Best of our wild blogs: 21 Feb 18

Singapore Raptor Report – January 2018
Singapore Bird Group

The Pathway to Paris: A Commentary on the Carbon Pricing Bill
ELSA@NUS Law

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Singapore's Restaurants Take A Stand Against Shark Fin Consumption

Christine Amour-Levar Forbes 21 Feb 18;

Shark fin soup has been a tradition at Chinese festive celebrations and wedding banquets, but growing demand of shark fin soup is pushing sharks to extinction and disrupting the balance of our oceans. Without sharks, the entire ocean ecosystem could be altered, negatively impacting humans and ocean dwellers alike.

According to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), a quarter of sharks and rays are facing extinction in the coming years. Today, 100 million sharks are killed annually around the world, driven by demand for their fins and meat. Hong Kong, China, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan are the top importers of shark fins globally. The fins are supplied by Indonesia, Spain, India, the United States and Argentina, which account for almost half of all shark landings in the world.

In 2017, Singapore was identified as the world's second-largest trader of shark fins after Hong Kong. Between 2012 and 2013, Singapore exported $40 million worth of shark fins, closely following Hong Kong’s $45 million, and imported $51.4 million worth of fins, compared to Hong Kong’s $170 million.

Nevertheless, Singaporeans are increasingly aware of this grave problem, and according to a recent survey by WWF, nine out of ten people in the island state care about sharks going extinct, while eight out of ten have stopped consuming shark fin over the past year. Despite this, there is still a significant group of people who believe sharks can be grown in fisheries. Many fisheries across the world have tried this but to-date, only one has been able to farm one species: the spiny dogfish. All sharks sold in Singapore today are caught in the wild.

Furthermore, some countries have regulations that only allow shark fishing if the whole animal is brought to land. Yet, this does not make the practice sustainable.

Thanks to the growing awareness of the impact sharks’ extinction could have on our environment, the #NoSharkFin movement is gaining momentum around the world and particularly in Singapore. And as the island celebrates the Lunar New Year, businesses across the country are taking action against serving shark products.

Last week, 89 Singapore-based establishments committed to phasing out shark fin in 2018. These include brands such as Crystal Jade, Pan Pacific Hotels, AccorHotels and Foodpanda, whose policy applies across its 3,800 partner restaurants.

Chinese restaurant group, Crystal Jade Culinary Holdings, has committed to removing shark fin dishes from the Chinese New Year set menus across all restaurants in Singapore under its portfolio. From 31 July 2018, shark fin will no longer feature on the menus of its 28 restaurants. “Seafood remains a prominent part of Chinese cuisine. This decision to phase out shark fin, a long-established traditional dish, is our first step towards protecting oceans and seafood supplies as a socially-responsible business. We will continue to offer premium alternatives in place of shark fin,” said Cynthia Yee, Senior Vice President, Marcom, Crystal Jade Culinary Holdings. The company is confident that the move will improve customers' perceptions and lead them to patronize its restaurants more often.

The Pan Pacific Hotels Group, which is headquartered in Singapore, has stopped serving shark fin across its 34 properties and 7 restaurants around the world as of 1 January 2018. F&B delivery service, Foodpanda will also remove shark-related dishes from the menus of the restaurants listed on its platform starting 5 March 2018. Its head of marketing and sustainability lead Laura Kantor said that currently, just 93 out of 3,800 restaurants on the platform serve shark fin and less than 1% of total orders include shark fin.

This move signals a collective effort by the F&B industry to address the serious threat that shark fishing poses. “As sustainable options do not exist for sharks, halting consumer demand is the only solution today.” said Elaine Tan, Chief Executive Officer of WWF Singapore.

This is WWF's largest collective pledge by the F&B industry in Singapore to date. Establishments will phase out shark fin in one of three ways; by completely removing shark fin from their menus, by not serving shark fin for a trial period of time or by removing shark fin from menus and serving it only upon request or on a case-by-case basis.

Environmental issues related to consumption of shark meat and fins are not new among consumers in Singapore and abroad. Over the last five years, about 18,000 hotels worldwide have removed and banned shark's fin from their menus.

Consumption of shark fin soup in China has fallen by around 80% since 2011, thanks to a celebrity-driven public awareness campaign and a government crackdown on extravagant banquets. But the good news is offset by an alarming rise in the consumption of this prestige dish in places like Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and Macao, according to a new report by WildAid, a San Francisco-based group that campaigns to curb demand for wildlife products.

