2024-09-07 17:15

CERNOBBIO, Italy, Sept 7 (Reuters) - The European Union should decide already next year whether to rethink regulation that effectively bans the sale of new petrol and diesel cars in the 27-nation bloc from 2035, Italy's industry minister said on Saturday. Speaking on the sideline of TEHA business forum in Cernobbio, Adolfo Urso said an intermediate assessment on the progress to meet the new rules, currently due in 2026, should instead take place at the beginning of next year. "I think this should be the first issue the new European Commission deals with, because companies and workers need clarity", said Urso. Agreed EU law will require new cars sold after 2035 to have zero carbon emissions, making it impossible to sell new fossil fuel-powered vehicles in the region. The right-wing government of Giorgia Meloni believes the European Commission should allow member states to have more freedom in choosing the technology they prefer to meet agreed decarbonisation targets and supports a more gradual shift away from combustion engine technology. "The 2035 ban on new combustion engine cars is absurd and needs to be revised," Italy Energy Minister Gilberto Pichetto Fratin said at the same conference. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/italy-calls-early-review-eu-combustion-engine-ban-2024-09-07/

2024-09-07 16:10

CERNOBBIO, Italy - Sept 7 (Reuters) - Italy plans to draft, by early 2025, rules to allow the use of new nuclear power technologies, the energy minister said on Saturday, signalling a potential reversal of the country's current ban on nuclear power production. "By the end of the year (the energy ministry's legal adviser Professor Giovanni) Guzzetta and his team will produce a comprehensive analysis on nuclear, and what kind of laws we need to introduce," Energy Minister Gilberto Pichetto Fratin said on the sidelines of the TEHA business forum in Cernobbio. He added he hoped parliament would be able to approve the draft legislation in the course of 2025. Nuclear fission as a source of energy is a controversial topic in Italy, were nuclear-fired power plants are banned following referendums in 1987 and 2011. Pichetto has recently appointed Guzzetta to study how power stations based on new nuclear technology including small modular reactors (SMRs) and advanced modular reactors (AMRs), which the government believes could support its green energy transition, could be exempted from the prohibition. "Italy's demand for electricity will almost double by 2050 to 583 Terawatt hour (Twh)," Pichetto told reporters. "Such a boost cannot simply be met with an increase in renewable energy capacity." In its energy and climate plan (PNIEC), Giorgia Meloni's right-wing government estimates nuclear power could meet up to 11% of domestic energy demand in 2050. Despite the ban, Italy has retained key expertise in the sector. State-controlled utility Enel (ENEI.MI) , opens new tab operates nuclear power stations in Spain and energy major Eni (ENI.MI) , opens new tab is investing in a project to develop a nuclear fusion reactor in the United States. "There is for sure an interest in studying the potential of nuclear technologies of third and fourth generations, including small modular reactors," Enel's grid business head Gianni Vittorio Armani said at the same conference. Utility Edison (EDNn.MI) , opens new tab, the Italian subsidiary of French nuclear group EDF, has recently expressed an interest in building a small nuclear reactor in Italy. Pichetto said SMRs could be introduced in Italy as soon as 2035. According to a study compiled by Edison, state-backed Ansaldo Nucleare and economic think-tank The European House Ambrosetti, the adoption of new nuclear technologies in Italy could add more than 50 billion euros to the country's economy. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/italy-inches-towards-reversing-nuclear-energy-ban-2024-09-07/

2024-09-07 15:31

Sept 7 (Reuters) - Social media platform X was back up on Saturday after it suffered an outage that lasted less than an hour, according to outage tracking site Downdetector.com. The website, which tracks outages by collating status reports from several sources including users, showed less than 164 reports of outages in the U.S. as of 11:01 a.m. ET (1501 GMT). There were more than 8,200 reports at the peak of the outage at 10:31 a.m. ET. The cause of the outage is not yet known. X did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for outside regular business hours. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/technology/social-media-platform-x-down-thousands-users-downdetector-shows-2024-09-07/

