WHAT’S HAPPENING TODAY: Good afternoon and happy Tuesday, Daily on Energy readers! We are kicking off the newsletter by taking a look at a new United Nations report which shows the world is not making much progress towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The report comes as the United States has taken a step back from global climate efforts.
Meanwhile, the comment period has closed for the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposal to repeal the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program. Keep reading to see what environmentalists and members of Congress have to say about the EPA’s effort.
Welcome to Daily on Energy, written by Washington Examiner energy and environment writers Callie Patteson (@CalliePatteson) and Maydeen Merino (@MaydeenMerino). Email cpatteson@washingtonexaminer dot com or mmerino@washingtonexaminer dot com for tips, suggestions, calendar items, and anything else. If a friend sent this to you and you’d like to sign up, click here. If signing up doesn’t work, shoot us an email, and we’ll add you to our list.
GLOBAL CLIMATE TARGETS OFF TARGET, UN REPORT FINDS: The world has made little progress toward hitting greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets set under the 2016 Paris Agreement and is on track to exceed related global warming goals, a new report from the United Nations has found.
The details: The annual Emissions Gap report, published this morning, found that if each nation follows the climate-related policies already put in place, the Earth will warm by roughly 2.8 degrees Celsius compared with preindustrial levels. And if they follow through on all the proposed emissions targets, warming will be limited to around 2.3 degrees Celsius.
While this is below the prediction made last year, it is still far warmer than the goals established in the Paris Agreement to limit warming well below 2 degrees Celsius. In order to hit this target, the report found, emissions in 2030 would need to fall 25% compared to 2019 levels. If nations fully follow through on their proposed goals, the U.N. estimates, emissions will only fall by 15% compared to 2019 levels in 2035.
The situation is expected to grow increasingly complicated, as the report also found that the Trump administration’s upcoming withdrawal from the Paris Agreement would add up to 0.1 degree Celsius to future warming levels.
The U.S. blasted the findings in a footnote included in the report, with the State Department saying it is current U.S. policy “that international environmental agreements must not unduly or unfairly burden the United States.”
Key quote: “Nations have had three attempts to deliver promises made under the Paris Agreement, and each time they have landed off target,” Inger Andersen, Executive Director of UNEP, said in a statement. “While national climate plans have delivered some progress, it is nowhere near fast enough, which is why we still need unprecedented emissions cuts in an increasingly tight window, with an increasingly challenging geopolitical backdrop.”
GREENHOUSE GAS REPORTING PROGRAM COMMENT DEADLINE: The comment period ended last night for the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposal to overturn the decadeslong initiative known as the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program.
The EPA in September proposed a rule to repeal the program, which mandates that large polluters report their greenhouse gas emissions. The program has been running since 2011, collecting annual emission data from nearly 8,000 large industrial facilities.
The EPA argued that repealing the program would save companies $2.4 billion in regulatory costs. However, environmentalists and lawmakers have sounded the alarm that repealing the program would harm the environment and the public and weaken transparency.
What people had to say: Thirty members of Congress commented on the proposal, arguing that the EPA’s move to repeal the program would harm public health and the environment.
“As Members of Congress, it is our responsibility to protect public health, preserve our environment, and strengthen the economy of our country and our communities,” the lawmakers wrote.
“The Trump Administration’s proposed rollback of GHGRP would set our country back decades and expose American families to the harmful environmental, health, and economic impacts of climate change. We demand that the EPA withdraw its proposal and strengthen and maintain a transparent and comprehensive reporting program,” they added.
Those that signed the letter include Democrat Reps. Jared Huffman of California, Scott Peters of California, Jan Schakowsky of Illinois, and Yvette Clarke of New York, along with many others.
Meanwhile, 60 green groups expressed strong opposition to the EPA’s efforts to repeal the program.
“The Reporting Program is foundational to our nation’s ability to effectively address climate change, providing transparent, reliable, and comprehensive data on climate pollution across major economic sectors,” the groups wrote. “Its repeal would undermine decades of progress, erode public trust, harm American competitiveness, and jeopardize our ability to confront the climate crisis. We urge EPA to withdraw its proposal and maintain the Reporting Program in its entirety.”
The comment was signed by the Clean Air Council, Environmental Defense Fund, Sierra Club, Citizens Caring for the Future, and many others. The EPA received about 40,000 comments on its proposal.
FORMER BIDEN STAFF DETAIL SLOW GREEN ROLLOUT: Former staffers from the Biden administration have released a new report in which they claim the Democratic Party failed to live up to clean energy ambitions of the Inflation Reduction Act, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and the CHIPS Act.
The details: The report, first obtained by Politico, was written by Ramsey Fahs, Alan Propp, and Louise White, who all worked at the Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office, which handles the distribution of federal loans for energy and infrastructure projects.
The Biden administration sought to leverage the LPO’s authority to commit hundreds of billions of dollars for green projects like battery storage systems, solar farms, wind turbines, electric vehicle facilities, and much more. While laws like the IRA and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law paved the way for increased federal support for the green rollout, these former staffers say the administration moved too slowly to keep its promises.
In the report, they noted that only a handful of federally funded projects broke ground before the end of the Biden administration, allowing the Trump administration to jump in and claw back other loan commitments and grant funding.
“Years of work were undone in just a few months—a stark reminder that it is far easier to destroy than it is to build, and of the urgent need to move quickly from bill passage to irreversible real-world impact,” the report reads.
