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THE FUTURE OF THE PARIS CLIMATE DEAL ON THE TABLE AT BONN: Energy companies and researchers, as well as climate activists, are arguing over the direction of the Paris climate agreement on Tuesday as the United Nations meets in Bonn, Germany, to place the finishing touches on the climate deal’s “rulebook.”
A new report from renewable advocates, released Tuesday morning to coincide with the summit, concluded that the world isn’t doing enough to stop the use of fossil fuels and switch to renewable energy.
REN21’s Renewables 2019 Global Status Report said the problem is that renewables aren’t penetrating the market fast enough outside of the electricity sector. Solar and wind have been slow to displace fossil fuels for heating, cooling, and transportation and in fact have seen significant drops in these areas.
The report blames the “lack of ambitious and sustained policies” for the lack of progress, calling for a global phaseout of all subsidies for fossil fuels.
The Paris agreement calls for countries to work to slow the Earth’s temperature from warming 2 degrees by the middle of the century. But more recently, U.N. climate scientists have called for more aggressive actions to stop the Earth from warming 1.5 degrees beginning in the next decade.
A place for fossil fuels: But others believe renewables are only part of the solution to hitting the U.N. targets.
Energy officials gathering at a conference in Norway on Tuesday say meeting the goals of the deal will not come from completely curbing the use of fossil fuels, but rather from upping the world’s financial commitments to so-called carbon capture technologies.
These technologies are seen as the only way to keep burning coal and other fossil fuels in a carbon-constrained world. Climate advocates rebut the idea that carbon capture is a real solution.
“Europe needs to reach deep into their wallets to make the Paris Agreement work,” said Nils Røkke, chairman of the Board of the European Energy Research Alliance, who will be addressing the conference. He said that he believes research on carbon capture is “key to a low-carbon Europe.”
Saudis play Trump’s innovation card: Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia’s energy minister called for a similar push at Monday’s G20 energy and environment ministerial in Japan. Khalid Al-Falih said the oil-rich kingdom will seek to fund a new energy “innovation” push. His remarks sounded very much like the Trump administration’s policy to support innovative technologies, instead of regulation, to cut emissions.
The G20 Summit, which will begin later this week with President Trump in attendance, is not expected to touch much on the Paris climate deal.
On environmental issues, the G20 Summit seems to be more focused on plastics polluting the seas, said Rhys Gerholdt, spokesman for the World Resources Institute. The global think tank based in Washington is closely following the U.N. deliberations.
Gerholdt said this year’s climate meeting in Bonn will be less “high stakes” than previous meetings. The meeting will focus primarily on hashing out the final pieces of the “Paris Rulebook,” which outlines how countries are to demonstrate and prove they are making progress on emissions reductions.
Opportunity to discuss upping commitments: The rulebook will provide a strong foundation for when world leaders announce revisions to their climate commitments later this year at the U.N. Climate Action Summit in New York, according to the World Resources Institute.
Countries can use the session in Bonn this week to discuss preparations for New York and their efforts to raise their ambitions under the 2015 climate agreement, according to researchers at the Institute.
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LOW-COST RENEWABLES DOMINATE THROUGH 2050 IN LINE WITH PARIS DEAL: Low prices for wind, solar, and battery storage technology will result in nearly half of the world’s electricity coming from zero-emission energy resources by the middle of the century, according to BloombergNEF’s latest projections Tuesday.
The projections show that the electricity sector will keep the planet’s temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees at least until 2030, which is in line with the Paris climate agreement of 2015.
The report shows different regions of the world reducing greenhouse gas emissions at varying rates. Overall demand for electric power will grow 62% between now and the middle of the century.
The move toward electrification of the planet will attract $13.3 trillion in new investment, according to the report. Wind energy will attract the majority of that investment, with $5.3 trillion, while solar will bring in $4.2 trillion.
Europe is expected to lead the world in the move toward a grid free of carbon dioxide emissions.
Europe will also be the closest to reaching the goal of generating the bulk of its power from renewables by 2050. The report projects that 92% of the continent’s electricity will be supplied by renewable energy by mid-century. “The U.S., with its abundance of low-priced natural gas, and China, with its modern fleet of coal-fired plants, follow at a slower pace,” the report’s summary said.
US INSTALLS A RECORD AMOUNT OF SOLAR: The U.S. installed 2.7 gigawatts of solar during the first three months of this year, a record amount for the first quarter of a year. The U.S. is on pace to install 13 gigawatts of solar total this year, 25% growth compared to 2018, according to a report released Tuesday morning by Wood Mackenize and the Solar Industries Association.
There are now more than 2 million solar installations in the U.S., according to a separate report last month from the groups, an amount projected to double by 2023.
Last year, solar installations had fallen 2% after Trump imposed 30% tariffs on solar panels.
