Abandoning Climate Change Fight Benefits Russia

Russian President Vladimir Putin is well
 aware that the Russian economy is
dependent on oil and gas exports..

President-elect Donald Trump has signaled ambivalence about many policies, such as Obamacare and infrastructure spending. But on at least one issue, his attitude is crystal clear: climate change. Trump has vowed to withdraw from the Paris agreement designed to limit fossil fuel use, and presented himself as a champion of the coal industry. U.S. national policy seems set for an epic shift away from alternative energy and carbon reduction.

That alone probably won't be enough to change the planet's course. The biggest carbon emitter by far is China, and all of the increases in emissions are coming from the developing world. Meanwhile, U.S. states and cities will continue efforts to curb carbon, and the steady improvements in solar and battery technology are unlikely to grind to a halt. But if other countries follow Trump's lead, the nascent effort to beat back global warming could suffer big setbacks.

Who would win from a retreat in the war on climate change? Oil, coal and gas industries around the world, obviously, as well as coal-burning power companies. But the biggest winner probably would be another country: Russia.

Read Noah Smith’s story in the Hartford Courant - “Abandoning Climate Change Fight Benefits Russia.”

AGL's energy climate change commitments take heat our AGM

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GL Energy's latest climate change commitments have taken the heat out of a shareholder resolution to be put to the annual general meeting on Wednesday, but the company is still under pressure to show how it will live up to its pledges while attention is turning to rival Origin Energy to follow suit.

The commitments adopted by the country's biggest carbon emitter, announced last Friday, leave coal seam gas as the main bone of contention between environmental activists and AGL, with protesters set to target the AGM to show opposition to the controversial Gloucester project in NSW's mid-north.

They have also exposed the policy vacuum that energy companies are operating in as they seek to preserve value in their electricity and gas supply businesses in a world moving more firmly to capping carbon.

Read Angela Macdonald-Smith’s story in today’s Melbourne Age - “AGL Energy deflects climate change heat ahead of AGM”.