Negotiations over the Biden administration’s proposal for how to set up a new international climate fund did not go so well this weekend.
Countries could not agree on where the so-called loss and damage fund should be housed or how the money should be allocated, write Karl Mathiesen and Zia Weise. The United States and European Union argue that the World Bank should run the operation, while developing nations say that’s a non-starter, citing its long history as an instrument of wealthy powers.
That leaves negotiators to try again in early November. If they fail, the fund will face major question marks heading into the Nov. 30-Dec. 12 climate summit in Dubai, United Arab Emirates — just a year after governments applauded their “historic” agreement to create the pot of money in the first place.
The fund is meant to assist developing nations with the costs of coping with irreversible damage from climate change. The U.S., which long resisted the idea, has yet to agree to put money into it.
Critics to U.S.: Give up World Bank idea
“If wealthy nations do not come to the next meeting prepared to let go of this unrealistic proposal, meet their international obligations, and set up a stand-alone, rights-based and resourced fund, they might as well not show up at all,” said Lien Vandamme, an observer at the talks for the Center for International Environmental Law.
Failure to reach an agreement could scuttle the negotiations at the summit, warned Preety Bhandari, senior adviser at the World Resources Institute.
The United States argues that placing the loss and damage fund within the World Bank is practical. It wouldn’t require the years it might take to establish an entirely new system. And as one World Bank official told Zack Colman last week, the bank is a “USA policy tool” that doesn’t require new money.
But for developing nations, that’s part of the problem. The World Bank, they argue, has historically helped the industrialized world to impose its economic policies and has given short shrift to climate needs. They want the fund to operate as an independent body under the United Nations.
Today in POLITICO Energy’s podcast: Ry Rivard breaks down the financial outlook of New Jersey’s first offshore wind farm and the bumpy times for the offshore wind industry as a whole.
Carbon market merger?
Washington state is weighing whether to merge its new system for buying and selling permits to emit carbon with the market in California, the only other state to have an economywide cap-and-trade system, writes Anne C. Mulkern.
By linking with the California system — which is jointly run with the Canadian province of Quebec — Washington could help lower the cost that businesses pay to emit carbon dioxide, one of the main drivers of global warming. Environmentalists say the high prices are good for the climate, but the cost can be tough on both businesses and consumers.
Axed CO2 pipeline fallout
The cancellation of a major carbon dioxide pipeline Friday rippled far beyond the Corn Belt, raising questions about the fate of similar projects and the viability of carbon capture technology at the scale envisioned by the Biden administration, write Jeffrey Tomich, Jason Plautz and Niina H. Farah.
While federal regulators oversee most aspects of CO2 pipeline safety, state-level approval is critical. The 1,300-mile Midwestern project was foiled after South Dakota regulators rejected a key project permit.
Pipeline leak finger pointing enrages Russia
Russia called threats to the Kremlin “unacceptable” after Latvia’s president suggested NATO should close off the Baltic Sea if it can be proved Russia was involved in a Finnish gas pipeline leak, writes Claudia Chiappa.
“Any threats should be taken seriously, no matter who they come from. Whoever they come from, the threats to Russia are unacceptable,” said Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov.
Carbon capture capsize: An oil giant quietly ditched the world’s biggest carbon capture plant.
New study: Billions of snow crabs in Alaska likely starved to death due to a warming ocean.
The Biden administration has designated 31 U.S. communities as technology hubs — a label that has the potential to drive clean energy and critical mineral production and processing.
The Biden administration has released a road map for meeting its policy aims in the Arctic, doubling down on fighting climate change’s impact on the sensitive ecosystem.
Xcel Energy, which operates one of the nation’s largest wind energy fleets, is looking to add hundreds more turbines in Minnesota to help replace its last operating coal plant in the state.