The price of solar energy is 38 times lower than it was in 2010, although solar generated just 1.6% of U.S. electricity last year.
Utility scale solar represented the largest share of installations in the first quarter this year, with 1.6 gigawatts of large-scale projects coming on-line. There were 603 megawatts of residential solar installations in the first three months this year, up 6% compared to last year.
And 438 megawatts of solar was installed in the nonresidential sector, which includes commercial, industrial, and public sector distributed solar.
EPA TO RELEASE FINAL RULE REPLACING CLEAN POWER PLAN: The Environmental Protection Agency confirmed it will make a “major policy announcement” Wednesday morning — widely expected to be its final rule replacing the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan.
The Trump administration plan, known as the “ACE rule,” would encourage states to allow utilities to make heat rate improvements in power plants, enabling them to run more efficiently by burning less coal to produce the same amount of electricity. The focus on regulating power plants individually would be a rejection of the Clean Power Plan, President Barack Obama’s chief climate change initiative that sought to transition the overall power sector to natural gas and renewable energy.
The Trump administration plan does not set a specific target for the power sector to reduce carbon emissions, giving states the authority to write rules.
Environmentalists and Democratic states are expected to sue the Trump administration, arguing the rule does not meaningfully fulfill the bare-bones requirement of the law since it would not significantly cut carbon emissions by keeping alive coal plants that would otherwise retire.
EPA said Administrator Andrew Wheeler will make the policy announcement 10 a.m., Wednesday at agency headquarters alongside members of Congress, Trump administration officials, and industry representatives.
GAO TO PROBE INTERIOR’S OIL AND GAS POLICY IN LINE WITH DEMOCRATS’ REQUEST: A government watchdog will begin investigating whether the Trump administration violated the law by using congressionally appropriated funds for drilling in areas designated national monuments.
Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., and Rep. Betty McCollum, D-Minn., the ranking member and chairwoman of the respective appropriations panels overseeing the Interior Department, said the Government Accountability Office has informed them that it will “open an investigation” into whether the agency violated a longstanding prohibition against using appropriated funds for oil, gas, and coal development activities at the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.
“In the interest of preserving the rule of law, safeguarding taxpayer funds from mismanagement, and protecting a national treasure from permanent damage, the department should suspend all further work on the proposed management plan for Grand Staircase-Escalante until GAO is able to make a determination on this issue,” Udall said in a statement.
The Trump administration in its early days sought to rescind many of Obama’s decisions to expand national monuments like the Grand Staircase-Escalante in Utah, seeking to open more protected lands up to oil drilling and mining.
An earlier plan to open the monument to drilling and energy development had been scrapped by the agency late last summer, but the Democrats want a firm legal opinion from the GAO on whether it violated laws that specifically restrict the agency from funding energy activities within the boundaries of national monuments. The GAO investigation will review 2017, 2018, and 2019.
SAUDIS TAKE BIG STEP FORWARD ON ‘VISION 2030’ WITH JAPAN: Saudi Arabia and Japan announced Monday that they nearly doubled the number of investments in pursuit of the oil-rich kingdom’s Vision 2030 plan to diversify its economy away from oil.
Yasushi Akahoshi, president of the Japan External Trade Organization, said the Saudi-Japan Vision 2030 made great progress since it was first announced two years ago.
The number of cooperative projects between the two countries nearly doubled to 31 projects, marking the “next step” in the two countries’ collaboration, said the Saudi Press Agency.
Japan is Saudi Arabia’s second largest source of foreign capital and third-largest trading partner, with total trade between the countries exceeding $39 billion.
Vision 2030 was launched in 2016 to attract a massive influx of foreign investment into the kingdom after the 2014-2016 oil glut cut the country’s oil income in half, forcing it to reevaluate its dependence on oil as its primary sources of wealth.
The Rundown
Wall Street Journal Saudis push to renew OPEC’s oil-export curbs, despite tanker attacks
Washington Post Canada’s Trudeau to decide on controversial pipeline expansion. He faces political peril either way.
Huffington Post New York State reaches landmark deal on Green New Deal-style climate bill
Associated Press Oregon Democrats rally behind cap-and-trade emissions plan
Calendar
WEDNESDAY | June 19
10:00 a.m., 366 Dirksen. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee holds a hearing on a number of National Parks bills.
10:30 a.m., 2322 Rayburn. The Energy Subcommittee of the Committee on Energy and Commerce will hold a legislative hearing on pipeline safety proposals. The hearing is entitled, “Legislative Solutions to Make Our Nation’s Pipelines Safer.”
THURSDAY | June 20
10 a.m., 366 Dirksen. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee holds hearing to examine opportunities and challenges for advanced geothermal energy development in the United States.
