UK Archives https://www.climatechangenews.com/tag/uk/ Climate change news, analysis, commentary, video and podcasts focused on developments in global climate politics Fri, 31 May 2024 14:49:59 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.6.1 Climate, development and nature: three urgent priorities for next UK government https://www.climatechangenews.com/2024/05/31/climate-development-and-nature-three-urgent-priorities-for-next-uk-government/ Fri, 31 May 2024 09:41:56 +0000 https://www.climatechangenews.com/?p=51456 Revitalised global leadership from Britain can make a difference at a deeply troubling and fractured time for world affairs

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Edward Davey is head of the World Resources Institute Europe UK Office.

In three vital and interrelated areas – climate, development and nature – the next UK government could play a significant role in driving progress at a critical time.

It needs to start office on day one with a plan that positions the UK ahead of key summits on those issues – summits that will have a critical bearing on people, planet, and future generations. The time to start preparing is now.

The NATO summit begins within days of the UK general election now planned for July 4. The year ends with G20 meetings in Brazil, a global biodiversity summit (COP16) in Colombia, and the COP29 climate conference in Azerbaijan. A new UK government could play an important role in rebuilding trust and make a positive contribution to the world by adopting far-sighted positions on climate, development and nature. 

On climate, the next government could immediately signal its intent by comprehensively stepping up its efforts to meet its own national climate commitments, after a period of drift and uncertainty. There is no more powerful message from the UK to the cause of global climate action than the country decisively implementing its own pledges, through concerted action on green energy, transport, infrastructure and land use.  

Progress at home needs to be matched in real time by leadership on the international stage in negotiating an appropriately ambitious and credible ‘new collective quantified goal’ on climate finance.

Rich nations meet $100bn climate finance goal – two years late

A strong finance outcome at COP29 would acknowledge the historic responsibility for climate change from some of the wealthiest nations, including the UK, while ensuring that all countries play their full part in mobilising the flows of public as well as private finance needed to transition to a 1.5 degree-aligned, resilient and nature-positive economy. Successful resolution of the finance negotiations this year in Baku would open up the possibility for a more ambitious round of climate action en route to COP30 in Belem, Brazil in November 2025. 

Development finance

On international development, the UK can move fast by upholding and restoring its development finance commitments, including to some of the world’s poorest people; by updating its toolkit to meet today’s interlinked development, climate and nature challenges; and by using all of the means at its disposal (including debt relief, multilateral development bank reform, and capital increases) to drive global financial architecture reform and a successful replenishment of the International Development Association 21 later this year.  

The UK can also lead the way in pressing for international support to be integrated and aligned behind countries’ own inclusive, green development plans; and by making the case for multilateral trade reform aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement.  

In addition, the UK has a particular responsibility to resume a global leadership role on debt relief, a role it last played in the early 2000s during the era of former Prime Minister Gordon Brown. It could take legal and other action to unstick debt cancellation processes for some of the most indebted countries, by bringing private creditors to the table and brokering concerted action on debt relief at the G20.  

Global billionaires tax to fight climate change, hunger rises up political agenda

The UK should lend its political support to the Brazilian government’s laudable G20 initiative on tax reform, as well as its important work on climate and hunger; and support other promising efforts to raise revenue for development, such as levies on shipping and aviation. The next finance minister should consider the UK’s global role on these issues as being as centrally important to their legacy as issues of national economics; and ensure that the UK drives global progress on new flows of finance for climate and development, at the scale set out by economists Nick Stern and Vera Songwe in their 2022 report.   

Protect and restore nature

On nature, the UK should redouble its actions to protect and restore nature and biodiversity at home, including through pursuing more sustainable farming and land management. At the same time, the UK should use its influence and finance to drive global progress on the nature agenda, both in terrestrial ecosystems as well as the ocean. The goal here is to protect at least 30% of the planet by 2030 and to mobilise major flows of public and private finance to support countries, local communities and Indigenous Peoples to protect their ecosystems.

At the UN biodiversity conference in Colombia in October, the UK could assume a critical role on the global stage by making the case for the protection and restoration of natural ecosystems as fundamental to human life, to addressing the climate crisis, and as one of the most effective forms of pro-poor development assistance.   

At a deeply troubling and fractured time in multilateral affairs, revitalised global leadership from the next UK government on climate, development and nature could make a very constructive contribution to securing the better, fairer, more sustainable and more peaceful world which is still within our grasp to secure.   

 Editor’s note: The latest BBC analysis of opinion polls ahead of the July 4 general election in the UK shows the opposition Labour Party with 45% of voter support, while the ruling Conservative Party trails with 24%.

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Oil drilling while in the Energy Charter Treaty is economically reckless https://www.climatechangenews.com/2024/02/20/oil-drilling-while-in-the-energy-charter-treaty-is-economically-reckless/ Tue, 20 Feb 2024 15:56:38 +0000 https://www.climatechangenews.com/?p=50016 The UK is opening itself up to repeated lawsuits from foreign oil and gas firms if it passes the Offshore Petroleum Licensing Bill

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Editor’s note: On February 22, the UK government announced it would follow some other European states in leaving the Energy Charter Treaty due to members’ failure to agree reforms in line with net-zero emissions goals. Countries that withdraw from the pact can still be sued by energy firms under a 20-year sunset clause.

The UK is considering a new law which would invite applications for new oil and gas production licenses in the North Sea every year.

This Offshore Petroleum Licensing Bill will not help with the UK’s energy security, reduce bills or serve anything but fossil fuel giants’ short-term profits. 

On top of this, if it passes into law, the UK faces the grave risk of economy-wrecking lawsuits.

This is because the UK is a member of the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) – a multilateral investment pact which allows investors in energy to sue governments over policies that affect their investments in over 50 countries across Europe and Asia.

Investors weapon

The ECT is the most litigated investment agreement in the world. It contains Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) provisions which are used by fossil fuel companies to deter, delay or raise the cost of climate policies. 

ISDS enables them to sue governments for billion-dollar payouts over their climate policies, in secretive tribunals outside of national legal systems. 

Weak attempts at reforming the Energy Charter Treaty have failed numerous times over the years, and thus many European countries including Germany, France and the Netherlands have decided to exit over the risks to their climate action. 

Loss and damage must be a focus of IPCC’s next reports

The UK government launched a review of its membership last year and is overdue announcing its outcome. 

Recent research by CommonWealth found that at least 40% of the UK’s North Sea oil and gas licenses are owned by foreign investors, many headquartered in ECT member countries like France or Spain.

If the UK government fails to leave the ECT, foreign investment into North Sea oil and gas means not only a headlong sprint in the wrong energy policy direction, but invites a huge bill even if a future government changes course. 

The Labour Party, which is far ahead in the polls, says it will stop new oil production. An election will be held this year.

Coming clash

Carbon Tracker recently showed that North Sea oil and gas companies are financially planning for far slower energy transition scenarios than governments are working to. 

Switzerland proposes first UN expert group on solar geoengineering

As a result, they are setting up a clash between climate policies and their financial expectations, raising the risk of ISDS claims.

Producing the first oil and gas from a field can take more than 18 years. By then, the climate policy landscape will be vastly different.

The 1.5 C warming limit is likely to be passed within the next decade or two, so the imperative to reduce fossil fuel use will be even greater. 

The dearth of long-term thinking in Westminster means policymakers are ignoring the risk of leaving the fossil fuel industry with such a powerful weapon.

An investor using ISDS can claim not only for costs sunk by a government policy but for any future lost profit it expected to earn over a project’s lifetime.

These companies can decry far bigger losses than is reasonable given the fast-moving renewables revolution, and ISDS tribunals are rigged to back them up.

Problems mount for Sahara gas pipeline, leaving Nigerian taxpayers at risk

Facing an ECT claim, any reasonable argument the UK may have developed about the environmental, social – even economic – imperative to phase out fossil fuels will have to be left at the door: it signed up to the fossil fuel giants’ charter, failed to leave it when it had the chance, and breached it. 

So much for the polluter pays: the UK taxpayer will have to bail them out.

Failed reforms

There’s no reforming the deadly oil and gas bill, in or out of the ECT. But remaining a member of the treaty adds an incredulous new dimension of fiscal irresponsibility.

The European Commission is proposing a mass withdrawal to neutralise the Energy Charter Treaty’s sunset clause – which extends the right to ISDS claims for 20 years even after countries leave – among exiting parties. 

If the countries leaving together agree to cancel the sunset clause between themselves, then the benefits of exit are magnified.

Given how many ECT-covered investors in 1.5C-incompatible projects on British soil are European, the UK joining this coordinated withdrawal would eliminate 99% of the ISDS risk – leaving little logical argument to remain bedfellows with climate laggards in a collapsing treaty.

It’s time to rip up the get-out-of-jail-free card that dirty North Sea projects, fast becoming obsolete, have up their sleeve. 

At stake is a chill on policies to address the biggest crisis facing humanity, and an unjust transition that would be billed to the UK public. 

Cleodie Rickard is trade campaign manager at Global Justice Now.

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UK aid cuts leave Malawi vulnerable to droughts and cyclones https://www.climatechangenews.com/2023/11/13/uk-aid-cuts-leave-malawi-vulnerable-to-droughts-and-cyclones/ Mon, 13 Nov 2023 17:13:34 +0000 https://www.climatechangenews.com/?p=49470 After the UK cut short a £52m climate adaptation scheme in Malawi, vulnerable communities saw their livelihoods destroyed by Cyclone Freddy

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After cyclone Freddy ravaged Malawi at the start of the year, mother-of-nine Elube Sandram was left staring at a trail of devastation.

Flood water had destroyed all her corn crops, an essential lifeline to feed her family and earn a modest income. The spiralling costs of seeds and fertilisers put replanting beyond her reach.

“The cyclone left me completely with nothing”, she told Climate Home News.

As Sandram searched for help, she said no relief was available aside from the limited support she could obtain from family members.

Elube Sandram was among the beneficiaries of the UK-funded programme in Malawi’s Chikwawa district. Photo: Raphael Mweninguwe

Her problems could have been prevented. In 2018, she registered for a £52 million ($63m) UK aid programme which helped vulnerable Malawians better cope with climate-driven floods and droughts.

But during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, the UK government cut back its aid spending, ending support for Sandram and many others in Malawi and around the world.

Let down

The programme that Sandram was involved with was run by UN agencies and NGOs and helped farmers by providing them with tools, training on things like pig farming and financial assistance like weather-related insurance or cash transfers.

The idea was that it’s not quite so disastrous if a flood or a drought destroys a farmers’ crops if they have livestock or an insurance payout to keep putting food on the table.

But following the UK’s cutbacks, several parts of the scheme have been reduced or axed altogether.

The activities run by a group of NGOs were wound down in 2021, two and a half years before their scheduled end. Concern Worldwide and Goal Malawi, the main implementing partners, closed their local offices. Only a series of projects with a more limited scope operated by UN agencies are still running.

Aubrey Kabudula, a farmer from Kwataine Village in Chikwawa, told Climate Home: “We were told that one of the objectives is to help people to be climate-resilient.”

“With its abrupt closure we do not think that has been achieved,” he said.

World Bank to initially host loss and damage fund under draft deal

It is an assessment shared by the Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI), the UK body tasked with scrutinising how foreign aid is spent.

In June, they said that the project had been “highly effective and coherent” but had been “undermined” by cutbacks to aid and the downsizing or removal of components.

A rice field in Malawi’s Karonga region affected by drought in early 2023. Credit: Eldson Chagara

Issues are only likely to get worse. Malawi is increasingly struggling with more frequent and intense cycles of flooding and droughts. The passage of Cyclone Freddy in March killed more than 600 people and displaced at least 650,000 more, while also dismantling infrastructures and livelihoods.

Climate shocks have exacerbated poverty levels, especially for rural farmers. The World Bank estimates that over half of the country’s 19.1 million people live in poverty with women being the most affected. Low agriculture production because of droughts and floods is cited as one of the main causes.

Rishi Sunak’s rollbacks

Countries like Malawi cannot afford to address these problems alone.

Unsustainable levels of existing public debt rule out borrowing at expensive rates as an option. Most of Malawi’s climate plans are funded through grant-based international public finance provided by rich countries like the United Kingdom.

At the United National General Assembly in 2019 the then-prime minister Boris Johnson made a big, and unexpected, announcement.

He promised the UK would double its international climate finance to reach a target of £11.6 billion ($14.2bn) in 2026.

Only a few months later the global Covid-19 pandemic upended daily lives and economic orders, prompting an abrupt rethink of spending priorities.

International aid was one of the casualties. Then finance minister Rishi Sunak cut its foreign aid target from 0.7% of gross national income to 0.5%.

With Sunak now prime minister, this “temporary measure” has yet to be reversed.

Since then, the competition for a shrinking pool of money has intensified as aid funding has been diverted to support Afghan and Ukrainian refugees hosted in the UK.

Australia to accept migrants from climate-hit Tuvalu in security pact

An internal government document reported on by the Guardian suggested the £11.6bn goal could be dropped as general aid cut-backs make it a “huge challenge”.

Not just Malawi

The cuts have hit climate projects around the world. UK-funded climate resilience projects have been cut or delayed in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Kenya and small-island states.

Government figures show that the number of people whose climate resilience was improved by UK aid flatlined for the first time since records began in the last financial year.

In India, a foreign office report found that budget cuts meant that activities to help rural communities cope with climate impacts had been “reduced, slowed down and stopped in some instances”.

In Pakistan, a foreign office report found that a £38 million ($46m) climate resilience plan had been paused for 18 months because of “uncertainty… following significant and unanticipated costs incurred to support the people of Ukraine and Afghanistan in finding refuge in the UK.

A large-scale project aiming to help a series of African countries build resilience to climate change suffered a significant “scale back from its original ambition”, as its annual summary said.

The programme envisaged a £250 million ($306m) budget in its business case, but this has now been reduced to “up to £100 million” ($122m).

Targets have been scaled back too. One original target was to improve the resilience of four million people through an early-warning system. That’s been reduced to three million.

In Chikwawa the climate project has still left a mark in the minds of many people despite the cutbacks.

The beneficiaries now hope that the country, a former British colony, will not be entirely forgotten.

“I am still optimistic that the assistance that we were receiving from the donor [UK government], will not be gone forever,” said Sandram. “And if I were to be asked whether that funding should resume or not, I will say it should resume because climate change is here to stay.”

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The UK’s retreat from climate leadership is not in its national interest https://www.climatechangenews.com/2023/07/06/uk-climate-change-finace-aid-cuts-uk/ Thu, 06 Jul 2023 14:06:50 +0000 https://www.climatechangenews.com/?p=48846 The UK won friends and influence as Cop president, its not in its interest to throw that all away by abandoning its climate ambition

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It has been a long half-year since the end of the UK’s Cop Presidency.

The Glasgow highpoint of our climate leadership has long since faded. So too have the heady days of the 2022 Conservative Party leadership elections, in which most candidates were content at least to hold the line on UK climate ambition, internationally and at home.

Our climate news now, insofar as it exists, is some combination of domestic nimby-ism, diplomatic disinterest, and new drilling.

Personally, I left the Cop26 President’s private office, where I worked as a speechwriter and private secretary, to continue the work from outside government at one of the UK’s largest philanthropic foundations.

Developing nations decry risk of UK breaking climate finance pledge

And it was my new role that took me to Paris last month, for the Macron-Mottley finance summit. More, of course, than can be said for the UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak who choose instead to party with media mogul Rupert Murdoch.

The President of Kenya William Ruto has a reputation as an emerging voice on the international climate stage. That preceded him as he arrived at the Palais Brongniart in Paris.

So I was listening with interest as he spoke on what he believed to be the great collective failure in our attempts to tackle the climate crisis — our persistent belief that it could be done in a system built on national interest.

To paraphrase him, when global good competes with national interest, national interest wins before the morning’s out. In a somewhat indistinguishable flurry of panels and plenaries, it stuck out as a profound comment on our current state of play.

Governments set to fail to plot shipping industry course for 1.5C

But I think it’s worth all of us, and particularly those trying to make and influence climate policy in the UK, reflecting a little more on Ruto’s point.

At first glance, the current UK context seems to support the argument.

It would be an understatement to say that, in recent years, the going in the UK has got tough. My old thesis advisor, Adam Tooze, repopularised the idea of a global polycrisis.

And this has been felt keenly here in the UK in the interrelated cost of living and energy crises. What money the government has to spend overseas was first reduced in the face of domestic pressures, as the pandemic hit the economy, and has since been sucked towards Ukraine and the defence of democracy on not-so-distant shores.

Identifying loss and damage is tough – we need a pragmatic but science-based approach

Just, it seems, as Ruto warned. National interest winning before the morning is out.

A similar picture can be sketched across much of the Global North.

But I do not believe the UK’s stuttering leadership can truly be explained by Ruto’s global good versus national interest battle. The problem, instead, is a flawed and myopic understanding of one side of the equation.

We have to recognise that global climate leadership, backed by ambitious climate policy at home, is now fundamental to swathes of any governments agenda, whether in terms of geopolitical and diplomatic interests, security – economic and otherwise – or economics. The lines that could once be drawn between international policy and the domestic agenda, as far as I can see, no longer exist.

Threat of EU carbon tax prompts dubious “green aluminium” claims in Mozambique

In recognising this, it quickly follows that leadership on the global good of climate action is not in competition with national interest, it is central to it.

I saw this first-hand back when working for the Cop26 President, as we worked to drive forward the gains of the Glasgow Climate Pact and to build a coalition for ambitious and long-term climate action around the world.

I think back to one of the first working trips I joined having just started in the office. We spent three days in Turkiye, first spending a day a few hours’ drive from Ankara, visiting one of the world’s largest solar farms, before returning to the political capital to work with ministers and the First Lady, in support of their climate agenda.

Morocco’s centuries-old irrigation system under threat from climate change

From a position of serious climate credibility and a solid offer of support, relationships were deepened and connections were created.

There was a palpable level of trust running through each of the Cop President’s interactions. That not only moved our collective climate agenda forward, but also unlocked opportunities for UK renewable energy suppliers and manufacturers.

It also strengthened our Embassy’s position from which to engage across the whole suite of the UK-Turkiye agenda, including the tackling of cross-border crime. It was a trip in which global goods and national interests, on both sides, fit neatly hand in hand.

A few months later we were in Viet Nam, as the Cop26 President lent his support to the team of officials working to complete the final stages of negotiation on Viet Nam’s just energy transition partnership (JETP) – the deal whereby developed countries helped to finance the clean energy transition.

Our meeting with the Vietnamese Prime Minister, which was over an hour long and punctuated by three separate and warm embraces between the two politicians, similarly demonstrated the interaction of global climate cooperation and interests elsewhere.

Senegal shows African countries are not passive beneficiaries of climate finance

Of course each of the conversations on the JETP were ostensibly about coal and the energy transition. But they were equally, if oftentimes implicitly, laying the foundations for deep and continued cooperation on finance, manufacturing and the global value chain, and technical and policy exchange. It would perhaps be stating the obvious to underscore the importance of the UK and its friends on the JETP partner group – particularly the EU and G7 – having a strong and constructive presence in that particular region.

And then there were the multilateral fora. From the G20 to the United Nations General Assembly, and the World Bank and International Monetary Fund’s Annual Meetings to Cop27. At so many of the critical junctures and decision-points in each of these moments, I observed that it was the UK and the Cop26 President to which friends and allies turned.

Take, for example, the final hours of Cop27 in Sharm el-Sheikh. As old North-South acrimony deepened and debates intensified on 1.5C, fossil fuels, and loss and damage, the possibility of a full-scale Cop collapse grew increasingly real.

As the major players of global geopolitics came together against the dramatic backdrop of the UN Blue Zone’s bank of ticking clocks to hash out an acceptable compromise, it was once again the COP26 President playing the role of fair and trusted broker.

UK off course for net zero, its advisers say

That work was good for the global climate agenda, and it certainly did no harm to the UK’s standing on the international stage. These are the sort of moments – moments of fair brokering, competence and friendship – that are remembered in the world of international politics and diplomacy.

And as former environment minister Lord Zac Goldsmith pointed out in his explosive resignation letter on Friday, it is certainly in our national interest to have as many friends as possible as we look to navigate the fraught geopolitics that confronts us, not least in the one-country-one-vote system at the General Assembly.

So, Ruto was perhaps right that, in the current constitution of both concepts, global goods like climate action can’t compete against national interest. But he was not actually sketching an unsolvable problem. He was in fact shining a light on the extent to which our national interest has become far too narrow and inwardly-defined. Correcting that is where we must focus our efforts.

Norway approves oil and gas fields despite Cop fossil phase-out push

The UK’s political leaders, at the end of this parliament and the beginning of the next, must make the conscious move to lead once again. As a first step, that means taking the bold domestic decisions needed to protect and restore the UK’s credibility overseas.

And it means committing the necessary resources internationally, not least to honour the once-flagship but now at-risk climate finance pledge, at a minimum by committing to make up any shortfall over the next parliament.

If we can do the above swiftly, we might just be forgiven for our momentary post-Cop26 blip.

One no longer needs to be a scientist to know there is literally not a minute to waste.

Alex Urwin currently works in climate philanthropy. He was previously a staffer and speechwriter to the Cop26 President Alok Sharma and a researcher in the office of the UK prime minister.

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UK off course for net zero, its advisers say https://www.climatechangenews.com/2023/06/28/uk-climate-change-commitee-aid-cuts/ Wed, 28 Jun 2023 10:00:26 +0000 https://www.climatechangenews.com/?p=48784 The UK government's official advisers say it is failing on climate at home and abroad, as it cuts climate programmes

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The UK has lost its position as a global leader on climate action and is not doing enough to meet its mid-century net zero target, the country’s climate advisers said today.

Britain in 2019 became the first member of the Group of Seven wealthy nations to set a target to achieve net zero emissions by 2050, requiring major changes in the way Britons travel, eat and use electricity.

But strategies in place are unlikely to deliver the required emission cuts and last year’s announcements on new fossil fuel projects have tarnished Britain’s reputation as a climate leader, an annual progress report by the Climate Change Committee (CCC) said on Wednesday.

“The UK has lost its clear global leadership position on climate action,” it said. “We have backtracked on fossil fuel commitments, with the consenting of a new coal mine and support for new UK oil and gas production.”

US ‘still on the fence’ as nations debate global shipping emission tax

The impact of climate change is already evident in Britain, which experienced record temperatures over 40C (104F) last year.

“There is a worrying hesitancy by ministers to lead the country to the next stage of net zero commitments,” CCC Chairman John Gummer said.

Over the last year, the leadership of the UK has passed from Boris Johnson to Liz Truss briefly before the current prime minister Rishi Sunak took over in October. All are from the ruling Conservative Party and there were no public elections held.

The CCC, set up as an independent adviser on climate action to the government, found Britain had fallen behind in areas including improving energy efficiency in buildings, rolling out heat pumps, curbing emissions from industry and increasing the rate of tree planting, which must double by 2025.

Public banks agree to check investments against countries’ climate plans

Internationally, it said the UK could move past general statements of support for the Bridgetown agenda and back specific proposals to reform the global finance system so that it works for the developing world and climate.

