China and US sign new climate pledge
The prospect of an ambitious deal at the UN Cop 26 climate conference moved a step closer to reality today, with China and the US jointly promising to increase climate action this decade and Beijing indicating it may accelerate efforts to reduce methane and phase out unabated coal-fired generation.
China's lead climate negotiator Xie Zhenhua and US special envoy on climate John Kerry this evening signed the "China-US joint Glasgow declaration on enhancing climate action in the 2020s".
The world's two largest carbon emitters said they are "committed" to meeting the goal of the Paris climate accord to limit global warming to well below 2°C higher than pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to prevent temperatures from rising more than 1.5°C. They also pledged to take "enhanced climate actions that raise ambition in the 2020s" to achieve this goal.
"We are working together to limit methane," Kerry said. China has not signed up to the US-led global methane pledge announced last week.
China has committed to develop "a comprehensive and ambitious national plan on methane" by the Cop 27 summit in a year, Kerry said.
China and the US also agree to "make best efforts to phase down unabated coal by the end of this decade", Kerry said. The countries will co-operate on technology, including renewable power generation and carbon capture and storage, to help speed up the coal phase-out, Kerry said.
"I hope in the course of our work it will become clear that they can do it much faster," Kerry said on the coal phase out. This could help other countries see they, too, can reduce coal usage faster than now planned.
"We both see that the challenge of climate change is an existential and severe one," Xie said. "As the two major powers, China and the US must take their due responsibility."
On Article 6, where negotiators are stuck on long-running issues, Xie said: "We hope to finalise all outstanding issues on Article 6 and establish a global carbon market." It must "avoid double counting" of emissions cuts and avoid any carbon leakage.
China and the US say they will announce national determined contributions for 2035 by 2025, providing clarity of pathway. They will establish a working group that will meet regularly throughout the 2020s and will announce concrete plans on issues such as electricity and methane in the first half of next year, Xie said.
Kerry said it was "not his lane" to comment on allegations of forced labour in the Chinese solar industry, noting that he is "the climate guy".
Asked if the US can be sure it will deliver on its own climate plans, Kerry said: "Yes, we will." A $1 trillion infrastructure bill that Congress passed on 5 November contains many of the provisions needed for the US to meet its climate goals, he said.
Congressional Democrats are hoping to pass a budget bill in coming weeks that contains other measures to reduce US greenhouse gas emissions. "I believe they will get there, I believe it is very important for the United States of America, for Republican and Democrat alike," Kerry said.
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UK will not bank ‘surplus’ from third carbon budget
UK will not bank ‘surplus’ from third carbon budget
London, 21 May (Argus) — The UK overachieved on emissions reduction targets under its third carbon budget, but it will not carry forward the emissions ‘surplus' to the next carbon budget, the government said today. A carbon budget is a cap on emissions over a certain period. The UK's third carbon budget covered 2018-22, while the fourth carbon budget covers 2023-27. UK emissions over 2018-22 stood at 2.15bn t/CO2 equivalent (CO2e) — 319mn t/CO2e below the third carbon budget cap. Emissions on average over the period were 47pc lower than emissions in 1990 — the baseline year. "By the end of the period in 2022, UK net greenhouse gas emissions were 50pc lower than base year emissions", the government said. The country is also on track to overachieve during the fourth carbon budget, it added. "The government decision not to carry forward the surplus keeps the UK within its ambitious target with no additional headroom to emit greenhouse gases over the coming years", the government said. The UK has made progress on cutting emissions, including phasing out coal. But the surplus was largely down to external factors, including the Covid-19 pandemic, the independent advisory Climate Change Committee (CCC) found previously. The UK has a legally-binding target to reach net zero emissions by 2050. It also has targets to cut emissions by 68pc by 2030 and 77pc by 2035, both from the 1990 base level. The CCC warned in February that the government should not carry forward any surplus from the third carbon budget, to avoid weakening action on decarbonisation. By Georgia Gratton Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2024. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
States have duty to cut GHGs, protect oceans: Court
States have duty to cut GHGs, protect oceans: Court
London, 21 May (Argus) — States that are party to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos) have an obligation to reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to protect oceans, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea said today in an advisory opinion. The opinion was requested by the Commission of Small Island States on Climate Change and International Law in December 2022. The tribunal found unanimously that states party to Unclos "have the specific obligation to take all measures necessary to ensure that anthropogenic GHG emissions under their jurisdiction or control do not cause damage by pollution to other states and their environment". The group of small island states welcomed the outcome, and said they saw it as a victory. Small island states are extremely vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Unclos has 169 parties — including the EU, China and almost all G20 nations. But the US — the second-highest emitter — is not a party to the convention. Countries must submit new national climate plans — known as nationally determined contributions (NDCs) — by early next year to UN climate body the UNFCCC. "Today's outcome will be instrumental to push the countries most responsible for the climate crisis to ramp up their ambition", lawyer at environmental law firm ClientEarth Lea Main-Klingst said. "And because business must follow where governments lead, companies and financial institutions are going to feel a knock-on effect from this development, too", Main-Klingst added. Similar cases, focused on climate change, are awaiting an advisory opinion or ruling from various international courts. The Inter-American Court is hearing arguments on how climate change is affecting human rights this month, while the International Court of Justice will consider a similar question later this year. The European Court of Human Rights ruled last month that signatories to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) must protect their citizens from the "serious adverse effects of climate change", in a landmark ruling for climate litigation. The ocean is the world's biggest carbon sink, capturing emissions and much of the excess heat generated by GHGs. Sea surface temperatures have hit record highs in recent months, while the global temperature was in 2023 on average 1.45°C higher than pre-industrial levels , the World Meteorological Organisation said earlier this year. By Georgia Gratton Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2024. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
