International - Climate Extra

China’s GHG Target Falls Short Of Advocates’ Global Leadership Hopes

Environmentalists say China’s just-announced updated greenhouse gas-reduction target, while a significant step that signals continued development of renewable energy and steps to mitigate climate change, is still modest and falls short of providing the clear global climate leadership some had hoped for amid the Trump administration’s retreat. “China will, by 2035, reduce economy-wide net greenhouse gas emissions by 7 percent to 10 percent from peak levels, striving to do better,” China’s President Xi Jinping announced during the Sept. 24 Climate...

In U.N. Address, Trump Urges Allies To Halt Climate Mitigation Efforts

In an address to the United Nations, President Donald Trump called climate change a major “con job” and jabbed wind energy as expensive and ineffective -- bringing the administration’s anti-renewable and pro-fossil fuel agenda to the global stage. He urged allied nations to follow his lead to abandon carbon reduction goals and expand use of traditional energy -- building on comments from administration officials encouraging countries to buy United States oil and gas exports, and abandon Russian fuel. Climate change...

EU Promises To Ease Carbon Border Program’s Harms On U.S. Industry

European officials as part of a broader trade framework are pledging to ease harms from their carbon border program on small U.S. businesses, a move that runs counter to calls from a top Senate Democrat for the European Union to strictly enforce that program as a way to build support among domestic industry for tougher climate policies. However, the extent of the EU’s flexibility on its Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) is not clear, even as observers say it represents...

Renewables Sector Says Tariffs, FEOC Requirements Will Stymie Projects

Renewable energy industry leaders are underscoring that the Trump administration’s ongoing tariff policy, especially when coupled with the GOP tax law’s new incentive restrictions for projects linked to certain “foreign entities of concern” (FEOC), will spur a sharp decline in domestic clean energy manufacturing. The administration is imposing an “enormous” and “potentially manufacture-killing” tariff burden on imported equipment and components like cooper, said Vanessa Sciarra, vice president of trade and international competitiveness at the American Clean Power Association, during a...

OMB Urges Congress To Rescind Appropriated International Climate Funds

The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is urging Congress to rescind already-appropriated funds for the State Department to implement international climate programs, though the White House’s $9.4 billion rescission package appears to omit EPA funding. The May 28 rescission request , which the White House sent to Capitol Hill on June 3, would rescind funds for voluntary contributions to the Montreal Protocol that limits releases of climate-warming hydrofluorocarbons and ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons, as well as various international aid...

U.S. Skirts Decades-Old U.N. Deadline For Submitting Annual GHG Report

The U.S. in an unprecedented move appears to have missed an April 15 deadline to submit its latest annual greenhouse gas emissions inventory to the United Nations, pursuant to a treaty requirement dating to the mid-1990s, offering the latest manifestation of the Trump administration’s repudiation of climate change policies. “Every presidential administration for the past three decades (including the first Trump administration) has fulfilled this treaty obligation,” Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) said in an April 14 note to the press...

Foreign Policy Group Seeks Officials’ Focus On 3-Degree Warming Scenario

The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is highlighting arguments that U.S. policymakers should plan for a scenario in which the globe experiences 3 degrees Celsius of warming from pre-industrial levels, arguing this would be part of a “pragmatic” response to the limits of reducing greenhouse gas emissions while still protecting U.S. interests. The group’s multi-year effort, known as the Climate Realism Initiative, seeks to “confront the threat of climate change, compete in the shifting global energy landscape and build a...

Evading Trump, Officials Say New 2035 GHG Goal Requires No Federal Steps

The Biden administration is releasing a new national greenhouse gas target under the Paris Agreement that calls for a 61-66 percent cut in emissions by 2035 from 2005 levels, with officials arguing the country can meet the lower end of this target without any new federal action. That argument is important as the incoming Trump administration is expected to quickly drop U.S. efforts under the Paris deal and scale back a variety of federal climate policies. “I believe that with...

GOP Senators Float Revised Carbon Border Fee With Fewer Affected Sectors

Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) are floating a revised version of their proposed “foreign pollution fee” on carbon-intensive imports, including fewer targeted industries, in a prelude to a debate next year that supporters say could be a component of Republicans’ planned tax legislation. The discussion draft of the legislation released Dec. 11 comes as the incoming Trump administration is planning aggressive trade policies against nations such as China, with the advocacy for the pollution fee measure seeking...

Long-Sought Carbon Market Rules Could Boost GHG Ambition, Backers Say

Countries at this year’s international climate talks have approved long-pending rules to implement provisions of the Paris Agreement governing the use of global carbon markets, a move that U.S. and other supporters say will bolster efforts to use carbon emissions cuts facilitated by such markets to help meet broader goals in the Paris deal. The markets provision, known as Article 6, “can now help countries aspire to higher ambition in the next round of Nationally Determined Contributions due in 2025...

