The minister for Energy and Tourism José Manuel Soria recently gave away a warning:…