Australia maps out emissions reduction pathway
Chris Bowen has been appointed climate change and energy minister in the new Australian federal Labor government's cabinet, promising to push for a 2030 emissions cut of 43pc without halting all new gas and coal projects.
Bowen, who put together Labor's climate change policies, believes that he will not need to bow to the Australian Green party's demands to ban the construction of all new coal, oil and gas infrastructure in Australia, despite The Greens holding the balance of power in the upper house of parliament, the Senate. The Labor party plans to legislate for zero net emissions by 2050 but has workarounds to meet a 2030 emissions reduction target of 43pc of 2005 levels without passing legislation, which would need to be approved by the Senate.
This will allow Bowen to pursue Labor's climate change goals without neither having to negotiate with The Greens, which want a 74pc cut by 2030 and net zero by 2035, nor with the opposition Liberal-National coalition that had a 26-28pc target for 2030.
Bowen will rely on tightening the safeguard mechanism, which imposes emissions caps on Australia's 215 biggest polluters and on an A$20bn ($14.4bn) Rewiring the Nation fund that will expand the electricity grid so it can handle more renewables, which are expected to provide 82pc of power to the grid by 2030. The safeguard mechanism is designed to protect Australia's export gas and coal producers as they are trade exposed industries but will require them to work with the Clean Energy Regulator on a path to net zero using technology. Australia is one the world's largest exporters of LNG, thermal coal and coking coal.
Bowen will abandon the previous government's gas recovery plan including funding the A$1bn Kurri Kurri gas-fired power plant in New South Wales and accelerated development of untapped gas resources, such as in the Beetaloo basin in the Northern Territory.
He may be forced to quickly intervene in the domestic gas market possibly through the Australian Domestic Gas Supply Mechanism (ADGSM) that restricts LNG exports, as record-high prices are threatening industrial users on the east coast. The ADGSM mostly affects the 9mn t/yr Australia Pacific LNG, 8.5mn t/yr Queensland Curtis LNG and 7.8mn t/yr Gladstone LNG projects at Gladstone in Queensland, which could also be subject to an east coast gas reservation policy similar to the one in place in Western Australia.
Bowen has been scathing of the former government's plan to [invest over A$1bn in carbon capture and storage (CCS)](CCS) in the production of LNG and blue hydrogen from gas, saying that it is up to capital markets and the private sector to decide what to finance in this space. A lack of government funding could scupper the development of a large-scale blue hydrogen industry, although Bowen is more interested in promoting the development of green hydrogen production and export from renewables.
Bowen will work closely with the newly appointed resources minister Madeleine King, environment and water minister Tanya Plibersek and industry and science minister Ed Husic.
Bowen has pledged to hold the Cop 29 UN summit in Australia as Canberra seeks to build closer ties with its Pacific neighbours. China this week backed away from plans to implement a trade and security agreement with 10 Pacific Island nations after a consensus could not be reached. But China's interest in the region forced the new Australian foreign minister Penny Wong to visit several of the island nations, bringing a message of her government's new focus on the threat of climate change to the region.
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Chevron’s oily DJ basin buy boosts gas output
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UN carbon market enshrines appeal, grievance processes
UN carbon market enshrines appeal, grievance processes
Berlin, 3 May (Argus) — The much-debated procedure for appeal and grievance processes for people negatively affected by carbon mitigation activities was finally passed this week by the regulator of the future UN carbon market. The supervisory body of the Paris agreement crediting mechanism, under Article 6.4 of the Paris climate agreement, called the appeal and grievance procedure a "crucial step towards developing a new international carbon market that sets the benchmark for high integrity carbon credits". The mechanism is expected to be passed at the UN climate summit Cop 29 in November in Azerbaijan. The appeal and grievance procedure sets the fee for filing an appeal at $30,000, compared with the $5,000 fee suggested in earlier iterations, which was seen by some supervisory body members at this week's meeting in Bonn, Germany, as "too low for project developers, but too high for vulnerable groups". The fee will be waived for appellants who are appealing for vulnerable groups, such as local communities and indigenous peoples. But the supervisory body failed to pass the mechanism's long-awaited sustainable development tool, instead launching a call for input. Members had criticised the lack of a validation and verification process for the tool, and its unclear delimitations, given that some of its objectives will be addressed in future rules on carbon removals activities or the carbon reduction methodologies under the mechanism. Making the tool mandatory was demanded by both countries and non-governmental organisations at recent Cop summits, with the lack of a grievance process and sustainable development tool part of the reason why the pricing mechanism was not finalised at Cop 28 in Dubai last year. The sustainable development tool of the Kyoto Protocol's clean development mechanism (CDM), which the new mechanism broadly aims to replace, was never made mandatory. A total of 1,796 carbon mitigation activities have now requested to transition from the CDM to the new mechanism, of which more than 300 have not yet provided full details and could miss the 31 August deadline, the UN's climate arm said in Bonn. The supervisory body called for an extension of the transition period to 4 November. Work on the new mechanism's registry is also advancing, with the supervisory body agreeing to launch a consultation on the "legal, technical and financial implications of providing functionality for the treatment of financial security interests in Article 6.4 emissions reductions within the mechanism registry". By Chloe Jardine Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2024. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
US job growth nearly halved in April: Update
US job growth nearly halved in April: Update
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US met coal suppliers expect belated supply tensions
US met coal suppliers expect belated supply tensions
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