Dr Charles Ellinas

We are entering week two at COP29 and progress is still painfully slow and often acrimonious. Too many issues are still open and require closure this coming week. Top priority ...

COP29 has completed its first week with some successes, but also with a series of controversies. France’s top climate official is not going to COP29 in Baku after Azerbaijan’...

By Charles Ellinas Much has been said about Donald Trump’s return to the American Presidency and his likely impact on world politics. The bewildering mixed-bag of views is a ...

The annual UN Climate Change Summit, COP29, has opened in Baku, Azerbaijan. As many as 50,000 delegates from 200 countries are expected to attend. But key world leaders from the US, Europe, ...

The International Energy Agency (IEA) published its annual World Energy Outlook (WEO-2024) on October 16, warning that the world is failing to limit global warming to 1.5C. What is new this ...

By Charles Ellinas Eurostat has just published its report on EU electricity price statistics for the first half of 2024. A subject close to the heart of long-suffering Cypriot electricity consumers. ...

It has been over two-and-a-half years since ExxonMobil last drilled in Cyprus’ EEZ, but the company is about to come back. In an interview earlier this month the minister of ...

By Charles Ellinas Finally, some good news about the beleaguered LNG import project in Cyprus. Energy Minister Giorgos Papanastasiou confirmed in parliamentary hearings that an agreement has been reached with ...

This is based on my presentation at Atlantic Council’s ‘Regional Conference on Clean and Secure Energy’ that took place earlier this week. Every international meeting, be it the COPs, ...

Barriers to decarbonising the regional economies was one of the subjects covered at the ‘Climate Crisis in the East Med and the Middle East’ conference organised by Cyprus Institute in ...

Good news on the Great Sea Interconnector (GSI) front, but priority must now shift to implementing measures that will bring electricity prices down between now and 2030, when the GSI is ...

The issue of a ‘notice-of-breach’ to Chevron – the Aphrodite gasfield operator – and its partners by the minister of energy, George Papanastasiou, on August 25 took everyone by surprise. They have been ...

As we get closer to critical decision-making deadlines, there is no end to debates about the viability and future of the Great Sea Interconnector. But sadly, often these are not ...

With shocks following shocks of an unprecedented scale and gravity, and with the European Commission (EC) withdrawing its support for the LNG import project at Vasilikos and asking for its ...

By Charles Ellinas Earlier in July, the EU published its ‘European Innovation Performance Scoreboard 2024’ and in June the IMF published its new ‘AI Preparedness Index Dashboard’. Both put Cyprus in ...

During the last two months two major reports were released reviewing world energy. First was the Energy Institute’s (EI) ‘Statistical review of world energy 2024’ published in June, followed by ...

By Charles Ellinas Judging from the latest statements by the Energy Minister, George Papanastasiou, the negotiations with the Chinese-led consortium CPP-METRON Consortium Ltd (CMC) have probably been exhausted, with no ...

Europe and the European Commission (EC) consider electricity grid interconnections between member states as strategically important, contributing to Europe’s energy security. They offer economic efficiency, provide reliability to the ...

By Charles Ellinas Eni, the Italian multinational energy company, published its ‘Capital Markets Update’ on 14th March focusing on ‘a distinctive strategy to address the challenges and opportunities of the ...

Implications of Euro-elections on European energy The headline in the FT following the June elections in Europe was: ‘Europe’s green backlash – Rightwing advances in EU parliament (EP) elections will ...

It is clear from the spectacular failure of almost all major high profile projects this year that the whole system of tendering and awarding such projects is in disrepair and ...

By Charles Ellinas June 3 was World Bicycle Day, but in Cyprus, it went completely unnoticed. And for a good reason. Cypriots mostly use cars to go anywhere, even to shops ...

This is becoming the recurring theme of all major projects in Cyprus. Almost invariably they all run into problems, run out of time and costs sky-rocket. The antiquated methods employed ...

This is the second time this year I feel compelled to write about the development of – or lack of – the Aphrodite gas field. This is the fifth attempt made by ...