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October 13, 2015
On October 6, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) elected Hoesung Lee of the Republic of Korea as its new Chair. Image courtesy of the IPCC.
On October 5, the White House appointed Thomas Reynolds, prior Associate Administrator for Public Affairs at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), to a new post specifically focused on managing communication of the Obama administration’s climate change agenda. Reynolds has been responsible for the major outreach on both social and conventional media regarding the Clean Power Plan and the risks associated with climate change. Reynolds faced criticism in his EPA post regarding the creation of a campaign on Twitter to promote the agency's clean water rule, which some legal experts contended tested the limits of federal lobbying law.
For more information see:
New York Times (1, 2), The Hill
On October 8, the State Department and Bloomberg Philanthropies convened 19 mayors in Washington, DC to discuss action on climate change in an event called Our Cities, Our Climate. Evan Ryan, assistant secretary of state for educational and cultural affairs, commented that the meeting was a precursor to United Nations negotiations on climate to take place in Paris this December. During the event, the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group released a report which states that cities are key to reigning in climate change, with the potential to affect about a third of the "carbon budget" the world can spend before dangerous climate change is inescapable.
Huffington Post, Report
On October 7, California Governor Jerry Brown signed SB 350 into law, which will require 50 percent of California’s electricity to come from renewable sources and existing buildings to become twice as energy efficient by 2030. A third goal, to cut gasoline use in half, did not make it to the governor's desk. "This is big," Brown stated, "because it is global in scope, but it is also big because it is local in application." Geisha Williams, president of electric operations at Pacific Gas & Electric, one of the state's largest utilities, said, "we have a real opportunity to create a model that other states and nations can follow."
In related news on October 8, Governor Brown signed SB 185 into law, which will require California's pension systems (the two largest U.S. public funds) to divest their holdings from any company that sources at least half its revenue from coal mining, by July 1, 2017. The California Public Employees' Retirement System will need to divest $58 million which it currently has invested in coal, and the California State Teachers Retirement System will need to divest $6.7 million – both a small amount of their total holdings. The funds will also be prohibited from making new investments in coal.
Mercury News, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Los Angeles Times
On October 7, West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey led a 14-state coalition in filing a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over the delay in publishing the agency's final regulation on carbon emissions from existing power plants in the Federal Register. Although the regulation, called the Clean Power Plan, was released on August 3rd, it still has not been published in the Federal Register. The coalition is hoping to file suit against the rule as soon as possible, but has already been stymied in an earlier legal attempt because the rule has not been published. "Publishing a rule typically occurs much faster than it has in this case," Morrisey commented in a statement he released along with the FOIA.
LegalNewsLine, FOIA
On October 5, the co-chairs of the United Nations (UN) Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (ADP) released a 20-page draft deal on climate, to be finalized in Paris this December. The draft, slimmed down dramatically from the prior 80+ page version, includes a plan that would have signatory nations submit increasingly vigorous mitigation plans every five years, beginning in 2020. “Political momentum is as high as it’s ever been,” according to Amjad Abdulla, the chief negotiator for the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS). Martin Kaiser of Greenpeace criticized the draft's lack of renewable energy targets, and said the deal “should not rely on false solutions” such as nuclear power. There are five remaining official negotiating days before the Paris talks begin.
CBS News, Reuters, UNFCCC, CleanTechnica
On October 6, Professor Hoesung Lee of South Korea was elected as the new chair of the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), after former chair Rajendra Pachauri of India resigned earlier this year. Lee won the vote 78-56 in a run-off with Jean-Pascal van Ypersele of Belgium; they were selected from an original group of six, all-male nominees. Lee is now the fourth person to lead the IPCC in its 27-year history. "I believe it's very important that for the next round of assessment, we should be able to increase the intellectual contributions from developing countries," Lee said. "And also improving gender balance in our author teams is very, very important." He will lead the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report, which will be completed in five to seven years.
Reuters, BBC, The Guardian
On October 7, World Bank Vice President Rachel Kyte said there should not be an official figure for climate finance beyond 2020 at the 21st Conference of Parties (COP21) in Paris later this year. She argued that the $100 billion Green Climate Fund goal set in 2009 at Copenhagen “was picked out of the air” and that a better plan would be to create a clear definition and commitment to provide climate finance, without any specific figures. Kyte said developed countries should base their financing for developing countries off the climate plans countries are submitting to the United Nations, known as Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs), which give a "true sense of what is needed." Kyte added that World Bank will continue to do its part to provide financing to developing countries.
The Guardian
On October 7, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Climate Policy Initiative released a report which found rich countries are providing two-thirds of their target $100 billion in annual climate financing to developing countries, a goal they committed to reach by 2020. The report said developed countries raised $61.8 billion in public and private climate finance in 2014, and averaged $57 billion annually from 2013-2014. Two-thirds of the money provided thus far has gone to cutting emissions in developing countries, with 16 percent going to climate adaptation measures. “Our estimates paint an encouraging picture of progress. We are about halfway in terms of time [between the pledge made in 2009 and the 2020 deadline] and more than halfway there in terms of finance, but clearly there is still some way to go,” said Angel Gurria, secretary-general of the OECD.
Reuters, BusinessGreen, The Guardian
The week of October 5th, oil executives advocated for different ways to cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions during the Oil and Money conference in London, co-hosted by Energy Intelligence and the International New York Times. U.S.-based ExxonMobil Corp. chief executive officer (CEO) Rex Tillerson said free market competition and technological innovation alone should be sufficient to curb GHG emissions. In contrast, Netherlands-based Royal Dutch Shell PLC CEO Ben van Beurdan said market forces were insufficient, and government intervention was needed to cut emissions – specifically, a global carbon tax. Tillerson did note that he would be amenable to a revenue neutral carbon tax.
MorningStar, Wall Street Journal, TriplePundit
On October 5, Citigroup Inc., the 3rd-largest U.S. bank, announced it would reduce its financing of coal mining projects, especially projects that use mountaintop removal methods. Citing climate change, the company’s new Environmental & Social Policy Framework guidelines state, “Going forward, we commit to continue this trend of reducing our global credit exposure to coal mining companies." Lindsey Allen, executive director of the Rainforest Action Network, said, “With Bank of America, Credit Agricole, and now Citigroup withdrawing support for coal mining, this announcement shows major momentum away from financing coal by the banking sector.” Earlier this year Citigroup announced that it would lend, invest, and/or facilitate $100 billion towards climate and environmental solutions.
Citigroup, Bloomberg
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