Australia opens up ACCU method development
Australia opens up ACCU method development
Sydney, 21 May (Argus) — The Australian federal government has officially begun to accept proposals for the development of new carbon crediting project methods outside of government, as it looks to boost supply and innovation. Individuals, groups or organisations will now be able to submit method proposals for carbon abatement, which would generate Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) if approved and developed. Climate change and energy minister Chris Bowen made the announcement on 21 May during lobby group Carbon Market Institute (CMI)'s Carbon Farming Industry Forum in Cairns, Queensland. "The proponent-led model aims to encourage more innovative approaches to carbon abatement and will help to boost the supply of ACCUs to support our net zero ambition," Bowen said. The development of new ACCU framework methods has been until now led by the federal government, but this has proved "too slow," CMI's chief executive John Connor said today. None of the five new method priorities for 2022, announced in October 2021, have yet been finalised, Connor said. Opening up the method development process was one of the 16 recommendations made by an independent panel led by the country's former chief scientist Ian Chubb which reviewed the ACCU scheme in 2022-23. Proponents will need to follow a five-stage process, starting with the submission of new ideas for methods or changes to existing methods followed by an expression of interest (EOI) to the Emission Reduction Assurance Committee (Erac), the statutory body responsible for ensuring the integrity of Australia's carbon crediting framework. The Erac will accept EOIs in rounds, with the current one open until 12 July. The Erac will use triage criteria to assess EOIs, including scale of abatement, proposal complexity and whether it would incentivise innovation. The committee will publish its assessment of EOIs on a so-called method development tracker, with successful proponents moving on to the development phase. Finally, the Erac will publish draft methods for public consultation before recommending them to the climate change and energy minister. The proponent-led model announcement comes at a time of increasing concern about future ACCU supply, as the development of new methods or method variations by the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW) has been taking longer than originally expected — partly because it has been also focusing on implementing the recommendations from the Chubb review. By Juan Weik Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2024. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
Australia's Woodside plans CCS for Browse gas project
Australia's Woodside plans CCS for Browse gas project
Perth, 21 May (Argus) — Australian independent Woodside Energy is planning a carbon capture and storage (CCS) element for its Browse gas project offshore Western Australia (WA), but blamed stalled approval processes for the slow progress. The North West Shelf (NWS) life extension — which was first referred to regulators in 2018 — needed to be approved before Browse could progress further, chief executive Meg O'Neill said at the Australian Energy Producers conference held in WA's capital Perth this week. The life extension would allow the joint venture and third-party users to use the NWS project facilities until around 2070. WA's Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) recommended that the NWS life extension be approved in 2022, if it reduces its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to net zero by 2050. But the process remains incomplete, awaiting state and federal ministers' decisions and a final issuance of conditions for the project. WA's Office of the Appeals Convenor is still working through responses to the EPA's recommendation, which it must then report to the environment minister alongside its own recommendations, a process which was interrupted by the resignation of a senior bureaucrat last year. Woodside wanted to progress the CCS side of the Browse project before the end of 2024, O'Neill said, but the lack of certainty regarding approval timelines affected other elements of the project. "We've been working closely with the [federal government], state regulators and the Browse JV on the right approach to the environmental approvals, there are a couple of possible pathways that we are evaluating and we hope to be lodging the requests for approving that element of the project within this year," O'Neill said on 21 May. "But part of why we've been very disciplined in our work on Browse and not ramped up engineering work is because it is very difficult to get line of sight for when we'll get those approvals. With personnel changes at the appeals convenor we really don't have very good line of sight unfortunately." The 368bn m³ Browse development is considered critical to WA's future as a major LNG exporter and could provide long-term certainty for the 16.9mn t/yr NWS LNG, where partners have already signalled they will close a 2.5mn t/yr train later this year. Average gross GHG emissions from the three Browse fields are between 6.4mn-6.8mn t/yr with an additional 7.7mn t/yr once Browse gas is liquefied, resulting in total emissions of 14.1mn-14.5mn t/yr of CO2 equivalent, according to the environmental impact statement Woodside released in 2022. This necessitates a CO2 solution for it to progress under Canberra's net zero scope 1 emissions rule instituted last year. By Tom Major Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2024. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
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