It added that the UK had used its aid budget to support refugees in the UK, “creating pressure” on international climate spending.

“Even if they are compensated for in future years, temporary cuts cause disruption to programmes and can make outcomes less effective,” it said. The UK froze “non-essential” new aid spending last July.

Last year’s CCC progress report also flagged Britain’s lack of action, saying the UK had done “surprisingly little” to deliver on its ambitious climate targets.

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Since then, the government has launched its first oil and gas exploration licensing round since 2019 and approved a new coal mine.

A spokesperson said the government was proud of its record in cutting emissions, had attracted billions of pounds in investment in renewable projects and backed new industries, including carbon capture and floating offshore wind.

“With a new department dedicated to delivering net zero and energy security, we are driving economic growth, creating jobs, bringing down energy bills, and reducing our dependence on imported fossil fuels,” the government spokesperson said.

The Labour opposition, however, was highly critical.

“This is by some distance the most damning indictment of a government since the climate change committee was established in 2008,” Labour’s Shadow Climate and Net Zero Secretary Ed Miliband said.

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UK sued over plan to import more polluting Australian beef https://www.climatechangenews.com/2023/05/24/uk-sued-over-plan-to-import-more-polluting-australian-beef/ Wed, 24 May 2023 16:01:00 +0000 https://climatechangenews.com/?p=48597 Campaigners are challenging the UK government over its assessment of environmental impacts of a trade deal with Australia

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Campaigners have challenged the UK government over its assessment of an imminent free trade agreement with Australia, which critics say ignored the full climate impact of meat farming and consumption.

NGO Feedback has launched a formal legal challenge against the UK government, arguing that it risked flouting its international climate obligations by not properly assessing the environmental impacts of the deal.

The UK-Australia Free Trade Agreement, which enters into force at the end of the month, gives Australian producers better access to the UK market to sell beef, lamb and dairy.

Then UK prime minister Boris Johnson, trade secretary Liz Truss and Australian prime minister Scott Morrison celebrate the trade deal in London in 2021 (Photo credit: Number 10/Flickr)

Agreeing the deal in 2021, the UK government said Australia shared domestic “beliefs in high standards in areas such as animal welfare and the environment” and maintained that the deal would uphold these.

Brexit dash for deals

But critics believe it was passed in haste and risks undercutting UK producers with food that does more damage to the environment.

Carina Millstone, executive director of Feedback, said the UK government had recklessly sacrificed both British farmers and the climate in a rush for positive headlines after the UK left the European Union and faced accusations that it was now globally isolated.

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“At a time of crisis in food and farming,” she said “the government must ensure all trade deals work towards our emissions reduction targets rather than towards further catastrophic heating.”

A government impact assessment of the free trade agreement suggested there would be an increase in transport-related greenhouse gas emissions as more goods are moved between Australia and the UK.

They estimated that increase would be 0.1-0.3 MtCo2 a year, about the annual emissions of Liechenstein.

Claims of uncertainty

But it said data uncertainties on the emissions impact of farming, particularly of beef, made drawing conclusions on these emissions difficult.

Campaigners instead point to a 2021 independent review of the UK’s national food strategy. It used a 2020 study in Global Environmental Change to conclude that carbon emissions from UK beef was 30kg Co2/kg compared to 45kg Co2e/kg from Australian beef.

The authors of that study found that these differences between different countries were “largely attributable to deforestation for grazing lands and higher methane emissions from…belching”.

Campaigners said the food strategy clearly shows that the free trade agreement will have a material impact on the UK’s legally binding climate targets.

Cheap meat

They also say the impact assessment fails to quantify the carbon impact of any changes to overall domestic UK meat and dairy consumption. 

Cheaper Australian goods were touted as one of the key benefits of the agreement for the UK. Australia’s biggest cattle farmer suggested that the trade deal could result in Australian beef exports to the UK rising tenfold

However, Feedback says the greater availability of cheap meat on UK supermarket shelves and in the food service industry will increase the amount that gets eaten.

This would go against recommendations from both national food strategy review and those of the UK’s advisory Climate Change Committee that substantial reductions in meat and dairy are essential to tackle climate change. 

G7 calls on all countries to reach net zero by 2050

Feedback sent a letter to environment secretary Thérèse Coffey last year, warning that it was prepared to take legal action, and said the response it received was unsatisfactory. 

Rowan Smith, a solicitor for law firm Leigh Day which is representing Feedback in the case, said they would be arguing that the legislation implementing the new tariff rules was based on an impact assessment that completely ignored the science.

“It is argued that this irrationality renders the statutory instrument unlawful, and our client is asking the court to quash it,” he said.

The government would not comment on ongoing legal proceedings.

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UK coal mine approval sparks global fury and hypocrisy claims https://www.climatechangenews.com/2022/12/08/uk-coal-mine-approval-sparks-global-fury-and-hypocrisy-claims/ Thu, 08 Dec 2022 18:04:43 +0000 https://www.climatechangenews.com/?p=47735 The decision to allow a new coking coal mine goes against official climate advice and the UK's international rhetoric on fossil fuels

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The UK government’s approval of its first new coal mine in 30 years has sparked international outrage.

After more than three years of debate, communities minister Michael Gove approved the Whitehaven coal mine on Wednesday, based on the top planning official’s recommendation.

Climate watchers from around the world accused the UK of hypocrisy. As host of last year’s Cop26 climate talks in Glasgow, the UK successfully pushed other countries to agree to phase down coal power.

Coal from the planned mine is destined for export to steel works, not power plants. The UK has slashed its use of of coal for electricity by 95% in the last ten years, by lowering demand and scaling up renewable generation.

That distinction was no excuse to the government’s official climate advisory body, which unequivocally condemned the move. “This decision grows global emissions and undermines UK efforts to achieve net zero,” said Lord Deben, chair of the Climate Change Committee. “It runs counter to the UK’s stated aims as Cop26 president and sends entirely the wrong signal to other countries about the UK’s climate priorities.”

The prime minister of Fiji, Frank Bainimarama, tweeted: “Is this the future we fought for under the Glasgow Pact? Fossil fuels should be phased OUT – not up.”

Angelique Pouponneau, an adviser to small islands at climate talks from the Seychelles, tweeted: “Huh? Confused – just a few weeks ago we heard 1.5 was on life support…”

That was a reference to UK’s Cop26 president Alok Sharma bemoaning weak language on fossil fuels from the latest UN climate summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. Sharma publicly opposed the coal mine and was demoted by Rishi Sunak when the latter took over as prime minister in October.

Former Liberian public works minister W Gyude Moore tweeted: “Britain approves first new coal mine in decades despite climate targets -(But it’s Africa’s negligible use of natural gas that would threaten the world’s climate budget. Right?)”

The coal mine approval came in tandem with the UK government pledging to ease planning restrictions on building onshore windfarms, prompting speculation it was motivated by party politics.

The ruling Conservative Party is split on the issue of climate change. Dozens of Conservative lawmakers pushed to make it easier to install wind turbines while others affiliated to Net Zero Watch have campaigned against environmental measures.

Green steel dismissed

Justifying the decision, Gove and planning inspector Stephen Normington questioned the feasibility of cleaner methods of steel production to argue coking coal was still needed.

Several climate experts testified during the planning process. They cited the International Energy Agency’s roadmap to global net zero emissions, under which global demand for coking coal falls 88% by 2050.

Arcelor Mittal’s use of hydrogen to decarbonise steel production in Europe was given as a case study for the transition.

Normington was unconvinced, arguing that the small print showed Arcelor Mittal’s technical advances were modest and did not justify the hype.

“The UK cannot go out on a speculative limb that hydrogen will perhaps offer a solution in the next 20 years. If we were to stop making steel we would be one of the few major economies without steelmaking and would just move the issues elsewhere”, Normington said.

Brazil’s incoming government set to scrap gas pipelines and power plants

The EU classifies coking coal as a critical mineral, Normington noted, citing a 2020 statement from the European Commission’s that: “There is no other satisfactory material available which can replace completely metallurgical coal in the blast furnace charge.”

Gove concluded “the longer term demand for coking coal cannot be predicted with any degree of certainty”.

The planning inspector also dismissed concerns about the international impact of approving the mine. He wrote: “Despite the so-called expert evidence, no evidence has been called to show how mere signalling has in fact influenced countries such as the China or the USA.”

‘Net zero coal mine’

The Clean Air Task Force’s global director of zero-carbon fuels Magnolia Tovar agreed that decarbonising steel was technically challenging.

“While possible technological solutions exist, the steel industry has no clear route to decarbonising primary steel production at sufficient scale and in the necessary timeframe,” she said. “Action is needed to develop a robust framework to push the global steel industry to decarbonise, facilitating all possible options to reach net zero in the steel industry including through the use of low-carbon hydrogen and carbon capture and storage.”

The company developing the mine has said it plans to offset the emissions it produces from extracting the coal – but not the emissions from burning it in steel furnaces. The offsets will be bought from an organisation like Gold Standard “or equivalent”. The company and Normington claim this will make the project a “net zero mine”.

Gove said that the coal would replace fuel from other mines which are not “net zero compliant” and so benefit the environment. He said the use of offsets was “neither unusual nor inappropriate”.

This clashes with the findings of a recent UN taskforce, endorsed by the UK and all countries at Cop27, which recommended using offsets only as a last resort. “You cannot be a net zero leader while continuing to build or invest in fossil fuel supply,” said the report’s author, former Canadian environment minister Catherine McKenna.

The coal mine’s use of offsets was also challenged by their favoured offset seller Gold Standard.

The company said it couldn’t stop the mine buying its offsets. But its CEO Margaret Kim told Climate Home: “Justifying the development of a new coal mine with our carbon credits and using them to claim ‘carbon neutrality’ for the project is nonsense. We are in a climate emergency and new extraction of fossil fuels is unjustifiable. Or claims guidelines make it clear that to make an offset claim organisations should prioritise the avoidance and reduction of emissions – something that is clearly impossible for a coal mine.”

Think-tank Ember further argued the environmental impact assessment for the mine underestimated the amount of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, it would release from its operations. Similar mines elsewhere in the world typically leak four times as much, according to its analysis.

“Coal mine methane is a huge risk to climate. We don’t have time to waste on it being underestimated and under-addressed yet again,” said Ember senior analyst Anatoli Launay-Smirnov.

Green groups are expected to challenge the decision in the courts.

This article was updated on 9 December to include a comment from Gold Standard

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As Queen Elizabeth II dies, climate advocate King Charles III takes throne https://www.climatechangenews.com/2022/09/09/as-queen-elizabeth-ii-dies-climate-advocate-king-charles-iii-takes-throne/ Fri, 09 Sep 2022 13:47:20 +0000 https://www.climatechangenews.com/?p=47136 King Charles III has campaigned on environmental issues for more than 50 years and was an early advocate for climate action

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Veteran climate advocate Prince Charles has become King Charles III of the UK after Queen Elizabeth II died yesterday.

Charles has been outspoken on environmental issues for more than 50 years and, unlike his mother, has lobbied politicians for his favoured environmental policies.

These have largely focused on nature conservation rather than clean technology or redistribution of resources. Another passion is promoting traditional British architecture.

British environmentalist Tony Juniper is a former adviser to Charles. He told Climate Home News: “I think he’s done pretty much more than anyone really to raise awareness and draw attention to what’s needed and, most importantly, to bring people together to think through the solutions… the depth of his knowledge and the breadth of his interests is really quite remarkable.”

Asked what motivates the king, Juniper said: “He is very focused on people… this is all about the wellbeing and the welfare of humankind, you know, the fact of him finding common cause with indigenous people in the rainforest, visiting flood victims in England, helping communities whose livelihood is threatened by the collapse of fish stocks.”

Africa food crisis: Bill Gates and smallholders see different solutions

While Queen Elizabeth strictly avoided expressing views on political issues, the Guardian revealed in 2015 that Charles had lobbied UK government ministers on a range of issues including environmental concerns.

In 2005, he wrote to the then UK prime minister Tony Blair about the “enormous problem of climate change”, urging him to promote energy efficiency and adopt a stringent emissions trading system.

Around this time, Charles also lobbied for more subsidies for lamb, beef and dairy producers and told Blair there was an “undersupply of beef”. Beef, followed by lamb, is the most carbon-intensive form of protein.

Early environmentalism

Charles has also campaigned publicly on environmental issues. In 1970, he listened to his father Phillip tell the conference on world pollution in Strasbourg that they “need to act now on pollution before it’s too late”.

Ten days later, Charles himself warned, in a UK context, about overpopulation, plastic waste, oil pollution at sea and growing pollution from “gases pumped out by endless cars and aeroplanes”.

When climate change entered the agenda, Charles was an early and consistent advocate for action. He regularly gives keynote speeches at climate talks.

Climate consultant Nick Brooks told Climate Home that Charles could exert influence as head of state, despite the ceremonial nature of the monarchy.

King Charles III might sway some quite conservative folks with well-crafted general messaging,” Brooks said. “Charles is nowhere near as popular as Elizabeth but those most resistant to climate messaging tend to be those who most prefer hierarchical systems and you don’t get much more hierarchical than the monarchy. Even King Charles waverers might get behind him now he’s got the job.”

UK puts climate denier in charge of energy policy

Charles has a mixed record on green technology. The Sunday Times reported in 2005 that he had refused to allow wind turbines to be built on his properties, favouring a biomass plant to generate electricity from burning local trees.

He has promoted biofuels and his Aston Martin car runs on “surplus English white wine and whey”.

None of his keynote speeches at climate talks in Copenhagen, Paris or Glasgow mentioned climate finance. This is the principle that rich countries, who disproportionately caused climate change, should pay for climate action and adaptation in poorer countries, who disproportionately suffer from it.

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UK puts climate denier in charge of energy policy https://www.climatechangenews.com/2022/09/07/uk-puts-climate-denier-in-charge-of-energy-policy/ Wed, 07 Sep 2022 12:43:16 +0000 https://www.climatechangenews.com/?p=47112 The UK's new prime minister Liz Truss has appointed Jacob Rees-Mogg as energy secretary, who has a record of dismissing climate science

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The UK’s new prime minister Liz Truss has appointed climate sceptic Jacob Rees-Mogg as business and energy secretary.

Rees-Mogg has denied climate science and consistently opposed climate action. Friends of the Earth called his appointment “deeply worrying”.

In 2013, he falsely claimed that the effect of rising carbon dioxide emissions the the climate “remains much debated”.

A month earlier, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change had quantified the impact of rising carbon dioxide on global warming in a 1,500-page report. Hundreds of governments, including the UK’s, signed off on its findings.

In 2014, Rees-Mogg said humanity should adapt to climate change “rather than going back to living in the stone-age by reducing people’s use of energy”.

Under the International Energy Agency’s net zero by 2050 pathway, electricity use is expected to more than double between 2020 and 2050 – although it won’t come from fossil fuels.

The IEA’s net zero by 2050 scenario forecasts increased electricity use (Photo: IEA)

In the same interview, he said: “I would like my constituents to have cheap energy rather more than I would like them to have windmills.”

An International Energy Agency study published in 2015 showed that onshore wind was generally cheaper than coal and gas power. Since then, renewable energy costs have continued to fall.

The same study published in 2020 said that “onshore wind is expected to have, on average, the lowest levelised costs of electricity generation in 2025”.

‘Every last cubic inch’

More recently, Rees-Mogg has argued for extracting “every last cubic inch of gas from the North Sea” and has said that reaching net zero “is going to be a huge regulatory cost”.

The Sun reported that, because of Rees-Mogg’s contrarian views on climate change, “at least two” members of parliament turned down the role of climate minister serving under him. Truss eventually appointed Graham Stuart who, unlike his predecessor, will attend cabinet.

Climate-conscious MP Chris Skidmore said this was “excellent news”. Sam Hall, director of the Conservative Environment Network, said Stuart was “a long standing champion for climate action, net zero and renewable energy”.

Truss’s transport secretary is Anne-Marie Trevelyan. A decade ago, she falsely claimed “the ice caps aren’t melting after all” and uncritically tweeted “global warming isn’t actually happening”.

As trade secretary though, she played an active part in climate diplomacy at Cop26 last year.

Truss also appointed a chief economic adviser Matthew Sinclair who wrote a book called “let them eat carbon” about the alleged “price of failing climate change policies and how government and big business profit from them”.

Alok Sharma remains as Cop26 president, Kwasi Kwarteng gets a promotion from energy secretary to finance minister and the relatively unknown James Cleverly will be foreign secretary.

Liz Truss has promised to “doubl[e] down” on the UK’s 2050 net zero target and has said the UK needs more clean energy, particularly offshore wind and nuclear. On the other hand, in the leadership campaign she criticised solar farms on productive farm land.

To curb soaring energy bills, Truss said she would suspend green levies, which support investment in renewables and energy efficiency. It is not clear whether she will scrap them or shift the cost from electricity ratepayers to general taxation.

Electoral maths

Joss Garman, the European Climate Foundation’s UK director, told Climate Home that despite the sceptical rhetoric of some ministers, the UK energy transition would continue apace.

“Clean energy is just the cheapest and most secure source of energy, and insulation can wipe hundreds if not thousands off a family energy bill,” Garman said.

“It’s also why the new Chancellor has been vocal in his view that wind energy will be the backbone of Britain’s energy security plan. When taken together with the electoral maths arising from unprecedented high levels of public concern over climate change, there are strong reasons to be optimistic the move towards Net Zero is now irreversible.”

Internationally, E3G’s Tom Evans told Climate Home that he feared Truss would divert aid away from climate projects.

As foreign secretary, he said: “[Truss] significantly reoriented overall UK aid so it would focus much more on boosting UK trade opportunities rather than addressing poverty alleviation and development.”

African leaders blast European no-shows at climate adaptation summit

In a joint letter, the government’s official advisors on the Climate Change Committee and National Infrastructure Commission told Truss “meeting net zero can help the UK’s energy sovereignity and protect it from volatile fossil fuel prices”.

They urged the government to push for energy efficiency and low-carbon heating in buildings and promote onshore wind and solar.

Truss’s predecessor Boris Johnson repeatedly expressed climate scepticism before coming to power but had what he called a “road to Damascus” moment after being briefed by the government’s chief scientist.

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We got fooled again: As big oil and gas cash in, Britons crippled by energy bills https://www.climatechangenews.com/2022/08/26/we-got-fooled-again-as-big-oil-and-gas-cash-in-britons-crippled-by-energy-bills/ Fri, 26 Aug 2022 13:16:06 +0000 https://www.climatechangenews.com/?p=47041 Millions of Britons are paying an exorbitant price for successive governments' short-termist decisions that prolonged our dependence on fossil fuel

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Through most of the last decade, UK energy bills remained roughly constant; as a result, Britons worried about them less and less. That era has now come to the most screeching of halts.

The average household energy bill has just risen to £3,500 ($4,140) per year, from £1,100 ($1,300) before Vladimir Putin began weaponising fossil fuel exports in the lead-up to his invasion of Ukraine.

This is a big jump and it’s just the beginning. Gas on the wholesale market is 13 times its previous average price. Next year, the average energy bill could hit £5,000 per year. For an estimated one in four (13 million) Britons these bills will be, for the first time in living memory, genuinely crippling.

Britain’s energy resources include copious wind power potential, North Sea oil and gas and a nuclear industry that once boasted as many operating reactors as the rest of the world put together. As a top-six global economy, British governments have been able to afford multiple policy options over decades. Indeed, it has been the most successful of the G7 economies in growing wealth while cutting carbon emissions.

So how did we get into this mess?

Prime minister Boris Johnson recently blamed Putin for the eye-watering price rises – and of course he is largely correct. But Britain and many other countries have known about the dangers of relying on fossil fuel imports for almost half a century, since OPEC mounted its 1973 oil embargo following the Yom Kippur War and sent prices quadrupling across the world.

The reality is, then and now, that a handful of countries control the supply of oil and gas (Saudi Arabia and Russia alone pump out around a quarter of oil exports), and hence the availability and price. If your country depends on imports, it hands a degree of control over both its economy and its foreign policy to those few major exporters.

Short-term thinking

Putin is not to blame for the failure of successive UK governments to learn this lesson from the 1973 oil embargo, nor for the decisions they have made that extended fossil fuel dependence rather than delivering energy sovereignty. Turn back the clock a decade, for example, and we find the government of prime minister David Cameron and finance minister George Osborne placing an effective moratorium on new onshore wind farms, opposing strong European policy to cut energy waste, and cancelling a long-awaited policy that would have prevented new homes relying on gas for heating.

Short-termist decisions that avoided a political row at the cost of prolonging dependence on fossil fuel imports; and there are plenty more examples. Osborne boasted of “mending the roof while the sun shines”. In reality his and other governments mended some holes but enlarged others.

Insulation, heat pumps, demand response, solar rooftops: all of these and more could have been prioritised as effective measures against both international energy blackmail and climate change. But they were not; and Britons are now paying the exorbitant price.

British company forces Italy to pay €190m for offshore oil ban

The British population appears to understand the situation and the logical route out of it pretty well. The majority blame Putin, energy company profiteering and international energy prices for their eye-watering bills. Eight in 10 are keener on energy efficiency than before the Russian invasion, and two-thirds of the population intend to invest in it. Renewables remain as popular as ever.

It is not evident that Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, jockeying to succeed Johnson, have a similarly clear understanding. Instead they have spoken against onshore wind and solar power and in favour of expanding oil and gas production, and relentlessly neglected to mention energy efficiency.

The last is remarkable given that public investment in energy saving is one of the few measures that could make a difference this coming winter and provide a long-term buffer against price volatility. Instead the incoming government is likely to incentivise fracking, which for multiple reasons will inevitably prove useless.

The cost of not zero

As the second biggest gas producing country in Western Europe, the UK is living proof that having a gas industry does nothing to keep bills down.

Britain, like every other country on Earth, can power itself with renewable energy generated inside its borders. Doing so will tackle climate change, improve air quality, reduce energy bills, create jobs, and prevent megalomaniac dictators holding the UK to ransom. I have yet to see any compelling reason for not making this transition as quickly as possible.

Around the time that OPEC was quadrupling oil prices, the British rock band The Who released its totemic rant against corrupted governance, Won’t Get Fooled Again. On oil and gas, though, we did get fooled again. Decisions made by successive governments perpetuated an industry that for 50 years has made a profit of $3bn per day while taking the climate system perilously close to dangerous instability.

While climate contrarians attempt to pin soaring energy bills on the “cost of net zero”, in reality these crippling prices are, along with escalating climate impacts and Putin’s cynical despotism, the cost of not zero. More fool us, in Britain and elsewhere, if we fail to learn the lessons this time.

Richard Black is a senior associate at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit and an honorary research fellow at Imperial College London

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In Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss, UK’s two PM contenders have poor climate records https://www.climatechangenews.com/2022/07/20/in-rishi-sunak-and-liz-truss-uks-two-pm-contenders-have-poor-climate-records/ Wed, 20 Jul 2022 16:53:16 +0000 https://www.climatechangenews.com/?p=46825 Liz Truss has links to secretively funded climate sceptic groups while Rishi Sunak opposed climate spending as finance minister

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Parliamentarians from the UK’s Conservative Party have given their party members a choice between two candidates for the country’s next prime minister.

