New Year New Climate Momentum The private-sector task force, led by Mark Carney, has published its roadmap for “scaling up voluntary carbon markets”. More investments in climate action are, of course, more than welcome. But the task force should pay more attention to quality – instead of focusing on quantity. One striking omission in the new…
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By Kaisa Amaral Why carbon pricing should strengthen, not replace national climate action As part of the EU Green Deal implementation, the European Commission considers scrapping national climate targets and expanding the EU carbon market to road transport and buildings. Doing so would undermine the new climate goals and put an undue burden on consumers…
‘Carbon removals’ must be approached with caution Carbon removals are becoming a hot topic and are also rising up on the EU’s policy-making agenda. There is no denying that we will need to suck CO2 pollution from the atmosphere over the course of this century to avert the worst impacts of the climate crisis. But…
While the EU carbon market is helping to clean up Europe’s power sector, industrial CO2 pollution remained stubbornly high, and that from aviation kept growing in 2019. This is partly due to overly generous handouts of pollution permits. These subsidies must be phased out to incentivise cleaner production and more sustainable transport as the scheme…
Green Commitment Or Greenwashing? Since last year, Shell has been offering European motorists “carbon neutral” driving and recently Total announced that it is now selling “carbon neutral” liquified natural gas. Are the fossil fuel giants going green? No, we are not talking about electric car charging stations or renewable fuels. Both Shell and Total are…
Airlines have been hit hard by the pandemic induced economic slowdown and travel restrictions, but are also using the situation as an excuse to lobby even harder against climate regulations. As the EU works on its aviation climate package, it must ensure that – like other transport modes – the sector pays for its pollution…
We joined the World Press Clubs Alliance for Climate launch event on Friday 23 October. Watch the interview with Sabine Frank here. Companies and governments are announcing “climate-neutrality” targets, and consumers are being offered ways to offset their carbon footprint. What does this mean in practice? How can we distinguish between real climate action and…
Ambitious EU/China climate news muted amid COVID chaos Dear members, friends & colleagues, Welcome to this quarter’s edition of the Watch This, a civil society newsletter by Carbon Market Watch. In this edition we look at some big climate announcements that have struggled to get the recognition they deserve during these increasingly troubling times. In an interview with my…
Interview with Agnese Ruggiero In a ‘normal’ year last month’s big climate announcements by Europe and China would have been a major international talking point, sadly this year is nothing but normal! First, the EU Commission during the State of the Union speech set out a plan to raise the block’s 2030 GHG reduction target…
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