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LONDON — World leaders are under huge pressure to outline how they plan to reduce emissions and mitigate climate change at one of the most important diplomatic summits in history.

The major climate event, known as COP26, will take place in Glasgow, Scotland from Sunday through to Nov. 12. It was initially scheduled to be held last year but was delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Diplomats and world leaders have sought to downplay expectations of success in the run-up to the summit, although a position paper of more than 100 developing countries representing more than half of the world has insisted there can be “no more excuses for unfulfilled promises.”

To have any chance of capping global heating to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, the aspirational goal of the 2015 Paris Agreement, the world needs to almost halve greenhouse gas emissions in the next 8 years and reach net-zero emissions by 2050.

Climate scientists have repeatedly stressed that the best weapon to tackle rising global temperatures is to cut greenhouse gas emissions — fast.

Johan Rockstrom, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and one of the world’s most influential Earth scientists, told CNBC that he believes the success of COP26 will come down to negotiations on five make-or-break issues.

These are mitigation, climate finance, carbon pricing, nature solutions and the phasing out of fossil fuels.

Mitigation

“We must, at a minimum, have 195 countries aligning with science in their plans — not even delivering, but just in their plans — and that requires net zero targets by 2050 at the latest,” Rockstrom said.

“We only have a small number of countries that have done that so far,” he added, noting that countries such as Indonesia, Russia and Brazil were all yet to publicly declare net-zero targets by the middle of the century.

A U.N. report published earlier this week found new and updated Nationally Determined Contributions put the world on track for a dangerous global temperature rise of at least 2.7 degrees Celsius by the end of the century — even if plans were fully met.

NDCs are the efforts of each country to reduce national emissions. At present, the U.N. says updated NDCs would only lead to an additional 7.5% reduction in annual greenhouse gas emissions compared to previous commitments.

Climate activists “set fire” to George Square, Glasgow, with an art installation of faux flames, smoke, and banners, and giant fire extinguishers, creating a field of climate fire to welcome world leaders to Glasgow for the Cop26 conference.
Andrew Milligan | PA Images | Getty Images

Farhana Yamin, a climate lawyer and advisor to the Climate Vulnerable Forum, told CNBC via telephone that COP26 must trigger a profound “justice reset” if it is to be considered a successful summit. “Success can only come from grasping hard truths, speaking honestly and recognizing the situation of vulnerable countries.”

It is not good enough, she added, for those at COP26 to continue talking about their optimism for the future when countries are nowhere close to meeting the demands of the climate emergency.

“Beating the drum and calling it optimism isn’t cutting the mustard with anybody. Optimism isn’t solving the lives of developing countries or vulnerable groups right now who are facing the consequences of failure,” Yamin said.

“It’s like a further insult. What is optimism for a country that is now facing complete devastation?”

Finance

High-income countries promised in 2009 to deliver $100 billion a year for five years from 2020 to help low-income countries pivot away from fossil fuels and protect against climate breakdown. This Paris Agreement target has still not been fulfilled and is not expected to be met until at least 2023.

“In all honesty, this is really just small money,” Rockstrom said, noting the trillions of dollars in bailouts spent by global governments in an effort to recover from the coronavirus pandemic.

“We are talking about the trillions that are needed to have a full 100% transition of investments from fossil-fuel-based infrastructure to renewable infrastructure so that we can really see decisive change and direction. There must be a finance discussion.”

Stop pretending loss and damage isn’t happening and find a way to fund it.
Farhana Yamin
Climate lawyer

Climate finance is widely regarded as a critically important issue, particularly when it comes to repairing global trust.

“Success would be for countries to stop playing games with the issue of loss and damage and actually fund it,” Yamin said. “Stop pretending loss and damage isn’t happening and find a way to fund it.”

Carbon pricing

To its proponents, carbon pricing is seen as an important way to incentivize emissions reductions and help low-carbon technologies compete with established, heavily polluting alternatives.

To its critics, however, Article 6 of the Paris Agreement risks undermining the ambition of the accord at a time when there is overwhelming evidence of the need to go further and faster to avoid climate tipping points. This is because some fear carbon trading arrangements could allow countries to hit already-weak targets without cutting additional emissions.

“The third part which, whether we like it or not, has to be on the table is a price on carbon. That has to be discussed globally,” Rockstrom said.

