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Energy Post

The best thinkers on energy

China: decoupling GDP growth from rising emissions

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To set up this week’s important online event (Tuesday 13th & Wednesday 14th April) “China: Carbon Neutral by 2060 -EFFICIENCY FIRST” we have an overview of China’s energy transition. Everyone agrees its performance is critical for the world to achieve the global goal of limiting warming to 1.5C by 2050. China made significant progress in 2020 with policy frameworks, renewable capacity additions and EVs, but it also added 38 GW of new … [Read more...]

New net-zero pledges from China, US, EU and others can meet our climate goals, says UNEP. But…

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Existing national commitments imply that today’s emissions will simply plateau, remaining only slightly below 2019 levels by 2030. However, according to the latest UN Environment Programme (UNEP) emissions gap report, the new commitments from China, the EU, Japan, South Korea, the UK, Joe Biden’s US and others are “broadly consistent” with the Paris Agreement’s 1.5C goal for 2050. But commitments aren’t policy, warns UNEP, and only real change … [Read more...]

Can emissions trading work without Article 6 of the Paris Agreement?

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Article 6 of the Paris Agreement creates the framework for mechanisms that will allow nations and sub-national actors to trade emissions. Executed correctly, it must raise ambitions and reduce total emissions. It must also ensure there is transparent and accurate accounting for emissions, with no double-counting. It made little progress at December’s COP25. This was partly due to some countries “insisting on accounting loopholes”, writes Isabella … [Read more...]

UN Climate Summit seeks NDCs, LTSs with deep sectoral changes

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To pile on the pressure over climate negotiations, the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres is convening a special Climate Action Summit, starting today. Nations are being pressed to accelerate their ambitions and back them up with concrete and realistic plans. The summit will be focussed on six ‘action areas’: energy transition; industry transition; infrastructure, cities and local action; nature-based solutions; resilience and adaptation; … [Read more...]

Billions in private investment waiting for clearer action and guarantees from governments on pathway to 2050

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Last month we reported how weak commitments by some EU states were putting a successful transition at risk. Marcela Scarpellini of right. based on science focuses on how this confusion impacts the funding of the transition, and the essential role of private investment. $16.5 trillion needs to be put into energy efficiency and low-carbon technologies by 2030 to hold the temperature increase below 2°C by 2050, says the IEA. Governments alone cannot … [Read more...]