Limiting global warming whilst extending energy access requires both - energy decarbonization and better energy productivity

Recent Energy Transitions Commission’s report presents achievable pathways to limit global warming to well below 2˚C while stimulating economic development and social progress. The transition to a new global energy system should:

Germany decided to replace feed-in tariffs with energy auctions to cut costs of renewables

Feed-in tariffs worked well in the past, when renewable energy was still relatively expensive and number of installations was comparatively low. Germany went from 6 percent renewables share in 2000 to more than one-third in 2015, while photovoltaic solar costs, for example, dropped by 80 percent.

Mexico’s solar and wind sectors have experienced triple-digit growth rates over the last 10 years

The country will require an additional 22 gigawatts of power generation in the next ten years and its government is set on transforming the country’s power mix in order to reach the goal of generating 35 percent of total electricity from clean sources by 2025. 

China begins power sector reform and focuses on energy efficiency and renewables

In April  Chinese government issued four documents on power sector reform, which  outlined long-awaited upgrades to the functioning of the world's largest power utility. The reforms cover a number of important topics, including:

European carbon market reform set for 2019

European parliament vote to strengthen emissions trading scheme by taking 1.6bn surplus credits off the market to boost carbon prices, but critics call for steps to be taken earlier. Reforms to strengthen the EU’s flagship policy for cutting carbon, the emissions trading scheme (ETS), will start at the end of 2018. The carbon market is supposed to drive Europe’s transition to cleaner sources of energy, but a cocktail of recession, free allocations to polluters and over-achievement on green energy targets have created a flood of 2bn allowances. That has led to a carbon price of around €7 (£5) per tonne, too low to encourage power companies to switch from polluting fuels such as as coal. A new report by analysts Reuters Thomson Point Carbon estimates that by 2020, the reforms could nudge carbon prices up to €20 per tonne. Read more at http://www.theguardian.com