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NOT GREAT, BOB! That iconic “Mad Men” meme is about how we’d expect negotiators at the United Nations climate conference in Madrid to respond when asked how talks are going.
The world’s negotiators didn’t make much progress in their first week of talks to hammer out the remaining key issues for implementing the Paris climate deal. That leaves the nations’ top diplomats, who arrived this week in the Spanish capital, to do much of the heavy lifting to break through political stalemates and find a deal.
Top UN officials are ramping up pressure on the negotiators: “Ministers, we recognize that a lot of technical work on this issue will remain for the future…but an agreement here in Madrid is crucial,” said Patricia Espinosa, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, during remarks at the opening of the talks’ high-level session Tuesday morning.
Of the utmost importance, Espinosa added, is hammering out an agreement on the rules for an international carbon market — known in Paris Agreement lingo as Article Six.
“It’s the only part of the Paris Agreement that directly engages with the private sector,” Espinosa said. “Failure to operationalize Article Six risks fragmenting those markets and sends a negative message that can undermine our overall climate efforts.”
Speed read: What’s the deal with Article Six? There are two major aspects of global carbon trading negotiators are working out. (A much more in-depth explainer from Carbon Brief here.)
Under the first — Article 6.2 — negotiators must decide how countries that have carbon markets, such as those in the European Union and soon-to-be China, will account for the carbon credits they trade with each other. The biggest political battle here centers around how strict the rules should be to avoid double-counting emissions reductions.
The second aspect — Article 6.4 — sets up a global carbon market and a central UN body to oversee it. Entities could generate carbon credits by reducing emissions through various projects, and countries could purchase those credits to help meet their Paris goals.
Developing countries are fighting for a greater portion of proceeds from those credits to be applied to adaptation in low-lying nations and poor countries that don’t have the money to protect themselves from the effects of climate change.
Bloomberg makes the rounds: Billionaire and 2020 presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg had a whirlwind tour Tuesday of the UN Conference of the Parties meeting, where countries are hammering out the last few aspects of the rules to implement the Paris climate agreement.
The next U.S. president “should end all subsidies for fossil fuel companies and fossil fuel extraction, and that includes tax breaks and other special treatment,” Bloomberg said at a sustainable finance event.
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EXXON WINS NEW YORK CLIMATE SUIT: ExxonMobil won a first-of-its-kind climate change fraud trial on Tuesday, as a judge rejected the state of New York’s claim that the oil and gas giant misled investors in accounting for the financial risks of global warming.
New York Supreme Court Justice Barry Ostrager said the state failed to prove that Exxon violated the Martin Act, a broad state law that does not require proof of intent of shareholder fraud.
“The office of the Attorney General failed to prove, by a preponderance of the evidence, that ExxonMobil made any material misstatements or omissions about its practices and procedures that misled any reasonable investor,” Ostrager wrote in a 55-page ruling, deciding the case without a jury.
What it means: The conclusion of New York’s lawsuit is the first in a series of court battles playing out related to climate change and the role of oil and gas companies.
New York’s case took a different tack than other climate-related suits filed by cities and localities since 2017, so it’s hard to read into what the result means for other cases.
New York alleged that Exxon underrepresented the potential future costs to its business of climate regulations, deceiving investors about their true financial exposure.
Most of the other lawsuits against oil companies make public nuisance claims under state law, seeking compensation for the costs of adapting to droughts, wildfires, severe storms, and other effects of climate change.
$738 BILLION NDAA READY FOR VOTE, WITH NORD STREAM 2 SANCTIONS: House and Senate negotiators have agreed on the final version of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020, which authorizes funding for both the Defense Department and the national security programs of the Energy Department.
The final bill, as Josh reported Monday, includes a bipartisan provision imposing sanctions on construction companies that lay pipes to build the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which would deliver natural gas from Russia to Germany. It also contains a similar measure sanctioning construction of Russia’s TurkStream pipeline that would transport Russian gas around Ukraine and through Turkey.
“Including my legislation in the NDAA highlights the bipartisan, bicameral consensus in Congress and throughout the government that the U.S. must stop Russia’s Nord Stream 2,” said Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who co-sponsored the bill that the NDAA language is based on with Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, a New Hampshire Democrat.
