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October 31, 2024
This year’s United Nations climate change summit, formally known as the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), runs from November 11 to 22, in Baku, Azerbaijan. The theme of COP29, according to the Azerbaijan presidency, is “in solidarity for a green world.” This year, the annual meeting is intended “to enhance ambition and enable action,” according to COP29 President-Designate Mukhtar Babayev, Azerbaijan’s minister of ecology and natural resources. Countries, along with companies, nonprofits, and subnational governments, will discuss numerous climate change related topics—inside and outside the formal negotiating process—to assess progress in climate adaptation and mitigation and set new goals. This article examines initiatives announced at previous COPs to track their progress going into COP29.
Methane Emissions Reduction Program
The Methane Emissions Reduction Program (MERP) is a significant part of the U.S. commitment to the Global Methane Pledge goal, announced at COP26, of cutting anthropogenic methane emissions by at least 30% by 2030 from 2020 levels. MERP was created under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) (P.L. 117-169) and provides up to $1.36 billion to reduce methane emissions through monitoring, detection, measurement, and quantification.
The program is a collaboration between the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management and National Energy Technology Laboratory, as well as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The agencies are implementing “best practices and mitigation decision-support tools across the broader oil and natural gas sector” while advancing the Biden-Harris Administration's Justice40 initiative.
Under MERP, one funding program will allocate $850 million for small oil and natural gas operators to reduce methane emissions and move towards innovative methane emission reduction technologies. The program also supports partnerships that improve emissions measurement and provide accurate, transparent data to impacted communities. A second EPA and DOE commitment pledges $350 million to 14 states to reduce methane emissions from low-producing conventional oil and gas wells through permanent well plugging.
In addition to providing funding to communities, the EPA has proposed an annual methane Waste Emissions Charge on oil and natural gas facilities that emit more than the methane equivalent of 25,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year. The charge is set to start at $900 per metric ton for 2024 methane emissions and increase to $1,200 in 2025 and $1,500 in 2026 and later years.
In May 2024, the EPA released the third step of MERP, a final rule on methane emission reporting requirements for petroleum and natural gas systems. The revisions, aimed at improving the accuracy of annual emissions reporting from oil and natural gas facilities that emit 25,000 metric tons or more of greenhouse gases per year, will promote greater transparency and accountability for methane pollution. About 8,000 facilities report to the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program annually, so the improved reporting could have a significant impact.
U.S. Greenhouse Gas Center
The U.S. Greenhouse Gas Center (GHG Center), a multi-agency effort to “unite data and technology to empower tomorrow’s climate solutions,” launched at COP28. Curated by scientists from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, EPA, National Institute of Standards and Technology, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the GHG Center is designed to help researchers, policymakers, data service providers, and members of the public understand and use emission datasets, observations, models, and analysis tools. As part of the initiative’s two-year demonstration phase, the agencies are running a website targeting three focus areas: anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, natural greenhouse gas sources and sinks, and new observations for tracking large emission events.
Beyond fostering interagency cooperation, the GHG Center aims to promote nonprofit and private sector partnerships and act as a hub for open-source information. Members of the public, as well as experts, are able to view the datasets, related algorithms, and supporting code, and access user support. For instance, through the GHG Center’s Data Toolkit, interested parties can view measurements of carbon dioxide and methane concentrations from ground stations or urban tower instruments. Another tool allows the website’s users to see methane plumes around the world, thanks to the EMIT imaging spectrometer on the International Space Station.
In December 2024, the GHG Center will host the 2nd Annual Stakeholder Forum in Washington, D.C., to gather feedback and inform future directions for the center. The American Geophysical Union, an organization that works closely with the GHG Center, will hold its annual conference, the largest gathering of Earth and space scientists in the world, during the days following the forum. The GHG Center also publishes a newsletter, most recently in July 2024, and welcomes feedback from stakeholders and the public through its website.
Energy Transition Accelerator
The Energy Transition Accelerator (ETA) is an innovative carbon finance platform designed to bring together governments and private sector stakeholders to advance ambitious energy transition strategies, specifically in developing countries. The ETA Core Framework was officially announced at COP28 by the U.S. Department of State, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Bezos Earth Fund, after the agency and foundations began working together to design the ETA at COP27. The analysis and design underpinning the ETA framework was coordinated by the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES), now serving as the ETA’s secretariat.
The ETA plans to mobilize anywhere from $72 billion to $207 billion in transition finance through 2035. It will unlock private financing for decarbonization initiatives by anticipating the future carbon credit sales resulting from those initiatives. (Carbon credits, which can be sold on cap-and-trade markets, are granted to organizations that prove they have reduced their emissions.) Host countries can deploy the anticipated revenue towards their most effective decarbonization activities, such as early coal plant retirement, accelerated renewables deployment, and grid or storage improvements. Chile, Nigeria, and the Dominican Republic will act as pilot countries for the ETA’s crediting approach.
