Guest article by Kirsten Sleven, Director, WISE As the first country in the world, the Netherlands is about to introduce a carbon tax on industrial pollution. The tax is part of a broader policy package (Dutch Climate Agreement) to stimulate major industrial polluters to ‘decarbonize’ their production processes and was drawn up in consultation with…
It’s been dubbed a first of its kind – a new offset deal between Switzerland and Peru under the Paris Agreement. But how ground-breaking is this deal? And has there been any real change from the old offset efforts under the Kyoto Protocol of the past? Because of the postponement of COP26 in Glasgow, rules…
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…
A carbon border adjustment measure can support a clean industrial transition globally if it’s designed properly and fairly. It must replace all current EU pollution handouts and its revenues must be used wisely to drive innovation and to provide climate finance to countries that most need it. The EU Commission is preparing the law to…
The final EU carbon market state aid rules will ensure massive handouts of taxpayer money to large polluting industries such as oil refineries and plastic producers over the next decade. The EU ETS state aid guidelines for 2021-2030 set the framework for EU countries to compensate their electricity-intensive industries deemed at risk of ‘carbon leakage’…
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…
Companies are increasingly adopting “climate-neutrality” targets, which often include relying on forests to compensate for pollution. After yet another such offset project was swallowed by flames in California, unresolved questions about forest and land offsets resurface. It’s a simple tagline for green marketing campaigns: “Enjoy our product, it’s climate neutral”. While the tagline is simple,…
This is a guest contribution for Watch This! by Charles Komanoff, the director and co-founder of the US based NGO Carbon Tax Centre. We take a deep dive into the US climate politics on the eve of the US presidential elections. This article was first written in July 2020. As in 2016, Democrats appear poised…
Extending the EU carbon market to cover buildings and transport would not reduce emissions but could undermine existing legislation and risk instability on the market. Last week, the European Commission published its proposal for a higher EU 2030 climate target of at least 55% along with a plan for getting there in practice. As a…
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