China to create carbon market and cap emissions
News
China To Create Carbon Market And Cap
Emissions
China plans to launch the first stages of a national carbon
market next year, according to a report in the South China Morning
Post covered by Climate Progress. Emissions from six industrial
sectors would be covered including power generation, metals,
building materials, chemicals and aviation. The report quotes an
official saying the market would enter a three-year trading phase
in summer 2016 before becoming fully functional in 2019.
Climate and energy news
First government auction pays companies to power
down at peak times
A pilot government auction has awarded 22 projects £1.3
million to reduce peak energy use from winter 2015/16. But most of
the savings will be made by switching to more efficient LED
lighting, says Chris Goodall, a move that should make
financial sense without government support. If homes swapped
halogen bulbs for LEDs it could shave seven per cent off UK peak
power demand and pay back within four years, Goodall says.
Ancient climate records ‘back
predictions’
Records of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere millions of years
ago support current predictions on climate change, according to new
research reported by the BBC. The evidence suggests the climate
will respond as expected to rising greenhouse gas levels, the BBC
says, and is in line with climate projections for the
future. Carbon Briefalso has the story.
The Obama administration is cutting funds for a
major ‘clean coal’ project
The US Department of Energy is pulling the plug on the $1.6
billion FutureGen 2.0 coal carbon capture and storage plant, having
spent $200 million of $1 billion in planned federal funding. Delays
had made the project, already cancelled then revivedonce before,
unable to hit deadlines before federal funding expired. The plant
would have burned coal in nearly pure oxygen using the ‘oxyfuel’
process, with the carbon dioxide-rich flue gas being stored
underground.
EU to reveal UN climate deal pledge on February
25
The EU will on February 25 outline its contribution to a
proposed UN climate deal. The EU ‘intended nationally determined
contribution’, or INDC, will be published well ahead of the agreed
deadline but may be relatively brief, RTCC reports. A ‘Brussels
source’ tells the newswire the document would set out the EU
emissions target to cut emissions 40 per cent by 2030 against 1990
levels and might include brief mention of climate finance and
adaptation. Separately, Norway has said it will matchthe EU 40 per cent
goal for 2030.
Paris climate summit: missing global warming
target ‘would not be failure’
UN climate talks in Paris this December could be counted a
success even if the outcome falls short of limiting warming to two
degrees, according to EU climate chief Miguel Arias Canete. His
comments were echoed by UN climate chief Christiana Figueres, the
Guardian says, with officials seeing the meeting as the next phase
rather than the end of government efforts to deliver action on
climate change.
Richard Branson leads call to free global economy
from carbon emissions
The world should aim to be carbon neutral by 2050 according
to Sir Richard Branson and a group of other leading business
leaders, the Guardian reports. Fossil fuels would have to be
replaced and remaining emissions balanced by carbon capture and
storage or tree planting. The goal would go far beyond even the
most stringent current targets, such as the UK, EU and G8 aims to
cut emissions by 80 per cent in 2050. Reutersalso has the story.
Landlords to be banned from letting UK’s
draughtiest homes
Regulations will be presented to parliament today that would
force landlords to insulate draughty rental properties, the
Guardian reports. The rules would force landlords to upgrade homes
with energy efficiency ratings of F and G unrentable by 1 April
2018, to a minimum E rating. Almost 10 per cent of the UK’s 4.2
million rental properties would be affected, the paper says.
Flood insurance scheme
‘wasteful’
The Committee on Climate Change says a government plan to
make home insurance affordable in high-risk areas is “needlessly
expensive”, with the costs outweighing benefits three to one. It
covers hundreds of thousands of homes more than necessary and
should direct money towards reducing flood risk rather than
cleaning up after floods happen, the committee says.
Government slammed over slump in energy-saving
help for fuel poor
The number of homes receiving energy-saving upgrades through
government programmes this winter slumped to its lowest level in 13
years, Business Green reports. Installation rates this winter are
expected to be 80 per cent lower than four years ago, according to
the research from the Association for the Conservation of Energy.
Climate and energy comment
Fossil fuel companies are the greatest threat to
life’s party- not greens
We know enough about the risks of global warming to call time
on those that plan to not only burn all currently known fossil fuel
reserves, but to search for more, says Andrew Simms in the
Guardian. Strategies like Shell’s, with its plan to search for oil
in the Arctic, represent the greater threat to life on earth than
those who call for limits to human exploitation of the environment,
Simms argues.
New climate science
Why is socially-just climate change adaptation in
sub-Saharan Africa so
challenging?
A new study looks at the barriers that prevent vulnerable
communities in sub-Saharan Africa from adapting to climate change.
Most are environmental, knowledge, or financial constraints that
affect agricultural production and rural development. However,
there are hidden and under-acknowledged political, social, and
psychological barriers that studies rarely investigate, the
researchers find.