In April of 2024, the ETA announced its next steps, following the COP28 ETA Framework release. The first step is to establish a Senior Consultative Group, chaired by John Kerry, former secretary of state and former U.S. special presidential envoy for climate, to provide independent input on the ETA’s design and operation. Secondly, the Dominican Republic, an ETA pilot country, announced the formation of an inter-ministerial working group to lead their ETA engagement. Lastly, the Philippines announced that the nation was joining the ETA as an observer country, to better understand the initiative and inform the global energy transition dialogue through its perspective as a nation with a privately-owned, market-driven, and unsubsidized power sector.
Most recently, the ETA hosted a roundtable discussion at Climate Week NYC 2024 featuring 19 major companies. The companies, along with Kerry and officials from ETA partners, centered their conversation around the importance of corporations serving as leaders in clean energy investment to keep a 1.5 degree Celsius limit on warming within reach.
Global Cooling Pledge
The Global Cooling Pledge, launched by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at COP28, aims to reduce cooling-related emissions by 68% by 2050 and increase access to sustainable cooling by 2030. Sustainable cooling includes passive cooling, increased efficiency in appliances, and the use of low Global Warming Potential refrigerants. For example, pledge-signers plan to increase the global average efficiency of new air conditioners by 50%. The Global Cooling Pledge currently has 71 country participants, including the United States. The pledge draws from the Global Cooling Watch report, released by the UAE and UN Environment Programme-led Cool Coalition at COP28. The report presents the potential pathways to achieving near-zero emissions in key cooling sectors.
The Climate and Clean Air Coalition’s Cooling Hub met in June 2024 to discuss implementation of the Global Cooling Pledge. They outlined the actions necessary prior to 2026 to meet the 2030 goal of expanding access to sustainable cooling. These include reviewing the implementation progress of the pledge, building a database on sustainable cooling, leveraging strategic partnerships, and mobilizing signatories to the pledge.
Other Notable Updates
At COP28, 74 countries and 40 organizations signed the Declaration on Climate, Relief, Recovery, and Peace, calling for bolder action for climate resilience, particularly in highly vulnerable countries and communities with severe humanitarian needs, such as those affected by fragility or conflict. The COP29 Presidency Action Agenda includes a Peace, Relief, and Recovery Day, which will build on the COP28 declaration and serve as a space for perspectives from vulnerable populations, such as women and youth.
The Initiative on Climate Action and Nutrition (I-CAN), announced at COP27, aims to address the critical intersection of climate change and nutrition by putting global attention on food systems transformation. In June 2024, I-CAN supported Rome Nutrition Week, organized by Brazil, France, Ireland, Italy, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Rome-based food and agriculture organizations. A seminar event showcased the relationships between nutrition and climate change, and laid the foundation for an upcoming Roundtable on Climate and Nutrition after COP29 on December 9.
Women in the Sustainable Economy (WISE), launched by Vice President Kamala Harris at the November 2023 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting, is an initiative to improve women’s economic empowerment in key industries for the future of humanity and of the planet. At COP28, the United States announced about $13 million for the Women’s Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative and for Elevating Girls’ Climate Leadership, two programs under WISE. Most recently, in September 2024, the U.S. Agency for International Development, in collaboration with PepsiCo, Unilever, Danone, McCormick & Company, and Nespresso, aligned with WISE to create the Advancing Women for Resilient Agricultural Supply Chains initiative. So far, the WISE initiative has raised a total of $2 billion.
The Utilities for Net Zero Alliance (UNEZA) was established at COP28 by the UAE Declaration of Action. UNEZA hopes to develop electric grids that are ready for renewable energy, promote clean energy solutions, and advance electrification efforts by uniting leading global utilities and power companies. In the past year, UNEZA has released an action plan, roadmap, governance statutes, and a supply chain high-level statement. Most recently, in September 2024, UNEZA’s members—the world’s leading utility companies—pledged to invest more than $116 billion annually in grids and renewable energy. This announcement followed a roundtable event at Climate Week NYC on “Accelerating Large Grid Infrastructure Projects – Highlights for Policy Makers” and an event about industry leadership at the World Utilities Congress.
The Early Warnings for All initiative was launched in 2022 by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to ensure that everyone on Earth is protected from hazardous weather, water, or climate events through early-warning systems by the end of 2027. The 2023 to 2027 Action Plan calls for investments of $3.1 billion over five years and has four pillars: disaster risk knowledge; observations, monitoring, analysis, and forecasting; warning dissemination and communication; and preparedness and response capabilities. According to senior-level officials, significant progress has been made implementing early-warning systems on a local level, but a major challenge is making sure solutions are institutionalized and anchored in all the updated national climate plans, or nationally determined contributions, which are due in early 2025.
Author: Aaliya Cassoobhoy
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