The report, which was based on dozens of interviews with former federal staff and clean energy officials, specifically blamed the lack of speed on the administration’s fears of making past mistakes, complex regulatory procedures, and simply, “indecision.”
Key quote: “Historic legislative ambition was undercut by an executive branch machinery that defaulted to caution, process, and reactive strategies rather than speed, outcomes, and clear direction,” they wrote.
You can read the full report here.
TOTALENERGIES PREDICTS OIL DEMAND WILL RISE UNTIL 2040: French oil major TotalEnergies is offering up more bullish forecasts for the oil industry, predicting that global crude demand will continue to rise until 2040, before slowly starting to decline.
The oil major reportedly hedged against forecasting a specific year that oil demand will peak, with CEO Patrick Pouyanne telling reporters that there has been “conflict” internally about a specific year. The decision was also reportedly driven by growing political attention around the debate on peak crude demand, according to Reuters.
TotalEnergies’ most recent forecasts were made in the firm’s annual energy outlook report, which also estimated that oil demand will increase nearly 5% to 108 million barrels per day in 2040. Much of the demand is expected to be driven by India’s consumption. The firm is then expecting global demand to dip to around 98 million barrels per day in 2050.
BP CONFIDENT IN OIL REFOCUS DESPITE LOW PRICES: As domestic and international crude prices continued to fall today, British oil major BP is not letting the low crude futures derail its renewed focus on the oil industry.
BP released its third-quarter earnings today, revealing a second consecutive quarter of roughly flat profits, at around $2.2 billion. As these earnings came around the same time period that oil prices fell nearly 14%, CEO Murray Auchincloss is confident the oil major will hit its financial goals, even if prices fall further.
“We see strong underlying growth across all our businesses despite the price environment,” Auchincloss said, according to the Financial Times. “We will adapt. We have lots of flexibility to manage costs and capital if prices go lower. No matter what the business environment is, we’re positioned to adapt going forward.”
BP is reportedly aiming to increase its cash flow from $8 billion to $14 billion annuallyl by 2027 – a goal Auchincloss insists is on track. In order to hit this target, BP has shifted away from its clean energy strategies and pivoted back to focusing primarily on its oil and gas business.
RUSSIA CRUDE EXPORTS DROP AMID SANCTIONS: Shipments of Russian crude oil dropped to the lowest since January 2024 as a result of key buyers shifting away from Moscow’s oil due to sanctions.
Bloomberg reports that the average oil shipments from Russia’s ports fell to 3.58 million barrels per day in the four weeks to Nov. 2, which is down 190,000 barrels per day from the four-week period ending Oct. 26.
The drop in shipments follows the United States’ sanctions last month on Moscow’s largest oil producers, Rosneft PJSC and Lukoil PJSC. The Treasury Department said the sanctions were due to Russia’s lack of serious commitment for peace in Ukraine.
Key quotes: “I just felt it was time,” President Donald Trump said in a meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office, adding that he hoped “they won’t be on for long.”
“The only thing I can say is, every time I speak with Vladimir [Putin], I have good conversations, and then they just don’t go anywhere,” Trump said.
PUTIN TO BOOST MINING OF RARE EARTHS: Putin is seeking to boost his country’s supply of rare earth metals, an effort similar to that of other global leaders, including Trump.
Politico reports that Putin ordered his government to develop an “action plan” for mining rare earth metals, which are essential for energy and defense technologies.
The state-owned Russian media outlet TASS said Putin called for a plan to be finalized by Dec. 1, and for it to focus on “long-term development of the extraction and production of rare and rare earth metals.”
Nations are seeking options to diversify their supply of critical minerals and rare earths to reduce reliance on China. Politico said Russia only produces 1% of the world’s rare earths. Russia said earlier this year that it has about 15 types of rare earths, totaling 28.5 million tonnes.
HURRICANE MELISSA DEATH TOLL RISES: The death toll has risen in Haiti after Hurricane Melissa swept through the country last week.
Haiti’s government said the death toll has risen to 43, with 13 others missing, the Associated Press reports. The hardest-hit community was the town of Petit-Goâve, where 25 people have died.
Hurricane Melissa was the strongest Atlantic storm on record, as it swept through the Caribbean as a Category 5 storm. The hurricane flooded about 12,000 homes and destroyed 200 others, with 1,700 people in shelters.
Meanwhile, in Jamaica, the storm has killed at least 32 people, with officials warning that the death toll would rise.
ICYMI – BILL GATES DEFENDS SHIFT ON CLIMATE: Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is speaking out in defense of changing his previous “doomsday” perspective on the effects of climate change, insisting that it is not a complete reversal from his past views.
Quick reminder: Last week, Gates released a memo in which he said the “doomsday outlook” on climate change is the wrong perspective and approach, arguing that it diverts attention away from effective policies. His shakeup was quickly praised by Republicans, including the president, who described the change of opinion as a swing against the typical liberal stance on climate change.
What’s new: During an interview with Axios last night, Gates insisted that perspective is a “gigantic misreading” of his memo. Gates explained that he is still increasing his own funding for addressing climate change as well as public health measures.
“I didn’t think the memo was going to convert the non-believers into believers, and sure enough, it didn’t convert them,” Gates told the outlet.
Read more from the Examiner’s Molly Parks here.
RUNDOWN
New York Times A Simple Fix to America’s Soaring Electricity Prices
Utility Dive What the last gas boom (and bust) says about today’s rush to build
Inside Climate News Federal Courts Divided, So Far, on Trump’s Environmental Retreat