Officials Near Agreement On Climate Finance Goal For Developing Nations

Negotiators at this year’s international climate conference in Azerbaijan are coalescing around an annual target of around $250 billion to help developing countries mitigate and adapt to climate change, an amount observers say is a meaningful increase from current goals yet still far from the levels poorer countries need for climate efforts. “The key question is whether there is enough money on the table from richer countries, and whether there is enough assurance on the quality of that finance,” said...

Negotiators’ Climate Finance Proposal Highlights Struggle To Reach Deal

The latest proposal for reaching a new international climate finance target for developing countries is highlighting negotiators’ struggle to reach a deal on the topic at the ongoing United Nations climate conference, even as European countries and some others are striving to craft ambitious climate mitigation goals ahead of scaled-back U.S. policies. Observers say the latest proposal released Nov. 21 for the climate finance target -- dubbed the new collective quantified goal (NCQG) -- fails to bridge divides between developed...

House GOP Pledges To Use Energy Costs As Screen For IRA Repeal Efforts

As Republicans prepare for full control of Congress in January, GOP lawmakers at this year’s United Nations climate talks are pledging to reconsider any Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) provisions that fail to align with their mission to lower domestic energy costs. Rep. August Pfluger (R-TX), who lead a House delegation to the conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, said during a Nov. 16 press conference that President-elect Donald Trump won the Nov. 5 election due to historic inflation in recent years and...

G20 Broadly Reaffirms Paris Goals But Omits Explicit Fossil Fuel Pledge

The Group of 20 major economies is declining to explicitly re-affirm last year’s global call to transition away from fossil fuels, even as the countries responsible for the bulk of global emissions are renewing broad support for international climate goals and supporting ongoing efforts at this year’s climate talks to agree on a new climate finance target. The conclusion of the G20’s Nov. 18-19 meeting in Brazil comes just days ahead of the scheduled end of United Nations climate negotiations...

Rhodium Floats U.S. Target Aiming For Nearly Two-Thirds GHG Cut By 2035

An analysis from the energy consulting firm Rhodium Group is suggesting that the U.S. would have to set a new Paris Agreement goal of curbing GHGs by nearly two thirds by 2035, to keep the country on track for deep decarbonization by 2050. The assessment could help set expectations for a new Paris goal that the Biden administration has pledged to issue in the coming weeks, even as the incoming Trump administration is expected to quickly jettison such a target...

Exxon Reprises Paris Backing But API Downplays Expected Trump Exit

Oil and gas giant ExxonMobil is publicly urging the incoming Trump administration to stay in the Paris climate agreement to avoid disruptions to industry, even as the industry’s main trade group is downplaying the effects of any move to again remove the U.S. from the deal as most observers are expecting. The dynamic underscores the political balancing act that oil and gas and other energy sector interests are facing, as nations continue to press for greenhouse gas cuts at international...

At U.N. Meeting, Podesta Warns Of Climate ‘U Turn’ Under Next Trump Term

White House international climate chief John Podesta is expressing “bitter” disappointment at President-elect Donald Trump’s election win while also pledging that states, cities and others will continue U.S. climate efforts in response to Trump’s expected reversal on the issue. “For those of us dedicated to climate action, last week’s outcome in the United States is obviously bitterly disappointing,” Podesta said during a Nov. 11 press conference at the opening day of the two-week United Nations climate conference in Baku, Azerbaijan...

Trump Victory To Loom Over COP29, As Biden Negotiators Press Forward

Amid widespread expectations that President-elect Donald Trump will again withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Agreement once he re-takes office in January, Biden officials are entering next week’s annual United Nations climate talks as a lame duck with diminished leverage to shape any outcomes. “I imagine that the atmosphere at [the 29th Conference of Parties (COP29)] of course will be affected,” given Trump’s prior approach to U.N. climate efforts, says Nat Keohane, president of the Center for Climate and Energy...

Biden Administration Announces COP29 Negotiators As Election Looms

The Biden administration is announcing its delegation for the upcoming United Nations climate meeting in Azerbaijan, which is expected to focus on funding pledges for climate work in developing countries, though the tone and outcomes of the summit could be significantly influenced by the pivotal Nov. 5 presidential election. In an Oct. 31 release , the State Department announced that White House international climate chief John Podesta will lead the U.S. delegation at the Nov. 11-22 summit in Baku, Azerbaijan,...

WTO, Other International Groups Urge Multi-Lateral Climate Policy Steps

The World Trade Organization (WTO), the World Bank and other top international economic organizations are urging countries to engage in multi-lateral cooperation when addressing climate change, warning that an increasing embrace of climate-related trade policies could spark trade wars. The groups in an Oct. 24 report particularly focus on carbon pricing, touting the “important role” of such measures while setting out a “common understanding of carbon pricing metrics” and also advocating for international coordination to “scale up” climate action. “Trade-related...

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