2024-09-07 12:15

LAGOS, Sept 7 (Reuters) - Nigeria's state-owned oil firm NNPC Ltd said on Saturday it will not be the sole buyer of gasoline from Dangote refinery but would step in if the facility sold above pump prices. CONTEXT The 650,000 barrel-per-day capacity Dangote refinery started producing gasoline earlier this week, raising expectations that this would end decades of the country relying on imports, which cost billions of dollars annually. The refinery had said NNPC would be the sole buyer of its petrol, also known as premium motor spirit (PMS) and that the government would set prices. WHY IT'S IMPORTANT However, NNPC said in a statement that Dangote would determine the price of its gasoline and could sell directly to marketers, who buy in bulk and distribute to fuel stations. Until now, NNPC was sole importer of gasoline into Nigeria. BY THE NUMBERS NNPC earlier this week hiked the price of petrol from an average 617 naira ($0.3905) a litre to 855 naira. Dangote will initially supply 25 million litres of gasoline daily into the domestic market this month, increasing to 30 million litres from October. KEY QUOTE "The NNPC Ltd. will only fully offtake PMS from the DRL (Dangote Refinery Ltd) if the market prices of PMS are higher than the pump prices in Nigeria," NNPC said. ($1 = 1,580.0000 naira) Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/nigerias-nnpc-says-not-sole-buyer-dangote-gasoline-2024-09-07/

2024-09-07 11:16

PARIS, Sept 7 (Reuters) - Europe's autos industry could face fines of 15 billion euros ($17.4 billion) for carbon emissions due to slowing demand for electric vehicles, Renault CEO Luca de Meo said on Saturday. Automakers face tougher EU CO2 targets in 2025 as the cap on average emissions from new vehicles sales falls to 94 grams/km from 116 g/km in 2024. "If electric vehicles remain at today's level, the European industry may have to pay 15 billion euros in fines or give up the production of more than 2.5 million vehicles," de Meo told France Inter radio. "The speed of the electric ramp-up is half of what we would need to achieve the objectives that would allow us not to pay fines," de Meo, who is also president of the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA), said of the sector. Exceeding CO2 limits can lead to fines amounting to 95 euros per excess CO2 g/km multiplied by the number of vehicles sold. That could result in penalties of hundreds of millions of euros for large carmakers. "Everyone is talking about 2035, in 10 years, but we should be talking about 2025 because we are already struggling," he said. "We need to be given a little flexibility. Setting deadlines and fines without being able to make that more flexible is very, very dangerous." Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/renault-ceo-says-sector-could-face-billions-fines-ev-sales-slow-2024-09-07/

2024-09-07 09:10

SEOUL, Sept 7 (Reuters) - More than 30,000 protesters gathered in South Korea's capital in broiling heat on Saturday, demanding more aggressive action by the government to combat global warming. With temperatures exceeding 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit), protesters young and old marched in the country's biggest demonstration so far this year, snarling traffic in central Seoul. They waved large banners reading "Climate justice," "Protect our lives!" and "NO to climate villain (President) Yoon Suk Yeol's administration". "Truth is, without the air conditioner this summer was not liveable and people could not live like people," said Yu Si-yun, an environmental activist leading the protest. "We are facing a problem not unique to a country or an individual. We need systemic change and we are running out of time to act." Organised by the 907 Climate Justice March Group Committee, the protest followed a ruling last month by South Korea's top court that the nation's climate change law fails to protect basic human rights and lacks targets to shield future generations. The 200 plaintiffs, including young climate activists and even some infants, told the constitutional court that the government was violating citizens' human rights by not doing enough on climate change. South Korea, which aims to be carbon-neutral by 2050, is the biggest coal polluter after Australia among the Group of 20 big economies, with a slow adoption of renewable energy. The government last year lowered its 2030 targets for curbing industrial greenhouse-gas emissions but kept its national goal of cutting emissions by 40% from 2018 levels. Even South Korea's kimchi has fallen victim to climate change. Farmers and manufacturers say the quality and quantity of the napa cabbage used in the ubiquitous pickled dish is suffering due to intensifying heat. "Feel how long this summer is," said Kim Ki-chang, a 46-year-old novelist who was participating in the protest for a third straight year. "This would be a much bigger threat and survival issue to younger generations than the older ones, so I think the older generation should do something more actively for the next generation." Seoul has had a record 20 consecutive nights defined as "tropical", with low temperatures remaining above 25 C (77 F). Protest organising committee member Kim Eun-jung said the demonstrators chose the popular Gangnam financial and shopping area this year, not the Gwanghwamun area they used last year, to have their voices heard by the many big corporations there that the group blames for carbon emissions. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/tens-thousands-south-korea-protest-lack-climate-progress-2024-09-07/