news round-ups politics europe

news round-ups politics europe

If you work for 40 years with an income putting you in the top 1% of earners, and save half of it, you still won't be in the top 1% by wealth at the end. But if you are in the top 1% by wealth and earn 5% on that wealth, you are in the top 1% of income without any work.

news round-ups politics europe

Today the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) published its annual offshore wind statistics for 2011 in Brussels showing that 235 new turbines with a total power capacity of 866 Megawatts (MW) were fully grid connected across nine offshore wind farms.

Across the EU, a total of 1371 offshore turbines have now been grid connected, with a total power capacity of 3813 Megawatts in 53 wind farms in 10 European countries.

“Despite the economy-wide financial squeeze, 2011 saw a 40 per cent increase on the previous year in offshore non-recourse debt financing , up from 1.46 billion Euros in 2010 to 2.05 billion Euros in 2011.”

See the full report (pdf) here

news round-ups politics europe

Oil demand falls for first time since 2009

Oil demand is falling for the first time since the 2008-09 global financial crisis as a result of a mild winter, high crude prices and the European economic crisis, according to fresh estimates from the International Energy Agency.

The industrialised nations’ watchdog said oil demand dropped by 300,000 barrels a day in the final quarter of 2011. Such a fall is rare: over the last decade, oil demand has posted drops only in the financial crisis of mid-2008 to mid-2009.

I can't help bring up again this graph, prepared by Luis de Sousa almost two years ago:

This not to dismiss all the explanations to the crisis linked to unsustainable intra-eurozone imbalances, but to suggest that one of the key reasons for such imbalances is the competitive hit received by the countries most vulnerable to an oil shock. And that what we are seeing IS an oil crisis - peak oil translates into higher prices, which eventually causes lower demand (in those countries which are price sensitive, i.e. mostly the Western world, as a large portion of the emerging economies subside fuels) - and this is accompanied by widespread pain, as people have to do with less, or with more expensive oil, and need to reduce their consumption of everything else as a consequence. It also worsens commercial deficits, which hurts first the countries with a less favorable intra-eurozone position.

With oil production basically flat since 2005 (and a big chunk of any increases there have been have come from lower-energy-density fuels like biofuels), and demand still increasing massively in various parts of the world (oil producing countries, who do not really feel the price increases, fuel subsiding middle income countries, and fast growing places like China), we have a crunch, and it looks like it's hitting the weaker parts of Europe especially hard.

news round-ups politics europe

news round-ups politics europe

news round-ups politics europe

news round-ups politics europe

news round-ups politics europe