Continued public awareness, effective legislation and ongoing scientific research remain essential to the future safeguarding of many shark species, even as conservation efforts continue.

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Industries left guessing as Cambodia fails to release customs data for 2017

Hor Kimsay Phnom Penh Post 20 Feb 18;

When government-aligned Fresh News reported on Sunday that bilateral trade between the US and Cambodia had increased to $3.46 billion last year, up more than 8 percent from the year before, they weren’t using Cambodian government data.

Nor was the state-run Agence Kampuchea Presse using government statistics when it reported in November that trade with Vietnam was up sharply in 2017, quickly approaching the $5 billion target set by both governments.

And nor were figures released in recent weeks of bilateral trade with Indonesia, Japan and China originating from Cambodian sources. Instead, they were relying on customs data from foreign governments, whose reports are currently the only available source of data for the majority of Cambodia’s trade last year.

That’s because while Cambodia’s trade partners around the world have begun to report last year’s trade numbers for the Kingdom, the Cambodian government has yet to release any numbers of its own for the last nine months of 2017.

“The lack of quality statistics is still a sensitive issue in our country, and this needs more effort for improvement,” Mey Kalyan, chairman of the board of directors at the Royal University of Phnom Penh and a senior adviser to the government’s Supreme National Economic Council, said yesterday.

The absence of timely data frustrates academics and investors who rely on the information. What’s more, amid revelations of massive irregularities in the import and export of several commodities – among them timber, sand, citric acid and, most recently, Wagyu beef – the sluggish reporting does little to quell concerns that much of Cambodia’s cross-border trade goes unpoliced and underreported.

Responsibility for trade data and enforcement falls to the Customs and Excise Department, which is under the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF). An MEF spokesman contacted yesterday directed questions directly to the Customs Department, which has no spokesman. The department’s director, Kun Nhem, did not respond to multiple calls over the past week.

Ministry of Commerce spokesman Seang Thay, meanwhile, told The Post last week that his ministry had only received data from the Customs Department for the first three months of 2017.

Kalyan stressed that problems with customs data were common in many countries and, while acknowledging he had heard complaints from “big investors” about the lack of official information, he said he was optimistic that improvements would be made in the near future.

“I believe that relevant institutions are [making improvements], and we acknowledge it needs time,” he said. “We always want faster improvement.”

Illicit or unreported trade has plagued a variety of Cambodia’s industries in recent years.

The Kingdom was prompted to ban sand exports to Singapore in the middle of last year after it was revealed that the city state had imported 77 million tonnes of sand from Cambodia since 2007, while Cambodia had recorded less than 3 percent of that amount as exports. The revelations raised immediate accusations of impropriety in the environmentally controversial sector.

More recently, Vietnamese customs data from earlier this month reported $40 million worth of timber imported from Cambodia, in flagrant violation of Cambodia’s countrywide export ban on timber to Vietnam. Cambodian export data consistently report the timber trade with Vietnam as nonexistent.

Industry leaders in the $300 million rubber sector told The Post last month that they were unable to make a profit due to widespread smuggling of rubber into Vietnam, while the Cambodian Rice Federation said in its 2017 annual report that rampant smuggling of rice into Cambodia from Vietnam threatened the health of the entire rice industry.

At an event hosted by the European Chamber of Commerce just last week, business leaders complained that counterfeit goods flowing unhindered into the Kingdom were eating into their profits. Em Wutthy, a Ministry of Interior official who attended the event, said at the time that most customs officials “don’t have enough staff to check the border checkpoints”.

In one of the more unusual examples, a report published on Sunday by the Nikkei Asian Review asked whether Cambodia could be a “Japanese beef-laundering hub”, noting that the country was the world’s top importer of Wagyu beef, despite the prime Japanese meat – known for its eye-popping prices – being sparsely available in what is one of Asia’s poorest countries.

Imports of Wagyu into Cambodia spiked in 2011 after Vietnam banned the beef. Four years later, a beef-smuggling operation busted in China – which had also banned Wagyu – snagged 13 tonnes of meat that was originally shipped from Japan to Phnom Penh.

The opacity of the government’s customs data is also a source of frustration among academics trying to study Cambodia’s export-driven economy.

