@moritzpschwarz.bsky.social
Climate Economist 🇪🇺🇦🇹 Working on all things Carbon Pricing, Econometrics and Measuring the Impact of Climate Change and Climate Policies Post-Doc @ TU Berlin and PIK DPhil from Oxford with @ClimateMetrics.bsky.social #rstats | #mufc
I've largely stopped posting #HydrogenSoufflé because it seems distasteful to dance on the graves of so many dreams. But... Aberdeen is flogging its hydrogen bus fleet for scrap.
How much money was wasted on this 100% predicable outcome? Will heads roll?
aberdeenbusinessnews.co.uk/aberdeen-hyd...
A tax economist put his entire life savings into a prediction market bet that DOGE wouldn’t cut spending.
His wife read the Kalshi comments from the people on the other side and grew *more* confident because “they didn’t seem to understand what they were buying.”
He made a 37% return
🚨 New paper: Coupling integrated assessment and energy system models 🚨
Planning future energy systems requires bridging two fundamentally different scales: long-term transformation pathways spanning decades, and short-term power system operations unfolding hour by hour.
#EnergySky #PyPSA
🧵
In today's edition of "Datasets from Hell":
The UK ONS switches from Financial Year (April to March funnily) to Calendar Year and then again back to Financial Year in one dataset.
#datasetsfromhell
#rstats
#EconSky
Excellent point!
21.02.2026 16:39 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
It was carbon prices, that prevented a surge in coal-based power generation in 2025 in the EU.
21.02.2026 16:02 — 👍 19 🔁 6 💬 2 📌 0
“A year after the $1.1 billion overhaul,” which added a new lane each direction, “the 405’s rush hour drive times were a minute slower than they were before the workers broke ground. Five years later, traffic was worse at all times of day.”
www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...
The EPA has considered these comments and, in this final action, is not finalizing the alternative climate science rationale and is not finalizing new findings by the Administrator with respect to global climate change concerns under CAA section 202(a)(1). The EPA does not rely on any specific critique of climate science as a necessary justification for this action. Given our conclusion that we lack legal authority to regulate in response to global climate change concerns under CAA section 202(a)(1), it would be unnecessary and inappropriate to resolve such questions in this regulatory context. The EPA includes this section to summarize major scientific themes commenters raised and to acknowledge that scientific research and debate about climate change will continue. This discussion does not endorse or reject any particular assessment, study, or comment letter in the docket with respect to assertions regarding global climate change science and has limited its responses to the bases being finalized in this final action. The EPA’s conclusion in this final action is limited to the legal determination that CAA section 202(a) does not provide the authority to regulate GHG emissions from new motor vehicles or new motor vehicle engines for the purpose of addressing global climate change concerns, irrespective of how ongoing scientific debates are ultimately resolved.
As expected, in the final rule, EPA's Endangerment Finding repeal backs down entirely from challenging the science, choosing to focus on statutory arguments regarding EPA's authority. Good work, everyone who contributed to the @andrewdessler.com review!
13.02.2026 16:00 — 👍 101 🔁 39 💬 2 📌 5
Tipping point threshold temperature estimates are shown with black dots; floating bars indicate lower and upper estimates. Note that the estimated tipping threshold of 1.2°C for low-latitude coral reefs has likely already been crossed.3 The dashed purple vertical line indicates 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels; a sustained global average temperature at this level is likely in the near future.2 Tipping point thresholds are adapted from Armstrong McKay et al.13 with updates from Lenton et al.3 Tipping impacts and timescales vary greatly. In some cases, effects on global temperatures may be uncertain or negligible (gray bars). Note that overlap can occur among feedbacks and/or tipping points, so their effects are not necessarily independent. See supplemental methods for further details, including data sources.
The risk of a hothouse Earth trajectory
www.cell.com/one-earth/fu...
@williamripple.bsky.social
It may be surprising that the EU's Climate Law - including the net 90% target for 2040 - passed in the European Parliament. A closer look at the adopted text explains why those in the EPP who favour weaker climate ambition could support the deal and did not vote with the far-right parties. /1
11.02.2026 16:29 — 👍 15 🔁 10 💬 1 📌 2🆕 Several Earth system components may be closer to destabilisation than previously thought. Crossing key temperature thresholds could trigger feedback loops, pushing the planet toward a “Hothouse Earth” trajectory. Study by @oregonstate.edu, @iiasa.ac.at & PIK: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
11.02.2026 16:52 — 👍 819 🔁 499 💬 35 📌 57
Energiewende in a nutshell: "Wir tragen die Lasten, haben das Kabel in unserem Boden und nichts davon außer einer einmaligen Entschädigung"
Jetzt ist sogar ein unterirdisches Kabel für eine PV Anlage eine "Last"...
