World Bank Group Announces $200 billion over Five Years for Climate Action

Washington DC - 3 December, 2018 --The World Bank Group today announced a major new set of climate targets for 2021-2025, doubling its current 5-year investments to around $200 billion in support for countries to take ambitious climate action. The new plan significantly boosts support for adaptation and resilience, recognizing mounting climate change impacts on lives and livelihoods, especially in the world’s poorest countries. The plan also represents significantly ramped up ambition from the World Bank Group, sending an important signal to the wider global community to do the same. 

“Climate change is an existential threat to the world’s poorest and most vulnerable. These new targets demonstrate how seriously we are taking this issue, investing and mobilizing $200 billion over five years to combat climate change,” World Bank Group President, Jim Yong Kim said. “We are pushing ourselves to do more and to go faster on climate and we call on the global community to do the same. This is about putting countries and communities in charge of building a safer, more climate-resilient future.”

Read the release from The World Bank - “World Bank Group Announces $200 billion over Five Years for Climate Action.”

Australia on track to miss Paris climate targets as emissions hit record highs

Australia remains on track to miss its Paris climate targets as carbon emissions continue to soar, according to new data.

NDEVR Environmental figures for the year up to the end of June
 2018 show Australia’s emissions were the highest on record
 when unreliable data from the land use and forestry sectors was excluded.

The figures from NDEVR Environmental for the year up to the end of June 2018 show the country’s emissions were again the highest on record when unreliable data from the land use and forestry sectors was excluded.

It is the third consecutive year for record-breaking emissions.

Read the story by Lisa Cox from The Guardian - “Australia on track to miss Paris climate targets as emissions hit record highs.”

Direct action fund would cost taxpayers $23b if used to meet Paris climate targets

Taxpayers would pay up to $23.6 billion for Australia to meet international climate targets if the Turnbull government were to continue with its "direct action" emissions-reduction fund as its main policy.

Adam Bandt said the Parliamentary Budget Office
 analysis showed the emissions reduction fund was
 "an empty vessel built to appease the Trumps
 in the Coalition". 

Following a request by the Greens, the federal Parliamentary Budget Office estimated the cost of using the fund to meet the target the Coalition submitted at the Paris climate summit – a 26 to 28 per cent emissions cut compared with 2005 levels by 2030.

The fund pays businesses and farmers through an auction process, with the cheapest bids winning contracts to cut emissions.

Read Adam Morton’s story in today’s Melbourne Age - “Direct action fund would cost taxpayers $23b if used to meet Paris climate targets.”

Sydney raises the bar on climate targets with new five-year plan

The City of Sydney has raised the bar on its renewable energy and climate targets, with the release of a new five-year plan that targets 50 per cent renewable electricity by 2030 and net zero emissions by 2050.

Released on Tuesday, the Environmental Action 2016–2021 plan builds on the City’s already ambitious long-term program – including a 70 per cent emissions reduction target by 2030 – taking into account advances in renewables technology and the global climate commitments made in Paris last December.

According to reports, to meet the new targets, the City is considering replicating a City of Melbourne scheme under which the council, businesses and residents group together to sponsor large-scale renewable energy projects.

A Sydney City Council spokesperson told RenewEconomy on Tuesday that no tenders had been launched in connection with the new policy, and that any such tenders – or dedicated grant funding – would be deferred until after the draft plan’s period of public exhibition from 30 June to 12 August.

Read the RenewEconomy story - “City of Sydney targets 50% renewables by 2030, net zero emissions by 2050.”

Brexit could leave the European Union struggling with its climate targets

Natalie Latter.

Britain has been a consistently progressive driver of climate policy in the European Union. Given the EU’s significance in international climate change negotiations, Britain’s vote to leave the union has implications both for EU policy and for the global Paris climate agreement struck last year.

The UK has been crucial to EU climate change policy in ways that have evolved over time. Britain’s strong domestic emissions reductions have made more ambitious EU burden-sharing targets possible. This in turn gave credibility to the idea of Europe as a global leader on climate ambition – something that has become a cherished part of many European citizens' self-identity. Britain has also been a crucial bridge between the United States and Europe in the United Nations' climate negotiation process.

Yet the EU’s climate policy ambition has arguably already declined over the past decade as it has struggled with a rising tide of resistance from more recalcitrant member states, chiefly Poland but also including, at various times, Italy, Hungary and Romania. Assuming that the EU manages to stave off any further disintegration, these voices will likely grow louder.

Read the piece by a PhD Scholar from the University of Western Australia,  Natalie Latter, on The Conversation -  “Brexit could leave the European Union struggling with its climate targets.”

Australian-German Climate and Energy College answers your Paris questions

A

re you looking to understand what countries' post-2020 climate targets actually mean in terms of emissions? Or what they need to be if we want to limit warming to within 2°C? Do you want to receive our latest stream of facts for the Paris negotiations?

If you answered 'yes' to any of these questions, then these resources from the “Australian-German Climate and Energy College” are for you.

Adam Morton attempts to explain climate change myths

T

he Coalition announced it will cut emissions by between 26 and 28 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030.

How to assess this? Climate targets are notoriously difficult to interpret and compare, but here are some things worth considering:

Read Adam Morton’s story in today’s Age - “Myths of the Australian climate change debate.”