Electricity pylons are seen in front of the cooling towers of the coal-fired power station of German energy giant RWE in Weisweiler, western Germany, on January 26, 2021.
Ina Fassbender | AFP | Getty Images

He argued that COP26 represented a “completely new situation” when it came to carbon pricing because, for the first time, Europe’s Emissions Trading System was “starting to bite” polluting industries.

The EU’s benchmark carbon price was last seen trading at around 60 euros per metric ton, having stood at around 20 euros before the coronavirus pandemic. The price rise has resulted in some coal-fired power plants being shut down, Rockstrom said. “I think we will start seeing carbon pricing spreading and so that has to be on the table at a global level,” he added.

Nature

“The fourth part and perhaps the most important one for Glasgow is to make this the first COP meeting that is really a nature COP,” Rockstrom said. “It has to be the climate negotiating moment where we recognize that the only way to land the Paris Agreement, I mean the only way, is to secure the carbon sinks in nature — on land and in oceans. There is no carbon budget remaining unless we secure those sinks.”

Carbon sinks are natural areas, such as oceans and forests, that absorb more carbon than they emit.

Rockstrom suggested pricing carbon in biomass, in soils and in all ecosystems should be taken into account in the coming weeks.

The U.K. COP26 presidency has recognized the twin threats of climate change and biodiversity loss cannot be solved without addressing the other. Sustainable agriculture and land use and action on restoring forests and other critical ecosystems are set to be discussed in Scotland.

In an article published online for London-based think tank Chatham House earlier this month, Yamin suggested that considering the rights of nature through legal tools such as ecocide, for example, and the taking the interests of future generations should be on the table in Glasgow.

Another area to be considered, Yamin said, would be for COP26 to consider creating a post for a “High-Level Champion” to speak up for the incorporation of justice, equality, diversity and inclusion issues. She argued a COP-appointed position such as this could help to challenge greenwashing.

Phasing out fossil fuels

Burning fossil fuels, such as coal, oil and gas, is the chief driver of the climate emergency.

At COP26, Costa Rica and Denmark are expected to formally launch the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance, the world’s first diplomatic alliance to manage the decline of oil and gas production.

It is coal, however, that is the most carbon-intensive fossil fuel in terms of emissions and therefore the most important target for replacement in the pivot to renewable alternatives.

A global energy supply crunch this year has coincided with a resurgence of coal production, raising serious questions about the so-called “energy transition.”

A freight train transports coal from the Gunnedah Coal Handling and Prepararation Plant, operated by Whitehaven Coal Ltd., in Gunnedah, New South Wales, Australia, on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2020.
David Gray | Bloomberg | Getty Images

“We have to have a serious discussion on end-dates on fossil fuels use. An end date on coal and an end date on the internal combustion engine,” Rockstrom said.

“We’ve never had that moment arising in such a concrete way before. How do we create a way for the big emerging economies to seriously take on the challenge of phasing out coal in a way that allows a soft social landing? It is tremendously challenging but an absolute necessity.”

Research published in the scientific journal Nature on Sept. 9 found the vast majority of the world’s known fossil fuel reserves must be kept in the ground to have some hope of preventing the worst effects of climate change.

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Economists, experts call for governments to ditch hydrogen, go fully electric

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Economists, experts call for governments to ditch hydrogen, go fully electric

In a joint statement, French and German economists have called on governments to adopt “a common approach” to decarbonize European trucking fleets – and they’re calling for a focus on fully electric trucks, not hydrogen.

France and Germany are the two largest economies in the EU, and they share similar challenges when it comes to freight decarbonization. The two countries also share a border, and the traffic between the two nations generates major cross-border flows that create common externalities between the two countries.

At the same time, the EU’s transport sector has struggled to reduce emissions at the same rate as other industries – and road freight in particular is a major contributor to harmful carbon emissions issue due to that industry’s heavy reliance on diesel-powered trucks.

And for once, it seems like rail isn’t a viable option:

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While rail remains competitive mainly for heavy, homogeneous goods over long distances. Most freight in Europe is indeed transported over distances of less than 200 km and involves consignment weights of up to 30 tonnes (GCEE, 2024) In most such cases, transportation by rail instead of truck is not possible or not competitive. Moreover, taking into account the goods currently transported in intermodal transport units over distances of more than 300 km, the modal shift potential from road to rail would be only 6% in Germany and less than 2% in France.

