The world’s two first hydrogen-powered trains have begun service in Germany. The trains, which operate in between northern German towns, are a step away from traditional diesel power. According to a press release from Alstom, the trains’ French parent company, they are are “equipped with fuel cells which convert hydrogen and oxygen into electricity. Source Popular Mechanics
Renewable
The North Sea may be a prime spot for wind parks, but Estonia is betting it can build and maintain turbines for less. The small nation is pushing ahead with ambitious plans for an offshore wind park in the Baltic Sea. Source: DW
A senior Indian negotiator says his country will cut back its use of coal, if sufficient cash for renewables emerges from a Paris deal. Dr Ajay Mathur said coal would be restricted if there was help to pay for “more expensive” green energy. Source: BBC
Bill Gates has pulled together a multinational band of investors to put billions into clean energy. The Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist is set to announce his latest endeavor, the Breakthrough Energy Coalition, at the climate change summit in Paris alongside President Obama and French President Francois Hollande. Source: CNN Money
China, the world’s biggest carbon emitter, wants a legally binding agreement to be reached at a world climate summit in Paris that begins on Nov. 30. China hopes the summit will prove to be “monumental” for climate change, said Xie Zhenhua, the nation’s special representative on climate change. Source: Bloomberg
The U.K. government will make keeping the lights on the top priority with natural gas and nuclear power playing a central role in that goal, Energy and Climate Change Secretary Amber Rudd is expected to say in a major speech later Wednesday setting out a new energy policy for the country. Source: WSJ
EDP Renewables, Mitsubishi, Chiyoda, Engie and Repsol entered into an agreement to implement a floating offshore wind farm off the coast of Northern Portugal, known as the WindFloat Atlantic project. The project, located 20km off the Portuguese coast, is planned to be operational in 2018. Source: Offshore Engineer
Kosovo President Hashim Thaci says the Russian leader told him in Paris that Moscow will support any peaceful agreement reached between Kosovo and Serbia. Source: Balkan Insight
Israeli Defense Forces have released footage of an Israeli Air Force strike on what the IDF reports was Hamas’ military intelligence headquarters. Hamas militant group has threatened to fire rockets at the Israeli towns of Beersheba, Ashdod if the IDF airstrikes on Gaza continue. Source: Sputnik
Bulgaria is the latest EU-member state to clarify that it will be not back the UN pact on migration, due to be signed next month in Marrakech, claiming it puts the national interest at risk. Source: Balkan Insight
Former Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski fled to Hungary and is seeking asylum. On Monday a Macedonian court issued an arrest warrant for Gruevski, who served as prime minister until 2016 and was supposed to start a two-year jail sentence over an illegal purchase of a luxury car. Source: Politico
Officials close to Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince, Mohammed Bin Salman, discussed plans in 2017 with businessmen to potentially use private companies to assassinate Iranian enemies, The New York Times reported on Sunday. Source Arutz Sheva
Police in Spain and France have smashed a criminal ring suspected of smuggling hundreds of Palestinians into Europe through fraudulent asylum claims, Spanish police said on Sunday. Source: The Local
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Sunday he had a brief but good conversation with US leader Donald Trump at World War I centenary events in Paris, Russian media reported. Source: France24
Turkey’s defense minister Hulusi Akar has presented maps to the Libyan government in a bid to indicate that Greece is trying to encroach upon Libya’s continental shelf, according to reports in Turkey’s Yeni Safak newspaper. Source: Ekathimerini
Israeli forces have killed seven Palestinians in the Gaza Strip in an apparently botched undercover raid and ensuing firefight that has threatened to destroy a precarious, unofficial ceasefire. Source: The Guardian
North Korea and South Korea have begun destroying 20 guard posts along their heavily-fortified frontier under a plan to reduce tensions on the border. Source: Raidió Teilifís Éireann
Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić on Sunday (11 November) accused Kosovo of “undermining regional cooperation and stability” by raising taxes on Serbian goods. Source: Euractiv
The nation’s lawmaking body approved the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership on Monday, following Australia’s ratification on October 31. Source: South China Morning Post
Greece’s central bank is working on a plan to help banks cut their bad debts in half, the latest effort to restore trust in the country’s financial system, two people with knowledge of the matter said. Source: Bloomberg
Saudi Arabia has announced a major cut in oil production to rebalance global markets and prop up plunging oil prices, citing U.S. sanctions waivers that are enabling Iran to keep exporting oil to most of its top customers. Source: Radio Free Europe
Italy’s government was set on Tuesday to defy the European Commission, preferring to risk financial sanctions than revise its big-spending budget. Source: The Local
Several thousand drivers took to the streets and roads of more than 20 cities to protest high prices at the pump, local media report. Also as part of the protests, many loaded minute amounts of gasoline at local fuel stations, paying for it in small change as a symbolic gesture. Source: Oil Price
Natural gas is expected to overtake coal as the world’s second largest energy source after oil by 2030 due to a drive to cut air pollution and the rise in liquefied natural gas (LNG) use, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Tuesday. Source: CNBC
The United States could yet impose new sanctions to try to block construction of the Russian Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline across the Baltic Sea to the European Union, the U.S. ambassador to the EU said on Tuesday. Source: Reuters
Khalid al-Falih told reporters that Saudi Aramco’s customer crude oil nominations would fall by 500,000 bpd in December versus November due to seasonal lower demand. The cut represents a reduction in global oil supply of about 0.5 percent. Source: Reuters
Iran sold 700,000 barrels of crude oil to private companies for export on Sunday in a second round of sales aimed at countering U.S. sanctions on the country’s exports, oil ministry news website SHANA reported. Source: Reuters
China has recently overtaken Japan to become the world’s biggest importer of natural gas and will likely keep that crown as pipeline and liquefied natural gas (LNG) infrastructure grow. Source: Oil Price
The drillship Stena IceMax, commissioned by US oil giant ExxonMobil to drill for hydrocarbons, has been in Block 10 of Cyprus’s exclusive economic zone since Sunday night, according to Cypriot state radio RIK. Source: Ekathimerini
