Climate 411

Article 6.2 of the Paris Agreement: What is High Integrity and Why It Matters

By Pedro Martins Barata / Published: March 14, 2024

Under the Paris Agreement, Article 6.2 allows countries to exchange emissions reductions and removals through bilateral agreements—country to country. Despite stalled progress on final details for Article 6.2 at COP28, the mechanism is in operation with guardrails that push countries toward high-integrity programs. New bilateral agreements continue to emerge under the mechanism and mobilize needed capital.

In a webinar hosted by Browning Environmental Communications and Environmental Defense Fund (available to stream here), we discussed the key elements of high integrity under Article 6.2, and why it’s critical for effective climate action under the rule.

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Posted in Carbon Markets, Paris Agreement / Tagged | Comments are closed

Auction results and budget decisions emphasize importance of investments from Washington state’s Climate Commitment Act

By Caroline Jones / Published: March 13, 2024

This blog was co-authored by Janet Zamudio, Western States Climate Policy Intern

The last week has been eventful in Washington, seeing the end of legislative session last Thursday and the first quarterly cap-and-invest auction of 2024, which posted results today. With the legislative session wrapped up and budgets passed, we now know what additional spending lawmakers plan to do with the revenue generated by these cap-and-invest auctions thanks to the supplemental budget passed last week. And with the results from the first auction of 2024 now in the books, it seems the Evergreen State will continue to see significant revenue from this program to reinvest in communities, clean energy projects and climate resilience. There’s a lot to unpack, so let’s start with the auction results:

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Posted in California, Carbon Markets, Cities and states, Economics, Energy, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Health, Policy / Comments are closed

Clean heat standards: an effective climate policy for the thermal sector

By Jolette Westbrook / Published: March 11, 2024

Downtown Boston. Photo: Emmanuel Huybrechts via Wikimedia Commons

This post was co-authored by Chris Neme, Co-Founder and Principal of Energy Futures Group

The concept of a Clean Heat Standard (CHS) is gaining traction in multiple jurisdictions as a way to drive larger, faster reductions in the thermal sector’s greenhouse gas emissions. At least ten U.S. states are considering the policy, with Colorado and Vermont having enacted legislation and Massachusetts and Maryland considering a CHS regulation.

A new report commissioned by Environmental Defense Fund and prepared by Energy Futures Group provides an overview of key design elements that can be used for a CHS, as well as a look at how four states are approaching these elements in their own CHS development process.

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Posted in Cities and states, Energy, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, News, Partners for Change, Policy / Comments are closed

Building a greener future: How federal purchasing power can drive a low-carbon cement industry

By Akin Olumoroti / Published: March 7, 2024

This blog was co-authored by Dara Diamond, Federal Climate Innovation Intern

Historic climate investments from the Biden administration have put a much-needed down payment toward cutting emissions from industry — a major economic sector that makes up over a quarter of U.S. emissions. Still, a lot of hard work remains to meaningfully scale up solutions in this sector. A particularly tricky piece of the industrial emissions problem is hidden in plain sight all around us, in our buildings, sidewalks, highways and bridges: cement.

The scale of this climate challenge is colossal. Cement is the most widely used man-made material on the planet. If the cement industry were a country, it would be the third largest emitter in the world.

To slash emissions from cement production, policymakers will need to make the most of existing climate investments and put forward a range of new solutions, including putting the federal government’s massive purchasing power to work.

Here is why cement poses unique climate challenges — and how policymakers can leverage public procurement to help meet them.

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Posted in Clean Power Plan, Economics, Energy, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Health, Innovation, Policy, Science / Comments are closed

EDF’s new report looks at Non-Pipeline Alternatives to meet energy needs

By EDF Blogs / Published: February 22, 2024

(This post was written by EDF’s Magdalen Sullivan and Erin Murphy. It was originally posted here)

Many states are adopting declining emission limits as a way to address the severe and growing dangers of the climate crisis, and that means state utility regulators are grappling with how to decarbonize energy systems, manage costs, and meet demand.

Traditional approaches to meeting energy demand with natural gas have included pipeline construction, pipeline replacement, or large gas system upgrades – but these may no longer be appropriate investments in light of new policies and changing customer preferences.

Instead, increasingly popular options are Non-Pipeline Alternatives – or NPAs. They are projects designed to meet energy demand without expensive infrastructure projects that run counter to state climate goals.

EDF has a new report, Non-Pipeline Alternatives: Meeting Energy Demand Responsibly, that has guidance and analysis to help states develop regulatory frameworks for NPA evaluation and implementation, and to help utilities successfully implement NPA programs.

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Posted in News / Comments are closed

As it enters its eleventh year, California’s cap-and-trade program continues to raise revenue to fight the climate crisis

By Caroline Jones / Published: February 22, 2024

This blog was co-authored by Katelyn Roedner Sutter, California State Director 

Results of the latest Western Climate Initiative auction were released today, and we continue to see strong demand for allowances. This was the first quarterly auction of 2024, and it was a strong start for this marquee climate program.

This auction is expected to generate roughly $1.31 billion for the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, which will invest in projects around the state that electrify transportation, reduce household energy costs, strengthen resilience to natural disasters, and more. This funding comes at a crucial time, as California faces both ongoing impacts from climate change and a challenging budget year.

February auction results

  • All 51.2 million current vintage allowances offered for sale were purchased, resulting in the 14th consecutive sold-out auction. This is 11% or 6.4 million fewer allowances than were offered at the previous auction.
  • The current auction settled at a record price of $41.76, $17.72 above the $24.04 floor price and $3.03 above the November 2023 settlement price of $38.73.
  • All of the 7.2 million future vintage allowances offered for sale were purchased — these allowances can be used for compliance beginning in 2027. This is about 366,000 allowances fewer than were offered at the previous advance auction.
  • Future vintage allowances settled at $41.00, $16.96 above the $24.04 floor price and $3.60 above the November settlement price of $37.40.

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Posted in California, Carbon Markets, Cities and states, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, News / Comments are closed