Daily on Energy, presented by Renew Biodiesel: Global climate talks break down as deadline nears

Countries don’t appear to be much closer to a deal on the final rules to implement the Paris climate agreement than they were at the start of the two-week negotiations, known as the Conference of the Parties, or COP. Critical political fights remain — particularly between high-emitters like the U.S., China, Australia, and Brazil and small developing nations, especially low-lying island countries that say sea level rise and extreme weather could cost them their livelihoods.

The fights center around the word that seems to be on everyone’s minds in Madrid: ambition.

“The success of the COP depends on all of you,” Carolina Schmidt, environment minister of Chile and the president of this year’s conference, said during a plenary meeting Thursday. “We need to get an answer, a concrete and ambitious outcome.”

Three-dimensional chess: But different countries are drawing distinct red lines on what an ambitious outcome would mean.

A coalition of countries known as the High Ambition Coalition, for example, wants any agreement to include strong language directing countries to ramp up their voluntary targets under the Paris Agreement next year. That group includes developed countries like the United Kingdom and those in the European Union, as well as Belize and small island nations such as the Marshall Islands.

Many of the highest emitters, however, haven’t said whether they would strengthen their emissions reductions targets in 2020.

Several countries in that coalition are also pointing fingers at Brazil, China, and Australia for attempting to weaken rules that would set up an international carbon market, known as Article 6 under the Paris deal. They’re accusing those three nations of pushing for loopholes that would allow carbon credits to be double counted.

Some of those countries also want to carry over banked emissions credits from the Kyoto Protocol, the pre-Paris climate deal, a step the High Ambition Coalition countries say would water down the climate agreement.

“There is no way we could accept a compromise that jeopardizes environmental integrity,” Frans Timmermans, a Dutch politician and executive vice president of the European Green Deal, said Friday.

Even the High Ambition Coalition has fractures, though: Many smaller countries vulnerable to intensifying extreme weather and other natural disasters want more money from developed countries like those in the European Union and the U.S. to pay for damages from climate change.

Developed countries, though, don’t want a separate stream of funding to be created for those damages, arguing instead there are existing global finance mechanisms set up to help nations after natural disasters.

“What we continue to do at the COPs is kick the can down the road. We know what needs to be done, what decisions need to be made, what actions need to be taken,” Simon Stiell, Grenada’s minister for climate resilience and the environment, said Friday. “But there are a few voices that are dictating the agenda of many.”

If this all sounds complicated, that’s because it is: Global negotiations are never a walk in the park, but especially not when they deal with emotional and political issues like climate change and, ultimately, money. The COP is slated to end Friday, but it isn’t clear if a deal will be struck by then.

Meanwhile, climate activists from youth groups and indigenous communities continue to put pressure on U.N. negotiators, with another round of protests in Madrid and around the world Friday.

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GREEN DEAL POLITICS: The European Union’s road to be the first carbon neutral continent will be a bumpy ride.

EU leaders agreed, for the most part, to the carbon neutral target by mid-century, but they left some critical political fights on the table for next year. Poland, which relies predominantly on coal power, wouldn’t agree to the target, especially not without seeing the details of how much money would be available under the “just transition” mechanism proposed to help fossil fuel-heavy nations. (Catch up on that in yesterday’s newsletter.)

And the EU leaders also left the door open for the Czech Republic to keep nuclear power in its energy mix. That’s despite comments Thursday in Madrid from Timmermans, who led the Green Deal, that nuclear power isn’t sustainable in the long term.

Mixed messages: The political tussle comes as the EU tries to position itself as a leader on climate change ahead of U.N. climate talks in Glasgow next year, when countries are supposed to ratchet up their targets under the Paris climate agreement.

Not every fossil-fuel-producing country in Europe is objecting to the Green Deal, though. Ola Elvestuen, Norway’s environment minister, said his oil-producing country knows it needs to prepare for big changes as the EU eyes setting a target of at least 50% emissions cuts below 1990 levels by 2030, in addition to the carbon neutrality goal.

“We know that means they have to cut all their gas use, all their natural gas use by 2050,” he said at a press conference Friday in Madrid, on the sidelines of U.N. climate talks. “And we have to just start to prepare for that.”

The U.S. ain’t happy: The EU’s Green Deal carries a trade threat, potentially giving President Trump a taste of his own medicine.

The plan says the European Commission would propose a “carbon border adjustment” for certain sectors “should differences in levels of ambition worldwide persist.” The U.S., pulling out of the Paris Agreement and with little federal climate policy, could be a prime target.

But newly sworn in Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette argued Europe has been able to cut emissions and save billions on energy costs by increasingly importing U.S. liquified natural gas.

“The reality is the United States leads the world in the reduction of energy related carbon emissions, while all 194 signatories of the Paris Agreement lag behind,” said Shaylyn Hynes, the Energy Department’s press secretary, in a statement Thursday.