Teng Delux, an economics lecturer at several universities including Pannasastra University and University of Cambodia, said yesterday that difficulty obtaining trade and investment statistics from Cambodia’s institutions hindered important economic research about the country.

“The lack of statistics is a problem for conducting research and any study that reflects the needs of Cambodia’s development,” Delux said, noting that the lack of data often forced researchers to use outdated or informal statistics.

“All relevant institutions should strengthen cooperation among each other to gather and produce accurate statistics, and make it easily available for the public,” he said.

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Indonesia: Disaster alert declared in four Indonesian provinces as forest fire threat looms

VICTOR LOH Today Online 21 Feb 18;

SINGAPORE — Indonesia's disaster agency has declared disaster alert status for four provinces, including Riau province near Singapore, as the number of hotspots from forest fires spiked.

The affected provinces are South Sumatra, Riau, West Kalimantan and Central Kalimantan.

The alert status will allow the central government to mobilise resources to easily mitigate any fire threats, the Indonesian National Board for Disaster Management (BNPB) said in a statement on Wednesday (Feb 21).

The four provinces — which lie close to the equator — are currently entering the start of the dry season, BNPB added.

The dry season in Indonesia usually happens in two phases: From the middle of January to March, and June to September. It is interrupted by the rainy season from March to May.

In the last 24 hours alone, weather satellites are said to have detected some 90 hotspots in Indonesia.

On Tuesday, data from the Association of South-east Asian Nations (Asean) Specialised Meteorological Centre (ASMC) showed two hotspots in Sumatra and Kalimantan.

ASMC on Feb 7 raised the transboundary haze alert for the northern Asean region to level 2, which is the 2nd highest alert level.

"The prevailing dry weather conditions in the northern Asean region are forecast to continue till early April 2018, and further escalations of hotspot activities can be expected in the region in the coming weeks," ASMC had said.

Singapore is currently experiencing the dry phase of the North-east Monsoon, with winds blowing from the North-east direction.

Indonesia has stepped up efforts to tackle the transboundary haze problem since 2015, when the country suffered some of its worst forest fires, resulting in a haze that affected tens of millions of people in the region.

Forest, land fires spread to 633 hectares in Riau
Antara 21 Feb 18;

Pekanbaru, Riau (ANTARA News) - Forest and land fires have spread across Riau Province, reaching 633 hectares since Jan 14.

The most difficult and worst fires were found in Sepahat Village that shares its borders with Bengkalis District and Dumai. Riau`s Forest and Land Fire Task Force has received assistance from Asia Pulp & Paper of Sinarmas that has provided a Super Puma helicopter to conduct water-bombing operations in the burnt area, ANTARA observed here on Tuesday.

The team was able to carry limited equipment due to the difficult terrain that led to accessibility issues.

According to the Regional Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) of Riau in Pekanbaru, the fire has spread to some 12 hectares in the Altaf Agencie Residential area of neighborhood associations 04.

Meanwhile, land fires spread in the Kualarenanggan Hamlet, Lubuk Kembang Bunga Village, in Pelalawan District, reaching 30 hectares; Simpang Lecek Ujung Street, Sungai Segajah Jaya, in Rokan Hilir District, reaching five hectares; and Sri Tanjung Rupat Village in Bengkalis District, engulfing 30 hectares.

An assessment of the burnt areas around Riau`s city and district revealed one hectare in Rokan Hulu, 21 hectares in Rokan Hilir, 86.25 hectares in Dumai, 88 hectares in Bengkalis, 211.5 hectares in Kepulauan Meranti, 2.5 hectares in Siak, 31 hectares in Pekanbaru, 15.25 hectares in Kampar, 31 hectares in Pelalawan, 121.5 hectares in Indragiri Hulu, and 24 hectares in Indragiri Hilir.

Pekanbaru City`s condition seemed better, as no fog appeared following rainfall in the morning. Until this afternoon, the sky was cloudy.

Starting from February 19 to May 31 in 2018, Riau has declared a standby emergency status for forest and land fires. The Riau government took the decision following an increase in the number and area of hotspots in early 2018.

Riau needs assistance from the National Disaster Mitigation Agency to provide a helicopter for conducting water-bombing operations and to implement the weather modification technology to prevent forest and land fires, Head of Riau`s BPBD Edwar Sanger stated.