After Boris Johnson was forced to resign as party leader and prime minister, the party’s 160,000 members will choose between former finance minister Rishi Sunak and former foreign minister Liz Truss.

While both have said they are committed to the UK’s target to reach net zero emissions by 2050, both have weak records on climate action.

This could change in power, when the successful candidate will face institutional and public pressure to deliver policies that deliver on net zero. Outgoing prime minister Boris Johnson had a record of flirting with climate denial before he was converted by a briefing given by a government scientific adviser.

On Monday, a high court judge ruled that the government’s net zero strategy was inadequate and gave ministers until March 2023 to make the numbers add up.

And as the UK’s high temperature record was shattered this week, with a provisional reading of 40.3C, a poll found 70% of voters understood that climate change was the driver. This view was broadly held among supporters of all parties and of people of all ages.

On the other hand, both Sunak and Truss will face pressure from climate-sceptic elements within their own party, like the “net zero scrutiny group,” which challenges climate policies on cost grounds.

Truss has recruited from and met with secretively funded climate sceptic think tanks in the UK and US and is considered the rightwing candidate.

In 2012, she voiced support for not just a controversial third runway at London’s Heathrow Airport but a fourth, going further than the airport itself.

As environment minister in 2014, Truss cut subsidies for solar farms calling them a “blight on the landscape”. As solar costs fell though, the UK’s solar capacity continued to rise regardless and she recently told a Conservative Environment Network (CEN) hustings that Russia’s war in Ukraine had strengthened the energy security case for clean energy.

In 2018, she criticised her own government’s attempts to control air pollution from wood-burning stoves. In the same year, she backed fracking for gas, dismissing opposition as “nimby” (not in my backyard). After a string of earthquakes, the practice was suspended a year later.

Despite this record, she has earned the support of the party’s most climate-aware ministers Zac Goldsmith. When Johnson resigned, the international environment minister tweeted that most of the leadership candidates “couldn’t give a shit about climate and nature” but has gone on to back Truss as “the obvious choice”.

A readout of the CEN hustings shared with Climate Home shows that Truss mainly focused on conserving nature. She boasted of bringing back beavers to the UK as environment secretary, promised to review the UK’s list of protected species and lead a delegation to the biodiversity Cop in Montreal.

Sunak’s political career and climate record is shorter than Truss’s. He was elected to parliament in 2015 and plucked from obscurity to become Boris Johnson’s chancellor just as the Covid-19 pandemic struck. After gaining popularity for spending vast sums to support people during the pandemic, he has tried to restrain spending since the UK’s lockdowns have eased.

This has generally hindered UK climate policies. In November 2021, Sunak announced plans to cut the UK’s aid budget from 0.7% of national income to 0.5%. Programmes to help cities around the world deal with climate change had their budgets cut as a result, overseen by Truss’s foreign and development ministry.

Domestically, Sunak’s spending cuts led to the cancellation of a badly run home insulation subsidy scheme in 2021. But, in 2022, he cut tax on low-carbon technology and recently told the CEN hustings he is looking at launching a new energy efficiency scheme focussed on smart heating controls and cavity wall insulation, which he regards as better value for money.

Germany promotes insurance-based ‘global shield’ for climate victims

Under pressure from the opposition Labour Party, Sunak belatedly announced a £5bn ($6bn) windfall tax on oil and gas companies, who have reaped bumper profits because of Russia’s war in Ukraine. But he has not removed oil and gas companies’ broader tax advantages despite the urging of the Climate Change Committee. And just before the UK hosted Cop26 climate talks in Glasgow, Sunak cut tax on domestic flights.

At Cop26, he said he would make the UK the “world’s first net zero financial centre” and pledged £100m ($120m) to the Taskforce on Access to Climate Finance. He said this spending was a “tangible, practical example” of how the wealthy countries are “delivering our promise” to provide $100bn a year in climate finance.

But the rich countries failed to meet this target by their original target year of 2020. According to research by the Overseas Development Institute, the UK under Sunak gave just $3.2 bn in Sunak’s first year as finance minister, half of its “fair share” towards the $100bn target. The figures for 2021 have yet to be released.

In an attempt to win Tory MPs’ votes today, Sunak announced he would not relax planning rules for onshore wind. His campaign said this was “in recognition of the distress and disruption that onshore windfarms can often cause”. Onshore wind is unpopular with some Conservative MPs despite being overwhelmingly popular with the public.

Party members will now vote on the two choices and the result will be announced on 5 September. Recent polling of 725 Conservative Party members showed that 54% would back Liz Truss over Rishi Sunak while only 35% would back the former finance minister. The rest were undecided.

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UK government touts ‘guilt-free flying’ on country’s hottest day on record https://www.climatechangenews.com/2022/07/19/uk-government-touts-guilt-free-flying-on-countrys-hottest-day-on-record/ Tue, 19 Jul 2022 14:55:04 +0000 https://www.climatechangenews.com/?p=46818 The "jet zero" strategy relies on future technology breakthroughs and rejects options to curb demand

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As the UK recorded a record high temperature of 40.3C on Tuesday, the government published its “jet zero” strategy to tackle one of the hardest to decarbonise sectors: aviation.

The strategy launch at Farnborough International Airshow was delayed from morning to afternoon, while transport secretary Grant Shapps did a media round to explain why Britain’s roads and railways couldn’t handle the heat.

Publicity for the launch was confined to a press release, stacked with supportive quotes from the industry, and a tweet, in which Shapps declared it would “allow passengers to enjoy guilt-free flying”.

A handful of activists in pig masks greeted him with the sceptical slogan: “Jet zero? Pigs might fly!”

The “guilt” of air travel comes from its outsized carbon footprint. While aviation only accounts for 2.5% of global carbon dioxide emissions, on a personal level, air travel is a polluting luxury. One long-haul flight can erase the emissions benefits of going vegetarian for a year.

It is why a UK citizens’ assembly on climate two years ago came out strongly in favour of a frequent flyer levy and ban on private jets. That was too radical for this government. Nor would it consider limiting airport growth.

Instead, it is relying on fuel efficiency, sustainable aviation fuels and carbon offsets to decarbonise – and destigmatise – the sector. The government’s “aspiration” is to run the first zero-emission domestic routes in 2030.

Germany promotes insurance-based ‘global shield’ for climate victims

The strategy sets out interim targets to net zero aviation by 2050, with a progress review every five years. For the domestic sector, it sets a more ambitious net zero target of 2040.

“We want 2019 to be remembered as the peak year for aviation emissions. From now on, it should all be downhill for carbon emissions – and steadily uphill for green flights,” said Shapps.

It is a “more challenging trajectory” than the government has previously set out, said Cait Hewitt, policy director at the Aviation Environment Federation. But there is nothing to hold the industry to account for delivering – and its track record is not good.

Campaigning organisation Possible audited every climate target the international aviation sector had set since 2000. Out of 50, all but one had been missed, abandoned or forgotten about.

As with previous aviation climate strategies, “jet zero” relies on future technology breakthroughs rather than curbing demand – and all of the options run into problems at scale. By Hewitt’s calculation, to meet the UK’s jet fuel demand entirely with e-fuel would require a windfarm the size of Northern Ireland.

“We don’t feel that the government is being honest about the challenges,” she told Climate Home News.

Specific measures include a £165 million fund to support the development of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and a mandate requiring at least 10% of jet fuel to come from sustainable sources by 2030.

This can mean biofuels derived from algae or waste, or synthetic fuels made with green hydrogen and captured carbon. None of the options are yet commercially competitive to produce.

Gaynor Hartnell, of industry body the Renewable Transport Fuel Association, said SAF was “the only viable solution for long haul flight” and welcomed the support. But the five production plants the government expects to deliver supplies cost £500 million apiece, she added, and will require further subsidies to get off the ground.

For Greenpeace UK, reducing the number of flights is the only meaningful answer. “This government doesn’t have the courage to regulate aviation emissions yet and this isn’t a plan to do that, just a delaying tactic and a very expensive waste of time,” said campaigner Emily Armistead.

This article was updated after publication with the precise temperature record.

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EU and UK will end investment protection for fossil fuels in 10 years https://www.climatechangenews.com/2022/06/24/eu-and-uk-will-end-investment-protection-for-fossil-fuels-in-10-years/ Fri, 24 Jun 2022 13:01:02 +0000 https://www.climatechangenews.com/?p=46680 Under the reform, the EU will end protection for new fossil fuel infrastructure. But existing ones will remain protected for 10 years and some gas projects for even longer

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After two years of negotiations, the EU and the UK have today won the right to end investment protection for fossil fuels under the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT).

Under a “flexibility mechanism” approved by members of the energy investment treaty, the EU and UK will end protection for new fossil fuel investments from August 2023. However, most existing fossil fuel investments will continue to be protected for 10 years from the date the modernised treaty is officially ratified.

The ECT, which has members spanning Europe and Asia, has been used by fossil fuel companies to sue governments over climate policies which hurt their profits. For example, German energy company Uniper is suing the Dutch government over its coal phase-out plans.

In 2020, a study found that ECT member countries faced up to €1.3 trillion ($1.4trn) by 2050 of compensation claims by fossil fuel investors.

The EU initiated “modernisation” talks to try and end these lawsuits but its attempts to remove fossil fuels from the treaty’s protection clause were thwarted by some Asian nations led by Japan.

At an ad-hoc conference, which was disrupted by protesters yesterday, members to the treaty reached a compromise which gives them some flexibility to choose what energy investment they want to continue to protect.

Members like Japan, a staunch defender of the ECT, is likely to keep protecting fossil fuel investments in the country indefinitely. But the EU and the UK have said they will use the flexibility mechanism to limit them.

When the EU and UK end protections for fossil fuel investments for fossil fuel investors from ECT states like Japan then those states are likely to reciprocate, meaning European and British fossil fuel investments will no longer be protected in countries like Japan.

In Europe, environmental campaigners, who have repeatedly called on the EU to leave the treaty, reacted angrily, calling on ECT members to stage an on-mass exit from the treaty despite the reforms.

Former ECT employee turned anti-ECT campaigner Yamina Saheb told Climate Home the agreement was “a disaster from a climate change perspective”. Friends of the Earth’s Paul De Klerck said it would “lock the EU in fossil fuel investment protection” for a decade.

“This means countries will continue to spend taxpayers’ money in compensating fossil fuel companies rather than fighting climate change and moving to a renewable energy system,” added Cornelia Maarfield, trade and investment policy expert at Climate Action Network Europe. “This disastrous agreement must not be ratified,” she said.

Japanese and Korean industry push gas on Vietnam amid campaigner crackdown

The ten year protection for existing coal, oil and gas investments was a compromise reached between EU member states, which diverged on the best way forward, according to sources familiar with the negotiations. France, Spain and Luxembourg wanted to end the protection of fossil fuel investments that allows countries to be sued for damages by polluting companies. But several Eastern European states resisted change.

Under the agreement reached, some gas-fired power plants will continue to receive investor protection beyond the 10-year deadline and until the end of 2040. That applies to gas power plants whose emissions are under a certain level and which replace more polluting infrastructure.

The flexibility mechanism would have allowed the UK to end all fossil fuel protection immediately. But it hasn’t done so. Asked why, an energy ministry spokesperson declined to comment.

In a statement published Friday, the UK said protection for existing coal investments in the country will end in October 2024. But, in line with the EU, it will wait 10 years to end protection for oil and gas investments. It will continue to protect abated gas, which uses carbon capture technology, beyond those 10 years.

“Our success in negotiating a modernised treaty will boost our move to cheaper and cleaner energy by providing greater confidence to the private sector investors and risk takers we need for this transition,” said UK energy secretary Greg Hands.

Colombia’s new president Gustavo Petro pledges to keep fossil fuels in the ground

Campaigners’ call to leave the treaty found some sympathy in EU member states. A Spanish government representative told an EU council meeting in April that Spain “did not see how the ECT could be adapted to the Paris Agreement” and deputy prime-minister Teresa Ribera recently told Politico: “It is time that the EU and its member states initiate a coordinated withdrawal from the ECT”.

But the treaty’s ‘sunset clause’ makes leaving difficult as its rules continue to apply for 20 years after a member decides to leave. Campaigners say the impact of this sunset clause can be greatly reduced if members withdraw on mass and refuse to implement the treaty against each other during that time.

But as well as protecting fossil fuels, the treaty protects renewable investments. Under its rules, renewable companies have claimed compensation for anti-renewable measures. The modernisation talks have led to the addition of protection for carbon capture and storage technology, hydrogen, , ammonia, biomass and biogas.

This article was updated to include the UK government’s decision not to comment.

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UK floats ‘climate compatibility’ test for new oil and gas drilling https://www.climatechangenews.com/2021/12/21/uk-floats-climate-compatibility-test-new-oil-gas-drilling/ Tue, 21 Dec 2021 17:34:46 +0000 https://www.climatechangenews.com/?p=45618 The UK government says new oil and gas licensing can fit with its climate commitments. Campaigners, citing the International Energy Agency, disagree

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The UK government has launched a consultation on “climate compatibility” tests for new rounds of North Sea oil and gas drilling licences, ignoring calls to keep fossil fuels in the ground.

Prime minister Boris Johnson recently told the Cop26 climate summit “let’s keep 1.5 alive”, calling on leaders to uphold the strongest temperature goal of the Paris Agreement. The International Energy Agency advised this year that there was no room for new oil and gas production in a 1.5C scenario.

Yet ministers are seeking to justify further development of offshore oilfields on the basis they will be less carbon intensive than imported hydrocarbons.

“This has to be a transition, not extinction,” tweeted business and energy secretary Kwasi Kwarteng. “Turning off the taps would put energy security + British jobs at risk – and leave us more reliant on foreign imports.”

An attempt, led by Denmark and Costa Rica, to get countries to promise to end fossil fuel production at Cop26 ended up covering just 0.2% of global oil production.

Rather than join that club, the UK government is proposing a checkpoint before further rounds of licensing, with the decision to proceed or not based on six criteria.

Of these six proposed tests, three focus on the emissions coming from the production of oil and gas. These emissions come from oil and gas companies leaking and burning methane gas as a by-product and using fossil fuels to operate ships, helicopters and machinery.

One proposed test asks whether the UK is a net importer of oil and gas. The UK is currently a net importer and is expected to remain so. The government argues that producing its own oil and gas is more environmentally friendly than importing it.

The two remaining proposed tests are climate focussed. One asks to consider so-called scope 3 emissions, which come from the end use of the oil and gas. The other considers the global production gap, the fact that the world is producing more fossil fuels than it can burn for 1.5C.

Greenpeace UK’s chief scientist Doug Parr told Climate Home News the decision should also reflect climate equity considerations. “As a well-developed country with a historic liability and a diversified economy, if we can’t emerge from fossil fuels, how hard is it going to be for those countries which are actually really dependent on oil and gas – parts of the Middle East, Russia, Venezuela?” he asked.

Industry representatives were given the chance to vote on which tests were proposed while Parr said Greenpeace and climate campaigners were “not really consulted”. The tests were originally supposed to be announced in September 2021 but were delayed until after Cop26.

Parr speculated the ruling Conservative Party was torn between a desire to present the UK as a climate leader and wanting to win votes from the Scottish National Party (SNP) in the north-east of Scotland, where many of the UK’s oil and gas workers are based.

The Scottish National Party’s leader Nicola Sturgeon, who heads the devolved Scottish government, recently declared her opposition to the controversial Cambo oil project.

While oil and gas licensing is not under the Scottish government’s control, project partner Shell pulled out shortly afterwards. Sturgeon’s stance reportedly angered voters and local SNP politicians in Scotland’s oil hubs near Aberdeen.

The UK’s oil industry is also under pressure from climate litigation which is arguing that tax breaks should be factored into licensing decisions. If campaigners win the court battle, it could mean that some new licences are no longer considered to be in the national interest.

The consultation closes in February 2022.

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UK sets out economy-wide strategy to meet 2050 net zero goal https://www.climatechangenews.com/2021/10/19/uk-sets-economy-wide-strategy-meet-2050-net-zero-goal/ Tue, 19 Oct 2021 16:09:54 +0000 https://www.climatechangenews.com/?p=45086 Analysts welcomed the plan days before the UK hosts the Cop26 summit but warned more public investments were needed to give it credibility

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The UK government has revealed a long-awaited strategy to meet its 2050 net zero emissions goal.

The 368-page document was published on Tuesday alongside a Treasury review of how to pay for the transition, less than two weeks before the UK welcomes world leaders to the start of the Cop26 climate talks in Glasgow.

In a foreword, prime minister Boris Johnson said the UK will “unleash the unique creative power of capitalism to drive the innovation that will bring down the costs of going green”.

“We set an example to the world by showing that reaching net zero is entirely possible, so the likes of China and Russia are following our lead with their own net zero targets, as prices tumble and green tech becomes the global norm,” he wrote.

The policy package is a test of the UK’s credibility as it pushes other nations to step up their climate ambition and commit to net zero emissions ahead of the Glasgow summit.

It includes investment in carbon capture and storage, hydrogen technologies and nuclear energy, an end to sales of gas boilers by 2035 and targets for manufacturers to deliver net zero vehicles.

‘Breakthrough’: IMF develops fund to help debt-laden nations address climate risks

Analysts welcomed the plan, but said more public investment would be needed to put it into action.

Chris Venables, head of politics at the Green Alliance, told Climate Home News: “It’s a real boost for UK climate leadership ahead of Cop26 but the jury is out on whether this genuinely closes the gap. The questions around the scale of funding throw serious doubt on that.”

The UK was the first major economy to set a 2050 net zero goal in law. Between 1990 and 2019, the country’s emissions fell by 44%, with two-thirds of cuts coming from the power sector.

Earlier this year, the UK’s official climate advisors, the Climate Change Committee, warned the government the country was not on track to net zero and that it needed to “get real on delivery”.

“We didn’t have a plan before, now we do,” Chris Stark, chief executive of the CCC, said in response to the report, describing the strategy as “a substantial step forward”.

“The critical next step is turning words into deeds,” he said.

The UK’s emissions between 1960 and 2018. Source: World Bank

The net zero strategy sets out a pathway to cut emissions across different sectors to meet its sixth carbon budgets covering the period 2033-2037.

Remaining emissions are accounted for by capturing carbon out of the atmosphere either by planting trees or by using removal technologies such as carbon capture.

To achieve 2050 carbon neutrality, the UK said it will decarbonise its power sector fully by 2035. It promised to roll out renewables, including 40GW of offshore wind, and spend £120m ($166m) on nuclear projects.

Gas with carbon capture and storage and scaled-up production of hydrogen and biofuels also play a role. The UK is providing £140m ($193m) to accelerate industrial carbon capture and hydrogen.

The strategy on transport includes investments for the electrification of vehicles and their supply chains, money for railways, buses and cycling and a goal to make 10% of aviation fuels from household waste, flue gases from industry, carbon captured from the atmosphere by 2030.

There is £124m ($171m) for nature to go towards a goal of restoring 280,000 hectares of peatland in England by 2050.

The government says the plan will create up to 440,000 jobs and mobilise up to £90bn ($124bn) of private investment by 2030.

Comment: UK and EU must not abet the theft of indigenous territory in Brazil

Alyssa Gilbert, of the Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment, said the strategy was “impressive” and gave credibility to the government’s commitment to cut emissions.

“It gives a really strong signal ahead of Cop26. Whether you think it could go further faster, there is a serious amount of money being invested and that is significant in the Covid era,” she told Climate Home.

Ed Matthew, campaigns director at think tank E3G, was less impressed.

A plan to offer £5,000 grants ($6,900) for households to replace old gas boilers with low-carbon heat pumps has been allocated a £450m pot over three years. But the budget is only expected to stretch to 90,000 heat pumps over three years, far short of government’s pledge to install 600,000 a year by 2028.

E3G estimated £4bn ($5.5bn) was a more realistic budget over the three-year period to get on track for 2050 carbon neutrality.

“The policy ambition is quite strong but the plan is underpowered financially. It’s very disappointing,” Matthew said. “Why is the Treasury blocking the level of investment needed two weeks before the start of an incredibly important climate summit?”

Once a vital feature of climate talks, has the huddle had its day?

The Climate Change Committee estimates the cost of hitting net zero emissions by 2050 at less than 1% of the UK’s GDP over the next 30 years.

But the question of costs has agitated some backbench Conservative lawmakers in recent months, who argue climate policies will be disruptive to consumers and businesses.

This has led to a rift between Number 10 and the Treasury on how much public finance to invest in the goal.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s office is warning of serious economic damage and future tax rises if the UK overspends on, or misdirects, green investment, the Guardian reports.

E3G accused the Treasury of largely ignoring the economic benefits meeting the net zero goal will yield in terms of job creation and return on investment. As a result, it said the review presented a one-sided picture.

A spending review next week could be a moment for the government to bolster investments behind its climate plan.

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UK pledges to make scaling up adaptation finance a priority at G7 summit https://www.climatechangenews.com/2021/04/01/uk-pledges-make-scaling-adaptation-finance-priority-g7-summit/ Thu, 01 Apr 2021 16:18:31 +0000 https://www.climatechangenews.com/?p=43764 At a ministerial meeting of donor and developing countries, the UK said it would aim to secure additional financial support for vulnerable nations by June

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Following criticism over foreign aid cuts, the UK has pledged to lead a push to increase funding to help vulnerable nations cope with the worsening impacts of climate change at the G7 meeting it is hosting in June. 

At the closing session of a virtual summit on Wednesday, Alok Sharma, president designate of the Cop26 climate talks, told ministers from developing and donor countries that the UK’s foreign secretary Dominic Raab will make the issue a priority at the meeting of rich nations this summer. 

According to a readout from the event, the UK told ministers it intended to secure additional finance pledges. 

Sharma said fulfilling a promise by rich nations to mobilise $100 billion a year to support climate action in developing countries was “vital” and had to be “a floor and not a ceiling” for future pledges.

More than 50 representatives from donor countries, emerging economies, developing nations, small island states and multilateral institutions attended the ministerial. China, which had been invited to the meeting, was notably absent

The one-day summit aimed to rebuild trust between the world’s poorest and richest nations and find practical steps to address climate and development challenges. The UK said it would enable developing nations to “set the international agenda” ahead of Cop26. 

Under fire over aid cuts, UK hosts summit to help vulnerable nations fund climate action

Issues raised by climate-vulnerable nations during the meeting were not new. There remains an annual $70 billion gap for addressing global climate impacts and currently only one fifth of climate finance goes to adaptation projects. According to charity Care International, rich nations may have inflated how much funding they spend on helping the poorest cope with climate impacts. 

Developing countries highlighted difficulties in accessing available finance from multilateral institutions such as the Green Climate Fund, according to a summary of the meeting.

Sharma said the UK would work with Fiji to create a taskforce to improve access to climate finance and better align funding with countries’ climate goals. The group is expected to recommend new finance mechanisms that could be piloted in some countries ahead of Cop26. 

Another meeting of ministers to make progress on finance is also anticipated ahead of the climate talks, due to be held in Glasgow, UK, in November.

