Around The Web

Australian governments have invested a lot of hope in hydrogen to help drive the net zero transition, but concrete policies are urgently needed or we will lose our hydrogen advantage to other nations. Alison Reeve, Deputy Program Director, Energy and Climate Change, Grattan Institute Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

The planet faces an existential threat if we do not transition from the current extractive model of growth to a low-carbon economy

Colombia’s economy is dependent on fossil fuels, which account for about half of its exports. But at the UN climate summit this weekend, Gustavo Petro, the country’s president, committed to stop the expansion of coal, oil and gas exploitation and reorient his nation away from such “poisons”. Colombia is the first big economy to endorse a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty. This is a sensible, globally significant step – which raises the question of why other carbon-exporting OECD members, such as Britain, shouldn’t follow suit.

What is crazy is that governments plan to produce more than double the amount of fossil fuels in 2030 that is consistent with a “safe” global temperature rise of 1.5C. The paradox the treaty seeks to address is that the Paris agreement does not mention the fossil fuels responsible for global heating. But a handful of nations could show how phasing out fossil fuels can lead to sustainable green development and rebut the absurd denialism of Sultan Al Jaber, the oil boss and Cop28 president. There are precedents: the 1997 mine ban treaty began with few backers, but was later ratified by 164 countries.

Continue reading...

The Republic of Congo plans to develop sovereign carbon credits for sale under the Paris Agreement's Article 6, opting to shun the "climate injustice" of the voluntary market as well as REDD+ programmes, the minister of environment told Carbon Pulse at COP28, though it is not clear under which standard the units would be issued.

New Zealand market participants once again expect the December ETS auction will fail to clear due to lack of demand, creating positive market fundamentals going into the new year.

Conservation International is looking for a self-determined and motivated candidate who is able to navigate complex environments in various countries within Africa. This position will be the lead for carbon transactions, both on the “upstream” origination side, as well as the “downstream” commercial side.

Lack of public chargers blamed for decision to be only ‘zero-emissions capable’ by April 2024

London’s biggest minicab company has U-turned on plans for all its cars to produce zero emissions this year, blaming a lack of public chargers in the capital.

Addison Lee said it had spent £30m on new Volkswagen Multivans, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), which combine a small battery with a polluting internal combustion engine, and admitted that the switch to electric cars had been harder than it had expected.

Continue reading...

Japan is preparing to expand the scope of the bilateral Joint Crediting Mechanism (JCM) to cover overseas agricultural projects, a panel heard Sunday.

President Bola Tinubu of Nigeria outlined plans to accelerate the country's carbon market with the launch of a draft plan for the new committee to include an emissions trading scheme, carbon registry, and a framework for the development of carbon credits for the voluntary carbon market at COP28 in Dubai, amid several months of stalled agreements regarding a national strategy.

Thousands of activists to attend conference in UAE which has a poor record for demonstrations

Cop28 organisers and the UN body that oversees the annual climate conference have failed to clarify whether activists who travel to Dubai are safe to demonstrate outside the conference area, putting civil society at risk in a country where protest is normally prohibited.

At least 70,000 people are registered to attend the conference, including thousands of activists and members of civil society, who normally hold protests around the conference area.

Continue reading...

Al Gore emphasised the importance of Saturday's methane pledge by almost 50 oil and gas companies to work towards near zero methane emissions, while highlighting glaring gaps in the announcement due to the absence of some of the world’s highest emitting companies and countries, during a plenary session at COP28.

India’s green credit scheme may fail to deliver on its intended purpose unless the federal government strongly pushes the private sector into the units, a climate veteran told Carbon Pulse on the sidelines of COP28 in Dubai.

Brazil and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are likely to host pilot projects generating REDD+ credits under a new standard, established by three voluntary forest carbon stakeholders, as early as 2024, as ministers and Indigenous Peoples from the two countries pledged their support at COP28 on Sunday.

Tolkien’s hostility to rampant industrialisation should chime with nations represented in Dubai

• Cop28 live – latest updates

Back in the 1960s, no self-respecting hippy would be seen dead without a well-thumbed copy of the Lord of the Rings. Along with a copy of Sgt Pepper and the Tibetan Book of the Dead, it came to epitomise the counterculture.

Times change. Tolkien’s most prominent fan at present is Giorgia Meloni, the most rightwing prime minister Italy has had since the second world war. That has set alarm bells clanging.

Continue reading...

The Energy Transition Accelerator (ETA), a coalition of carbon credit buyers and sellers, will launch next year to provide revenue to support developing countries on their road to a clean energy transition, as an accompanying core framework and initial pilot countries were also announced at COP28 Sunday.

Exclusive: UAE’s Sultan Al Jaber says phase-out of coal, oil and gas would take world ‘back into caves’

• Cop28 live – latest updates

The president of Cop28, Sultan Al Jaber, has claimed there is “no science” indicating that a phase-out of fossil fuels is needed to restrict global heating to 1.5C, the Guardian and the Centre for Climate Reporting can reveal.

Al Jaber also said a phase-out of fossil fuels would not allow sustainable development “unless you want to take the world back into caves”.

Continue reading...

Norway and Morocco have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to cooperate on Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, they announced on Saturday at the UN climate conference COP28 in Dubai, making it the third such agreement Norway has signed in the past few weeks.

A climate investment platform launched a whitepaper at COP28 to address what it has described as "common misconceptions" around the voluntary carbon market (VCM), proposing steps to help it scale and address the "headwinds" it currently faces.

The world leaders’ summit is over, and the negotiators take centre stage. Sunday’s official themes are health, relief, recovery and peace

The British prime minister, Rishi Sunak, has been facing criticism at home for the brevity of his visit to the climate conference, having visited for less than a day. He has also been accused of hypocrisy for pushing for a phase-out of fossil fuels only weeks after approving new oil and gas licences in the North Sea.

Al Gore, the former US vice-president, said: “I am not impressed with prime minister Sunak’s climate policies. I think they’re terrible. They’re very disappointing.”

Continue reading...

Rwanda has launched a 56-page carbon market framework at COP28, which focuses on establishing readiness for crediting and international trade under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, also announcing two bilateral agreements with Asian countries.

It's Day 4 of COP28 and the focus begins to move away from world leaders, after a busy few days filled with international pledges, towards the nitty gritty of negotiations in Dubai. The devil, as they say, will be in the details in terms of progress on the global stocktake, as well as on carbon markets. Oh, and today is the first ever Health Day at a UNFCCC COP.  In our daily running blog, Carbon Pulse will report relevant or useful updates throughout the day. Timestamps are in local time (Gulf Standard Time, GMT+4).