FRANCO-GERMAN COUNCIL OF ECONOMIC EXPERTS (FGCEE)

That leaves trucks – and, while numerous government incentives currently exist to promote the parallel development of both hydrogen and battery electric vehicle infrastructures, the study is clear in picking a winner.

“Policies should focus on battery-electric trucks (BET) as these represent the most mature and market-ready technology for road freight transport,” reads the the FGCEE statement. “Hence, to ramp-up usage of BET public funding should be used to accelerate the roll-out of fast-charging networks along major corridors and in private depots.”

The appeal was signed by the co-chair of the advisory body on the German side is the chairwoman of the German Council of Economic Experts, Monika Schnitzer. Camille Landais co-chairs the French side. On the German side, the appeal was signed by four of the five experts; Nuremberg-based energy economist Veronika Grimm (who also sits on the National Hydrogen Council, which is committed to promoting H2 trucks and filling stations) did not sign.

You can read an English version of the CAE FGCEE joint statement here.

Electrek’s Take

Hydrogen-sceptical truck maker MAN to produce limited series of 200 vehicles with H2 combustion engines
MAN hydrogen semi; via MAN Trucks.

MAN Trucks’ CEO famously said that it was “impossible” for hydrogen to compete with BEVs, and even committed to building 200 hydrogen-powered semi truck to prove out that hypothesis.

He’s not alone. MAN’s board member for research and development, Frederik Zohm, said that the company is the one saying hydrogen still has years to go. “(MAN) continues to research fuel cell technology based on battery electrics,” he said, in a statement quoted by Hydrogen Insight, before another board member added that, “we (MAN) expect that, in the future, we will be able to best serve the vast majority of our customers’ transport applications with battery-electric trucks.”

With companies like Volvo and Renault and now Mercedes racking up millions of miles on their respective battery electric semi truck fleets, it’s no longer even close. EV is the way.

SOURCE | IMAGES: CAE FGCEE; via Electrive.

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Quick Charge | the terrifying Trump tariffs are finally upon us!

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Quick Charge | the terrifying Trump tariffs are finally upon us!

On today’s tariff-tastic episode of Quick Charge, we’ve got tariffs! Big ones, small ones, crazy ones, and fake ones – but whether or not you agree with the Trump tariffs coming into effect tomorrow, one thing is absolutely certain: they are going to change the price you pay for your next car … and that price won’t be going down!

Everyone’s got questions about what these tariffs are going to mean for their next car buying experience, but this is a bigger question, since nearly every industry in the US uses cars and trucks to move their people and products – and when their costs go up, so do yours.

Prefer listening to your podcasts? Audio-only versions of Quick Charge are now available on Apple PodcastsSpotifyTuneIn, and our RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players.

New episodes of Quick Charge are recorded, usually, Monday through Thursday (and sometimes Sunday). We’ll be posting bonus audio content from time to time as well, so be sure to follow and subscribe so you don’t miss a minute of Electrek’s high-voltage daily news.

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Got news? Let us know!
Drop us a line at tips@electrek.co. You can also rate us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, or recommend us in Overcast to help more people discover the show.

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SunZia Wind’s massive 2.4 GW project hits a big milestone

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SunZia Wind’s massive 2.4 GW project hits a big milestone

GE Vernova has produced over half the turbines needed for SunZia Wind, which will be the largest wind farm in the Western Hemisphere when it comes online in 2026.

GE Vernova has manufactured enough turbines at its Pensacola, Florida, factory to supply over 1.2 gigawatts (GW) of the turbines needed for the $5 billion, 2.4 GW SunZia Wind, a project milestone. The wind farm will be sited in Lincoln, Torrance, and San Miguel counties in New Mexico.

At a ribbon-cutting event for Pensacola’s new customer experience center, GE Vernova CEO Scott Strazik noted that since 2023, the company has invested around $70 million in the Pensacola factory.

The Pensacola investments are part of the announcement GE Vernova made in January that it will invest nearly $600 million in its US factories and facilities over the next two years to help meet the surging electricity demands globally. GE Vernova says it’s expecting its investments to create more than 1,500 new US jobs.

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Vic Abate, CEO of GE Vernova Wind, said, “Our dedicated employees in Pensacola are working to address increasing energy demands for the US. The workhorse turbines manufactured at this world-class factory are engineered for reliability and scalability, ensuring our customers can meet growing energy demand.”

SunZia Wind and Transmission will create US history’s largest clean energy infrastructure project.

Read more: The largest clean energy project in US history closes $11B, starts full construction


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