Glasgow 2021

As Glasgow Opens, White House Releases Long-Term Climate Strategy

As the international climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, gets underway, White House officials are releasing a “long-term strategy” for reaching net-zero emissions by mid-century, arguing that the Biden administration’s 2030 greenhouse gas target would put the U.S. “firmly on track” to hit their net-zero target. All countries are expected to submit such strategies under the Paris climate agreement, and the U.S. strategy outlines the administration’s broad vision for how to achieve deep decarbonization across multiple sectors of the economy. Officials...

Advocates Press To Sharply Cut Coal Power, Among Other Climate Shifts

Climate change advocates are pressing governments and utilities across the globe to drastically reduce the share of coal-fired electricity, arguing the step is one of the most critical out of dozens of market shifts that must occur to meet long-term global warming targets. The findings are included in an Oct. 28 report published by six climate groups, “State of Climate Action 2021,” which assesses 40 progress indicators in multiple sectors such as power, buildings, transport, technological carbon removal, land use...

CCS Supporters See Global Carbon Trading Rules As Crucial To Growth

Advocates for widespread commercialization of carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technologies say an agreement on so-called Article 6 rules for emissions trading at the upcoming United Nations climate talks in Glasgow, Scotland, would be a major breakthrough for carbon markets that could spur key investment in CCS. “It has been said that the toughest of talks will be the Articles 6 negotiations and an agreement on a market-based mechanism,” said Lee Beck, Clean Air Task Force’s director for international carbon...

Regan Promises ‘Very Aggressive Agenda’ On Eve Of U.N. Climate Summit

As a major international climate summit looms and President Joe Biden’s agenda hangs in the balance, EPA Administrator Michael Regan is promising the agency will implement a “very aggressive agenda” on climate policy and environmental justice, regardless of what climate action Congress ultimately approves. Speaking on a call hosted by the Washington Post Oct. 28, Regan said that EPA is prepared to forge ahead with regulatory action on climate change and other environmental policies. And along with other government...

China’s revised NDC prompts calls for tougher emission goals

China’s recently revised national determined contribution (NDC) under the Paris climate agreement offers a “modest improvement” to its prior goals for reducing greenhouse gases, according to an environmental group that is pushing the world’s largest emitter to set much more ambitious near-term goals. “For China to get on a pathway to reach its 2060 carbon neutrality goal it is critical for the country to further strengthen its new near-term targets and put in place measures to reach them,” says the...

Unofficial Aspects Of Glasgow Talks Offer Momentum For GHG Cuts

Editor's Note: The next Insider will be published on Nov. 17. The significance of the United Nations climate talks kicking off next week in Glasgow, Scotland, will focus as much on the non-official aspects of the two-week summit in addition to the press for countries to offer tougher carbon reduction targets under the Paris climate deal and hammer out rules for international emissions trading. Unofficial events by policymakers, industry and others at the U.N.’s Nov. 1-12 climate talks...

GOP senators press Biden to back biofuels at Glasgow

Republican senators are renewing a press on President Joe Biden to promote biofuels as a means to quickly curb greenhouse gases, urging the president to incorporate biofuels use into international climate policy on the eve of a United Nations climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland. In an Oct. 26 letter to Biden, nine GOP senators from biofuels-producing states, led by Sens. John Thune (R-SD) and Charles Grassley (R-IA), urge Biden to feature biofuels as part of his climate change agenda. Ahead...

Glasgow Talks Give Forum For Business To Tout Actions, Seek Policy

The international climate talks that begin next week in Glasgow, Scotland, are providing a forum for companies facing regulatory and investor pressure to tout individual climate change initiatives, even as they also seek government actions that would lower the cost of -- and barriers to -- emissions cuts. Plans to highlight private sector action at the United Nations summit supplements industry’s interest in the outcome of the negotiations themselves, with respect to nations’ top-line carbon emissions goals, climate finance, and...



EDF Expert To Stress Continued State Climate Efforts At Glasgow Conference

An Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) climate change expert based in California will be emphasizing the need to bolster state and other “sub-national” efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, as officials gather starting next week for the highly anticipated United Nations climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland. Even though the Biden administration has committed to a stronger GHG target under the Paris Agreement, known as a nationally determined contribution (NDC), “we need states to continue their work and leadership in getting those...

Critics say new GHG goals by Australia, Saudi Arabia fall short

Recently released greenhouse gas pledges floated by Australia and Saudi Arabia ahead of next week’s global climate conference are prompting sharp criticism from environmentalists, as the United Nations is stepping up warnings that countries are collectively off track to staving off the worst effects of climate change. The pledges are formally known as nationally determined commitments (NDC) under the 2015 Paris climate agreement. Australia on Oct. 26 updated its NDC by promising to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, though it...

Newsom to highlight California GHG policies, oil phaseout in Glasgow

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) says he will join global leaders at the United Nations climate change conference that begins next week in Glasgow, Scotland, to highlight California’s “groundbreaking policies to combat the intensifying climate crisis and rally the global community to end their reliance on oil.” Newsom announced Oct. 25 that he plans to attend the conference Nov. 1-3, and will be joined by some of his top advisers and cabinet members, including Senior Climate Advisor Lauren Sanchez; CalEPA...

At Glasgow, Experts Urge U.S. ‘Credibility’ To Achieve Future GHG Progress

Key experts say Biden officials at the upcoming Glasgow climate summit must show “credibility” on their promised actions -- in the form of EPA rules, new legislation and other measures -- if they are to eventually secure more ambitious pledges from other major emitters and successfully implement a landmark 2015 global agreement. “What everyone’s looking for is whether [the United States] can deliver,” Nat Keohane, president of the Center for Climate & Energy Solutions (C2ES) and a long-time observer of...

Glasgow Summit Expected To Showcase Expanded EV Commitments

Observers are expecting next month’s international climate talks in Glasgow, Scotland, to serve as a venue for highlighting new and existing commitments by automakers and governments toward decarbonizing transportation, building on already-announced goals for electrifying both passenger vehicles and heavy trucks. The activity is likely to represent one of many instances in which the 26th “Conference of the Parties” (COP26) to the United Nations climate treaty provides a forum to showcase public and private greenhouse gas efforts, in addition to...

IETA’s Forrister Calls Glasgow ‘Showtime’ For U.N. Carbon Trading Rules

Even as most experts are closely watching the extent to which next month’s international climate talks will usher in new pledges from countries to curb carbon emissions, many industry groups are also tracking whether negotiators can nail down long-pending rules to facilitate international carbon trading. Among other issues, supporters say that agreeing to a set of United Nations standards for the credibility of carbon offset projects could facilitate greater “ambition” by countries to limit greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate...

Strong Hill, Cabinet showing expected at Glasgow summit

Top Capitol Hill lawmakers and Cabinet secretaries will attend next month’s international climate talks in Scotland, aiming to show a robust U.S. presence at the event even as Democrats continue to negotiate the scope and ambition of climate policies in their emerging budget legislation. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) will lead the congressional delegation, according to an Oct. 19 Bloomberg article . Democratic senators and a “handful” of House Republicans interested in climate issues will join her, according to...

White House Touts Climate Finance ‘Roadmap’ Ahead Of Glasgow Meeting

White House officials are touting their just-released climate finance roadmap to emphasize the systemic risks they say climate change poses to the economy and to highlight a series of just-issued and upcoming policies that could help their push for more ambitious pledges from other countries at next month’s climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland. “This Climate Risk Accountability Framework makes the case that the health of the U.S. economy is intrinsically linked to climate change, that climate change poses a systemic...

Pages

Not a subscriber? Request 30 days free access to exclusive environmental policy reporting.