Is it too late to matter? Even if Trump signs the provision into law, it’s likely too late to stop the pipeline from being built, say analysts at ClearView Energy.
“We remain skeptical as to whether [this measure] might truly stop either pipeline from entering into service,” ClearView wrote in a note.
Nord Stream 2 appears all but inevitable after Denmark approved a key permit in October for the pipeline to go through the Danish seabed in its exclusive economic zone. With that move, the project — which is about 85% complete — could begin operations as soon as January.
PFAS pleas: The final NDAA, as expected, does not include provisions pushed by House Democrats regulating PFAS chemicals — also known as “forever chemicals” — in drinking water, including a measure designating PFAS as “hazardous substances” under the federal Superfund law requiring cleanup of contaminated sites.
It does include smaller measures ending the Defense Department’s use of PFAS in firefighting foam and food packaging, as well as provisions to expand monitoring for PFAS in ground water and tap water.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer blamed Republicans for the impasse over the more comprehensive PFAS measures, and said he intends to bring a bill to the floor in January addressing them.
WARREN’S ‘BLUE NEW DEAL’: Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren released a “Blue New Deal” Tuesday to incorporate oceans in addressing climate change.
Oceans have absorbed more than 90% of the heat trapped by greenhouse gases, bleaching coral reefs and contributing to sea level rise.
Warren’s plan calls for fast-tracking permitting of offshore wind projects. She accuses Trump of bogging down existing planned projects off the Atlantic Coast, after his administration this summer delayed the final environmental review of the nation’s first major offshore wind farm, Vineyard Wind to be built off Martha’s Vineyard.
Warren would also invest in ocean-based carbon sequestration, and ban offshore oil and gas drilling on all federal waters.
And she pledges to “fight for” long-term extensions of renewable energy tax credits, along with working toward electrifying the nation’s shipping ports.
THE GOP INNOVATION ‘SHOW’: It’s Kevin McCarthy’s “show,” but Energy and Commerce Committee Republicans previewed Tuesday the focus of the conference’s political strategy on addressing climate change: It will be all about innovation and it won’t include regulation or carbon taxes.
Energy committee Republicans hosted a “Energy & Environment Innovation Showcase” in a science-fair like event in the Rayburn office building, where 18 companies, organizations, and universities invited by lawmakers presented technologies they are working on to curb emissions.
Politics as usual, as Jay-Z said: GOP committee leaders gave remarks flanked by a poster touting their “12 in ‘20” short-term plan to curb emissions, in a rejection of Democrats’ more ambitious net-zero emissions by 2050 approach.
Republicans argue narrower technology-focused bills would help the companies in attendance bring their products to market, such as advanced nuclear reactor company NuScale.
“We want to come forward with ideas we think make good common sense and can actually become law,” top Republican Greg Walden of Oregon told reporters. “The president would sign all of these,” he said, ticking off bills boosting carbon capture, advanced nuclear, and grid-scale energy storage.
Walden said the “12 in ‘20” plan will be central to an expected rollout in coming weeks by Republican leader McCarthy and the rest of the conference of a series of bills addressing climate change.
“It’s certainly part of it,” Walden said. “Leader McCarthy has some other ideas he wants to incorporate. It will be his show. We are going to be positive players in this space, and that’s what this is all about.”
CURBELO’S LATEST CLIMATE MOVE: Former Republican congressman Carlos Curbelo has joined the board of the Energy Foundation, a charitable group that funds clean energy development.
Curbelo has already been working with Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy to promote a federal carbon tax, which he supported in Congress before losing his House seat in South Florida last year.
The Rundown
Wall Street Journal Companies say they want to save the planet—but they can’t agree how
Politico Nations around the world take cues from U.S. climate insurgents
Washington Post Trump may appoint former chemical industry executive to lead Consumer Product Safety Commission
Bloomberg Water levels at world’s biggest dam sink to two-decade low
Calendar
TUESDAY | DECEMBER 10
2:20 p.m. Senate Visitors Center, Room 210/212. Senate Democrats’ Special Committee on the Climate Crisis holds a hearing entitled, “Better, Stronger, Smarter: Building Community Resilience in a Future of Extremes.”
WEDNESDAY | DECEMBER 11
2 p.m. 210 Cannon. House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis will hold a hearing titled “Creating a Climate Resilient America: Smart Finance for Strong Communities.”