Sharma praised ministers’ “tangible desire to find answers”. “I hope that these discussions have given confidence to our friends from the countries and communities most vulnerable to climate change. I can assure you that I will be absolutely focused on putting the results of our meeting today into effect,” he said.

UN deputy secretary-general Amina Mohammed said Cop26 had to provide a “major breakthrough on adaptation and resilience”. 

She called on all donor countries to commit to directing at least 50% of their climate finance towards adaptation before the G7 meeting in June. She urged the US, Canada, Japan, Italy, Germany, France and the UK to double their public climate finance for the period 2021-2025 and double the share of grant-based funding.

In a dig at the UK, she insisted all G7 nations had to spend 0.7% of their national income on overseas development assistance. The UK is the only nation in the group of rich countries to have cut its aid in response to the pandemic.

Rare IMF relief offers a hope of green recovery to debt-laden nations

Throughout the meeting, vulnerable nations insisted on the importance of finding solutions for them to avoid and recover from existing loss and damages caused by storms, flooding and drought.

The UK said it would hold three consultations this year to set up the Santiago Network, a framework to discuss the issue, which countries agreed to establish in 2019 at the last climate talks in Madrid, Spain.

In their updated climate plans submitted to the UN, a growing number of developing and small island states called on rich nations to provide more finance to help them deal with economic losses and other damages associated with global warming. 

“Nearly a decade of UN climate negotiations have failed to deliver finance to compensate the vulnerable countries already being devastated by the loss and damage caused by climate change. Cop26 is a chance to put that right,” said Action Aid climate advisor Harjeet Singh.

As part of discussions on debt relief, Italy told the meeting it was working to build a consensus among G20 nations for an extension of the existing debt service suspension to the end of 2021.

Mohammed, of the UN, warned that “extensive debt relief” was essential for a green recovery from the pandemic. “We cannot deliver a decade of transformation when so many developing countries face crushing levels of debt,” she said. 

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UK rules out public subsidy for East African oil pipeline https://www.climatechangenews.com/2021/03/26/uk-rules-public-subsidy-east-african-oil-pipeline/ Fri, 26 Mar 2021 14:40:47 +0000 https://www.climatechangenews.com/?p=43731 UK Export Finance will no longer back oil and gas projects overseas, shutting off a potential source of support for a major pipeline across Uganda and Tanzania

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The UK has ruled out billions of pounds in public finance for oil and gas projects, including a $3.5 billion pipeline in East Africa. 

Following prime minister Boris Johnson’s announcement in December that the UK would end fossil fuel subsidies overseas, the government this week said the policy will take effect on 31 March.

One of the biggest projects under consideration for financial backing was the $3.5 billion East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline (Eacop), from Ugandan oil fields to the coast of Tanzania. 

Construction of the 1,443km pipeline is hanging in the balance as institutional and private investors are moving away from financing fossil fuels. The prospect of French oil major Total raising $2.5 billion in international finance before mid-April, when a final investment decision is now expected, is shrinking rapidly. 

UK Export Finance (UKEF) had been approached to support the pipeline, but does not have time to approve funding before the cut-off date. The export credit agency came under heavy criticism last year for putting $1 billion towards a major methane gas development in Mozambique.

Another project now ineligible for funding is the construction of a floating storage unit for shipping oil in Brazil. UKEF organised a trade fair in October to explore export opportunities for this project.

A spokesperson for UKEF confirmed to Climate Home News that the agency would no longer provide financial support to these projects or any new proposals that conflict with government policy.

“UKEF is totally aligned with the government’s decision to move away from supporting fossil fuel exports and to build back greener from the pandemic,” he said.

Long read: Total’s play for Ugandan oil tests the climate commitment of international banks

Climate campaigners welcomed the government’s commitment to ending overseas fossil fuel finance. 

“This announcement is a world first and it sets a new gold standard for public finance overseas,” Louise Burrows, an expert on export credit agencies at E3G, told Climate Home News. 

The UK invested £4.7 billion in fossil fuel projects overseas between 2010 and 2017 and has supported £21 billion oil and gas exports through trade promotion and finance since 2016. 

Burrows noted the new policy does not cover indirect investments in oil and gas projects through the CDC Group, the UK’s development finance institution. “At the moment this policy only applies to direct public finance,” she said. “A lot could slip through the net.”

Ireland’s government agrees on climate bill to set 2050 net zero goal in law

Campaigners said the announcement helped boost the UK’s leadership credentials ahead of hosting the Cop26 climate summit in November.

“The UK is now in a great position to mobilise a coalition of fossil-free public institutions at Cop26. This year could be a milestone year for tipping public finance out of fossil fuels and into clean energy,” Burrows said. 

Denmark, Sweden and France could all commit to ending fossil fuel financing at Cop26, she added.

In January, Joe Biden said he was working to end funding for “carbon-intensive” fossil fuel projects overseas and directed federal agencies to eliminate fossil fuel subsidies. EU foreign ministers have also called for an end to overseas fossil fuel finance.

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Five ways the UK is failing to walk the talk on a green recovery ahead of Cop26 https://www.climatechangenews.com/2021/03/11/five-ways-uk-failing-walk-talk-green-recovery-ahead-cop26/ Thu, 11 Mar 2021 13:51:45 +0000 https://www.climatechangenews.com/?p=43623 While vocal on raising climate ambition on the global stage, recent domestic policy announcements undermine the UK host's leadership credentials

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Ahead of the Cop26 climate summit, the UK host has boasted about its improved climate goal and urged others to match its ambition. But at home, the government’s recovery plans are pulling in the opposite direction. 

At the end of 2020, Prime minister Boris Johnson declared the UK would recover green from the coronavirus pandemic, laying out a 10-point plan to reboot the economy and create green jobs. In December, he announced plans to cut emissions by 68% by 2030, compared to 1990 levels, in a bid to set the UK on course to achieving its 2050 net zero goal.

But climate campaigners say recent policy announcements are at odds with Johnson’s proclaimed green vision.

“We have strong ambition and good rhetoric on building back better. But there is still a gap in funding and policy in order to get us on track for the [climate] targets and give investors a really clear signal as to which way the government is moving,” Roz Bulleid, deputy policy director at the Green Alliance, told Climate Home News. 

From slashing foreign aid to greenlighting a new coal mine, here are five policies that undermine the UK’s leadership credentials.

1. Airline support 

Johnson plans to cut air passenger duty on domestic flights to revive the airline industry after air travel collapse in 2020. Proposals, set out in a UK transport review on Wednesday, include halving the current levy of £13 per domestic flight. The announcement comes a week after rail fares increased by 2.6%. 

The decision has been widely criticised by environmental groups who say it undermines the government’s 2050 zero target.

The Climate Change Committee (CCC) advised in December that if the UK is to meet its 2050 net zero goal, it will have to reduce its overall aviation emissions. Aviation is likely to be the UK’s highest emitting sector by 2050, according to the CCC.

Hall of shame: 9 countries missing the chance of a green recovery

“There is no way to bring emissions within safe limits without constraining flights. The easiest place to start is with domestic flights that have transport alternatives,” Leo Murray, director of innovation at environmental group Possible, told Climate Home News. 

Murray described the government’s decision as “embarrassing”, given the UK’s role as president of the Cop26 climate summit this year. 

“It makes us look like we don’t know what we’re doing. The government is very committed to announcing ambitious targets but there is no evidence that it is prepared to implement any policy to follow through on those targets,” he said. 

2. New coal mine

In January, the UK government was accused of “rank hypocrisy” for greenlighting a project to build the country’s first deep coal mine in 30 years while seeking to lead on climate action. 

Cumbria county council suspended the project last month following mounting criticism. The mining company said it plans to seek legal action over the suspension.

Lord Deben, head of the CCC, wrote a letter to minister of housing and communities Robert Jenrick in which he warned the project “gives a negative impression of the UK’s climate priorities in the year of Cop26”.

Amid the rising controversy, Jenrick “called in” the decision on 11 March, meaning central government will consider overruling the council decision.

“It’s a really bad look for a government who claims to be a climate leader and who is hosting the most important climate summit ever to be telling other governments what to do and then supporting a coal mine in its own backyard,” Rebecca Willis, professor in practice at Lancaster University, previously told Climate Home News. 

“At best that’s confusing and at worst it’s hypocritical,” she said. 

3. Foreign aid cuts

Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced in November that the government planned to slash its overseas development assistance from 0.7% to 0.5% of its national income.

Leaked documents from the UK’s foreign and development office obtained by openDemocracy show cuts are planned across some of the world’s most climate vulnerable nations this year. Cuts of around 60% are planned in South Sudan and Somalia. Aid programmes in Syria will be cut by 67% and Nigeria by 58%. 

The lack of UK finance threatens climate progress in countries such as South Sudan which is in the grips of a humanitarian crisis. The world’s newest country is drafting plans to raise its climate ambition by rolling out renewable energy and mass tree planting, but relies heavily on international support to deliver.

South Sudan plans to raise climate ambition amid ‘dire’ humanitarian crisis

In an open letter in November, environmental groups warned the cuts would worsen the climate crisis and undermine a core aim of Cop26: increasing support to vulnerable countries. 

Tom Evans, from the think tank E3G, described the UK aid cuts as “a major strategic mistake” and warned it would erode the trust between the Cop26 host and developing countries.

4. Green homes U-turn

One of the government’s flagship schemes to decarbonise heating for 600,000 households and support 100,000 jobs was axed for falling short of its target by the end of March. 

The £2bn green homes grant, which allow people to apply for vouchers to cover the cost of installing energy efficient improvements to their homes, was promoted as a key pillar of Johnson’s plan to align the UK’s short-term actions with its carbon neutrality goal. 

Analysis by the London-based Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit think tank shows the government issued vouchers to just 49,000 households, 8% of its target, despite more than 69,000 applying to the scheme.

In a written answer to British lawmakers, business minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan said the unspent £2bn would not be rolled over to the next financial year and would instead be replaced by a £320 million funding pot. 

China makes no shift away from coal in five-year plan as it ‘crawls’ to carbon neutrality

“This colossal failure to deliver the tens of thousands of jobs promised really demonstrates how, by scrapping the green homes grant funding, the government has got it wrong on so many levels,” said Kate Blagojevic, head of climate at Greenpeace UK. 

“It’s imperative for jobs, rebalancing the economy, creating warm homes and tackling the climate crisis that this scheme is rebooted and properly funded,” she said.

5. Fuel duty freeze

In the latest UK budget unveiled last week, a fuel duty on petrol and diesel was frozen for the 11th year in a row.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak was expected to increase the fuel tax in a signal of the government’ seriousness to lowering emissions. But at the last moment, Sunak changed his mind. 

“To keep the cost of living low, I’m not prepared to increase the cost of a tank of fuel, so the scheduled rise in fuel duty is cancelled,” Sunak said at the budget presentation. 

“Future fuel duty rates will be considered in the context of the UK’s commitment to reach net-zero emissions by 2050,” the budget said. 

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Campaigners argue the freeze further weakens the government’s green recovery plans.  “Fuel duty rise is disastrous. We aren’t doing the things we need to be doing to erode car dependency,” said Murray.

According to analysis by Carbon Brief, the freeze in fuel duty since 2010 has increased UK carbon emissions by as much as 5% over the past decade.  

Fuel duty could be a fantastic way to pay for transport alternatives,” Murray said, adding that for many people driving is the only option due to a lack of affordable and accessible public transport.

This article was updated after publication with the information that the planning minister had called in the Cumbria coal mine decision.

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Plans for UK coal mine suspended after criticism of net zero commitment https://www.climatechangenews.com/2021/02/10/plans-uk-coal-mine-suspended-criticism-net-zero-commitment/ Wed, 10 Feb 2021 16:57:04 +0000 https://www.climatechangenews.com/?p=43428 The UK Committee on Climate Change says the use of coking coal should be curbed by 2035, but the application says the mine will not be closed until the end of 2049

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Plans to build the UK’s first deep coal mine in 30 years have been suspended after the UK government was accused of “rank hypocrisy” for greenlighting the project while seeking to lead on climate action. 

Last month, the government was criticised by environmental campaigners and lawmakers for not blocking the construction of a new coal mine in Cumbria, northwest England. They said that the coal project weakened the UK’s leadership credentials ahead of hosting the Cop26 climate summit in November. 

The £165 million West Cumbria Mining project is to extract coking coal from below the Irish Sea for steel production, which will emit an estimated 8.4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent a year when burned.

In response to mounting criticism, the ministry of housing, communities and local government said in a statement that the planning application should be determined by the local council. 

Cumbria county council said this week that it would reconsider permission in light of “new evidence”, citing guidance from the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) published in December that recommends that the use of coking coal should be curbed by 2035 if the UK is to meet its 2050 net-zero target. 

West Cumbria Mining said in its application that the mine would be closed by the end of 2049.

Cop26 dream team: The people setting the climate agenda on seven key issues

Last month the CCC wrote a letter to minister of housing and communities Robert Jenrick urging the government to reconsider all new coal developments. 

“The opening of a new deep coking coal mine in Cumbria will increase global emissions and have an appreciable impact on the UK’s legally binding carbon budgets,” Lord Deben, head of the CCC, wrote. 

“It is also important to note that this decision gives a negative impression of the UK’s climate priorities in the year of COP26,” he added. 

In the letter, the CCC offered to help frame guidance for local councillors and planners who are involved in making decisions with climate implications.


Rebecca Willis, professor in practice at Lancaster University, told Climate Home News the review did not necessarily mean the council would cancel the project.

Councillors had seen “plenty of independent expert evidence” on the climate impacts before approving the mine, she said. But the CCC advice was harder to ignore and doing so could lay them open to legal challenge.

The local authority is under “huge political pressure” and “trying to look for a face-saving way out,” she said. 

“It’s a really bad look for a government who claims to be a climate leader and who is hosting the most important climate summit ever to be telling other governments what to do and then supporting a coal mine in its own backyard. At best that’s confusing and at worst it’s hypocritical.”

In a letter sent to Jenrick in October, 13 independent climate experts argued that a 2049 end date was “wholly inappropriate” and would “hinder the ability of UK industry, particularly the steel industry, to innovate and decarbonise.”

Fatal Himalayan glacial lake outburst highlights destabilising effect of warming

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg questioned the UK’s net zero commitment after the government refused to intervene last month.

“This really shows the true meaning of so called ‘net zero 2050.’ These vague, insufficient targets long into the future basically mean nothing today,” she said. 

Jill Perry, chair of a local green party in Cumbria, welcomed the council’s decision to review the application. 

“If the mine goes ahead it risks not just blowing the government’s sixth carbon budget out of the water but also Cumbria’s net zero goal,” she told Climate Home News, adding that besides increasing emissions, the mine posed a serious risk to local woodland and wildlife.

Indian farmers head for showdown with government over agricultural reform

West Cumbria Mining has said that the mine will create 500 jobs in a region struggling with high unemployment. 

“There’s no doubt that the area needs jobs, but jobs in clean industries would provide a much more certain future for the area,” said Perry.

Labour lawmaker and former energy minister Ed Miliband also welcomed the council’s announcement this week. 

“The government now has a second chance to do the right thing and call it in. The UK cannot claim to be a climate leader whilst opening a new coal mine and ministers must realise that by doing so they undermine our credibility both at home and abroad,” he said in a statement. 

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UK net zero commitment questioned, as government allows new coal mine https://www.climatechangenews.com/2021/01/07/uk-net-zero-commitment-questioned-as-government-allows-new-coal-mine/ Thu, 07 Jan 2021 14:44:46 +0000 https://www.climatechangenews.com/?p=43177 The UK government has been accused of "rank hypocrisy" for letting a new coal mine go ahead while seeking to lead on climate as hosts of Cop26 summit

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The UK government will not block the controversial opening of the UK’s first deep coal mine in 30 years, despite major environmental objections. 

Minister of housing and communities Robert Jenrick said on Wednesday that he would not intervene in plans to open the coal mine in Cumbria, northwest England.

The £165 million West Cumbria Mining project is to extract coking coal from below the Irish Sea for steel production, which will emit an estimated 8.4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent a year when burned. 

Campaigners argue that the government’s decision breaches the UK’s climate commitments and weakens its leadership credentials ahead of hosting Cop26 climate talks in November. A spokesperson for the Cop26 presidency declined to comment.

The UK has a target in legislation to reduce emissions to net zero by 2050 and the government must meet a series of shrinking “carbon budgets” set by an independent commission to get there.

West Cumbria Mining says the mine will create 500 jobs in a region struggling with high unemployment and that it will be closed by the end of 2049, making it compatible with the UK’s 2050 net zero target.

Comment: 10 myths about net zero targets and carbon offsetting, busted

In a letter to Jenrick, 13 independent climate experts argued that a 2049 end date is “wholly inappropriate” and that it will “hinder the ability of UK industry, particularly the steel industry, to innovate and decarbonise.”

“It’s not enough to claim compliance with the Climate Change Act by setting a 2049 end date. [The project] needs to be compliant with the carbon budgets,” Rebecca Willis, one of the signatories and expert lead at Climate Assembly UK, told Climate Home News. “It is very hard to see how you can be ratcheting down carbon emissions successfully if you have projects like this.”

Willis added: “This government has consistently and loudly shown its support for the net zero target, and will be hosting the crucial Cop26 climate summit… The government’s decision to allow long-term investment in coal, the most polluting of all fossil fuels, is completely at odds with its stated ambitions, and will slow national and global progress on climate.”

Energy policy professor Jim Watson said on Twitter “the future has to be decarbonised steel”, adding: “This decision is not compatible with global leadership of the net-zero transition.”

Swedish youth activist Greta Thunberg took the case as an example to question the credibility of net zero targets in general. “These vague, insufficient targets long into the future basically mean nothing today,” she tweeted.

Whitehaven: The UK ex-mining community where coal is making a comeback

In 2016, the UK government said it would close all coal power plants by 2025. The UK formed an alliance with Canada to end coal power generation and “accelerate the international transition from burning coal to using cleaner power sources.” It has not set an end date for the use of coal in steel production, however.

In a statement, the ministry of housing, communities and local government said the planning application should be determined by the local council. “Planning decisions should be made at a local level wherever possible. This application has not been called-in and is a matter for Cumbria County Council to decide,” a spokesperson said. 

Tim Farron, a Liberal Democrat lawmaker representing the Westmorland and Lonsdale constituency in south Cumbria, described the new mine as a “complete disaster for our children’s future.” 

“It’s utter and rank hypocrisy for this Conservative Government to claim one minute that they care about protecting our environment, and in the next give the green light to a deep coal mine in Cumbria,” Farron said on Twitter. 

Labour lawmaker and former energy minister Ed Miliband also opposed the government’s decision, commenting on Twitter: “Government rhetoric about climate exposed as hollow by their decisions when they refuse to even call in a new coal mine. Not the way to build a fair, zero-carbon future with sustainable jobs, or show an example to all the other countries we need to move away from coal.”

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UK Supreme Court lifts ban on Heathrow airport third runway  https://www.climatechangenews.com/2020/12/16/uk-supreme-court-lifts-ban-heathrow-airport-third-runway/ Wed, 16 Dec 2020 11:33:13 +0000 https://www.climatechangenews.com/?p=43131 Heathrow still faces major obstacles to carry out its expansion plans, in light of the UK's 2050 net zero target and uncertain future demand

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The UK Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that Heathrow would not be banned from building a third runway, following a historic court case between climate campaigners and Europe’s busiest airport. 

Plans for a third runway had stalled after the Court of Appeal ruled in February that the expansion was unlawful because, among other reasons, it failed to consider the Paris Agreement on climate change.

The Supreme Court overturned the ban and ruled that Heathrow’s expansion strategy was not illegal, stating that the Paris Agreement does not qualify as UK government policy. 

Tim Crosland, a lawyer at Plan B, which brought the case along with Friends of the Earth, described it as a “really dreadful ruling”.

“We have so many documents from the UK government saying that the Paris Agreement is the lynchpin of policy on climate change and that we were the ones that were instrumental in securing it,” he told Climate Home.

In his anger at the verdict, Crosland broke an embargo to reveal the outcome on Tuesday, at risk of being held in contempt of court.

EU urged to address aviation’s full climate impact, including non-CO2 emissions

Campaigners plan to appeal the ruling in the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, where they will argue that increasing aviation emissions is inconsistent with the right to life. 

Despite the ruling, Heathrow still faces major obstacles to carry out its expansion plans. The airport may now seek planning permission, but could struggle to convince a public enquiry that increasing aviation demand is compatible with the UK’s 2050 net zero target, campaigners say.

“This judgment is no ‘green light’ for expansion. With ever stronger climate policy commitments that Heathrow must meet, it remains unlikely it will ever get planning permission for the third runway,” said Will Rundle, head of legal at Friends of the Earth.

The Climate Change Committee (CCC) advised this month that if the UK is to meet its 2050 net zero goal, it will have to reduce its overall aviation emissions. There is no net airport growth in its net zero scenario, meaning Heathrow expansion would have to be offset by capacity reductions elsewhere.

“Heathrow expansion means 40 million tonnes of carbon dioxide, just from UK aviation, by 2050. They have to explain how that is consistent with the UK 2050 net zero target,” said Crosland. 

Aviation is likely to be the UK’s highest emitting sector by 2050, as it is hard to decarbonise, according to the CCC.

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Heathrow emits around 19 million tonnes of CO2 a year, more than half of UK aviation emissions. A third runway would add a projected 9 million tonnes to the airport’s total annual CO2 output.

Aviation demand projections have been thrown into uncertainty by the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, which forced airline to ground planes for much of 2020.

Without political will, the expansion plans are unlikely to happen, Friends of the Earth previously told Climate Home. Prime minister Boris Johnson, whose constituency is close to Heathrow, has been an outspoken critic of a third runway in the past.

John Sauven, executive director of Greenpeace UK, said in a statement: “Now the ball is in the government’s court, it’s hard to imagine Boris Johnson wanting to resurrect a project that makes no business or environmental sense. With a UK-hosted climate summit just a year away, the government should draw a line under this sorry saga.”

Sauven called for a frequent flyer levy to curb demand and investment in broadband to encourage video conferencing instead of business flights.

A spokesperson for Heathrow said: “Heathrow airport has already committed to net zero and this ruling recognises the robust planning process that will require us to prove expansion is compliant with the UK’s climate change obligations, including the Paris Climate Agreement, before construction can begin.”

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‘Looking for positivity’: Parisversaire party to revive momentum on climate https://www.climatechangenews.com/2020/12/08/looking-positivity-parisversaire-party-revive-momentum-climate/ Tue, 08 Dec 2020 10:43:09 +0000 https://www.climatechangenews.com/?p=43035 After a year disrupted by coronavirus, national leaders are expected to announce climate commitments on Saturday, the fifth anniversary of the Paris Agreement

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At the end of year dominated by the coronavirus pandemic, world leaders are expected to revive momentum for climate action with fresh commitments to bring the goals of the Paris Agreement closer.

More than 70 heads of state, plus business and civil society leaders, will take the stage of a virtual climate summit on 12 December – five years after countries agreed in Paris to limit global heating “well below 2C” and strive for 1.5C by the end of the century.

The event is the first test of the Paris deal, under which countries agreed to ramp up their – collectively insufficient – contributions every five years to meet the temperature goals.

