Key topics coming from Day 4 at COP29 and more broadly in climate news:
Over $1 trillion needed by 2030 to enable less developed nations to achieve climate goals (BNEF say it’s $2.6 trillion*)
Businesses and financial institutions call on clear and proven policies from governments to stimulate untapped demand for green products
China’s Guangzhou has experienced the longest summer on record, skipping autumn.
The Global Solidarity Levies Taskforce releases some fascinating opportunities for temporary taxes to generate the finance needed to tackle the climate crisis
Bitcoin accounts for 1% of global energy demand in 2023* and just a 5 cents per kWh levy could unlock billions for climate finance.
Towards the end of Day 3 of COP29, Barbadian Prime Minister Mia Mottley invited Donald Trump to seek ‘common ground’ on the climate crisis in a face-to-face meeting, and France’s ecological transition minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher cancelled her trip to the summit after Ilham Aliyev’s tirade against French colonialism.
A study published today has found that less developed nations will need 1 trillion US dollars in climate finance by 2030 – five years earlier than countries are likely to agree on at COP29. The focus on climate finance is due to the 2009 agreement to contribute $100 billion annually expiring this year. This figure was reached only in 2022. Developing countries are asking for around 1.3 trillion US dollars a year by 2035, but the likely figure agreed upon will be the 1 trillion suggested in 2022 by the Independent High-Level Expert Group on Climate Finance.
BNEF say it’s more like $2.6 trillion… per year… to enable developing countries to transition to low carbon economies – more here: a new report
Jennifer Morgan, Germany’s climate envoy, labelled China’s climate finance contributions as ‘an important mini-step’, although she clarified that ‘only that which is transparent can be recognised’. China’s vice-premier, Ding Xuexiang, claimed on Tuesday that China provides around $3 billion of climate finance every year.
Azerbaijan’s Yalchin Rafiyev, when asked to comment on Javier Milei recalling the Argentinian delegation from COP29, described it as a ‘bilateral matter’ between the UN and Argentina, refusing to comment further. Upon being questioned about Ilham Aliyev accusing France of ‘brutally’ suppressing climate change concerns and killing innocent protestors, Rafiyev simply stated that ‘we have opened our doors to everybody and our doors are still open’.
Even as negotiators from European countries at COP29 call for more ambitious action to mitigate the climate crisis, the European Parliament today voted to postpone a landmark deforestation law, delaying stricter rules on deforestation by allowing big businesses until the end of 2025 and small business until the end of 2026 to align with the rules. Global Witness, Greenpeace, and the WWF have all called on the European Commission to withdraw the proposal.
In China, meanwhile, the city of Guangzhou has experienced (measured by temperature) 235 days of summer, breaking the record for the longest summer on record. With summer starting on the 23rd of March, experts expected cooling to begin on the 9th of November, but so far temperatures have not dropped.
A few Republican members of the House of Representatives are attending COP29, and they are expected to emphasise the need for expanded US energy production whilst questioning whether other countries such as China are cutting emissions. Unsurprisingly, Trump’s administration is not going to travel to Baku.
That being said, even ExxonMobil’s chief executive is urging the new administration to remain in the Paris Agreement according to Bloomberg Green.
In one of the major events of the day, The Global Solidarity Levies Taskforce has released a new report proposing that including taxes on fossil fuels, flights, shipping, and high-carbon financial transactions could raise significant sums for climate finance. The idea of solidarity levies are backed by figures such as Mottley, Kenyan President William Ruto, and French President Emmanuel Macron.
A plastics production levy, for example, which would be charged on producing plastics from polymers rather than from recycled material, would yield c. $25 – 35 billion annually if set at $60 – 90 per tonne.
Including cryptocurrency in these possible solidarity levies could generate significant additional revenue. Crypto mining is extremely energy-intensive and charging less than five cents per kilowatt-hour used would provide 5 billion dollars to climate finance annually. Although the upper estimate, one source has theorised that mining bitcoin may have accounted for close to 1% of energy demand globally in 2023.
A global levy on stocks and bonds trading would raise up to $418 billion per year and one on fossil fuel extraction of $5 per ton of CO2 released would provide another $210 billion.
The idea of solidarity levies has attracted significant support and may prove to be a key measure in resolving the divisive issue of climate finance, but it remains to be seen whether multilateral agreement can be reached on this front.
The Industrial Transition Accelerator (ITA) today released an open letter endorsed by more than 700 financial institutions and 50 global business leaders. The letter urges governments around the world to simulate demand for green products through proven policy measures, in an attempt to seize the potential of industrial decarbonisation. Simon Stiell, Executive Secretary of UN Climate Change, agreed with the ITA and adherence to the recommendations in the letter could generate up to a trillion dollars’ worth of investment within five years.
The Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA) launched a report at COP29 suggesting such ideas as building codes to promote low carbon cement products and implementing carbon pricing to drive investment to green technologies. The report even features successful policies and examples, check it out here: GLOBAL CEMENT AND CONCRETE INDUSTRY ANNOUNCES ROADMAP TO ACHIEVE GROUNDBREAKING ‘NET ZERO’ CO2 EMISSIONS BY 2050 : GCCA
That’s all for today, check back in tomorrow!
Authored by Edward Hugh-Smith and William Clare, Avon Energy Partners Ltd.
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