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By John Kemp

Welcome to Power Up! Climate negotiators in Dubai agreed to accelerate the phase-down of unabated coal power. But India’s coal demand is still surging and has turned the largest state-owned coal miner and coal-fired power generator, previously seen as dinosaurs, into two of the best-performing companies on the stock market. The complex menu of options agreed to at COP28 illustrates the formidable gap between high aspirations and the practical challenge of cutting carbon emissions while ensuring that energy remains affordable, reliable and secure.  

Today’s top headlines: 

• BP claws back $40 million compensation from former CEO 
• Indian Ocean could be China’s Achilles’ heel in a Taiwan war 
• U.S. grids face greater risk as generators retire, demand rises 

Labourers load coal onto a supply truck on the outskirts of Jammu. REUTERS/Mukesh Gupta

Booming demand for coal is driving up the shares of miner Coal India and power generator NTPC Ltd, state giants investors once dismissed as plodding dinosaurs but which are now outperforming the wider market and global peers, Sudarshan Varadhan writes.  

Already the most coal-dependent major economy, India’s reliance on the fuel for power generation is set to rise for a third straight year as the addition of renewables slows, giving the two giants a boost. Analysts expect their efforts to boost efficiency and access to cheap capital to extend the rally, with most recommending that shareholders buy more of the two stocks or retain their holdings.

Diego Garcia, the largest island in the Chagos archipelago and site of a major United States military base in the middle of the Indian Ocean leased from Britain in 1966. REUTERS

Tankers hauling oil from the Persian Gulf to China would be vulnerable in the event of a superpower conflict over Taiwan, trapped in the Indian Ocean with little or no air support, Greg Torode writes.  

Every day, nearly 60 fully loaded very large crude-oil carriers sail between the Gulf and Chinese ports, carrying about half of the oil that powers the world’s second-largest economy. Military attaches and scholars say that vulnerability is being scrutinised as Western military and academic strategists discreetly game scenarios about how a conflict with China over Taiwan, or elsewhere in East Asia, could evolve or escalate.  

Rafael Mariano Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, 2023. Hiro Komae/Pool via REUTERS/

Saudi Arabia’s nuclear research reactor is almost complete and the International Atomic Energy Agency is discussing the necessary inspections with Riyadh, writes Pesha Magid.  

The reactor is almost ready to receive fuel from Argentina, according to the chief of the IAEA, and the agency is working with Saudi Arabia to sign a comprehensive agreement on safeguards.  

Tanker passing through the Miraflores docks on the Panama Canal. REUTERS/Alberto Lowe

Severe drought linked to El Nino has lowered water levels in the Panama Canal and sharply reduced the number of fuel tankers that can transit each day, increasing delays and boosting freight costs, Arathy Somesekhar writes.  

U.S. fuel exports from the Gulf Coast refineries to the west coast of Latin America are most severely affected, with tankers forced to voyage the long way around via the Strait of Magellan, doubling the distance. In many cases, exports are being re-routed, with U.S. fuel sent to Europe, and Latin America pulling replacements from Asia.

Hundreds of farmers are refusing to allow high-voltage overhead power lines to pass through their land, opposition that is threatening Australia’s plans to increase renewable generation and reduce emissions, Peter Hobson writes.  

Australia needs to build 10,000 kilometres of new transmission lines by 2050 to connect solar, wind and hydro projects to the grid. But many landowners say cables suspended on metal towers will scar their land, inhibit farming and create a fire hazard in areas prone to bushfires, demanding they be buried underground, which would be much more expensive.  

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