Since then, emissions have continued to rise and climate impacts have intensified. Many governments were already running late with their climate planning when the Covid crisis hit, diverting resources into healthcare, social security and business bailouts.

With no UN climate negotiations being held this year and the Cop26 climate talks in Glasgow, UK, postponed to November 2021, the UN, the UK and France, with support from Chile and Italy, are co-hosting the summit to galvanise political leadership.

“Many people are looking for positivity… and a look forward to 2021 as a year of change for the better,” Marcel Beukeboom, climate envoy for the Netherlands, told Climate Home News, in anticipation of the event.

“We need political momentum… that is what is much needed,” added Agripina Jenkins, a climate diplomat for Costa Rica.

Guterres: UN will build global coalition for carbon neutrality in 2021

While every national leader has been invited to submit a pre-recorded speech of up to two minutes, only those that can demonstrate increased ambition will be guaranteed a slot, with priority going to the most transformative announcements.

That could mean a strengthened 2030 target, a net zero commitment, post-2020 climate finance pledge or more robust programme to adapt to climate impacts. “There will be no space for general statements,” according to a logistical note seen by Climate Home.

Under the Paris Agreement, countries are expected to submit new or improved 2030 climate plans and publish long-term decarbonisation strategies before the end of the year.

As of Monday, only 16 countries representing 4.6% of global emissions had formally submitted a new or updated 2030 target to the UN, according to the World Resources Institute.

A number of countries are expected to come forward with enhanced climate ambition at the summit and edge the world closer to its climate goals. Formal submissions to the UN could follow in the next few weeks.

UK announces stronger 2030 emissions target, setting the bar for ambition summit

There has been movement from key players on long-term commitments in recent months.

China set its sights on carbon neutrality by 2060, while Japan and South Korea unveiled 2050 net zero goals. Joe Biden was elected as US president on a platform to decarbonise the world’s largest economy by 2050.

If those promises are followed through, global warming could be limited to 2.1C by the end of the century, according to analysis by Climate Action Tracker, putting the Paris goals within striking distance.

Sébastien Treyer, executive director of the French climate think-tank Iddri, described “cautious hope” at signs the deal signed in Paris was delivering greater emissions cuts “at the slow pace of change that characterises international relations but also with sudden accelerations like the one that we have seen in the last six months”.

This long-term ambition is yet to be reflected into the world’s largest emitters’ shorter-term targets, he noted, adding the political dynamic for enhancing ambition was “fragile” and much more work was need to make these pledges “an economic reality”.

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While a host of announcements are expected throughout the five-hour summit, its success rests on what large emitters are ready to deliver.

The EU is on a tight schedule to agree on cutting emissions by at least 55% from 1990 to 2030, up from 40% currently, at a Council meeting starting two days before the summit. Thorny discussions on the union’s recovery package risk derailing the climate agenda.

Chinese sources have told Climate Home Beijing is on track to present its updated 2030 climate plan before the end of the year, but it is not clear whether president Xi Jinping will reveal further details at this forum or simply reiterate the net zero pledge.

Last week, the UK Cop26 host accepted the recommendation of its climate advisors and agreed to cut emissions 68% between 1990 and 2030.“We’re going to challenge world leaders not only to match our ambition but to set out exactly how they plan to do so,” prime minister Boris Johnson said in a video message ahead of the summit.

While Donald Trump is not expected to be part of the event, and Biden is not able to participate as president-elect, US sub-national players and incoming members of the new administration may make an appearance.

Czech commission calls for coal phase-out by 2038

Among some climate campaigners, there is skepticism another leaders’ summit will deliver anything else than a string of promises and speeches.

Sriram Madhusoodanan, deputy campaigns director at Corporate Accountability told Climate Home: “We’ve seen a number of big fanfare summit since Paris with cycle of speeches by heads of states but not really anything meaningful come out in terms of the demands that civil society has been talking about to stay at 1.5C.”

Without the possibility for civil society to directly respond to leader’s announcements, the summit could be a space for greenwashing, he added.

While the event may draw attention to “hopeful signs,” “we are not transitioning at the pace required to meet our goal,”  Yamide Dagnet, director of climate negotiations at the World Resources Institute, told Climate Home. Countries havee yet to deliver coherent action that includes emissions cuts, adaptation and support for vulnerable nations, she said.

The Cop26 unit has asked donor countries to bring new finance pledges, but there are few signs of that materialising. The UK is cutting its own aid budget in the wake of the pandemic.

“This is where I am more worried and disappointed,” said Dagnet. “At a time when inequality and poverty are increasing… we are falling short on solidarity.”

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UK announces stronger 2030 emissions target, setting the bar for ambition summit https://www.climatechangenews.com/2020/12/03/uk-announces-stronger-2030-emissions-target-setting-bar-ambition-summit/ Thu, 03 Dec 2020 22:30:18 +0000 https://www.climatechangenews.com/?p=43019 The UK will cut emissions 68% from 1990 to 2030, Boris Johnson announced, urging other leaders to bring new commitments to the 5th anniversary of the Paris Agreement

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The UK government has announced it will slash greenhouse gas emissions at least 68% by 2030, compared to 1990 levels, in line with independent advice. 

The prime minister accepted the Climate Change Committee’s recommendation on Thursday to set the target as its “nationally determined contribution” (NDC) to the Paris Agreement. It sets the UK on course to achieve its 2050 net zero goal and is significantly higher than its previous commitments.

“Today, we are taking the lead with an ambitious new target to reduce our emissions by 2030, faster than any major economy, with our Ten Point Plan helping us on our path to reach it,” Boris Johnson said in a statement. 

Last month the government set out its long-awaited 10-point plan for a “green industrial revolution” and pledged to invest £12 billion to help the UK achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. Critics noted this was dwarfed by spending plans for road building and defence, and further policies would be needed to deliver the emissions cuts.

On Thursday, Lord Deben, chair of the Climate Change Committee (CCC), wrote in a letter to the UK’s business and energy minister Alok Sharma that a target of 68% or higher “would constitute a decisive commitment to a net zero emissions trajectory, consistent with the Paris Agreement.”

“It would place the UK among the leading countries in climate ambition,” Lord Deben said. 

“The NDC is more than just a number,” he added, noting that the target should be accompanied by “clear commitments to reduce international aviation and shipping emissions, and greater support for climate finance, particularly for developing countries.” Aviation and shipping emissions are excluded from the 2030 target.

Guterres: UN will build global coalition for carbon neutrality in 2021

To achieve the goal, the CCC projects 43% of cars on UK roads should be electric and 87% of electricity come from nuclear or renewable energy by 2030. Next-generation technologies including carbon capture and storage, hydrogen fuel and carbon removal from the air are expected to contribute emissions reductions.

“The UK’s new emissions target is among the highest in the world and reflects the urgency and scale of the challenge our planet faces,” said Sharma, who is president-designate of next year’s Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow, UK.

“As a country, we have demonstrated we can both rapidly cut carbon emissions, while creating new jobs, new technologies and future-proof industries that will generate economic growth for decades to come.”

As host of Cop26, the UK set the ball rolling ahead of a virtual ambition summit it is co-hosting with the UN and France on 12 December to mark the fifth anniversary of the Paris Agreement. The UK has asked governments to present tougher commitments on reducing emissions, adapting to climate impacts and boosting climate finance at the summit. 

This is a global effort, which is why the UK is urging world leaders as part of next week’s Climate Ambition Summit to bring forward their own ambitious plans to cut emissions and set net zero targets,” Johnson said.

Tracker: Which countries have a net zero carbon goal?

China, South Korea and Japan have all announced long-term net zero pledges in the past three months, but have yet to come forward with strengthened 2030 goals. 

“International attention now turns to the United States, China and other major economies to take similar steps by Cop26,” said Laurence Tubiana, one of the architects of the Paris Agreement and CEO of the European Climate Foundation.

Incoming US president Joe Biden has made climate action a priority for his administration, mentioning it in every call he has had with world leaders since his election victory. However he faces a challenge to deliver credible climate commitments after his Democratic party failed to win a Senate majority.

“This marker from the UK sets a high bar for the White House,” Nick Mabey, chief executive of think tank E3G, told Climate Home News. 

The UK announcement comes ahead of the European Council meeting next week when EU leaders are under pressure to agree on a goal of cutting emissions by at least 55% by 2030, compared to 1990 levels, up from 40% currently. 

“Failing where the UK has succeeded would be hugely embarrassing internationally, and a significant setback to the EU’s aspirations for its Green Deal. As a neighbouring country facing similar challenges with the net zero transition, the UK’s commitment should give EU leaders a boost of confidence to adopt the 55% target without hesitation,” said Mabey.

UK aid budget cuts undermine trust ahead of Cop26 summit, experts warn

Climate campaigners welcomed the news, urging the UK government to put the ambition into action as quickly as possible.

“Given the urgency of the climate crisis and the rapid advances in zero carbon solutions, ambition can be pushed even higher over the next decade,” said John Sauven, executive director of Greenpeace UK. “The government must now increase the action needed to cut emissions from our homes, roads, farms and power sources in the UK.”

Mohamed Adow, director of Nairobi-based climate and energy think tank Power Shift Africa, said the UK needed to do more to support developing nations.

“For people living in the vulnerable places of the world who are dealing with the impacts of climate change, we want to see not just emissions cuts but also support for those already suffering. The Paris Agreement stipulates that these national pledges should cover both areas and so for the UK to be a credible host of next year’s meeting they need to announce how they plan to support the vulnerable. Until then this is only half a plan,” he said.

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UK scrambles to decide first post-Brexit climate pledge to the Paris Agreement https://www.climatechangenews.com/2020/11/30/uk-scrambles-decide-first-post-brexit-climate-pledge-paris-agreement/ Mon, 30 Nov 2020 17:43:09 +0000 https://www.climatechangenews.com/?p=42990 The Cop26 host is on a tight timeline to set a 2030 carbon-cutting target separate from the EU's, ahead of an ambition summit on the fifth anniversary of Paris

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The UK is preparing to announce its first solo carbon-cutting pledge to the Paris climate agreement, in a tight political manoeuvre ahead of an ambition summit on 12 December. 

Host to the Cop26 climate talks in Glasgow in November 2021, the UK is expected to announce a 2030 climate target ahead of a virtual event it is co-hosting with the UN and France to mark the fifth anniversary of the Paris Agreement.

The UK has asked world leaders to present tougher commitments on cutting emissions, adapting to climate impacts and providing climate finance at the summit. Only countries that have announced new and ambitious action in 2020 will be given a platform.

“And yes, the UK will be setting out its own nationally determined contribution metric ahead of 12 December,” Cop26 president designate and the UK’s business minister Alok Sharma, told an event held by London-based think-tank Green Alliance on Friday.

Having previously submitted a joint “nationally determined contribution” (NDC) to Paris as part of the EU, Brexit Britain is now going alone.

The timing has given the government a headache. Official advice from the Climate Change Committee was delayed by the coronavirus pandemic and is due to land on 9 December – just three days before the summit.

The Committee is expected to recommend an emissions reduction target in the high sixties, with sources close to the process discussing cuts of at least 68% from 1990 to 2030. The government is not obliged to adopt the Committee’s number but would have a lot of explaining to do if it went against the independent advice.

Comment: Rich countries, remember your $100bn climate commitment to the world’s poor

Progressive EU member states are urging the UK to announce its new climate plan ahead of a meeting of the European Council 10-11 December, to put pressure on the bloc’s laggards to agree a new goal of cutting emissions to at least 55% from 1990 levels by 2030, up from 40% currently.

If the UK is to use its leverage as Cop26 host to raise ambition, it will need to demonstrate its 2030 target represents a real progression of its carbon-cutting efforts.

While a rapid phaseout of coal power has allowed the UK to stay within its carbon budgets to 2022, a policy gap opens up later this decade. The Committee has previously warned the UK is off pace for its old target of 80% emissions cuts by 2050, let alone the recently adopted net zero goal. Action is needed across sectors including transport, buildings and heavy industry to get back on track.

London-based think tank Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit found that if the UK simply translated its existing carbon budgets into an emissions target, it would be a 64% cut from 1990 levels by 2030.

A headline target in the high sixties would represent a strengthening of that trajectory, but by some analysis stop short of compatibility with a 1.5C global warming limit – the Paris accord’s most ambitious goal.

Ryan Wilson, a climate and energy policy analyst at Climate Analytics, a Climate Action Tracker partner organisation, told Climate Home that to align with 1.5C, the UK should cut domestic emissions around 70% by 2030.

Taking into account the UK’s historic responsibility in causing climate change and its capability to act, Wilson said the UK’s contribution needed to be equivalent to achieving net zero emissions by around 2030. Some of that could be delivered through finance or “other means of support to achieve emission reductions abroad beyond those required at the domestic level”.

Boris Johnson has further to go on climate to show true leadership

Earlier this month, the Labour opposition’s shadow climate minister Matthew Pennycook told Climate Home the UK Treasury was considering a range of 61-68% for a 2030 target. He added that anything below the high 60s would be insufficient.

Campaigners have demanded more. WWF has called for the UK to reduce its emissions “at least in the region of 70%” by 2030 and Greenpeace for 75% cuts.

Business groups, young people, faith leaders, academics and health professionals wrote to Prime Minister Boris Johnson last month to demand he set a 2030 goal that is line with global efforts to limit global heating by 1.5C.

On Saturday, Scotland pledged to publish an indicative climate plan to reduce emissions 75% by 2030. Scotland, where nationalists have revived a debate about independence, will be covered by a UK-wide NDC but has set its own goal to cut emissions to net zero by 2045.

For the whole of the UK, the government has yet to publish a comprehensive decarbonisation strategy.

Earlier this month, Prime Minister Boris Johnson outlined a 10-point plan to spur a “green industrial revolution”. The measures sent a political signal but were not enough to put the UK on track to meet its 2050 goal. Instead, it closed just over half the emissions gap to stay within the UK’s carbon budgets to 2032, according to analysis by Carbon Brief.

A spending review last week did little to boost the £3-4 billion of additional funding pledged within Johnson’s £12bn package of measures. In his speech, chancellor Rishi Sunak barely mentioned climate change, pushed ahead with a £27bn road-building programme and announced cuts to overseas aid.

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UK aid budget cuts undermine trust ahead of Cop26 summit, experts warn https://www.climatechangenews.com/2020/11/25/uk-aid-budget-cuts-undermine-trust-ahead-cop26-summit-experts-warn/ Wed, 25 Nov 2020 17:44:40 +0000 https://www.climatechangenews.com/?p=42970 As developing countries prepare to negotiate a scaling up of climate finance at next year's Cop26, the UK host faces criticism for reneging on its aid commitment

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The UK government has cut its overseas aid budget, in a move that risks alienating allies in the developing world ahead of hosting Cop26 climate talks.

On Wednesday, UK chancellor Rishi Sunak announced plans to slash the aid budget to 0.5% of national income from next year until “the fiscal situation allows” the country to return to its previous 0.7% commitment.

Sunak told parliament “sticking rigidly” to the 0.7% pledge was “difficult to justify to the British people… during a domestic fiscal emergency, when we need to prioritise our limited resources on jobs and public services”. Of the 30 developed countries, mostly in Europe, signed up to spend 0.7% of income on aid, the UK was one of only five to meet the target last year.

A commitment to spend £11.6 billion on climate finance for developing countries over 2021-25 will be protected, according to an accompanying document.

Nonetheless, the move went down badly with poorer nations, many of which are struggling to fund basic services as their debts mount during the coronavirus crisis.

Sonam Wangdi, of Bhutan and chair of a group of 47 least developed countries (LDCs), tweeted that vulnerable countries needed more, not less, support.

Under the Paris Agreement, donor countries are expected to submit information about their climate finance pledges beyond 2020 by the end of the year. Next November’s Cop26 in Glasgow, UK, will also launch negotiations on a new collective finance goal to be agreed before 2025.

Developing countries need at least $400 billion a year to cut emissions and cope with intensifying climate impacts, Dipak Dasgupta, a former Indian climate negotiator and distinguished fellow at The Energy and Resource Institute, told Climate Home News.

Boris Johnson has further to go on climate to show true leadership

More than a decade ago, rich countries agreed to collectively mobilise at least $100 billion a year from 2020 to help developing countries green their growth and cope with the impacts of climate change. The latest data compiled by OECD from 2018 put the figure delivered at $78.9 billion.

The report found developing nations were expected to pay back nearly three quarters of the money, leading to concerns over the role climate finance in contributing to some countries’ unsustainable debt levels. Anti-poverty charity Oxfam described it as “an overlooked scandal”.

At Cop26, donor countries will be held to account for the $100bn and called on to multiply their support.

“We are at a crucial moment when the conversation on the public and private finance is reaching a tipping point,” said Dasgupta. “$100bn [annually] is no longer the relevant number. The scale of finance that we need is so much bigger.”

“The new climate finance goal must be based on science and reflect the actual needs of developing countries,” Sonam Wangdi, of Bhutan and chair of a group of 47 Least Developed Countries (LDCs), told Climate Home by email. “With Cop26 delayed a year, these discussions will need to progress quickly.”

LDCs alone require $93.7bn per year to fully fund their climate plans, Wangdi added. “Considering only 14% of climate finance is currently going to LDCs, the existing $100bn goal is clearly far from enough, even if it was being met.”

Sustainable Energy for All’s latest report found that “chronic underinvestment” in energy access was putting the world decades off track to ensure access to affordable and sustainable energy for the world’s poorest by 2030.

Only one third of annual investments needed to achieve electricity supply to all homes were tracked in 2018 and less than 3% of the finance needed to ensure global clean cooking access, the report found.

In Bangladesh, the marginalised Munda face extra barriers to climate adaptation

As Cop26 host, it falls to the UK to move the dial on climate finance and rally donor countries to commit to more funding beyond 2020.

Speaking at finance summit hosted by France earlier this month, Alok Sharma, Cop26 president designate and UK’s business minister, said there was “much further to go” to meet the $100bn goal and urged donor countries to “match [the UK’s] ambition”.

Dharshan Wignarajah, deputy director for the finance and resilience work of the Cop26 team, said last week the UK was making “a strong diplomatic push” to encourage the top 16 donor countries to come forward with new pledges at an ambition summit on 12 December, co-hosted by the UK.

With just over two weeks before the event, which marks the fifth anniversary of the Paris Agreement, Tom Evans, of think tank E3G, said the UK aid cut was “a major strategic mistake” and would erode the trust between the Cop26 host and developing countries.

Andrew Norton, director of the International Institute for Environment and Development, agreed it sent the wrong signal to climate vulnerable countries.

The UK is “deeply damaging its fight against the climate crisis and nature loss” and risks “undermining its capacity to provide global leadership as it prepares to take over the G7 presidency and host the UN climate summit next year,” he said. 

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Lorena Gonzalez, a climate finance expert at the World Resources Institute, told Climate Home there was “a leadership vacuum in the climate finance space”.

The return of the US to climate cooperation under Joe Biden “will bring positive dynamics,” she said, but the UK needed to do more to ensure countries deliver on the full financial architecture to implement the Paris Agreement.

Dasgupta said the UK “could be playing a leadership role” in changing the conversation on climate finance to reflect the scale of investments needed to finance the energy transition.

“There may not be new finance commitments [this year] but we need to recognise that much more finance is needed and donor countries need to step up,” he said.

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Boris Johnson has further to go on climate to show true leadership https://www.climatechangenews.com/2020/11/19/boris-johnson-go-climate-show-true-leadership/ Thu, 19 Nov 2020 16:52:58 +0000 https://www.climatechangenews.com/?p=42947 The UK prime minister's plan for a "green industrial revolution" sends a strong political signal, but more is needed for a credible decarbonisation strategy ahead of Cop26

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From flirting with climate science denial to promising a “green industrial revolution,” Boris Johnson has come a long way. 

The UK prime minister’s 10-point plan released on Wednesday, a package of measures to create jobs and boost green investment in the economic recovery from Covid-19, sent an important political signal.

But Johnson has further to go to turn it into a comprehensive decarbonisation strategy and project the kind of leadership needed from the host of next year’s Cop26 UN climate summit.

Under current projections, the UK is not on track to achieve its previous goal of reducing emissions 80% from 1990 level by 2050, let alone the recently updated target of net zero emissions.

A back-of-the-envelope calculation by Simon Evans, policy editor at Carbon Brief, suggests the new measures would close just over half the emissions gap to stay within the UK’s carbon budgets to 2032.

Chris Stark, chief executive of the Committee on Climate Change, the UK government’s official climate advisor, described the announcement as “a vision statement rather than a plan” that could indicate a “a more fully-fledged UK strategy is now emerging”.

A policy paper on energy, an infrastructure investment package and a Treasury review of net zero are expected later this year.

Boris Johnson sets out 10-point plan to get UK on track for net zero

As host of the Cop26 climate summit, the UK has the opportunity to forge a way forward to cutting greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050 and set the pace for climate action for the next decade.

Johnson, who inherited the Cop26 presidency bid from his predecessor Theresa May, will be in the limelight. The former London mayor, who served as foreign secretary in the previous Conservative government, is known for his lack of attention to detail and his off-script speeches, peppered with references to classical literature.

To be taken seriously, Johnson must lay out a credible plan for the UK to achieve its climate neutrality goal.

Johnson’s announcement “is important because it signals that [climate action] must be a priority for any government, but what it isn’t is a plan,” Matthew Pennycook, the Labour opposition’s shadow climate minister, told Climate Home News. “The policy gap is growing. This is a missed opportunity.”

First named Cop26 sponsors are big investors in offshore wind – and a gas plant

The statement did include some significant announcements, which, if delivered, will “take a big chunk off UK emissions over the next decade and beyond,” Stark said.

A pledge to phase out the sales of petrol and diesel cars by 2030 – 10 years earlier than previously proposed – would put the UK only behind Norway for the most ambitious goal in the personal transport stakes.

Guy Newey, a former government advisor turned strategy director at Energy Systems Catapult, which works to accelerate the transformation of the UK’s energy system, described the move as a “real political risk” for the Conservatives and an indication of the Johnson’s “seriousness” on climate action.

This is a step change for Johnson, who this time last year refused to take part in an debate on climate change with opposition leaders ahead of the December 2019 election.

Four years earlier, shortly after the Paris Agreement was signed in 2015, Johnson wrote in a Telegraph column that “global leaders were driven by a primitive fear that the present ambient warm weather is somehow caused by humanity; and that fear – as far as I understand the science – is equally without foundation”.

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A number of proposals that have been discussed by government officials in recent weeks, including a ban on fossil fuel financing overseas and the creation of a national investment bank to support green finance, were notably absent.

“I am concerned that there isn’t the focus that there needs to be on Cop26 at the centre of government and Number 10,” said Pennycook. “How can we be a climate leader… if we continue to pump money into fossil fuel overseas? We need more urgency, more ambition and a comprehensive approach,” he said.

Campaigners have also pointed out that only a third of £12 billion of investment pledged was new funding, which pales in comparison to an additional £16.5bn over four years committed to the defence budget on Thursday. And it’s much less than Germany and France’s respective €40bn and €30bn green stimulus packages.

