Month: March 2020

Climate change is not the only consequence of the burning of fossil fuels. A study published last week in the journal Cardiovascular Research estimated that in 2015, the deaths of more than 3.6 million people worldwide could have been avoided if air pollution from fossil fuels were reduced to zero. These numbers are staggering. They equate to about 10,000 deaths per day, every day, under the study’s mean estimates. Excess deaths from fossil fuel air pollution comprises about 40% of all air pollution deaths. The estimates in this new study are about twice…

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Oil prices crashed after Russia and Saudi Arabia announced that they will abandon OPEC production quotas and open the taps, and while drillers and oilfield service companies are feeling the pain, the world’s largest oil traders are eyeing huge profits. After all, volatility is a trader’s best friend. Oilprice.com’s Alex Kimani wrote back in January that the world’s 5 largest oil traders made a killing in 2019 by trading catalysts that created worldwide supply disruptions such as the contaminated crude at the Druzhba pipeline in Russia and the attacks on Saudi Arabia’s…

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Hobart/Bonn, 11 March 2020 (WWEA) – The Government of the Australian state of Tasmania has just announced a long-term strategy for the island in which it sets not a 100% but a 200% renewable energy target for the year 2040. The announcement made by Tasmanian Premier Peter Gutwein follows a previous commitment to 100% renewable energy by 2022. The new strategy aims at not only covering Tasmania’s domestic energy supply, but to export renewable energy to other parts of Australia and potentially to other countries. The main technologies which will allow…

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The Engro Corporation announced on Tuesday that it is closing all the company’s offices located in The Harbour Front building in Karachi after one of its employees tested positive for the novel coronavirus. In a statement issued today, Engro said that the employee who was diagnosed with COVID19 had come to the office on March 6 “for only a few hours”. The statement added that though the circumstances “do not warrant office closure and call for self-monitoring”, the decision to close the offices for the next three days was a…

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International oil prices (Brent crude) fell to $50.52 per barrel in the end of February. The highest peak in recent times was $85 in the last months of 2019 — a godsend for the government and the people of Pakistan. In 2016-17, oil prices came down to this level which greatly benefitted the PML-N government. In the beginning of March, the Government of Pakistan (GoP) reduced both petrol and diesel prices by Rs5 per litre. However, the people are not happy as the full benefit has not been passed on…

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