Ich versteh's wirklich nicht mehr...
UK not messing about: In two months the gov agreed to bids for 4.9 GW Onshore, 1.3 GW Solar and 8.3 GW Offshore 🤯
The Q&A by @carbonbrief.org on this is excellent!!
Population ageing places pressure on public finances, squeezing out funding for long-term endeavours
• Spending on seniors' health and pensions is rising across developed economies
• In turn, low productivity growth and decaying infrastructure fuel popular dissatisfaction
www.ft.com/content/b4d2...
O'Leary (Ryanair): "We’re not going to get to net zero by 2050"
At least the airline industry is honest in what they expect.
The car industry claims the new rules are compatible with net-zero...
Holy moly this chart: Cumulative US measles cases
28.01.2026 12:54 — 👍 4825 🔁 2304 💬 205 📌 653
There's a predictable approach to denial that we're already seeing, which I call the Four Pillars of Disordered Doubt, which allows actors to constantly question evidence that don't fit their preferred narratives.
27.01.2026 12:09 — 👍 735 🔁 311 💬 23 📌 19
#Fridaydeepdive 💻: This week PIK Director Ottmar Edenhofer was kindly invited to present a lecture at the Oxford Martin School on carbon dioxide removal as a 'third pillar' for climate action. Tune in to watch the lecture and QnA in full.
www.youtube.com/live/c0omzp_...
After a few months/year and a half of quite difficult news for offshore from around Europe (Hornsea 4 cancelled, auctions without bids in Germany and Denmark, etc), this is fantastic news and shows the industry is still alive and kicking - despite rising costs!
14.01.2026 07:32 — 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Which economy is more productive - Germany or the US? It seems the answer would be clear, but it's not.
The mood in Germany is so deeply negative, even aggressively pessimistic, that I thought we had fallen behind by a lot. But here are the facts - they surprised me as well:
This chart documents one of humanity’s greatest achievements, in my view.
We just lived through the fastest population growth in human history.
It would have been impressive if food supplies had merely kept pace — but on every continent, they grew even faster than the population.
1 Jahr Citymaut in New York:
11% weniger Verkehr, Kaufkraft ist NICHT zurückgegangen (die Leute kommen jetzt öffentlich), massive Mehreinnahmen für den öffentlichen Verkehr. Autoverkehr fließt 4,5% schneller, öffentliche Busse fahren 2,5% schneller.
Fantastic thread!
24.12.2025 23:56 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0"In 2004, it took the world a full year to install 1 gigawatt of solar power capacity. Today, twice that amount goes online each day."
21.12.2025 11:59 — 👍 26 🔁 12 💬 2 📌 0
Im niedersächsischen Mehrum ist eine einzigartige Anlage zur Netzstabilisierung in Betrieb gegangen, die Stabilität ohne fossile Grundlast sichert.
"Niemand hat zuvor ein superkondensatorbetriebenes Statcom gebaut. Das setzt Maßstäbe für die globale Energiewende.“
www.pv-magazine.de/2025/12/10/w...
Shiny for R v1.12 is here with built-in OpenTelemetry support! 🎉
Trace sessions and reactive calculations in production with zero code changes. Just install {otel}/{otelsdk} and set your env vars.
Learn more: shiny.posit.co/blog/posts/s...
#RStats #RShiny #OpenTelemetry
We love to say "costs fall X% every time capacity doubles." This paper looks at 87 technologies and says: actually, no. Past learning rates are not reliable predictors of future learning.
08.12.2025 17:15 — 👍 38 🔁 14 💬 2 📌 2
"Studies have shown that long-distance electric ships with up to 5,000 km of range can be successfully utilized using today’s battery capabilities, without significant weight and volume."
cleantechnica.com/2025/12/05/c...
This was the key factor that arose when I looked at it for my case - and without it was quite unattractive, with it was very attractive!
Main issue (in Austria at least) is the minimum size (1 MWh) and the admin costs to get it up and running to qualify for ancillary services...
🚨EXCLUSIVE🚨
Many things are changing before our eyes. Others are harder to see
Like the US economy
Americans are spending more 💲 recovering from disasters and preparing for the next one. 36% of US GDP growth since 2000 is related to climate disasters.
Welcome to the Disaster Industrial Complex 🎁🔗