Consultancy firm PWC estimates the UK needs to invest £40bn annually over the next 10 years into low carbon and digital infrastructure to get on track for the 2050 goal.

£4bn is “a fraction” of the government’s planned £27bn roadbuilding scheme, Caroline Lucas, the UK’s only Green lawmaker, pointed out on BBC’s Radio 4. “The resources aren’t there in order to make this a really strategic package. It completely fails to rise to the gravity of this moment,” she said.

But it was enough to spark tensions between Number 10 and the Treasury over how much money to invest in carbon-cutting efforts at a time the UK budget continues to be squeezed by addressing Covid-19.

Claire O’Neill, former Cop26 president-designate who was booted out of the role in February, said Johnson’s announcement had followed “a soap opera at the top” of government, which saw Johnson’s closest advisor Dominic Cummings and his communications director Lee Cains leave last week.

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In the run-up to Cop26, Tom Evans, researcher on geopolitics and diplomacy for think tank E3G, said Johnson will have to learn to balance political salience that drives momentum for greater action with the hard work of behind-the-scenes negotiations.

Johnson may enjoy “flashy moments and dazzling speeches” but the work of the Cop26 presidency is long and arduous, he said. “A 10-point plan does not work to solve adaptation finance”.

Climate observers are hoping a summit on 12 December, which the UK is co-hosting with the UN and France to mark the fifth anniversary of the Paris Agreement, will be a moment to reveal further domestic commitments.

The UK is expected to present a 2030 climate plan – or nationally determined contribution (NDC) – by the UN’s 2020 deadline. This will be its first solo submission to the UN, as the country leaves the EU.

To enhance its plan, the UK would have to adopt a target that is higher than 64% of emissions cuts from 1990 levels by 2030. Pennycook said anything below the high 60s would be insufficient, adding the Treasury has launched a review looking at a target range of 61-68%.

The WWF has called for the UK to reduce its emissions “at least in the region of 70%” by 2030.

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Boris Johnson sets out 10-point plan to get UK on track for net zero https://www.climatechangenews.com/2020/11/17/boris-johnson-sets-10-point-plan-get-uk-track-net-zero/ Tue, 17 Nov 2020 22:30:11 +0000 https://www.climatechangenews.com/?p=42935 The UK premier majored on hydrogen, nuclear and carbon capture in a package aiming to set the bar for hosting Cop26 climate talks next year

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Prime minister Boris Johnson has promised to mobilise £12 billion to put the UK on a path to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, ahead of hosting the Cop26 climate summit next year.

In a long-awaited 10-point plan for a “green industrial revolution” released on Tuesday, Johnson set out his blueprint to boost green investments and create 250,000 jobs to support the country’s former industrial heartland.

More than £1.2 billion of new investments have been earmarked for nuclear, hydrogen and carbon capture technologies. And Johnson committed to end the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030 – 10 years earlier than previously targeted.

The sale of hybrid vehicles will be allowed to continue until 2035 and £1.3bn will be invested in rolling out electric vehicle charging points. Another £1 billion is to be spent in 2021 to make homes and public buildings more energy efficient and ensure the roll out of 600,000 heat pumps a year by 2028.

“Although this year has taken a very different path to the one we expected, I haven’t lost sight of our ambitious plans to level up across the country,” Johnson said in a statement.

“Our green industrial revolution will be powered by the wind turbines of Scotland and the North East, propelled by the electric vehicles made in the Midlands and advanced by the latest technologies developed in Wales, so we can look ahead to a more prosperous, greener future.”

First named Cop26 sponsors are big investors in offshore wind – and a gas plant

While the UK was the first major economy to enshrine its 2050 carbon neutrality pledge in law in June 2019, policies have lagged behind.

Earlier this year, Chris Stark, chief executive of the Committee on Climate Change (CCC), the UK’s official climate advisers, said government’s policy progress was “not enough to be on track for net zero”. A year after the UK legislated on the 2050 goal, the UK was “not where we’d thought we’d be,” he added.

The 10-point plan marks “the beginning of the UK’s path to net zero,” Johnson’s office said in a statement. As host of next year’s Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow in November 2021, the UK is keen to set an example.

Jonathan Marshall, head of analysis at London-based Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU), said the proposals “tick off a number of the major policy decisions needed to get the UK demonstrably back on track to its net zero target”.

“Bold action on electric transport, easily the biggest pro-climate action from a UK Government since hastening the end of coal power, will make huge ripples overseas, giving a signal to car manufacturers around the world that the future is green, and bolstering Britain’s standing ahead of the vital Cop26 conference,” he said.

But gaps remain in rolling out policy that ensure the UK will meet its climate pledge, Marshall said.

“Onshore wind and solar energy remain unsupported, long shots such as modular nuclear power and direct air capture may not pay off, and natural solutions to climate change – planting trees and restoring peat bogs – remain largely overlooked and ignored,” he added.

Anger as UN body approves deal that allows ship emissions to rise to 2030

The UK government previously said it would publish “a comprehensive Net Zero Strategy” in the lead up to the Cop26.

In the meantime, its 10-point plan includes a commitments to quadruple offshore wind production to 40GW by 2030 and a goal to generate 5GW of low-carbon hydrogen by 2030, with up to £500 million for trialling hydrogen use in homes for heating and cooking and to invest in new production facilities.

By the end of the decade, the UK government aims to create the first “hydrogen town”, fuelling tens of thousands of homes with hydrogen.

It pledged to invest an additional £200 million in creating carbon capture clusters alongside hard-to-decarbonise industries and remove 10 million tonnes of CO2 by 2030. The money comes on top of £1 billion already pledged to the technology. £525 million is earmarked to develop the next generation of large and small-scale nuclear plants.

Other measures include supporting research in hard-to-decarbonise industries including shipping and aviation and making the City of London a global centre of green finance that can support innovation in clean technologies, including scaling up the production of electric vehicle batteries.

“There’s still plenty of detail to examine, but these plans include bold and ambitious steps that will create jobs and sustain communities in towns and cities across the UK for generations, as well as protecting the planet,” said Shaun Spiers, executive director of the think tank Green Alliance.

“All eyes are now on the Treasury to deliver on these promises,” he added, hinting at government tensions over how much money to invest on Johnson’s green plan at a time when the budget is squeezed by the government’s response to Covid-19.

Rebecca Newsom, Greenpeace UK’s head of politics, said the government’s plan to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030 “could put the government back on track to meeting its climate commitments” and warned “speculative solutions, such as nuclear and hydrogen from fossil fuels, will not be taking us to zero emissions anytime soon, if ever”.

Climate campaigners target critical US Senate runoffs in Georgia

Johnson’s announcement comes as the UK prepares to co-host a summit on 12 December marking the fifth anniversary of the Paris Agreement. In guidelines sent to governments and seen by Climate Home, the summit organisers said there will be “no space for general statements” but the event will provide “a platform for leaders who are ready to come forward with bold announcements”.

As Cop26 host, Johnson is expected to set the tone with an ambitious 2030 climate target. His advisers at the CCC are due to publish recommendations on the carbon budget on 9 December – three days before the summit.

Analysis by ECIU shows that if the UK — which until now had a joint climate target, or nationally determined contribution (NDC) as part of the EU — simply translated its existing carbon budgets into an emissions target, it would be a 64% cut from 1990 levels by 2030.

To enhance its plan, the UK would have to  adopt a target that is higher than 64%, it said.

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UK looks to Cop26 climate summit to fix awkward relationship with Biden https://www.climatechangenews.com/2020/11/10/uk-looks-cop26-climate-summit-fix-awkward-relationship-biden/ Tue, 10 Nov 2020 11:00:27 +0000 https://www.climatechangenews.com/?p=42876 US president-elect Biden sees Johnson as a "clone" of Trump and disagrees with him on Brexit, but both leaders want to make next year's Glasgow climate talks a success

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The UK government is likely to try and use the Cop26 climate talks to rebuild its rocky relationship with US president-elect Joe Biden and his party, analysts have said.

Biden’s team are hostile to prime minister Boris Johnson because of his perceived similarity to Donald Trump, his Brexit policy and personal criticism of Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton.

Despite this, analysts told Climate Home that Biden would be “pragmatic” and the two governments were likely to work closely together to increase the world’s climate action at November’s COP climate talks in Glasgow.

Both Biden and Trump have emphasised the similarities between Johnson and Trump. In December 2019, Biden said that Johnson was a “physical and emotional clone” of Trump. The outgoing president dubbed Johnson “Britain Trump” and praised him for taking the UK out of the EU.

Several members of Biden’s transition team have anonymously briefed against Johnson to the British media and  Tommy Vietor, who worked with Biden in Obama’s White House, called Johnson a “shape-shifting creep” who had made “racist comments about Obama”.

https://twitter.com/TVietor08/status/1325137653851828230

In 2016, Johnson wrote that Barack Obama had removed a bust of Winston Churchill and that “some said it was a symbol of the part-Kenyan President’s ancestral dislike of the British empire”. He likened Hilary Clinton to a “sadistic nurse in a mental hospital” in an article supporting her 2008 Presidential campaign.

Joe Biden wins the White House, in pivotal moment for global climate action

Richard Black, director of the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, said that Biden’s decades of experience in politics meant he was likely to be “pragmatic” about these comments. “The big thing will be how the government plays things from now on,” he said.

This was echoed by US Senator Chris Coons, an ally of Joe Biden and contender for the role of secretary of state. He told the BBC that, while he didn’t like the “part-Kenyan” comment, “rather than re-litigating or revisiting comments that may have been made days or years ago, I think [we will] reimagine our engagement with our vital allies around the world.”

In a brief message of congratulations to Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris, Johnson said he looked forward to working together on the shared priority of climate change. He repeated this theme in a later interview, saying: ““With President Biden in the White House . . . we have the real prospect of American global leadership in tackling climate change”. The UK’s Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab told the BBC that he had spoken to Coons and that cyber, security and climate change were areas the two countries could co-operate on.

Speaking before the US election, the chair of the UK’s Foreign Affairs Committee Tom Tugendhat told a webinar that climate change was a way for the UK government to repair its relations with Biden. He said: “If we’re sensible, what we will see is the UK offering the Biden White House a very generous share of the Cop talks in order to bring them in. Will it work? I don’t know but, at the moment, given the frostiness of the relationship between the putative White House and the actual Number 10 it does seem as though something will be needed.”

Biden promised to expose ‘climate outlaws’. Here’s who could make his list

Peter Betts, a Brit who previously led climate negotiations for the EU, told Climate Home that prospects for UK-US cooperation on climate change were “excellent”. He said: “A forward-leaning US administration will considerably increase the chances of major progress on climate issues, from NDC [climate plan] enhancement, to green recovery and debt relief, to reform of the international financial institutions.”

The UK has an opportunity to coordinate on these issues as conveners of the G7 in 2021, said Rachel Kyte, dean of the Fletcher School and former sustainable energy representative for the UN secretary general. However, she added the US’ focus would be on its relationships with the EU and China. “The UK has to accept that outside the EU it is on the edge of that critical three-way partnership.”

Black agreed. “Where does the Johnson government find a foothold in that?” he asked. “It can play most effectively if it is seen to be working hand in hand with the EU on climate change.” The UK and EU are approaching the end of drawn-out and heated negotiations over what trading arrangements will come into force when the UK fully leaves the EU on 1 January 2021. “If they’re still arguing next year then I think that will cast a real shadow on UK relationships with the US across all subjects,” Black said.

Black said that the UK should follow the French example from the 2015 Paris Agreement to avoid being “sidelined at its own summit”. “At Paris, the big thing was the US-China relationship which was then supplemented by lots of good diplomacy done by the French,” he said.

UK-US relations will also be shaped by trade deal negotiations. As it leaves the EU, the UK government is keen to secure free trade deals and the one with US is seen as the most important. According to Clare Healy, who has worked for the British Labour Party and the US Department of Energy, if the UK was to “hardwire” climate change into its trade deal, that might impress the Biden administration.

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UK Supreme Court hears climate case on Heathrow airport expansion https://www.climatechangenews.com/2020/10/08/uk-supreme-court-hears-climate-case-heathrow-airport-expansion/ Thu, 08 Oct 2020 15:37:54 +0000 https://www.climatechangenews.com/?p=42620 Heathrow Airport is challenging a ruling that quashed plans to build a third runway earlier this year, based on the UK commitment to the Paris Agreement

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Heathrow appeared in front of the UK Supreme Court this week in a bid to overturn a judgment that blocked Europe’s busiest airport from expanding. 

In February, campaigners claimed a historic victory in the Court of Appeal, which quashed plans for a third runway at Heathrow on climate grounds. The case was brought by litigation charity Plan B and campaign group Friends of the Earth.

Three appeal judges ruled that government approval of the expansion plan was unlawful because, among other reasons, it failed to consider the Paris Agreement on climate change. To pursue the project, the transport secretary would have to review how it could fit with the country’s climate commitments. The transport department accepted the ruling and said it would not appeal.

In a two-day virtual sitting of the Supreme Court this week, Heathrow argued the government was not legally required to consider the Paris Agreement.

At the same time, the airport owners claimed a third runway was compatible with Paris, so a government review would ultimately conclude it could go ahead.

According to the UK Committee on Climate Change, aviation is likely to be the UK’s highest emitting sector by 2050, as it is hard to decarbonise. Heathrow currently emits around 19 million tonnes of CO2 a year, more than half of UK aviation emissions. A third runway would add a projected 9 million tonnes to the airport’s total annual CO2 output.

A spokesperson for Heathrow airport said: “Heathrow will ensure the expansion project is compliant with the UK’s climate change obligations, including under the Paris Climate Agreement, as part of our plans to reach net-zero carbon. We fully expect to be held to account by the government through the planning process.”

Read more: Where are US emissions after four years of Donald Trump? 

Friends of the Earth lawyer Katie de Kauwe questioned this argument in Heathrow’s appeal. “If it really makes no difference to the outcome, then why are you bringing the appeal?” she asked, in an interview with Climate Home. “Why not let the government conduct its review?” 

De Kauwe said that if the Supreme Court agrees with the previous ruling the government’s airports national policy statement will remain a “zombie policy” until the government reviews it. Without political will, the expansion plans are unlikely to happen, she said. Prime minister Boris Johnson, whose constituency is close to Heathrow, has been an outspoken critic of a third runway in the past. 

The verdict is expected in January.

De Kauwe described the case as “hugely significant”. “It is the first case that has ruled that government plans for a massive infrastructure project are unlawful on the basis of the Paris Agreement,” she said. 

Campaigners and lawyers say the verdict could set a precedent for other climate litigation cases relating to the Paris Agreement. 

“This case is being closely watched by lawyers around the world who want to see how much impact a country’s signature to the Paris Climate Agreement has on actual decision-making” Michael Gerrard, an environmental law professor at Columbia University in New York, told Climate Home. 

“The ruling by the Court of Appeal seems to give at least some teeth to Paris.  The Supreme Court will either cement or pull those teeth,” Gerrard said. 

“We are seeing a movement across the world of climate litigation,” said de Kauwe. Campaign group Transport Action Network is challenging the UK government’s largest-ever road building programme by building on the Heathrow result, she said. “It is a huge boost for climate campaigners, [showing] what can be achieved through the courts.”

This article has been amended to remove an incorrect reference to the timing of the airports national policy statement.

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UK plans to boost climate ambition face delays amid rising Covid-19 cases https://www.climatechangenews.com/2020/09/23/uk-plans-boost-climate-ambition-face-delays-amid-rising-covid-19-cases/ Wed, 23 Sep 2020 11:54:47 +0000 https://www.climatechangenews.com/?p=42503 The UK host of critical Cop26 climate talks was tipped to set out its vision to world leaders during the UN general assembly, but the timeline has slipped

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The UK is working on a raft of plans to drive climate action ahead of critical UN climate talks in Glasgow, but its strategy is being challenged by a resurgence of Covid-19 cases at home.

Prime minister Boris Johnson was poised to outline his government’s vision for the November 2021 climate summit, known as Cop26, at the virtual UN general assembly session that started on Tuesday.

Instead, a number of policy announcements, including ending overseas fossil fuel financing and bringing forward a ban on the sales of new petrol and diesel vehicles to 2030, are being deferred to later this autumn, several sources have told Climate Home News.

Plans for a National Investment Bank to help the country cut its greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050, which have gathered wide support in government, could also be delayed.

On Tuesday, Johnson presented new restrictions to halt a steep rise in coronavirus infections, warning the country had reached a “perilous turning point“. His name was absent from the list of world leaders sending video messages to the UN general assembly plenary.

“There is appetite to try and make these announcements happen but the rise in Covid-19 cases has affected the government’s ability to give the climate agenda its full attention,” Tom Evans a researcher in climate diplomacy for think tank E3G, told CHN.

The timing for the plans to be announced matters because of the “global resonance that they carry” as the UK seeks to leverage more ambitious action from others, Evans said.

Xi Jinping: China will aim for carbon neutrality by 2060

Measures in the pipeline include ending the financing of coal, oil and gas overseas, with exemptions for some gas power plants. Sources have told CHN the policy could span all overseas energy spending, including aid as well as UK Export Finance, which provides loans and guarantees to boost British exports.

It follows a huge backlash to a UK commitment to provide more than a $1 billion in support for a mammoth project to exploit Mozambique’s gas reserves.

Although an announcement was initially expected this week, it is likely being delayed to later this year so the government can couple it with support for the UK’s oil and gas workforce to change careers.

Plans to ban sales of new petrol and diesel cars in 2030, 10 years earlier than previously pledged, are likewise on hold after meeting strong industry resistance, sources told CHN.

An announcement could emerge in November as part of a package to deliver the UK’s 2050 net zero emissions goal, according to the Guardian.

A national investment bank is the last initiative tipped to support the UK’s domestic climate ambition. Source close to the UK government told CHN the measure was widely closely tied to the UK’s spending review of its capital budget to 2025, which is due to for publication in the autumn.

The bank could finance large scale efficiency improvement in the heat network and supply chains, for example. It would be a successor to the Green Investment Bank, which was created by the UK  government in 2012 but privatised in 2017. The UK will lose access to the European Investment Bank when it formally leaves the EU on 1 January.

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The package of measures is intended to put the UK on track to meet its 2050 carbon neutrality target.

While there is “a lot of energy in government” for a green economic recovery to Covid-19 that will help meet the UK’s targets, it is “threatening to get squeezed” by shifting priorities, Shaun Spiers, executive director of the UK-based environmental think tank Green Alliance, told CHN.

As the rest of the world grapples with the coronavirus pandemic, there is an understanding of the UK’s difficulty in landing more ambitious climate pledges, one developing country diplomat told CHN. But this pass card won’t last long if the UK wants to set the pace.

In a surprise announcement on Tuesday, President Xi Jinping said China would aim to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060 and promised to strengthen its carbon-cutting efforts to 2030. The EU is negotiating internally to increase its 2030 target to reduce emissions by at least 55% from 1990 levels.

The UK has yet to commit to updating its national contribution to the Paris Agreement by the end-of-2020 deadline. The fifth anniversary of the Paris Agreement on 12 December could be a moment to do so.

If the UK government lands its domestic package for climate action and a new climate plan before the end of the year, it would be “a huge win” and “put pressure on everyone else” to step up, Evans added.

Bolsonaro shifts blame for unprecedented Brazilian wetland fires

Throughout the pandemic, the UK said it was powering ahead with its climate diplomacy. Earlier this month, Sharma told UK lawmakers he had held bilateral talks with 35 countries and the Cop26 team had interacted with more than a 100 governments.

On Monday, the UK announced the launch of an Energy Transition Council – a global partnership to accelerate the transition from coal to clean power in developing countries in Africa and Asia. It includes representatives from the International Energy Agency, the International Renewable Energy Agency, the International Labour Organization and multilateral development banks.

The council aims to leverage the finance, technology and know-how to speed up the energy transition at a time when countries are deciding how to target spending to reboot their economies.

By Cop26, the UK hopes the council will have enabled several developing countries to come forward with commitments to prioritise sustainable energy and phase out coal power, and ensure international support for these transitions beyond the Glasgow summit.

Damilola Ogunbiyi, UN special representative for Sustainable Energy for All and council co-chair, said the initiative should provide “immediate technical assistance” to developing countries designing energy recovery plans.

The council success’ will be judged by “results on the ground,” she told CHN in an email. Standards should also be agreed to identify the cheapest sustainable option for growing energy access so it can be supported by “large-scale finance,” she added.

“My hope is that the council can resolve some of the systemic issues in finance and lack of coordination on technical assistance that are holding back scaling up renewable energy and energy efficiency.”

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UK makes assurances on climate finance amid concerns over aid restructuring https://www.climatechangenews.com/2020/06/26/uk-makes-assurances-climate-finance-amid-concerns-aid-restructuring/ Fri, 26 Jun 2020 10:08:50 +0000 https://www.climatechangenews.com/?p=42053 Experts warn shifting aid away from the world's poorest would undermine critical alliance-building efforts ahead of the UK hosting Cop26 climate talks

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The UK government has promised to uphold its commitment to climate finance, in response to concerns over the planned merger of the international development and foreign affairs ministries.

Prime minister Boris Johnson’s announcement of the closure of the Department for International Development (Dfid) last week caught the development sector off guard.

Aid experts expressed fears the UK was turning its back on the world’s poorest, just as a global economic downturn following the coronavirus pandemic made them more vulnerable.

A spokesperson told Climate Home News the government remains committed to a pledge made last year to double its contribution to international climate finance to £11.6 billion between 2021 and 2026. In a statement, they said the money would support “clean growth, reducing carbon emissions and helping the poorest countries manage the impacts of climate change”.

Foreign secretary Dominic Raab, who will oversee the new department, walked back comments from Johnson suggesting aid would be redirected to middle income countries that could further British strategic interests.

Yet questions remain over how UK climate finance will be allocated, as the overall aid budget shrinks.

UK aid and foreign ministry merger raises fears for politicisation of climate finance

The Department for International Development (Dfid) is responsible for running programmes that help vulnerable countries cope with the impacts of climate change. Last year, it spent £11 billion – about 73% of the UK’s total overseas development assistance.

As the UK prepares to host critical UN climate talks, known as Cop26, in November, the merger raises the prospect of linking aid with diplomacy to leverage climate action. There could be tension with other diplomatic goals, such as striking favourable trade deals after Brexit.

The UK is committed to spending 0.7% of its national income on aid, but the absolute value of that is contracting along with the economy. Government departments have reportedly been asked to identify 30% cuts to their aid budgets. Priority areas to safeguard include climate change, efforts to tackle Covid-19, girls’ education and poverty reduction.

Aid money used to develop carbon-cutting initiatives, managed by the UK’s energy department, is already largely directed at middle-income countries with growing emissions. According to government figures, the energy department spends around a third of the UK’s international climate budget, while 63% is managed by Dfid.

While low-income countries still receive the majority of UK aid, a growing share is being directed to middle-income countries seen as critical to British interests from a security, economic and emissions reduction perspective, according to a parliamentary report published earlier this month – a trend that could accelerate as the government aligns aid spending with foreign policy objectives.

The report urged government to direct aid “to countries where there is the greatest likelihood of reducing poverty”.

