News briefs: Kerry promotes global carbon market
Plus, green energy and aviation alliances from global Energy Transition Dialogue.
Kerry: Global carbon market ‘helpful’
A global carbon market would be a “helpful” mechanism to encourage investment and drive emissions down, U.S. climate envoy John Kerry said at the 7th Berlin Energy Transition Dialogue, being held virtually this week. The event brings legislators and industry leaders to address climate change policy and finances. In his remarks for the event, Kerry called for the development of a global carbon market — a move supported by many in climate finance, but one without a clear sense of agreement on market pricing and structure. Kerry said he has assembled a group of financial experts to explore and potentially “create new financial instruments,” Bloomberg reports. Kerry also said he wanted to gather the 20 largest emitting countries later this year when they meet in Glasgow at COP26 to talk about climate pledges. “We need transparency and accountability to then follow that,” he said.
Canada, Germany sign green-energy deal
In other news from Germany’s Energy Transition Dialogue, Canada and Germany have agreed to cooperate on green energy innovation and trade, focusing on green hydrogen, according to a report from Canadian press. The agreement outlines a plan to co-operate on energy policy and research as both strive to reach the goal of net-zero emissions by 2050. The report quoted Natural Resources Minister Seamus O’Regan said Quebec and his home province of Newfoundland and Labrador are particularly well-positioned to start generating so-called “green hydrogen,” which burns cleanly and can be produced using wind and solar power.
EU-U.S. aviation alliance ready to take off?
Aviation is one of the trickiest industries to decarbonize, prompting the EU to seek out an alliance with the U.S. on pollution standards to ease the industry's path to decarbonization, Reuters reports. Aviation has pumped up its climate impact annually in the past two decades, and without 2020’s pandemic-related drop-off in travel, there is little reason for optimism that 2020 would have bucked that trend. Outside of their CO₂ impact, flights contribute nitrous oxide, soot and water vapor in their contrails, and the EU said in November that non-CO₂ sources are responsible for two-thirds of flying’s climate impact. As such, Damien Meadows, acting head of the European Commission’s department for aviation climate policy, is looking to join the U.S. in setting fuel standards to address overlooked non-CO₂ emissions. The U.S., for its part, looks primed to respond favorably, with President Biden's appointment of Annie Petsonk as the department’s top international aviation official.
Editor’s note: Don’t forget to share Callaway Climate Insights with your friends and colleagues this week while our 20% anniversary sale is on! Contact me directly if you have suggestions or ideas at dcallaway@callawayclimateinsights.com.