Reported by FB Anggoro
(T.KR-TQA/b003/INE)
(T.SYS/A/KR-BSR/B003)
Editor: Heru Purwanto


Two arrested over fires allegedly set to clear land
Rizal Harahap The Jakarta Post 20 Feb 18;

As authorities in Riau crack down on illegal logging and slash-and-burn practices, two residents have been arrested in separate locations after reportedly being caught red-handed clearing land for oil palm plantations.

A resident of Kepenuhan Baru village identified as S. was arrested by Rokan Hulu Police and Kepenuhan Police personnel for allegedly setting fire in the village of Sei Air Hitam in Central Kepenuhan last Friday.

“The arrest of the suspect began with hotspot information released by the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG). After coordinating with Kepenuhan Police, we searched the fire spot using coordinates from satellite data,” Rokan Hulu Police criminal investigation division head Adj.Comr. Harry Avianto said on Tuesday.

Police later apprehended the suspect, who was hiding in a hut not far from the burned land. He is currently detained by Rokan Hulu Police for questioning.

In Pelalawan regency, a joint team for peatland and forest fire prevention comprised of police and military personnel, Environment and Forestry Ministry officials and rangers of the Tesso Nilo National Park detected illegal logging in a conservation area on Sunday.

“The team confiscated an excavator. The 28-year-old operator of the equipment, identified as LH, a resident of Air Molek in Indragiri Hulu regency, was straightaway taken into custody, because the excavator had entered the national park without permit,” said Pelalawan Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Kaswandi. (ebf)

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Malaysia: Wildlife rangers act to stop rampaging herd of pygmy elephants

muguntan vanar The Star 20 Feb 18;

KOTA KINABALU: Wildlife rangers have moved in to stop a herd of 20 endangered Bornean pygmy elephants from rampaging farm lands and a school in Sabah’s central Telupid district.

Sabah Wildlife Department director Augustine Tuuga said the elephants had entered the compound of SMK Telupid on Tuesday (Feb 20).

This was apart from disturbing farms lands and properties of villagers in Telupid, about 250km from here.

“Our target is to translocate at least three of the more aggressive ones,” he said when contacted.

However, due to cost factors, his rangers would try and push back the remaining elephants into the forest reserve.

“It cost us about RM30,000 to translocate one elephant. It will be too costly to translocate the whole herd,” Augustine said.

He said the operations to capture the more aggressive ones would be done within the week and they planned to translocate the jumbos to the Imbak forest reserve.

“It depends on how fast we can catch the few elephants that we want to relocate. Hopefully this can be done by the end of the week,” he said.

In some cases, translocations were carried out as part of efforts to conserve the elephants which are critically endangered in Sabah.


Herd of 20 elephants terrorising Telupid
muguntan vanar The Star 21 Feb 18;

KOTA KINABALU: Wildlife rangers have moved in to stop a herd of 20 endangered Bornean pygmy elephants from rampaging farm land and a school in the central Telupid district.

Sabah Wildlife Department director Augustine Tuuga said the herd entered the compound of SMK Telupid yesterday morning.

He said the priority was to translocate at least three of the more aggressive elephants.

Due to the cost factor, he said rangers would try and guide the remaining elephants back into the forest reserve.

He said the operation to capture the more aggressive ones would be done within the week, adding that they planned to translocate the jumbos to the Imbak forest reserve.

“It depends on how fast we can catch the few elephants that we want to relocate. Hopefully by the end of the week,” he added.

Telupid residents have in the past complained about elephants encroaching onto their property.

Three 'aggressive' pygmy elephants to be captured and relocated
POLIANA RONNIE SIDOM New Straits Times 20 Feb 18;

TELUPID: The Sabah Wildlife Department (SWD) will capture and relocate three Borneo pygmy elephants found roaming around villages here to reduce the likelihood of human-elephant conflicts.

SWD director Augustine Tuuga said once caught, the elephants would be relocated to the Imbak forest reserve located about 100km from here.

When contacted, Tuuga said the animals were dangerous and difficult to control.

“We have tracked down 20 elephants at six locations, and 18 of the mammals are moving in two herds while another two are moving individually.

“We will only relocate three aggressive elephants and we expect to conduct the operation this week,” he said.

Tuuga also said it was impossible to relocate all 20 elephants due to the high cost of the operation, which amounted to RM30,000 per elephant.

The six identified locations are Kampung Liningkung, Kampung Bauto, Kampung Gambaron, Kampung Telupid, Pekan Telupid, and SMK Telupid.

