Record coffee output in Brazil drives down prices and piles pressure on farmers. Coffee growers in Guatemala have abandoned farms while Colombian farmers have turned to coca, which is processed into cocaine. All eyes in the coffee market are on Brazil, as record production levels have knocked global prices to near 12-year lows. Brazil produced an […]

“I believe we would be well advised to admit that if we phase out coal and nuclear energy then we have to be honest and tell people that we’ll need more natural gas,” said Merkel in Davos last week. Germany should gradually close down its coal-fired power plants by 2038, an advisory commission has said […]

Irish MPs and senators are split over plans for a fourfold increase in carbon tax to put Ireland on course to meet its 2030 climate change targets, following the yellow vest protests in France. Hundreds join ‘yellow vest’ protest march in Dublin Fine Gael and Green Party members of the Oireachtas climate action committee want […]

The oil alliance of Opec and Russia has abandoned efforts to drive US shale out of the global energy market, accepting the hard reality of America’s irrepressible frackers for years to come. “To really fight shale we’d need oil below $40 a barrel,” said Kirill Dmitriev, head of Russia’s wealth fund. “That is not good for […]

The White House is weighing a new round of executive actions to boost the U.S. energy industry in an attempt to portray strength against Russia. The moves the White House is considering — President Donald Trump’s third effort to help pipeline companies — include possible executive orders that would weaken states’ power to block energy […]

Germany’s once-in-a-century experiment Energiewende will enter its hot and decisive phase next weekend. Germany is serious about being the only industrial country in the world to simultaneously abandon nuclear energy and coal-fired power generation.     The 31 members of the government commission “Growth, Structural Change, Employment” will decide on the final plan on Friday […]

BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s December coal output climbed 2.1 percent from the year before, government data showed, hitting the highest level in over three years as major miners ramped up production amid robust winter demand and after the country started up new mines. Cranes unload coal from a cargo ship at a port in Lianyungang, […]

President Trump has announced the U.S. is withdrawing from the Paris climate accord negotiated by President Obama, but some activists say Republicans should do more and truly put the spike into it. They fear that if Mr. Trump was able to withdraw based on his signature, a future president could easily rejoin with another signature. Their solution: […]