As the transition to climate neutrality starts to impact people’s lives and livelihoods, it is no longer possible – or prudent – to see green and social priorities in isolation. Yet, for the EU, there is more to this task than ensuring the European Green Deal manages its social impacts. What remains to be determined are the practical ways in which “the social” and “the green” can positively reinforce each other.
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A green taxonomy is a list that classifies all business activities based on their contribution to environmental aims and thresholds. Launched in January 2022, Indonesia’s Green Taxonomy 1.0 has been designed mainly as a guidance, rather than a mandatory instrument. This, however, may expand in the future, for example, through mandatory disclosures of taxonomy-relevant investment portfolios.
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Climate policy that is effective and durable must comprehensively address these social and economic challenges. The framework presented here can help federal and state policymakers to design and implement comprehensive climate policy that works for communities affected by the energy transition — and equip advocates to fight for strong policies. Comprehensive policies can help create a healthy and thriving clean energy economy for all.
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President Xi Jinping’s carbon neutrality pledge at the United Nations in September 2020 set in motion a massive build-up of national policy, legislation and regulation on decarbonisation, with unprecedented speed. Barely two months later, Xi announced a set of more ambitious 2030 targets at the Climate Ambition Summit. And then, in March 2021, China’s top legislators approved the 14th Five Year Plan (FYP) with a whole host of climate and energy targets for 2025.
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Overall, the majority of climate finance (61%, USD 384 billion) was raised as debt, of which 12% was low-cost or concessional. High shares of domestic flows dominated in Western Europe, US & Canada, and East Asia & Pacific, accounting for 76% of the global flows while, inversely, a higher share of international finance was observed in the developing regions of Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
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The year started out strong as on January 20, President Biden took steps to bring the United States back into the Paris Agreement. On February 19, the country was once again a party to the unprecedented international treaty on climate change. This year saw 290 gigawatts of new renewable energy generation capacity around the world, breaking 2020’s record of 260 GW.
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Glasgow signaled unprecedented levels of climate action commitments from investors and businesses that can drive real economy transformation. Indeed, private sector actions could be the critical factor to keep 1.5°C alive in just the next few years. So, what have corporate actors committed to, and what do these commitments mean?
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We’ve reached the strongest global consensus yet that fossil fuels must be phased out. But as youth activists remind us, the seas are still rising. No single gathering, no final accord, is going to end the climate crisis. As international climate talks wind down in Glasgow, though, the world is moving forward on three vital fronts, even as each reveals anew how much further we must go.
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Having a national-level narrative and roadmap to net-zero carbon buildings— including embodied energy and carbon—will be central to India’s sustainable economic development. It would create certainty; address any gaps in the supply, demand, and finance aspects; and drive market transformation. Decarbonising the built environment is a profitable business, and if done strategically, can amplify the financial and environmental benefits to India.
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World leaders are in the UK for day three of COP26 where a wide range of announcements focused on signalling a clear shift from ambition to immediate action. Countries have made unprecedented commitments to protect forests, reduce methane emissions and accelerate green technology.
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COP26 brings the major emitting countries face to face with the countries most vulnerable to climate change. The World Leaders Summit will send a clear signal to negotiators to be as ambitious as possible and agree to a negotiated outcome that accelerates action this decade.
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Following a series of reports and studies warning that urgent action is needed to keep the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting global average temperature increases to 1.5C within reach, the United Nations Climate Change Conference opened on October 31, 2021 with the key aims of raising ambition on all fronts and finalizing the agreement’s implementation guidelines.
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The State of the Energy Union report marks, each year, the moment to take stock of change and of progress in the implementation of the European Union (EU) energy and climate policies, including the Energy Union across its five pillars, on the road to climate neutrality by 2050. This is a report from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions.
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The additional public investment need required to meet the European Union’s climate goals is between 0.5 percent and 1 percent of GDP annually during this decade. Increasing green public investment while consolidating deficits will be a major challenge. While simulations show that budget consolidation can be done at a moderate pace in line with EU rules if those rules are interpreted flexibly, past consolidation episodes resulted in major public investment cuts.
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It explores four combinations of peaking and net-zero-year scenarios for India (2030–2050, 2030–2060, 2040–2070, and 2050–2080) and analyses how a combination of possible technological developments like carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) and hydrogen production would affect the transition within each of the policy scenarios.
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This paper shows the substantial variation in the price responsiveness of emissions across sectors and thus prices implied by sectoral targets. It proposes various measures to help Germany meet emissions targets with greater certainty and cost effectiveness. The paper also studies the distributional impact of higher carbon pricing and suggests that reducing social security contributions can mitigate the regressive direct impact of higher carbon pricing on lower income households.
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AI has the potential to become the ‘Swiss Army knife’ in our fight against climate change. AI can measure and reduce emissions at scale for any given institution; enable innovative business models to help the climate; improve resilience of societies to climate hazards. It is down to global business leaders to effectively leverage AI’s strengths and utilise them to tackle the most complex challenges obstructing the reduction of emissions at scale.
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Australia has some of the best renewable energy resources in the world, and right now it has the best ever opportunity to harness them for national and global good. WWF’s Renewable Superpower Scorecard presents a snapshot of how Australia’s state, territory and federal governments are performing in the race to become a renewable superpower.
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Carbon credits are created in projects where actors implement activities resulting in lower or negative emissions. These credits can be sold by the actor who implemented the carbon reduction and can be traded and purchased by other actors, e.g. companies, to ‘compensate’ for their emissions. The motivations of the actors purchasing these offsets might be to comply with emission standards or regulations, to voluntarily improve their carbon footprint, or to support decarbonization projects.
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Resolute Forest Products Inc. has announced its commitment to reduce absolute greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (scope 1 and 2) by 30 per cent against 2015 levels by 2025. This new target builds on the company’s 83 per cent reduction in absolute GHG emissions from year-2000 levels, two-thirds of which reflect reductions in emission intensity.
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