The elephants were spotted in the areas since last year and they are believed to be from the same group that trespassed into Deamakot forest reserve recently.

Meanwhile, Sandakan SWD officer Hussien Muin said the operator of Pan Borneo Highway project has agreed to help pay for the installation of a 6km-long electric fence at Kampung Gambaron and Bauto to keep the elephants at bay.

He said the department and non-governmental organisations were training youths from three villages, namely Kampung Liningkung, Bauto and Gambaron, to be appointed as honorary wildlife wardens.

These wildlife wardens, he said, are responsible for monitoring the electric fence once it is completed. He added that the RM330,000 fence is expected to be installed early next year.

The New Straits Times Press previously reported that a group of young people from Kampung Gambaron had constructed cannons using polyvinyl chloride (PVC) to prevent elephants from destroying property and crops.

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Indonesia: Overcoming challenges in developing "Bay of Paradise"

Otniel Tamindael Antara 21 Feb 18;

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - In the development of tourism sector in the "Bay of Paradise," better known as the Cendrawasih Bay National Park area that stretches in the border of Papua and West Papua provinces, the local government is faced with many challenges.

So many things are put in its path. From time to time the local government finds itself in the situation where it is required to make all types of decisions to overcome the challenges.

The Office of Cendrawasih Bay National Park (TNTC) has designed a master plan to develop potential tourism in that area but the problems of waste, environmental pollution, and public resistance to the presence of tourists become great challenges in the development.

Cendrawasih Bay National Park Office Chief Ben G Saroy has said the central government was focusing on tourism development, and that, the regional government should welcome the initiative by overcoming the challenges.

As the largest marine national park in Indonesia, the more than 1.4 million-hectar Cenrawasih Bay National Park was declared Marine National Park on September 2, 1993 by the Decree of Ministry of Forestry No. 472/Kpts-II/1993.

About 95 percent of the park is made up of coral and seas, and the rest covers the mainland occupying 68,200 hectares of land and coastline.

Administratively, the TNTC includes three districts in two provinces, namely Wondama Bay and South Manokwari districts in West Papua, and Nabire district in Papua.

However, Saroy reiterated that waste, environmental pollution, and public resistance to the presence of tourists remain the biggest challenges in tourism development in this area.

"Local communities do not like visiting tourists because they have not understood how they can benefit from the presence of visitors for pleasure and interest," Saroy remarked in Manokwari, West Papua.

Their dislike to the presence of tourists becomes the biggest challenge in tourism programs in "the Bay of Paradise National Park", and for that, it takes serious efforts to change the paradigm of the local society about the need for tourism development.

Further, the TNTC Office chief noted that the problem of waste and pollution was easier to solve, but overcoming the public resistance to the tourist presence should be done seriously and cautiously.

Saroy mentioned that the Cendrawasih National Park Office holds a cooperation with the the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the local government to develop the concept of community-based tourism in Wondama Bay, Nabire, and South Manokwari districts.

In addition, the establishment of Village Owned Enterprises (BUMDes) continues to be done in villages that have great tourism potential.

"This is our effort to reduce people`s resistance to the presence of tourists. They must be directly involved as agents in managing tourism sector," Saroy explained.

The TNTC Office also drafted a regional regulations that have been addressed to the government of Nabire and Wondama Bay. The regulations have been discussed in that two districts.

After the regulations are approved, the TNTC Office will also push to draft a rule on the rate for tourism in that districts and will also support that every village should have its own regulations.

The regulations are necessary so that the tourism in this area could be well managed and beneficial in terms of improving the community welfare.

In addition, the TNTC and WWF had already facilitated a number of villages that will be promoted as tourism villages.

"In Nabire, we will assign one village in Soa, while in Wondama Bay, We focussed in Aisandami, and Gunung Botak in South Manokwari," Saroy said, adding that those three areas are the strategic access for visitors in exploring the whole areas of the national park.

The management of tourism in the area is expected to be effective and efficient for foreign and domestic tourists.

Saroy expressed hope that the presence of tourists in the area of Teluk Cenderawasih National Park will continue to increase. In 2019 the construction of the Sowa Resort and Whale Shark Center in Kuwatisore, Nabire, will begin.

In 2020 and 2021, the development will continue in Purup and Aisandami Resorts, Wondama Bay.

