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The Saskatchewan Court of Appeal (Canada) has ruled that Canada’s federal carbon-pricing plan is constitutional, rejecting a challenge from the Saskatchewan provincial government that claimed that the federal government could not impose such a tax. The government of Ontario is also challenging the federal carbon pricing policy in courts, while Alberta has committed to remove the provincial levy recently created.

In October 2018, the federal government of Canada announced that it would impose a «backstop» carbon tax on fuels in the provinces and territories that have no adequate carbon emission pricing plans and refused to adopt the country-wide CO2 pricing system. This «backstop» mechanism will apply in Manitoba, Ontario, New Brunswick and Saskatchewan as of April 2019, and in Nunavut and Yukon as of July 2019: in these provinces, proceeds from the new tax will go directly back to taxpayers (direct rebates named «Climate Action Incentive payments»).

The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) of China plans to shut down all small coal mines (i.e. with capacities below 300,000 t/year) in large coal producing regions such as Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, Shaanxi and Ningxia by the end of 2019 if they don’t meet safety and environmental standards.

According to the Indian Oil ministry’s Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC), India’s oil import dependence increased from around 81% in 2015-2016 (April 2015-March 2016) to 83% in 2017-2018 and to 84% in 2018-2019, in a context of rising oil consumption and stagnant domestic production.

According to the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) of China, China’s apparent gas consumption rose by nearly 12% (to 77 bcm) in the first quarter of 2019 compared to the same period of 2018. Gas consumption had already increased by 18% in 2018 to 275 bcm, as the country is promoting the use of gas for power generation, industrial uses and transports.

The energy regulatory authorities of Ireland (Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU)) and France (Commission de Régulation de l’Energie (CRE)) have made a coordinated decision on the cross-border cost allocation request submitted by the Celtic Interconnector project, a proposed 700 MW HVDC undersea power cable project expected from 2026. …

US energy group Dominion Energy expects to resume construction works on the 1.5 bcf/d (15.5 bcm/year) Atlantic Coast gas pipeline project in North Carolina (United States) in the third quarter of 2019. …

Global oil and gas company ExxonMobil has received government and regulatory approvals for the development of the second phase of the Liza oil project in the Stabroek block offshore Guyana. Liza Phase 2 will tap around 600 mbl of oil resources thanks to a 220,000 bbl/d floating storage, production and offloading vessel (FPSO).

The Ministry  of Investment and International Cooperation of Egypt expects the 1.6 GW Benban solar project in the Aswan governorate to be fully operational at the end of 2019. The US$2bn project is partly financed by the World Bank through the IFC (US$653m support) and is being built in stages.