Climate 411

Financial Market Regulators Release Guidance Contemplating Oversight of VCM

This blog was authored by Holly Pearen, Lead Counsel for People & Nature at the Environmental Defense Fund.

Proposed Guidance from Financial Market Regulators Could Improve Integrity and Transparency in the Voluntary Carbon Market

Many of the world’s largest companies have committed to net zero, and high-quality carbon credits are increasingly seen as a key tool for meeting ambitious climate commitments. As a result, interest in voluntary carbon markets is surging: A 2023 survey found that nearly nine in 10 business leaders see carbon credits as an important component of corporate sustainability strategies. 

However, almost 40% of the companies surveyed noted that the voluntary carbon market’s “lack of regulation and transparency requirements” prevented deeper investment and indicated that improvements in price and intermediary transparency would increase their use of carbon credits as part of a wider sustainability strategy. Financial market regulators are in a unique position to directly address this significant barrier to investment and help rebuild trust, boost integrity and add critical investor protections in the voluntary carbon market.

Two proposals released in early December outline the important role of financial market regulators and offer specific suggestions for action.

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Also posted in Carbon Markets, United Nations / Comments are closed

The latest on climate change in the U.S. – from the Fifth National Climate Assessment

A wildfire in California, 2021

The U.S. government recently released the Fifth National Climate Assessment, a comprehensive report that shows the harmful impacts of extreme weather and other climate hazards are increasing for people across the United States.

The Fifth National Climate Assessment confirms messages in previous reports but brings the details into sharper focus for U.S. regions.

Climate change is increasingly expensive. The direct cost of exacerbated disasters costs the country a whopping $150 billion a year. But there are additional costs as well, including missed workdays from wildfires and heat when the air is so unhealthy that it is too dangerous to work outside.

Scientists can now confidently attribute worsening extreme weather in the U.S. to climate change, including heatwaves, droughts, heavy downpours like those that caused dangerous flooding in New York City in September, and  the deadly wildfires in Hawaii and the West.

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Also posted in Basic Science of Global Warming, Extreme Weather, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Health, Science / Comments are closed

The science is clear – climate change is causing more damaging hurricanes in Florida

Flooding in Tampa from Hurricane Idalia. Photo: Andrew Heneen, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

(This post was co-authored by EDF Senior Climate Scientist Ilissa Ocko)

Hurricanes are complicated, and their characteristics depend on a number of factors, which makes it difficult to tease out certain trends and predict the future. But what is scientifically clear is that human-caused climate change is a key reason that hurricanes are more destructive – especially in Florida.

Hurricanes are becoming stronger and faster. They are less predictable and thus more dangerous because there is less time to prepare and evacuate. Flooding from hurricanes is worsening due to higher sea level, more rainfall, and slower storm speeds. 

Florida has always been more vulnerable to hurricanes and tropical storms than any other U.S. state because its exposed, southern location is surrounded by warm waters. There are almost twice as many hurricanes that hit Florida as Texas, the second most impacted state. But shifting atmosphere and ocean conditions from climate change – caused by heat-trapping gases emitted from human activities – are making hurricane season even worse for Floridians. Here’s how:

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Also posted in Basic Science of Global Warming, Extreme Weather, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Oceans, Science / Comments are closed

Success of Hydrogen Hubs requires a step increase in transparency

This blog was co-authored with Erik Kamrath, Hydrogen Advocate, Climate and Clean Energy at NRDC and Pete Budden, Advocate, Climate and Clean Energy at NRDC. 

Photo of hydrogen tanks at sunrise

After much anticipation, President Biden and the Department of Energy (DOE) announced on October 13th the winners of the DOE hydrogen hub (H2Hub) program — a program intended to leverage networks of “hydrogen producers, consumers and local connective infrastructure to accelerate the use of hydrogen as a clean energy carrier.” The program will provide a $7 billion funding stream created by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to be split between seven H2Hubs spanning 16 states. The projects will include a mixture of hydrogen produced with renewable energy, hydrogen derived from natural gas with carbon capture, and other fuel sources including nuclear power and biomass. H2Hubs will also house a diversity of hydrogen end-uses, including in heavy industrial processes and long-haul transportation.

