Latest news with #ClimateChangeAct2008
Epoch Times
07-05-2025
- Business
- Epoch Times
Orsted Halts Work on Giant UK Wind Farm Citing Rising Costs
The world's largest offshore wind developer is discontinuing work on a giant UK project in its current form due to rising costs and the risk of delays. Orsted The news is a blow to UK Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Ed Miliband, who is pursuing a goal to decarbonize the whole economy, which will need to increase offshore wind capacity from While the UK's Climate Change Act 2008 embeds legally binding carbon targets into law and creates favourable conditions for the wind industry, Orsted still faces challenges. 'The adverse macroeconomic developments, continued supply chain challenges, and increased execution, market and operational risks have eroded the value creation,' Orsted CEO Rasmus Errboe said in a statement. He also said the company will 'seek to develop the project later in a way that is more value-creating for us and our shareholders.' Related Stories 2/6/2025 3/16/2025 The site was being In February, the Danish company said it was Orsted develops, constructs, and operates offshore and onshore wind farms, solar farms, energy storage facilities, renewable hydrogen and green fuels facilities, and bioenergy plants. It operates 12 offshore wind farms in the UK, including Hornsea 1, which held the title of the world's largest wind farm until its sister project, Hornsea 2, came into operation with 165 turbines in August 2022. The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) The department said it was exploring changing rules for the next big AR7 auction for subsidized wind power sites so that projects can get their contracts confirmed sooner. AR7 is the acronym for Allocation Round 7, the UK's Contracts for Difference (CfD) scheme, which is the government's Last year's Allocation Round 6 (AR6) budget exceeded A spokeswoman for DESNZ told The Epoch Times via email: 'We recognise the effect that globally high inflation and supply chain constraints are having on industry across Europe, and we will work with Ørsted to get Hornsea 4 back on track. 'We have a strong pipeline of projects to deliver clean power by 2030 and our mission-led approach ensures we can steer our way through global pressures and individual commercial decisions to reach our targets.' Responding to Orsted's announcement, Dhara Vyas, CEO of Energy UK, the trade association for the energy industry, said in a May 7 A source familiar with the matter told The Epoch Times that the government is working to get Hornsea 4 back on track and for the project to happen by 2030. Despite record public and private investment, strong government support, and locked-in climate laws, analysts 'Buyer's Remorse' Gordon Hughes, a former professor of economics at the University of Edinburgh and former senior adviser on energy and environmental policy at the World Bank, previously told The Epoch Times via email that 'it is all a massive case of buyer's remorse because of excessive optimism about future costs five years ago.' In the past two years, industry giants such as Orsted, Siemens Energy, and Vestas have been forced to reassess their investment strategies as financial setbacks pile up. Shifting investor sentiment and U.S. President Donald Trump's renewed push for oil and gas have also added to the wind industry's challenges. The president suspended offshore wind leases on his first day in office. Trump's action is a shift from the previous administration's four-year effort to expand wind-power leasing, which aimed to build 30 GW of offshore wind power by 2030 and another 15 GW of floating offshore wind power by 2035.
The Guardian
04-04-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Mining firm withdraws plan for UK's first deep coalmine in 30 years
The Whitehaven coalmine's planning application has been withdrawn, bringing an end to a process that could have created the UK's first deep coalmine in 30 years in Cumbria. Planning permission for the mine was quashed in the high court last year which meant the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government had to reassess the planning application. However, the company has now written to the government withdrawing its planning application. The Whitehaven mine was ruled unlawful in September with the judge agreeing with Friends of the Earth, which brought the judicial review, that Michael Gove, when he was secretary of state for levelling up, acted unlawfully in accepting a claim by West Cumbria Mining (WCM) that the mine would be 'net zero' and have no impact on the country's ability to meet the emissions cuts required under the Climate Change Act 2008, because it was relying on offsetting through buying carbon credits from abroad. UK government policy does not allow reliance on international offsets to meet carbon budgets. Emissions from the burning of the coal from the proposed Whitehaven mine were not included in the developer's climate assessment. New fossil fuel projects are thought to be on shakier legal ground after the precedent set by a landmark supreme court decision that quashed planning permission granted for an oil drilling well at Horse Hill on the Weald in Surrey. The judgment found that the climate impact of burning coal, oil and gas must be taken into account when deciding whether to approve projects. Tony Bosworth, climate campaigner at Friends of the Earth, said: 'We're delighted this long-running saga has finally drawn to a close. Congratulations to all the brilliant local campaigners who fought so powerfully to stop this mine. 'The previous government should never have given the green light for this highly polluting and unnecessary coalmine in the first place – and WCM should have pulled the plug on it last year when planning permission was comprehensively quashed and coal licences were refused.'
