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France, Greece and Bulgaria have pledged to update their renewable energy targets for 2030. The targets are part of the National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs). The final NECPS will be submitted by end-2019 and draw a common template concerning the energy sector for European countries for 2021-2030.

France plans to raise its 2030 target for renewables in the final energy consumption from the current 32% (under the Energy Transition Act or Loi de transition énergétique, 2015) to 33%. The Act also aims to cut GHG emissions by 40% by 2030 and to halve energy consumption by 2050 (compared to 2012 levels). Greece plans to raise the share of renewables in the country’s final energy consumption from 31% to 35% by 2030. According to the EU Directive on renewables, Greece’s national target by 2020 is to increase the share of renewables in the country’s final energy consumption to 18% by 2020, including 40% of renewables in power consumption. Greece has also pledged to phase-out from coal-fired power generation by 2028. Finally, Bulgaria plans to raise its 2030 target from 25% to 27%.

Meanwhile, some Central European countries such as Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary highlighted the need for increased financing for the 2030 energy and climate objectives.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT) of Vietnam has submitted to the Government the final draft decision of the new feed-in tariffs for solar power projects in Vietnam. It concerns solar projects reaching commercial operations date (COD) within the period from 1 July 2019 to 31 December 2021 (FiT2) and will apply for 20 years from the commissioning date.

Canada has enacted the Bill C-29, which replaces the national energy regulator National Energy Board (NEB) with a new Canadian Energy Regulator (CER), and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEEAA) with the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada (IAAC).

Russia has exported its first LPG from oil fields in the Irkusk Region to Manzhouli, in Inner Mongolia (China), through the new China-Russia LPG land rail passage. Two trains have delivered 1,150 t of LPG to Manzhouli Far East Gas. After reloading at the base, LPG will be transported to chemical and civil enterprises by road and rail.

Total plans to make a Final Investment Decision (FID) on a seventh train on the NLNG plant in Bonny Island (Nigeria) by the end of 2019. In September 2019, NLNG signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) for the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) for Train 7 with the SCD consortium of Saipem, Chiyoda and Daewoo.

The Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy in partnership with the federal government of Germany and Luxembourg have created the City Climate Finance Gap Funds. The fund will be endowed with at least €100m to raise €4bn for energy efficiency and infrastructure projects in the building sector.

Vietnam’s national power utility Electricity of Vietnam (EVN) will borrow VND 6,450bn (US$278m) for the extension of the 480 MW Hòa Bình hydropower plant on the Đà River (Vietnam). The extension project will begin in the fourth quarter of 2020 and will be completed by 2023. Once works are completed, the capacity of the hydropower plant will rise from 1,920 MW to 2,400 MW.

EDF has announced that the Hinkley Point C nuclear power project currently being developed in Somerset (United Kingdom) will require an additional investment of £1.9bn (€2.14bn) to £2.9bn (€3.3) for completion, due to challenging ground conditions making earthworks more expensive than anticipated, revised action plan targets and extra costs to implement the completed functional design.