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The US and the EU launched a formal group urging other countries
to be "ambitious" with their emissions goals and to follow their
lead in pledging climate neutrality by 2050.
Highlighting the rising attention on climate change, the
creation of the US-EU High-Level Climate Action Group was one of
many prominent announcements at a 15 June US-EU summit that tackled a range of
trade and diplomatic flashpoints around the world.
Countries are expected to deepen emissions cuts through upcoming
pledges, called Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), at the
UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow this November.
Several countries did so already at the US-sponsored Leaders' Summit on Climate in
April.
In announcing the new group, the US and EU said they will
promote low-GHG technology and markets and discourage the unabated
coal sector both inside and outside their borders. After China, the
US and EU produce the world's second- and third-most CO2
emissions.
They will also continue to work on an unfulfilled promise made
by richer Paris Agreement countries to provide $100 billion per
year of transparency-linked funding for meeting climate mitigation
needs in developing countries by 2020.
The partnership will work to "provide an effective platform for
cooperation" and "lead by example" while engaging international
partners to "keep a 1.5 degrees Celsius limit on global
temperatures within reach" through COP26 targets.
"We aim to make climate neutrality the global benchmark ahead of
COP26 in Glasgow," said European Commission
President Ursula von der Leyen on Twitter.
Cost of carbon
In a speech, von der Leyen mentioned that the EU and US talked
about a global carbon price at the 15 June summit. Low carbon
prices in the EU have been faulted as ineffective for motivating
intended low-carbon retrofits, observers have noted. "Last but not
least, we were discussing the global pricing on CO2, that it is
necessary overall to have over time a global price on CO2, be it
through the Emissions Trading System or be it through taxation,"
said von der Leyen.
"And in this context, I explained the logic of our Carbon Border
Adjustment Mechanism, and we discussed that, we will exchange on
it, and that the [World Trade Organization (WTO)] might facilitate
this," she added, referring to the EU's proposed carbon tariff on
imports that could be levied on imports of steel and cement to
prevent unfair competition with European companies. As soon as this
summer, these companies will be under more pressure to decarbonize
though the proposed European Green Deal.
Fight against unabated coal
In a joint statement on the day of the
summit, the two powers also said they and other countries should
stop investing in unabated coal.
The US and EU aim to quickly move away from unabated coal
capacity and decarbonize their power grids in the 2030s to reach
their net-zero commitments, without naming funding sources for
these goals.
"We resolve to take concrete steps towards an absolute end to
new direct government support for unabated international thermal
coal power generation in third countries by the end of 2021,
including through official development assistance, export finance,
investment, and financial and trade promotion support," they said.
"We commit to reviewing our official trade, export, and development
finance policies towards these objectives."
The US and EU will also promote technologies to reach their
climate neutrality and just transition goals, such as:
low GHG technologies;
uptake of renewable energy;
energy efficiency;
methane emissions reduction;
sustainable food systems, including climate-smart agricultural
systems, and;
sustainable and smart mobility.
Jointly commercializing these technologies will be critical to
tackling to climate change, according to von der Leyen. "So, to
make sure that on both sides we are aware of the latest
development, we can discuss how we enable breakthrough technologies
or amazing innovations to be competitive [in] the market and to
work on their market entrance, because we will rapidly need these
new technologies if we want to fight climate change," she said in
her speech.
Alliances
The US and EU's climate partnership will use two separate
alliances to reach its net-zero aims, one of which is new.
They will start a Transatlantic Green Technology Alliance that
will foster cooperation on the development and deployment of green
technologies, as well as promoting markets to scale such
technologies.
They will also use Mission Innovation, a R&D coalition that
includes the EU and 22 countries, and is affiliated with Bill
Gates' cleantech investment vehicle Breakthrough Energy.
The US and EU promised other mutual climate measures such as
preventing carbon leakage and providing "tools" to support
sustainability in the finance sector
They will further encourage other countries to stop biodiversity
loss, in part by helping to promote a post-2020 global biodiversity
framework at the 15th UN Biodiversity Conference of the Parties
(COP15) in October. They pledged to "conserve" at least 30% of
global land and oceans, including at least 30% of EU and US land
and waters, by 2030.
The US government is already putting this target into action
through a proposal, called the "
America the Beautiful Initiative," and legislation has been
introduced in Congress to fund a "30 by 30" land protection
program.
The series of measures came days after the US announced a $40
trillion infrastructure fund for developing
countries, targeting climate, health, digitization, and
equality concerns.
Earlier this week, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization
(NATO), the military alliance of European and North American
countries, also adopted a climate change adaptation
plan.
At the 15 June summit, the US and EU tackled many high-profile
issues, including what von der Leyen called longest trade dispute
in the history of the WTO, a 17-year fight over their respective
subsidies for aircraft manufacturers.
They also pledged unity in the face of international disputes
involving states like China, Russia, Iran, Syria, Libya, Yemen, and
Israel.
Climate and Sustainability News has been renamed Net-Zero
Business Daily™ in order to better reflect our focus on the
business and financial impacts of the global transition to a
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day, IHS Markit will bring you accurate and detailed information on
recent developments, as well as far-sighted analysis on the
challenges that lie ahead.
Posted 17 June 2021 by Cristina Brooks, Senior Journalist, Climate and Sustainability