To build a resort and whale shark monitoring center in these three locations the central government has allocated a budget of Rp74 billion.

Hence, WWF-Indonesia has also promoted law reinforcement regarding illegal trade of endangered marine species as a conservation commitment which has been put in the front. Support from local community is a public appreciation for conservation practice in marine protected area of the Cendrawasih Bay National Park.

Besides, the TNTC Center also continues to preserve six species of endangered sea turtles living in the waters of the Birds Head area of Papua and West Papua provinces.

Therefore, the people living in the coastal areas of the national park have been urged to continue to preserve the habitat of these turtles.

Of the six species of sea turtles living in the TNTC area, the largest population inhabits the Wairundi Island in the northeast of South Manokwari district, West Papua province.

TNTC is representative of the coral reef ecosystems, beaches, mangroves, and tropical forests on Papua Island.

(T.O001/A/KR-BSR/B003) 21-02-2018 01:16:26
Editor: Heru Purwanto

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Plastic bans worldwide will dent oil demand growth, says BP

But oil giant expects demand for crude to grow and not peak until late 2030s
Adam Vaughan The Guardian 20 Feb 18;

Bans around the world on single use plastic items such as carrier bags will dent growth in oil demand over the next two decades, according to BP.

However, the UK-headquartered oil and gas firm said it still expects the global hunger for crude to grow for years and not peak until the late 2030s.

Spencer Dale, the group’s chief economist, said: “Just around the world you see increasing awareness of the environmental damage associated with plastics and different types of packaging of one form of another.

“If you live in the UK that’s clearly been an issue, but it’s not just a UK-specific thing; you see it worldwide, for example China has changed some of its policies.”

Theresa May has branded plastic waste an environmental scourge, and MPs have called for charges on plastic bags to be extended to disposable coffee cups.

Dale predicted such measures around the world could mean 2m barrels per day lower oil demand growth by 2040.

But he said single use plastics were only about 15% of all non-combusted oil, which is used for petrochemicals, an industry that BP expects to be a big driver of global growth in crude demand.

The company’s energy outlook report, published on Tuesday, forecasts demand peaking at about 110m barrels per day between 2035 and 2040, up from around 97mb/d today. Much of the growth comes from rising prosperity in the developing world.

But Dale said his position was that “nobody knows when it’s going to peak because small changes can shift it by five to 10 years”.

BP envisages demand plateauing rather than peaking and suddenly declining. Other experts and oil companies see demand peaking much earlier as governments’ climate change policies and new technologies begin to bite; for instance, a Fitch report (pdf) says demand could peak in 2030 because of electric vehicles.

BP also looked at the impact of a more stringent and global version of the bans on petrol and diesel cars that governments such as those in France and the UK have pledged by 2040 and that China is considering.

Even with such a strong measure, the modelled effect would be limited on oil demand and emissions. The former would drop by 10mb/d, which is significant but not disastrous for oil firms if BP’s prediction of 110mb/d of demand comes to pass.

Emissions would be lower than without a ban, but still grow 7% by 2040 because of more vehicles on the road, a disastrous increase for meeting climate change goals.

BP has almost doubled the amount of electric cars it expects in 2035 globally, up from 100m in last year’s outlook to 180m now. By 2040, 320m of the world’s 2bn cars will be electric, the firm thinks.

But the company believes the advent of driverless cars, which are expected to overwhelmingly be electric, means battery-powered cars will be used more intensely than conventional ones, offsetting some of the emissions cuts they promise.

BP also believes if there were more electric cars than expected, there would be fewer efficient combustion engine cars as a result.

Asked what impact electric cars would have on curbing oil demand, Dale said: “Almost nothing.”

The economist said one of the big surprises of the past year had been the falling cost of renewables, and continued strong government policy support for them.

“Massively surprised by renewables again. We revised up renewables again,” he said. The amount of power expected from renewable sources such as solar and wind is now expected to be 8 terawatt hours in 2035, up from the 5tWh predicted three years ago, and is the fifth year to be revised upward by BP.

Critics noted that every year since the company’s energy outlook was first published in 2011, it has forecast a slowing of renewables growth, only to be proved wrong every time.

Dale said the impact of the US leaving the Paris climate agreement would be limited on carbon emission reductions, since most cuts are coming elsewhere, but the world was missing the leadership role that the US had played at climate talks under Barack Obama.

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