The UK’s Independent Commission for Aid Impact (Icai) warned in February 2019 of creating a vacuum for low carbon development in low-income countries. It also found the foreign office to be failing to meet aid transparency targets.

UK risks missing UN climate deadline, in headache for hosts of key summit

The government is hoping to encourage countries to submit more ambitious climate plans ahead of critical UN climate talks in Glasgow, UK, in November 2021.

Earlier this week, the government’s official climate advisors, the Committee on Climate Change, said the UK needed to be “an exemplar in continuing to provide climate finance” to the most vulnerable communities, as the impact of Covid-19 on the global economy will reduce available funds.

“The UK has a strong established reputation as one of the largest development aid donors and is respected for its efforts to help support vulnerable countries dealing with the impacts of climate change. This has helped the UK play an important role in the international climate negotiations that resulted in the global Paris Agreement on climate change,” the committee wrote.

A government spokesperson said the ministerial merger will help the government “seize the opportunities” ahead of the Glasgow climate summit. The Cop26 presidency has made adaptation and resilience to climate change a key pillar of next year’s summit.

However, Johnson’s comments that aid to Zambia and Tanzania could be redirected to Ukraine and the Western Balkans risks undermining the UK’s alliance-building efforts, said Andrew Norton, director of the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED).

It is “a perverse and damaging signal to give to the poorest countries,” he told CHN. “Continuing to direct climate finance to the vulnerable countries that need it will be profoundly helpful in building the alliances crucial for making the next climate summit a success.”

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Thabit Masoud, programme director at charity Care in Tanzania, told CHN if there was to be a reduction in aid to Tanzania, “it’s obviously the poorest and mostly the vulnerable rural women who would suffer the most”.

“The UK’s leading role as a climate finance contributor must not depend on the strategic value of poor countries to the UK,” he said.

Andrew Scott, director of the Overseas Development Institute’s climate and energy programme, said it would be “embarrassing” for the UK to change its priorities in the run-up to Cop26 and money was unlikely to be redirected between now and the summit next year.

“I don’t think you can change the course of a super tanker very quickly,” agreed Kate Levick, who leads think-tank E3G’s sustainable finance programme. But changes could appear in the longer term, she said.

The government has said it would maintain current rules overseeing UK aid and climate finance. Maarten van Aalst, director of the Red Cross’ Climate Centre, said the merger presented an opportunity for a joined-up approach that would “use the diplomatic machinery with the aid budget to achieve a common objective”.

But the “carrot” approach is unlikely to be effective in raising ambition, argued Scott, noting many developing countries already have climate targets that are conditional on receiving additional finance from richer nations.

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UK risks missing UN climate deadline, in headache for hosts of key summit https://www.climatechangenews.com/2020/06/25/uk-host-next-climate-summit-off-track-raising-ambition-2020/ Wed, 24 Jun 2020 23:01:20 +0000 https://www.climatechangenews.com/?p=42049 Britain's timeline for developing a more ambitious climate plan has slipped, challenging diplomatic efforts to encourage other countries to raise their game

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The UK host of the next critical UN climate summit may struggle to meet a UN deadline to submit a tougher climate plan.

Under the Paris climate accord, governments have agreed to update their 2030 climate targets this year. Collectively, they must make deeper emissions cuts to limit global heating “well below 2C” and strive for 1.5C – the agreement’s temperature targets.

They are expected to bring their strengthened plans to the UN climate summit known as Cop26, in Glasgow, which has been pushed back to November 2021 after the coronavirus pandemic made it impossible to hold an international conference this year.

UN climate chief Patricia Espinosa has insisted the delay to Cop26 does not change the 2020 deadline for countries to submit updated climate plans, known as nationally determined contributions (NDCs).

“We hope that we have as many NDCs as possible at the end of the year in 2020 because action is urgent,” she said at the opening of the June Momentum. The series of online events was run by UN Climate Change in place of the usual interim negotiations in Bonn, Germany, which have also been postponed due to coronavirus.

Vulnerable countries and small island states have urged countries not to delay climate action, as they face both intensifying climate impacts and a looming global recession.

But the UK has a timing problem. Its official advisors, the Committee on Climate Change, confirmed in a report on Thursday that it will provide advice on how to align the UK’s 2030 target with its 2050 net zero goal in December – leaving little time for a new climate plan to be finalised before the end of the year.

No UN climate talks to be held in 2020, as interim meeting postponed again

The UK was previously part of the European Union’s joint climate target but as it prepares to formally leave the bloc, it now has to come up with its own contribution to tackle global warming.

The advisors’ report provides the government with a host of recommendations to use the recovery from Covid-19 to accelerate the transition to a net zero economy, which they suggest is a precondition for “UK international leadership in 2021”.

In the 12 months since the UK enshrined its 2050 net zero target into law, the committee found “initial steps” have been taken to develop a net-zero policy package but “this was not the year of policy progress that [it] called for in 2019”.

The Cop26 delay to November 2021 “provides a window to address this policy deficit and establish a credible internationally-leading position,” it added.

The report calls on the UK government to deliver “an exemplar NDC” on the basis of “the pathway to reach net zero by 2050 that the committee will advise on in December 2020”. The plan, it said, should be published at a time when it can “maximise diplomatic impact”.

While the UK government has previously said it would publish an updated 2030 climate target well ahead of the Cop26 summit, it has so far stayed clear of giving any indication on timing.

Alok Sharma, Cop26 president designate and the UK’s minister of business, energy and industrial strategy, has urged countries to submit plans that commit to further cuts in carbon emissions by 2030 “ahead of Cop26” – now scheduled nearly a year after the UN deadline for NDC submissions.

Responding to Climate Home News’ questions about the timing of the UK’s climate plan, a government spokesman said: “The UK has committed to coming forward with an increased nationally determined contribution well ahead of Cop26.”

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Richard Black, director of the UK-based think-tank the Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit, told CHN a possible delay to the UK’s climate plan into 2021 risked hurting its climate diplomacy.

“The UK getting in early with this would be a clear act of leadership,” he said. But the government “is risking that the decision may slow global momentum for enhancing ambition before Cop26. It runs the risk that others will follow suit.”

Alex Scott, senior policy advisor at environmental think-tank E3G, said the UK, as Cop26 president, was responsible for driving ambition ahead of the summit. While the slippage in the climate talks’ timetable has made maintaining momentum even more challenging, the UK is coming under pressure to demonstrate how it will “green” its recovery from Covid-19.

“If the UK does not publish its NDC this year it will be undermining the momentum towards Cop26 and make the diplomatic effort to ensure other countries enhance their NDCs even harder,” she said. “We know that some countries won’t be publishing their NDCs until 2021 but to keep momentum, some countries will need to do it this year. The UK, as Cop president, is the obvious candidate for that.”

So far, only a handful of countries including the Marshall Islands, Norway, Chile and Rwanda have submitted tougher 2030 plans to the UN.

Will governments pass the first test of the Paris climate agreement in 2020?

New Zealand said it would submit its updated plan in early 2021 after receiving formal advice on how to align its 2030 target with limiting global temperatures to 1.5C. Larger emitters Japan and Switzerland have merely reaffirmed their existing 2030 targets.

By publishing its updated climate plan this year, the UK could use its diplomatic leverage to push countries that have submitted low-ambition plans to rethink their targets before the November 2021 summit, Scott added.

And despite the timetable headache, Black, of ECIU, and Scott agree the UK could still submit its climate plan in December providing the government was able to access some of the advice for raising its 2030 target prior to publication. A government commitment to “unequivocally” base its NDC on the CCC’s advice for raising ambition in 2030 could also send a positive signal, Black added.

A Committee on Climate Change spokesman told CHN advisors “could potentially give earlier advice” if requested by the UK government through Alok Sharma’s department for business, energy and industrial strategy. The committee has not received such request so far.

The story was updated on 25/06/2020 to include the Committee on Climate Change’s comment. 

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UK aid and foreign ministry merger raises fears for politicisation of climate finance https://www.climatechangenews.com/2020/06/16/uk-aid-foreign-ministry-merger-raises-fears-politicisation-climate-finance/ Tue, 16 Jun 2020 17:04:17 +0000 https://www.climatechangenews.com/?p=42019 The move puts Britain's economic interests abroad above efforts to eliminate poverty and protect the most vulnerable, experts warn

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Climate finance is at risk of becoming politicised by a merger between UK international development and foreign affairs ministries, aid experts have warned 

Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the closure of the Department for International Development (Dfid) and the creation of a new Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office during a parliamentary session on Tuesday.

Johnson told British lawmakers the coronavirus pandemic has shown the “distinctions between diplomacy and overseas development are artificial and outdated”.

He added: “We give as much aid to Zambia as we do to Ukraine, though the latter is vital for European security. We give ten times as much aid to Tanzania as we do to the six countries of the Western Balkans, who are acutely vulnerable to Russian meddling.”

His words have sparked concern international aid could be diverted from the most vulnerable countries, which are faced with intensifying climate impacts, to middle-income countries better placed to advance the UK’s interests overseas.

Coronavirus delays work to protect the world’s poor from climate shocks

The UK has the third biggest aid budget in the world. Last year, the government committed to double its contribution to international climate finance to $11.6 billion between 2021 and 2026.

The debate about whether foreign aid serves UK interests has been long running within Johnson’s Conservative party. He promised to use it to “maximise our influence” while maintaining a commitment to spend 0.7% of national income on aid.

The new department, to be established in early September, will be led by the UK’s foreign secretary Dominic Raab. He is to decide which countries will receive or cease to receive British aid, according to a single strategy for each nation.

Saleemul Huq, director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development at the Independent University, Bangladesh, told Climate Home News the merger would “subordinate development assistance and climate finance to foreign policy”. This at a time when the UK is courting the world’s largest economies, including the US, for free trade deals after it leaves the European Union.

Mohamed Adow, director of Power Shift Africa, a climate and energy campaign group based in Kenya, said the merger “looked like an attempt to allow money designed to be spent on the poorest people… to be used to oil the wheels of Britain’s post-Brexit trade deals and shore up its overseas security interests”.

“Africa is already suffering the brunt of the climate crisis, a crisis caused by industrialised nations like the UK,” he told CHN. “The UK’s wealth has been built on the resource extraction of Africa from Britain’s colonial past. This plundering and enslavement has held the continent back and is partly why African countries now need development aid.”

Sara Pantuliano, chief executive of the independent think-tank Overseas Development Institute (ODI), said aid “must not be politicised” and that an independent minister for international development reporting to the highest level of government enabled accountability.

“The government should be focusing on helping poorer countries to weather the [Covid-19] crisis and solving mounting global challenges like climate change rather than rearranging the bureaucratic furniture,” she said in a statement.

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Concerns have also been raised about the Foreign Office’s track record of managing development projects.

Kevin Watkins, chief executive of Save the Children, warned the UK’s foreign office had “no track-record in delivering results or transparency”.

Leonardo Martinez-Diaz, former USAid policy director and director of the World Resources’ Institute’s Sustainable Finance Center, said the UK’s foreign aid agency had “set the gold standard for how bilateral aid should be done. This marks the end of an era.”

No fewer than three former UK prime ministers spoke out against the move, in a break from convention.

In a statement, former Labour PM Gordon Brown said Johnson was “abolishing one of the UK’s great international assets” and an agency that had become a world leader in providing development to vulnerable countries facing climate impacts.

“Unlike diplomacy, which often depends on secrecy and thus leaves scant audit trails, development efforts demand transparency, and are most effective when subjected to external scrutiny,” he wrote.

Tony Blair, whose Labour government created Dfid in 1997, slammed the decision as “wrong and regressive”.

In an extraordinary rebuke to his own party, Conservative ex-PM David Cameron agreed the decision was a “mistake”. “More could and should be done to co-ordinate aid and foreign policy but the end of Dfid will mean less expertise, less voice for development at the top table and ultimately less respect for the UK overseas,” he said in a tweet.

The timing of a complex exercise in government restructuring in the middle of a global pandemic has also been criticised as out of touch with people’s concerns.

Opposition leader Keir Starmer accused the prime minister of a “poor attempt at distraction” from news the economy contracted by an unprecedented 20% in April and the UK had the world’s third highest death toll from Covid-19.

Dfid said to contact Number 10 for comment. Neither Number 10 nor the Foreign and Commonwealth Office responded to CHN’s request for comment in time for publication.

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Covid-hit UK begins 18-month preparations for UN climate summit https://www.climatechangenews.com/2020/05/29/covid-hit-uk-begins-18-month-preparations-un-climate-summit/ Fri, 29 May 2020 12:29:08 +0000 https://www.climatechangenews.com/?p=41947 The stakes of the next climate talks have been raised as countries make decisions to reboot the economy that could impact climate action for years to come

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The UK government has 18 months to prepare to host a critical UN climate summit, as it grapples with one of the worst Covid-19 outbreaks in the world.

On Thursday, the UN Climate Change bureau approved the Cop26 presidency’s proposal to hold the summit in Glasgow, 1-12 November 2021.

It gives the Cop26 presidency an extra year to press leaders into making stronger climate commitments, while considering how to safeguard up to 30,000 conference delegates from the novel health threat.

The response to coronavirus raises the stakes: billion-dollar economic recovery packages could speed the transition to clean energy or lock in dependence on fossil fuels.

“While we rightly focus on fighting the immediate crisis of the coronavirus, we must not lose sight of the huge challenges of climate change,” said Cop26 president Alok Sharma, in a statement announcing the decision.

“The steps we take to rebuild our economies will have a profound impact on our societies’ future sustainability, resilience and wellbeing and Cop26 can be a moment where the world unites behind a clean resilient recovery.”

EU €750 billion Covid recovery fund comes with green conditions

For national leaders, Cop26 is the moment to showcase updated pledges towards the Paris Agreement. These are supposed to be submitted to the UN by the end of 2020. Only a handful of countries have so far delivered. If global heating is to be held “well below 2C”, as agreed in Paris, substantially stronger carbon-cutting targets will be needed.

There are also important technical negotiations to finish around international carbon trading, a controversial element of the Paris rulebook that defied resolution at the last two summits.

The decision to hold Cop26 later rather than sooner reflects significant uncertainty around how fast treatments, vaccines and control measures for Covid-19 will be developed and implemented.

“The new dates mean the conference will be at a time when the Covid-19 tragedy will be behind us and we will be able to ensure inclusiveness,” said Sergio Costa, who as environment minister of Italy is set to run a pre-Cop meeting and youth summit.

Initially, African countries insisted it was their turn to host UN climate talks in 2021 and both summits could be held in the same year.

However, there were objections to having two Cops so close together: it puts a strain on budgets and limits the scope for making progress between meetings. A source in the meeting told Climate Home News the African Group of Negotiators did not ultimately try to block the scheduling decision and is lobbying the UK to include some African priorities on the high-level Cop26 agenda.

Comment: Clean energy is vital to the Covid-19 response in the world’s poorest countries

At the height of the pandemic, the UK had the second highest excess death rate per million people after Spain, among countries producing comparable data, the Financial Times reported on Thursday.

The government has been heavily criticised for leaving it late to introduce lockdown measures. In the past week, British newspaper front pages have been dominated by revelations the prime minister’s top adviser, Dominic Cummings, broke the lockdown rules he helped to write, refused to apologise and kept his job.

Sharma was among the cabinet ministers to accept Cummings’ explanation and urge the public to “move on”.

Claire O’Neill, a former climate minister who was initially appointed as Cop26 president before being unceremoniously sacked by Cummings in January, joined in the outrage on Twitter.

“I’ve been determined not to sink to political mud slinging and focus on building a grand alliance for climate repair. But this government with breathtakingly arrogant closed minded muppets like #DominicCummngs in charge couldn’t deliver a pizza let alone @COP26“, she tweeted. In British dialect, “muppet” means an incompetent or foolish person.

After she was removed from post, O’Neill wrote to the prime minister warning preparations for Cop26 were “miles off track”, blaming departmental infighting and budget constraints.

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In the run-up to Cop26 are a number of key political, diplomatic and scientific events that will influence the outcome.

The US presidential election in November could see Donald Trump returned for another four years. Research published this week suggests that would set back reductions in global emissions by a decade and slash the chance of holding global temperature rise to 2C to less than 0.1%.

Democratic candidate Joe Biden, on the other hand, is promising a Green New Deal and renewed focus on climate diplomacy, urged on by the activist wing of his party.

By a quirk of scheduling, the postponement of Cop26 puts it in the same year the UK hosts G7 leaders, an opportunity to get the world’s richest economies on the same page. Italy, which is partnering with the UK to run a pre-Cop meeting and youth summit, is also due to host the G20.

“Between now and November 2021 we will take advantage of every international opportunity to increase ambition and mobilisation,” said Italy’s Costa.

The Cop26 presidency has named 25 “friends of Cop” to drum up support across a range of constituencies. These include Sharan Burrow, head of the International Trade Union Confederation, Eric Garcetti, Mayor of Los Angeles and Selwin Hart, a UN special envoy for climate action.

Their efforts will be informed by the next round of heavyweight reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, summarising six years’ worth of scientific developments.

Negotiators and campaigners were broadly accepting of the need to postpone the summit, but warned climate action could not wait.

Sonam P Wangdi, Bhutanese chair of the least developed countries negotiating bloc, said in a statement: “Covid-19 may have put many things on pause, but it hasn’t slowed climate change or paused climate impacts. From floods in East Africa to Super Cyclone Amphan in Bangladesh, for the least developed countries, the climate crisis is a daily reality. Scaled up action to address climate change remains urgent.”

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Citizens’ assemblies on climate change seek to shape the post-Covid recovery https://www.climatechangenews.com/2020/04/17/citizens-assemblies-climate-change-seek-shape-post-covid-recovery/ Fri, 17 Apr 2020 11:12:05 +0000 https://www.climatechangenews.com/?p=41723 French and British initiatives to involve ordinary people in climate policy are adapting their work in light of the coronavirus pandemic

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As governments mull over multi-billion packages to weather the economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic, citizens’ assemblies could have a role to play in shaping a green recovery.

In France and the UK, citizens’ assemblies set up to make climate policy recommendations have moved online to continue their work amid restrictions to contain the spread of the virus.

Both countries are among the worst affected by the pandemic. More than 15,700 people have died in France and 12,100 in the UK as of Thursday, according to the World Health Organisation.

France’s citizens’ assembly was launched following “yellow vest” protests that were sparked by a 2018 hike in fuel tax. It was tasked to come up with measures to reduce the country’s emissions at least 40% by 2030 from 1990 levels “in a spirit of social justice”.

Its 150 members, drawn from a cross-section of society, met in person over five weekends starting in October 2019. Then Covid-19 hit and the authorities ordered people to stay home and avoid non-essential journeys.

Undeterred, the citizens assembly took its penultimate session online over two days at the start of April. The agenda was adapted to discuss the economic and social consequences of the coronavirus pandemic and how recovery measures could support climate action.

Following its online session, the assembly decided to send 50 of the 150 propositions it is working on to the French government, in the hope of influencing the Covid-19 recovery plan.

The propositions, obtained by Climate Home News, were not made public as they still need to be voted on at one last session.

Some of the French assembly’s draft proposals

  • An investment plan for public transport: encouraging ride-sharing and cycling, modernising railway infrastructure, reducing VAT on train tickets, banning the sales of new private vehicles emitting more than 110 gCO2/km from 2025 and more than 90 gCO2/km from 2030, and creating more incentives for electric, hybrid and hydrogen vehicles
  • An investment plan for agriculture: promoting local food networks, ensuring 50% of agricultural land is developed according to agro-ecology practices by 2040
  • Reducing the carbon footprint of manufacturing and production by encouraging local distribution networks, reducing pollution and incentivising sustainable approaches
  • Scaling up the recycling sector by 2023 and promoting the repair of products
  • Improving the energy efficiency of 20 million homes and making energy efficiency renovation on buildings compulsory by 2040
  • Promoting renewable energy production of small units to ensure all citizens, businesses and local authorities can contribute to green electricity production from 2023
  • Containing urban sprawl
  • Banning advertising for the most polluting products based on a CO2 rating score and encouraging public messaging against excessive consumption
  • Ensuring public support for innovation is aligned with goals to reduce emissions and boost clean technologies by 2025
  • Reforming the EU’s commercial politics to promote local distribution networks and avoid over-consumption

The assembly warned the French government not to repeat the mistakes made after the 2008 financial crisis, which saw investments in carbon-intensive and fossil fuel industries.

Instead, it urged the government to ensure investments made as part of the recovery effort are “socially acceptable” and benefit green solutions and the energy transition.

It called for recovery measures to prepare for “a different social and economic model, that is more human and more resilient in the face of future crisis” by reducing France’s dependence on imports, boosting jobs and reducing emissions.

Laurence Tubiana, co-president of the assembly’s governance committee and a key architect of the Paris Agreement, praised the assembly members for their patience in taking their work online.

“Sometimes the organisation of our citizens’ assembly for the climate is like crossing the Amazon without a map,” she said.

South Korea to implement Green New Deal after ruling party election win

The UK’s assembly is also moving online to continue its work to draw up measures for the UK to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.

The last of four weekends due to be held at the end of March was cancelled following the coronavirus outbreak. Instead the 110-member assembly will split its final work across three weekends of virtual Zoom meetings, starting 18/19 April and finishing 16/17 May.

Sarah Allan, of Involve, a public participation charity commissioned by the UK Parliament to facilitate the assembly, said members were keen to finalise their work despite Covid-19 restrictions.

Test calls were held with all participants to ensure everyone was able to navigate the online meeting software. Two people had to take a break after being affected by coronavirus. One other member has been suffering from medical issues not related to Covid-19.

“But nobody has dropped out or doesn’t want to take part anymore,” Allan said.

The UK assembly’s final sessions will focus on electricity generation, negative emissions technologies to remove carbon from the atmosphere and finalising its recommendations. Speakers and experts have pre-recorded presentations to be discussed in smaller break-out groups.

Assembly members will also be given the opportunity to discuss the impact of the pandemic. Allan said the assembly’s experts were still discussing how best to approach the issue.

“We are talking almost weekly with the French assembly,” she said.

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According to a survey by pollsters Opinium, 48% of the British public agrees the government should respond “with the same urgency to climate change as it has with Covid-19” – 28% of respondents said it shouldn’t.

The model for holding citizens’ assemblies, even at times of crisis, has gathered international interest.

“I have emails in my inbox from Canada and Australia wanting to talk about how we are holding the assembly online,” said Allan.

But the pandemic has also stopped some assemblies in their tracks.

Teresa Ribera, Spain’s vice prime minister and minister for the ecological transition, told Climate Home News the launch of the country’s citizens’ assembly on climate change had had to be postponed.

“We realised that it didn’t make much sense to start working on this in a moment when we have stated the importance of social distancing,” she said. “But all the preparatory work was done so we will be in a position to launch it as soon as the general circumstances allow us to do so.”

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To be credible at Cop26, the UK needs a plan for its climate plan https://www.climatechangenews.com/2020/02/27/credible-cop26-uk-needs-plan-climate-plan/ Thu, 27 Feb 2020 18:32:54 +0000 https://www.climatechangenews.com/?p=41404 The obvious time for the UK to publish its NDC would be before the Commonwealth meeting in June, to leverage countries like India and South Africa

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Britain’s new Cop26 president Alok Sharma has a problem over upgrading the UK’s climate plan, also known as NDC. 