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Also posted in Greenhouse Gas Emissions / Comments are closed

New tool equips community voices to spur a just energy transition

Community Voices in Energy logo(This post originally appeared on EDF’s Energy Exchange)

Our new website, Community Voices in Energy — a collaboration with Chicago-based Blacks in Green — equips frontline communities to participate as experts in climate and energy proceedings and influence energy investments. By ensuring that community members are able to share their direct experience on the record in public utility commission hearings, the site helps utility regulators to make rulings that lead to a more equitable, healthy and affordable energy future.

Health and economy at stake

Communities located near polluting power plants experience more health problems, including high rates of asthma and lung disease. They also have less wealth, in part because of lower property values and unaffordable energy rates. Yet frontline, BIPOC and low-income communities have historically been excluded from energy regulatory and legal decision-making spaces that directly impact their quality of life.

Energy is among the largest sources of man-made climate pollution in the world, and energy solutions that benefit communities will also be healthier for the climate. A just transition requires equitable distribution of the benefits of clean energy to communities that have been left behind in the past.

A solution emerges in Illinois

In Illinois, regulators this year alone are considering $1.8 billion in rate hike requests from utilities, much of which will repair and extend systems that would lock in fossil-powered energy for generations to come. But cleaner, more affordable, solutions are available.

Environmental Defense Fund, Blacks in Green, and Citizens Utility Board pioneered the idea of bringing community experts into energy proceedings to provide testimony that could be entered into the legal record on which all commission decisions must be based. In a 2022 decision, the Illinois Commerce Commission explicitly acknowledged that EDF and partners raised its awareness that environmental justice communities experienced longer and more frequent power outages than wealthier Chicago communities, while also having fewer resources to recover from disruptions. As a result, the Commission required the utility to address system disparities, rather than only measuring their system as a whole.

Family staring at wind turbines with a sunset

Community Voices in Energy website drives energy justice

Our Illinois win encouraged us to expand our work and develop the Community Voices in Energy website, so that our community-centered approach can be replicated and spread around the country. Community expert contributors helped to shape the trainings offered on the website to enable meaningful participation in cases, and we developed the Energy Justice Intervenor certification program to support them.

With tools to frame what a just energy system is and how to get involved, the Community Voices in Energy website equips community members to advocate for a more just and equitable system. Including lived experiences at the forefront of big energy decisions will speed the transition to an equitable, affordable, clean, and healthy energy future for everyone.

Since our launch, we have already heard from federal energy regulators and from other states where energy proceedings threaten to lock in high rates and fossil energy at a moment where we must urgently transition to a clean energy. The new Community Voices in Energy website, and the movement it supports, give hope for our energy future.

Also posted in Cities and states, Economics, Energy, Health, Partners for Change / Comments are closed

New Mexico is off course for reaching its climate goals, but there’s enormous opportunity for action

New Mexico communities know the stakes for climate change are high — hotter and drier conditions threaten public health, livelihoods, and cultural and recreational resources, as they lead to increased drought, extended and more extreme wildfire seasons, and extreme heat. Those impacts are projected to get much worse in the coming decades, without serious and urgent action to slash climate pollution. It’s why polls underscore that the majority of New Mexico voters support strong action on climate change.

Governor Lujan Grisham has made bold, science-based climate commitments and both the legislature and regulators have adopted a number of important policies, but a new EDF analysis finds that with existing state and federal policies in place, New Mexico is projected to fall well short of achieving its 2025 and 2030 climate goals unless it takes aggressive climate policy action as soon as possible. The analysis also finds that the state’s current course will lead to far more cumulative emissions through the end of the decade — a critical metric that ultimately determines the severity of climate damages that our kids and grandkids may face.

While New Mexico is projected to face a glaring “emissions gap” — the distance between emission reductions the state has committed to and those it is projected to achieve — the opportunity to correct course with bold action has never been greater. With historic federal investments lowering the cost of clean energy, New Mexico can leverage this momentum to put in place strong limits on pollution that secure a safer climate future and grow a prosperous, equitable clean energy economy.

Here’s what you need to know about this analysis:

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Also posted in Carbon Markets, Cities and states, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Policy / Comments are closed