Climate finance: what was actually agreed in Paris?

The head of the Bank of England Mark Carney said, in his keynote speech during COP21, that climate change was the issue for the future of the financial sector. 

Financial institutions and private investors finally seem to be getting the message; they’ve tumbled over each other to launch new initiatives on climate action in the run up to and during the UN negotiations. 

Zero poverty, zero emissions: eradicating extreme poverty in the climate crisis

Eradicating extreme poverty is achievable by 2030, through growth and reductions in inequality. However, unless global emissions peak by around 2030 and fall to near zero by 2100, catastrophic climate change could draw up to 720 million people back into extreme poverty. 

Building on previous ODI research, this report looks at how poverty can be eradicated by 2030 and how, contrary to popular belief, low carbon development is compatible with the zero poverty agenda. Showing how policy incoherent it is for gas emitting countries to support poverty eradication without moving their economies towards zero net emissions, we lay out the path we need to take to reduce both poverty and emissions together. 

State aid for energy: Climate action is more important than the single market

The objectives of deepening the EU's single energy market and protecting the climate can conflict. Where they do, the European Commission should give priority to reducing carbon emissions. Its 2014 guidelines on state aid and energy strike the right balance: low-carbon energy is still more expensive than high-carbon coal, so subsidy is necessary, not only to support new technologies like carbon capture and storage or tidal power, but also to expand nuclear power. The Commission was right to allow state aid for nuclear in the UK, but its clearance of new subsidies to coal-fired power stations was wrong and should be reversed.

Latest IPCC Findings Undermine Climate Change Claims

Working Group 2 of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recently released the final version of its contribution to the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report: Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. The WG2 report contains 1,731 pages of text, figures, boxes, footnotes and references, the first 832 of which list every negative impact climate change is having or could conceivably have on the Earth, its physical state, its ecosystems and the people who populate it. I doubt that anyone has ever read it from beginning to end. I certainly haven’t.

But the report’s mind-numbing length hasn’t stopped people from interpreting it the way they think it should be interpreted. And because no one bothered to read the fine print everyone thinks the IPCC is saying that the adverse impacts of human-caused climate change are already being felt:

Did Ban Ki-moon's summit deliver on climate finance?

Bold action on climate change: that’s what we all wanted to see at Tuesday’s Climate Summit convened by Ban Ki-moon. And a big part of this is about money – money to help developing countries respond to climate change, to capitalise the Green Climate Fund(GCF), and to green the global financial system. Without new finance commitments, we are not going to secure an ambitious global agreement on climate change in Paris next year.

World Bank President Jim Yong Kim speaks during the Climate Summit at the U.N. headquarters in New York, Sept. 23, 2014. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

So how bold were the commitments on climate finance? All in all, the U.N. Secretary-General’s office estimates that the summit resulted in a financing package of more than $200 billion from public and private sources. While much more needs to happen before the Lima climate talks in December – particularly in terms of mobilising support to scale up finance for developing countries – this is encouraging progress.

Unrestrained Oil and Gas Is the Future, ExxonMobil Argues

Sunsets over a refinery in Corpus Christi, Texas.
Credit: Jay Phagan via Flickr

In an unprecedented disclosure, Exxon Mobil Corp. told investors this week that it believes climate change poses a risk to its bottom line, but the firm made no gestures toward a future without oil and gas.

Global warming will compound security threats, UN panel claims

In an authoritative report due out Monday a United Nations climate panel for the first time is 

connecting hotter global temperatures to hotter global tempers. Top scientists are saying that 

climate change will complicate and worsen existing global security problems, such as civil 

wars, strife between nations and refugees.

A fighter in the war-torn Central African Republic. (photo credit: AFP/ FRED DUFOUR)

They’re not saying it will cause violence, but will be an added factor making things even more 

'dangerous. Fights over resources, like water and energy, hunger and extreme weather will all 

go into the mix to destabilize the world a bit more, says the report by the Nobel Peace Prize-

winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The summary of the report is being 

finalized this weekend by the panel in Yokohama.

Europe, Facing Economic Pain, May Ease Climate Rules

For years, Europe has tried to set the global standard for climate-change regulation, creating tough rules on emissions, mandating more use of renewable energy sources and arguably sacrificing some economic growth in the name of saving the planet.

Launch media viewer

Goats grazing near wind turbines in Fantanele and Cogealac villages, Romania. 

Bogdan Cristel/Reuters

But now even Europe seems to be hitting its environmentalist limits.

High energy costs, declining industrial competitiveness and a recognition that the economy is unlikely to rebound strongly any time soon are leading policy makers to begin easing up in their drive for more aggressive climate regulation.

Green Fade-Out: Europe to Ditch Climate Protection Goals

DPA

 

Europe may be backing away from its ambitious climate protection goals.

The EU's reputation as a model of environmental responsibility may soon be history. The European Commission wants to forgo ambitious climate protection goals and pave the way for fracking -- jeopardizing Germany's touted energy revolution in the process. 

Climate policies are more important than targets

The European Commission is due to publish its proposals for a 2030 climate and energy framework on 22 January. The European Council will discuss the Commission’s proposals in March. European institutions should be commended for focussing on climate policy at a time when the Eurozone crisis is not over, MEPs face elections and the commissioners are in their last year. However, there is too much focus on targets – whether there should be one or three, how ambitious the they should be, and whether they should be legally binding. Well-constructed targets can play a useful role in guiding subsequent policy making.  But effective policies are more important, and could be crafted even without targets.



The 2030 framework will replace the 20-20-20 targets: that there must be a 20 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, 20 per cent of total energy must be from renewables and there should be a 20 per cent improvement in energy efficiency, all by 2020. For 2030, the Commission favours three targets, again on greenhouse gases, renewables and energy efficiency. The European Parliament also supports three. The Czech Republic, Poland and the UK argue for one, on greenhouse gas reductions. Commission officials say that it is the pro-nuclear member-states which oppose a renewables target.  But Paris has joined seven other governments in calling for a 2030 renewables target, proving that it is quite possible to be pro-nuclear and pro-renewables.

Can Geoengineering Slow Climate Change?

 

ESA

The 1991 explosion of the Mount Pinatubo volcano in the Philippines. "Aerosoles in the stratosphere reduce the rate of climate change," says David Keith.

Interview by Johann Grolle

Canadian environmental scientist David Keith wants to change the world's climate by creating a type of sun filter in the sky to halt global warming. In an interview, he argues the technology is effective and inexpensive, but critics liken it to a nuclear bomb.

Meet the Visionary Venture Capitalist Who's Inspired by Marx and Keynes

 Lynn Stuart Parramore

Interviewed by AlterNet, William Janeway believes that tackling big challenges like climate change means overhauling the way we think about innovation

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William Janeway is no ordinary businessman.  In his view, waste can be good, efficiency is the enemy of innovation, and government investment builds the platform on which venture capitalists and entrepreneurs can “dance.”  A Cambridge-educated economist whose career as a venture capital investor has spanned four decades, Janeway has been called a “theorist-practitioner” by the great Hyman Minsky. As an investor, he built and led the Warburg Pincus Technology Investment team that provided financial backing to some of the companies that sparked the Internet economy.