Although that might sound like a technical issue, it’s really not; his decision on how to manage it will be a crucial factor in setting the tone ahead of this year’s critical UN climate summit in Glasgow.

An NDC is a Nationally Determined Contribution – the pledge that each country makes to all others in terms of tackling its own greenhouse gas emissions.

Governments first put forward NDCs in 2015, in the run-up to the UN climate summit in Paris. In the Paris Agreement they ‘requested’ each other to put forward enhancements, or upgrades, starting this year.

Those upgrades could include a number of elements but the key expectation is that governments will accelerate their carbon-cutting for the decade to 2030.

Currently the assembled NDCs put the world on course for something like 3C of global warming by the end of the century – a marked contrast to their promise in Paris to ‘make efforts’ to hold it to 1.5C.

The case for upgrading NDCs strengthened markedly in 2018 when the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said in its landmark special report that getting on track for 1.5C basically means halving global carbon emissions by 2030.

Net zero goal ‘greatest commercial opportunity of our time,’ says Mark Carney

Although more than 100 governments have said they will put forward an enhanced NDC before the Glasgow summit, only three have actually done so. Question marks therefore hang over how many others will – and when – and how much they’re going to accelerate their carbon clampdowns.

So the issue before the UK government is: as self-proclaimed climate change leaders, how do they manage things in order to get the maximum number of other nations to take an ambitious step forward?

Having left the European Union, the UK must at some point submit a national NDC anyway – the bloc uses a joint one. And to burnish its leadership credentials and encourage other countries to step up on their NDCs, an obvious route is to go early and go large.

The obvious time to do this would be before the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in June. There, Boris Johnson will be able to talk NDCs directly with Narendra Modi of India, Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa and other leaders of Commonwealth countries able to step up a little.

The Commonwealth meeting is also the ideal stage on which the UK can proffer a package of measures to help the poorest nations on Earth (which includes a number of Commonwealth members) protect themselves against climate impacts and green their economies, which many will need in order to step up the pace on carbon-cutting.

UK’s Nigel Topping seeks broad movement to drive global economy to net zero by 2050

But here’s the problem: the UK can’t both go early and go large.

If the UK puts forward an NDC in or before June, it would have to base the headline number on its current legally-binding target for 2030, as laid down in the fifth national carbon budget. That’s a 57% reduction from the 1990 baseline.

On paper, that’s a marked advance from the EU’s NDC, which pledges a 40% cut.

But it would be just that – a paper advance – because national legislation, the Climate Change Act, already commits the UK to a 57% cut. No-one, including those other governments that the UK wants to impress, would give any credit for that.

Due to a technicality of the way UK emissions are currently accounted for, the 57% figure translates into an actual emissions reduction of 61%. If the UK leaves the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) at the end of the year when the Brexit ‘transition period’ ends, the 57% figure would then automatically become 61% – more impressive-sounding, but still absolutely the same level of ambition.

Given that the transition period ends on 31 December, there may be no clarity on this until late in the year, perhaps even after COP26.

The problem gets bigger.

The 57% or 61% cut by 2030 was set to be compatible with the previous 2050 target of an 80% cut in emissions, not with the current net zero target.

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So, the criticism would run – the UK is pitching in a number that’s not even compatible with its own legally-binding 2050 target and calling it ‘leadership’.

To add Mr Sharma’s headache, the government’s advisors, the Committee on Climate Change, will submit new official advice in September making clear what the net-zero-compatible 2030 target should be. Previous work suggests it’ll be in the range of 62-65% – again, corresponding to a higher number if the UK leaves the ETS.

Logically, the UK should make this new 2030 number the basis of its NDC. And it would represent a genuine increase in carbon-cutting ambition, and therefore be a credible marker of leadership.

However, the government can’t know exactly what the net-zero-compatible 2030 number is until the committee has calculated and published it. But September is far too late to begin using an ambitious NDC as a calling-card to entice other governments to step up.

To make matters worse, ministers could prolong the agony by deciding they need to discuss and debate the number and run their own calculations before accepting it.

So as things stand, the UK risks heading into the year, close up to the climate summit and possibly even beyond, asking others to rally behind a ‘climate leadership’ banner while touting an NDC, the most important international measure of leadership, which is demonstrably un-leader-like.

UK’s Heathrow airport expansion ruled unlawful over climate change

There are two ways in which Mr Sharma can square the circle.

One is by making an unequivocal commitment early in the year that the UK will publish an enhanced NDC in September, and that it will contain whatever 2030 number the Committee on Climate Change calculates.

The second is to publish an NDC containing the 57% or 61% figure early in the year, alongside an unequivocal commitment to upgrade it later in the year to reflect the committee’s advice. In both cases ministers will have to approve the recommended number in double-quick time.

Whichever route it wants to take, ministers need to decide soon – and for a successful COP26 with UK leadership at the centre of its offer, doing nothing except proudly proclaiming its current figure, even if expressed in the impressive-sounding form of an ETS-free 61%, is not an option.

The dilemma is clear. Decision time is due soon.

Richard Black is the director of the think-tank the Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit. 

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UK climate diplomacy ‘already happening’ for Cop26 despite leadership vacuum https://www.climatechangenews.com/2020/02/11/uk-climate-diplomacy-already-happening-cop26-despite-leadership-vacuum/ Tue, 11 Feb 2020 15:25:12 +0000 https://www.climatechangenews.com/?p=41265 The UK's top climate diplomat said the country had been able to do 'a huge amount' of pre-diplomacy work despite the lack of a Cop26 president

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The UK’s diplomatic service has already done a “huge amount” to kickstart preparations for this year’s climate summit even as the government struggles to fill a leadership vacuum, the country’s top climate diplomat has said.

Awaiting the appointment of a new president for Cop26 in Glasgow, Nick Bridge, the UK’s foreign secretary special representative for climate change, said: “We have been able to do a huge amount” abroad already, citing work with civil society and businesses.

“Every ambassador and high commissioner is out there working out what that drum beat of action is and a lot of it is already happening,” he told an event organised by the think tank Green Alliance in London on Tuesday.

The role of Cop26 president has been vacant since UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson abruptly sacked Claire O’Neill from the role at the end of January. A new Cop26 president is expected to be announced on Thursday, as part of a cabinet reshuffle.

Bridge said 50 new people had been recruited within the climate diplomacy service to drive the UK’s efforts to shift the world into taking more ambitious climate action. The Cop26 unit team is also “approaching 200 people,” he said.

“The resources are there,” he said, adding the whole diplomatic mission had been “instructed to have [climate change] as their top international priority this year”. “This is a whole government mindset.”

On a less global front, the UK is also aiming to negotiate trade deals in the wake of Brexit.

UK walks diplomatic tightrope for 2020 climate summit after shaky start

After she was sacked, O’Neill made a blistering personal attack on what she called Johnson’s lack of understanding of the importance of the talks, accusing Number 10 of failing to provide the necessary leadership to make the talks a success.

Last week, both former UK Prime Minister David Cameron and former foreign secretary William Hague refused to lead the UK’s presidency of the talks, raising concerns no senior candidate would take the job.

Cop26 is billed as the most important climate talks since countries signed the Paris Agreement in 2015. Governments are under pressure to submit toughen climate plans to the UN before the summit in November and bridge the gap between current levels of commitment and what is needed to limit global warming “well below 2C” by the end of the century.

At a time when global politics are not aligned with greater climate ambition, the UK presidency faces a steep climb to leverage the world’s largest emitters into greater action.

The UK successfully bid to preside over the Cop26 with Italy, which is due to host a preparatory meeting and youth event in Milan.

Bridge said said the UK needed to understand how every major country was taking decisions on climate action and “translate that into an economic vision” to provide “the positive momentum we need”.

Marshall Islands, Suriname, Norway upgrade climate plans before Cop26

Michael Gove, the UK’s former environment minister, also set out his vision for summit. He is heavily tipped to become the next Cop26 president.

But asked whether he wanted the job, Gove replied: “I am very happy of the job that I have and there are many, many, many talented people who could do the job of Cop president better that I ever could.”

However, Gove insisted he wanted to make sure the Glasgow talks “live up to the expectations of all those people who’ve so often felt let down by this process”, adding that the UK had “a moral responsibility to lead on climate” as the first country to industrialise.

He added domestic action from the US and Brazil at the sub-national level will be vital in driving ambition. The US will formally leave the Paris Agreement on 4 November – a day after the US presidential election. A Democrat victory could see the US re-join the deal within a couple of month.

Gove described his aspiration for success at the talks as the acceptance that “the need to act leads to action that is irreversible, accelerating and inclusive”, insisting that adaptation and resilience, nature-based solutions and greening of financial flows would need to be at the heart of the UK’s strategy.

He also suggested making the talks “the most transparent ever” by livestreaming key meetings in the negotiations, which he said would prevent governments from saying one thing in public sessions and another in private meetings.

UN Climate Change already livestreams all plenary negotiations as well as a number of public meetings and press conferences. But governments and negotiators have long used closed door meetings to make progress and flesh out contentious issues outside the public eye.

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UK’s Boris Johnson urges all countries to set net zero emissions goals in 2020 https://www.climatechangenews.com/2020/02/04/uks-boris-johnson-urges-countries-set-net-zero-emissions-goals-2020/ Tue, 04 Feb 2020 12:50:24 +0000 https://www.climatechangenews.com/?p=41211 The UK's Prime Minister launched Cop26 hours after being accused by sacked talks president Claire O'Neill of 'not understanding' the issues at stake

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UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has called on every country to set long-term goals in 2020 to reach net zero emissions at the formal launch of UK plans to host UN climate talks in November.

“We were the first to industrialise, so we have a responsibility to lead the way,” he told the audience of selected reporters at the Science Museum in London on Tuesday to outline plans for Cop26 in Glasgow.

“We have to deal with out CO2 emissions and that is why the UK is calling for us to get to net zero as soon as possible – for every country to announce credible targets to get there [sic]. That is what we want in Glasgow,” he said during the event attended by Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte and British naturalist broadcaster David Attenborough.

The UK and Italy won a joint a bid to host this year’s critical climate summit, with Milan hosting a preparatory meeting and a youth event and Glasgow hosting the summit.

The UK was the first major economy to set a net zero emissions target by 2050 in law last summer and Johnson said he would “lead a global call to reach net zero”.

Johnson launched Cop26 despite the fact the summit is lacking a president to facilitate it.

His speech was overshadowed by an intensifying fallout with Claire O’Neill, the UK’s former clean growth minister, who was sacked as Cop26 president on Friday evening.

UK government drops Claire O’Neill as president of Cop26 summit

Hours before Johnson’s speech, O’Neill made a blistering personal attack on Johnson accusing him of failing to understand the diplomatic gravitas of the summit.

“We have seen a huge lack of engagement and leadership,” she told the BBC of Johnson’s attitude towards Cop26. “He also admitted to me that he doesn’t really understand it,” she said, adding that “others around him do”.

In an explosive letter addressed to Prime Minister Johnson, O’Neill said preparations for the summit she was in charge of were “miles off track” and accused Johnson of not giving the summit the attention and resources it needed.

In her letter, O’Neill described government in-fighting over who should be accountable for the talks preparations, ballooning budgets and the lack of planning for international engagements to the summit.

“In my judgement this isn’t a pretty place to be and we owe the world a lot better,” she wrote, calling for “a whole government reset” which would move the summit to the “Premier League” of the government’s priorities.

“You had a vision for Brexit and you got Brexit done. Please get this done too,” she added.

Johnson did not respond to questions over his motives for sacking O’Neill.

Rebecca Newsom, head of politics for Greenpeace UK, said the UK government needed “to rise above petty politics” and “lead by example” by “get[ting] its own house in order”.

Youth activists urge African governments to do more to curb climate change

Some observers had hoped O’Neill’s replacement would be announced during the summit’s launch given the short timescale to the November summit. The next Cop26 president is now expected to be announced during a UK cabinet reshuffle tipped to take place next week.

Alex Scott, senior policy advisor on Cop26 for the environmental think tank E3G, told Climate Home News a new appointment needed to be made as soon as possible.

“We are really hoping that there is some clarity on this as soon as possible because of how late in the day it is now and the gravity of the diplomatic task ahead,” she said.

“What this process is going to need is a little more Boris Johnson level engagement. We need to see a lot more commitment from the prime minister on the Cop strategy,” she added.

Cop26 is widely considered the most important climate summit since the Paris summit in 2015.

Countries are under pressure to increase their climate plans to bridge the gap between current emissions reduction pledges and what is necessary to limit global warming “well below 2C” above pre-industrial times.

Current temperature projections set warming to be on track for more than 3C by the end of the century.

Under the Paris Agreement, countries are also due to publish their long-term decarbonisation strategies before the end of the year.

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Last year, the UK won praise for setting a national carbon neutrality goal for 2050 but has taken few steps to develop a comprehensive plan to meet it.

Analysis by the environmental think tank Green Alliance published on Monday found the UK was off track to meet its 2050 target.

Much of the UK’s credibility for demanding the world to achieve carbon neutrality by the middle of the century relies on its own ability to come up with a meaningful plan to reach its own 2050 target.

Johnson used his speech to launch a “year of climate action” in the UK. He also announced plans to bring forward a ban on petrol and diesel cars, which includes hybrid cars, to 2035 – five years earlier than initially planned.

Responding to the announcement, the Green Alliance said this was a “move in the right direction” but “isn’t nearly ambitious enough” to meet the UK’s decarbonisation goals. Instead, it called for the ban to come into force in 2030.

Newsom said cars were “an important piece of the puzzle” towards decarbonising the UK economy but could not be seen in isolation.

“Expanding airports, handing out new licenses for oil drilling, and putting billions of taxpayers’ money behind climate-wrecking fossil fuel projects all over the world will not get us to the right destination,” she added.

On Tuesday, the UK’s aviation sector also announced a commitment to become carbon neutral by 2050 mainly by offsetting flights’ emissions – a measure that heavily relies on the use of carbon offsets.

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UK must cut land use emissions by two thirds to meet 2050 goal, advisers warn https://www.climatechangenews.com/2020/01/23/uk-must-cut-land-use-emissions-two-thirds-meet-2050-goal-advisers-warn/ Thu, 23 Jan 2020 00:05:24 +0000 https://www.climatechangenews.com/?p=41147 Committee on Climate Change warns a fifth of all agricultural land needs to be released for climate mitigation to help the UK achieve carbon neutrality

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The UK needs to take urgent action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from land use by two thirds to deliver on its economy-wide pledge for carbon neutrality by 2050, government advisers have warned.

In a report published on Thursday, the Committee on Climate Change (CCC), the UK government’s official climate adviser, has called for rapid and major shifts to farming practices, agro-forestry and consumer behaviour to decarbonise the UK’s land sector.

Emissions from land use have risen since the 1990s to represent 12% of the UK’s total greenhouse gas emissions in 2017. The CCC outlined what it would take for the UK to reduce emissions from land use by 64% by 2050.

The CCC has previously warned that achieving carbon neutrality in the UK would need to involve all sectors of the economy but that not every sector would individually need to achieve net zero emissions. Instead, negative emissions technologies, such as carbon capture and storage, could be used to offset remaining emissions.

Under the CCC’s latest recommendations, a fifth of all agricultural land needs to be used to suck carbon from the atmosphere, by planting trees, restoring peatlands and soils and growing bioenergy crops with carbon capture and storage (BECCS). Growing timber and bioenergy crops would also generate further emissions cuts in other sectors of the economy when used with carbon capture and storage.

The advisers said this would enable the use of land to reduce carbon emissions while also balancing other priorities for land use, such as food production and flood protection.

UK to stop funding coal abroad but will help Africa with oil, gas

Among recommendations, the report urged a cut in consumption of carbon-intensive food such as beef, lamb and dairy by at least 20% per person and a reduction in food waste by 20% by 2050. Such changes would help reduce methane emissions from livestock and release land for tree planting and growing bioenergy crops, the report said.

This dietary change would imply reducing cattle and sheep numbers by 10% compared with 2017 levels by mid-century – less than the 20% decline experienced in the UK in the past 20 years.

The report comes days before the UK’s first climate citizen assembly is due to gather on Saturday to thrash out solutions to achieve the net zero emissions goal by 2050. The UK is also in the midst of reviewing its agricultural policies as its prepares to pull out of the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) as part of Brexit.

Last year, the UK was the first major economy in the world to set a carbon neutrality goal in law. Much of the country’s credibility as host to this year’s critical UN climate talks in Glasgow in November lies on the ability of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative government to come up with a concrete plan to achieve its 2050 target.

CCC chairman Lord Deben said the report was one of “the most important” pieces of work produced by the committee. “Changes to land use are absolutely essential” for the UK to meet its climate goal, he said, citing the critical role of farmers and land-managers in delivering the changes.

“These are major changes and cannot be delivered in the normal course of business,” he warned.

IPCC: Urgent action needed to tackle hunger alongside climate crisis

Implementation measures could cost the UK an estimated £1.4 billion ($1.8bn) per year but could yield benefits to the tune of £80bn ($105bn), according to the CCC. The committee suggested creating a climate levy on fossil-fuel emitting industries, such as airlines, to absorb some of the cost.

The report identified afforestation and agro-forestry as the biggest carbon-cutting measures. This would include planting at least 30,000 hectares (and possibly up to 50,000 hectares) of broadleaf and conifer woodland each year by 2050 to increase forest cover from 13% to 17%, and planting trees on agricultural land.

The UK government has already pledged to plant 11 million trees by 2022. In his 2019 manifesto, Johnson promised to plant 75,000 acres or just above 30,000 hectares of trees a year “by the end of the next Parliament” in 2024.

Feed-in tariffs and the creation of a UK forestry trading scheme could be used to fund such measures, the CCC suggested, noting that carbon credits from these projects should not be used as offsets to help other sectors of the economy reduce emissions.

Other measures proposed include the roll-out of low-carbon farming practices such as controlling fertilisers release, changing cattle feed and improving livestock health.

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The report highlighted the need to balance tensions between using land for reducing emissions and growing food.

“Delivering emissions reduction should not be at the expense of increasing food imports that risk ‘carbon leakage’,” the report warned.

British beef and lamb are some of the least emissions-intensive in the world, CCC chief executive Chris Stark told reporters, warning against meat imports with higher emissions footprints.

“It’s time to end this adversarial discussions between climate and farmers,” he said.

Government policies, including potential regulatory and pricing measures, will be also necessary to encourage consumers to shift diets and behaviours, the report said.

The CCC previously set out a series of measures which it said could reduce emissions in the UK by up to 96% by 2050.

Tackling the remaining 4-5% would require “some use of options that currently appear more speculative,” it admitted. This could include greater shifts in diet and land use, more limited aviation demand growth and a larger contribution from technologies to remove CO2 from the atmosphere – technologies which have so far not been proven at scale.

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The UK must steer the Paris Agreement out of its ‘perilous decade’ https://www.climatechangenews.com/2019/12/04/uk-must-steer-paris-agreement-perilous-decade/ Wed, 04 Dec 2019 03:15:01 +0000 https://www.climatechangenews.com/?p=40846 Demands for action are outstripping political will. The diplomatic task of bridging the expectations gap falls to the hosts of next year's climate talks

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This is the year the global conversation on the climate changed. It is no longer a marginal issue but has joined the political mainstream.

Political attention is now constant. Media coverage has broken out of the green ghetto. Climate deniers have returned to obscurity.

The huge global profile of Greta Thunberg, Extinction Rebellion and Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez is driven by the increasing frequency and impact of extreme weather events. Unusually intense wildfires, floods, storms and droughts, now occurring simultaneously throughout the world, are validating climate science experientially for people everywhere.

What climate scientists said would happen is happening, only sooner and more dramatically than they previously thought. The technologies to free the global economy from fossil fuel dependence have also become competitive faster than anyone thought possible. They will become cheaper still in future.

Madrid climate talks to split nations into vanguard and laggard

The Paris Agreement consolidated a global consensus among governments on the need to keep the rise in global average temperatures to less than 2C. The central political equation for governments is changing. The political cost of failing to act on the climate is rising just as the political cost of assertive climate policies is falling.

So, are things looking up for the next two rounds of climate negotiations in Madrid, which began on Monday, and Glasgow? Not necessarily.

Public support for forceful climate action is certainly rising but there are few signs that the political will to act is also rising. The gap between what governments are doing about climate change and what they need to do is widening.

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The Paris Agreement recognised that climate policy success would require commitments to reduce carbon emissions to become more ambitious. It built into the agreement a ratchet mechanism to require a progressive raising of effort. The next two Cop rounds will determine whether this mechanism can be made to work.

David Roberts, one of the world’s better commentators on climate policy, writing in Vox, warned that the UN climate convention – the UNFCCC – was entering a ‘perilous decade’. At the heart of the peril is an expectations trap.

Political leaders everywhere are declaring a climate emergency. It is therefore natural for people to expect more from the annual gathering of tens of thousands of ministers, officials, scientists, business leaders and climate activists than we are likely to get in Madrid or Glasgow.

Frustration is inevitable. And understandable. It is not hard to imagine either the scale or mood of the protests Extinction Rebellion might mount in Glasgow. The peril is that this frustration will nourish the idea the UNFCCC has failed to deliver and that another way must be found for the world to protect the climate.

Cop25 bulletin: Tuesday 3rd December

Not everyone running this argument will be doing so in order to get more done about climate change. And none of those already running it have come up with anything better. The UNFCCC is not, and cannot be, some surrogate global legislative assembly.

Its real world task is to keep enough alignment of the forces within and between countries that want to solve the problem for the real economy to make the transition to net zero. If we expect it to do more than it can, it will fail. If the UNFCCC fails then we lose that alignment and everyone’s climate efforts go backwards.

In a climate emergency, there must be compensation for victims

In Glasgow, the task of steering the world out of this expectations trap will fall to the UK government. It will be a crucial test of its claim to global leadership on climate change. Climate diplomacy happens in capitals not negotiating rooms. It will be conversations in capitals in the next few months that will shape the space for agreement in Glasgow. If this diplomatic effort is late, weak or poorly focussed, then the negotiations will run head on into those rising expectations.

If the UK is to have the authority to be an effective global leader  and to lift ambition then it must be seen to be walking the talk. It has rightly won global praise, sometimes by way of imitation, for its climate act. But a clear gap is emerging between its agreed carbon budgets and the policies required to meet them. Closing that gap will be essential to achieving the authority the UK will need to make a success of Glasgow.

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There are four things it could do right away that would secure this authority: spend an additional £1billion/year on leveraging private capital to make domestic buildings energy efficient; lift its moratorium on onshore wind developments; write a 2030 target for phasing out internal combustion engines into law, instruct its export credit agency and representatives on international financial institutions not to approve finance for new fossil fuel developments.

One of the keys to diplomatic success it that other governments believe you are serious. Adopting these four domestic policies would be a clear indication that the UK is serious about global success in Glasgow.

Tom Burke is chairman and founding director of E3G

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