Energy Comment

Are Treasuries killing the climate deal? — In this OIES Energy and Environment Comment, Dr Benito Müller (OIES Director, Energy & Environment) argues that the intrangicence of developed country finance ministries is threatening the current international climatechange negotiations and the deal in Copenhagen. Dr. Benito Müller.

Reinforcing Feedbacks, Time Spreads and Oil Prices — While the media often focuses on the sharp swings in oil price, there have been some interesting reinforcing feedbacks unfolding in the term structure of oil prices affecting the international pricing system, financial investment, inventories and OPEC behaviour. These feedbacks are not new to the oil market, but the current environment seems to have amplified these price distortions. This comment discusses some of these feedbacks and price distortions and tries to draw some lessons from the period 1997-2009.

Resumption of Russian Gas Deliveries to Central and East European Countries on Humanitarian Grounds: A Proposal — The dispute between Russia and Ukraine is causing substantial suffering in central and east European countries which have few, if any, other sources of gas, and very limited opportunity to switch to other fuels. Jonathan Stern proposes the resumption of Russian gas deliveries to central and east European countries on humanitarian grounds.

Europe’s complex climate compromise — David Buchan argues the EU's December 2008 agreement raises almost as many questions as it settles.

The Reality of Official Climate Aid — This paper by Prof Timmons and his team provides preliminary findings on trends in climate aid from the world's major donor nations from 2000 to 2006 based on individual categorization of over 115,000 aid projects randomly selected from the OECD/CRS database.