BLOOMBERG’S PLAN TO ELIMINATE COAL AND STOP NEW GAS: Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg wants to close all of the nation’s coal plants by 2030 and have 80% of America’s electricity be carbon-free even sooner.

Bloomberg released a “100% clean power plan” Friday to replace the nation’s remaining 251 coal plants with clean electricity and stop the construction of new gas plants to achieve 80% clean electricity by 2028.

The electricity target is the first component of Bloomberg’s pledge to fully decarbonize the economy by 2050 at the latest — a goal matched by nearly the entire Democratic primary field.

Bloomberg, a late entrant to the presidential race, wants to get halfway to that goal by 2030, cutting greenhouse gas emissions 50% by then.

Adding policy details to his Sierra Club project: Bloomberg’s plan looks a lot like a campaign he bankrolled with the Sierra Club to eliminate the nation’s coal plants by 2030 and start shutting down natural gas and oil.

The new presidential plan puts a bit more policy meat on the bones, but not much.

He says he’d “set stringent carbon and pollution limits on new power plants” to prevent the construction of gas plants.

He’d also end fossil fuel subsidies to discourage oil and gas, while boosting renewables by expediting the siting of transmission lines and offshore wind projects.

Bloomberg pledges to quadruple the federal R&D budget for clean energy to at least $25 billion a year.

And he’d extend and expand solar and wind tax credits while creating new tax subsidies for battery storage and “green hydrogen.”

SENATE CONFIRMS TRUMP NOMINEE TO LEAD FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE: The Senate voted 52-39 Thursday to confirm Aurelia Skipwith as the director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Skipwith has worked at Interior since 2017 as deputy assistant secretary for fish and wildlife and parks. She holds degrees in biology, molecular biology, and law. Skipwith formerly worked at the agrochemical company Monsanto.

She is the first African American to lead the Fish and Wildlife Service, which oversees endangered species and wildlife refuges.

“Aurelia Skipwith’s leadership at the Department of the Interior has been vital in helping us advance the president’s priorities for the American people,” said Interior Secretary David Bernhardt.

Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware, the top Democrat on the Environment and Public Works Committee, voted against Skipwith because he said she “failed to cooperate” with his requests to provide information about activities she’s worked on previously at Interior.

“Ms. Skipwith’s lack of candor has elevated questions that already existed about her qualifications and her commitment to environmental conservation,” Carper said.

PROGRESS FOR NUSCALE’S ADVANCED NUCLEAR REACTOR: NuScale is a step closer to becoming the first company in recent decades to obtain a license to operate a new reactor in the U.S. for commercial use.

The Oregon-based nuclear technology firm announced Thursday it won approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on the fourth phase of review for its application to design a small modular reactor.

The review has two more phases remaining, and is on track to be completed in September 2020, the company said. NuScale expects to have its reactors in commercial operation by 2026.

“We are thrilled to be entering into the final stages of the NRC’s review process and are looking forward to delivering America’s first small modular nuclear reactor,” said John Hopkins, NuScale’s chairman and CEO.

Advanced reactors, designed for greater safety and easier construction, are seen as key to improving the fortunes of nuclear energy, making it an important tool to combat climate change.

STATES GANG UP ON CLEAN TRUCKS: Eight states announced an initiative Thursday to speed the transition from fossil fuel trucks and buses to zero-emission ones.

California, Connecticut, Oregon, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Vermont, plus Washington D.C., signed a statement of intent committing to develop an action plan that would accelerate the deployment of zero-emission medium and heavy-duty vehicles.

The next step is for each state’s governor to agree to a memorandum of understanding to hammer out a strategy to deploy more zero-emission trucks, which is likely to happen in the summer of 2020.

MASSACHUSETTS AG URGES PROTEST AGAINST GRID OPERATOR: Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, a Democrat, wants to give power to the people to advocate a cleaner energy system in New England.

Healey launched a petition Thursday to call on grid operator ISO New England to set market rules that support clean energy resources.

“We want to give ratepayers the tools to make their voices heard and help reshape our state’s energy system for future generations,” Healey said.

Democrats, including Healey and members of Congress, have expressed concern about recent market rule changes implemented by ISO New England which they say force state-sponsored renewable energy to wait for incumbent fossil fuel generators to retire before entering the capacity market, and reward power plants with on-site fuel supplies, such as oil, coal, or LNG.

The Rundown

New York Times It’s a vast, invisible climate menace. We made it visible.

Associated Press Obama says Paris climate deal is still the way forward

Wall Street Journal Saudi Arabia seeks to ease tensions with Iran

E&E News Manchin on climate, impeachment and one mine he opposes

Calendar

TUESDAY | DECEMBER 17

10 a.m. to noon. 366 Dirksen. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee holds a hearing to consider the nomination of Lanny E. Erdos to be Director of the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement at the Interior Department.

THURSDAY | DECEMBER 19

9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. 366 Dirksen. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee holds a hearing to examine the impacts of wildfire on electric grid reliability and efforts to mitigate wildfire risk and increase grid resiliency.

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