Budget & Policy

MARRAKESH, Morocco — The United States can by 2050 decrease its carbon emissions 80 percent below 2005 levels, according to the U.S. Mid-Century Strategy for Deep Decarbonization (MCS) submitted Wednesday to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The submission of national mid-century strategies is called for, but not required, by the Paris Agreement […]

MARRAKESH, Morocco — In what is likely his last appearance at a United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change event, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry had a simple message for world leaders, present and future: pay attention to the science on climate change. “Above all, consult with the scientists who have dedicated their entire […]

MARRAKESH, Morocco — More than 365 companies of varying sizes Wednesday sent a letter to U.S. President Barack Obama and President-elect Donald Trump, calling for continued U.S. participation in the Paris Agreement on climate change. “Implementing the Paris Agreement will enable and encourage businesses and investors to turn the billions of dollars in existing low-carbon […]

A coalition of businesses and nongovernmental organizations on Wednesday urged Congress to sustain the 45Q tax credit for carbon dioxide sequestration. In a letter to Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), 28 signatories called for extending and enhancing the tax credit “in any year-end legislative vehicle for tax […]

A group of experts and policy makers on Wednesday urged the incoming Donald Trump administration to make cuts to the U.S. nuclear arsenal and modernization program, along with adopting several nuclear policy changes. All the proposals are outlined in a new Ploughshares Fund report, 10 Big Nuclear Ideas for the Next President. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Rep. Adam Smith […]

The Kemper County Energy Facility carbon capture facility in Mississippi could receive hundreds of millions to billions of dollars in subsidies if the federal 45Q carbon sequestration tax credit is extended, Friends of the Earth and Taxpayers for Common Sense said in a report Tuesday. The 45Q tax credit is worth $20 per ton of […]

Carbon capture and storage will be key to the success of the Paris Agreement on climate change, but widespread deployment of the technologies is by no means a done deal, the Global CCS Institute said on Tuesday. “It’s certainly not inevitable. It’s not a sure thing that carbon capture will take its place alongside wind, […]

The global energy sector much reach net-zero emissions no later than 2060 if the Paris Agreement’s most ambitious goal of limiting worldwide temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius is to be realized, the International Energy Agency said Wednesday in its World Energy Outlook 2016. The new report evaluates the outlooks for the coal, natural gas, […]

MARRAKESH, Morocco — A week past election day, the selection of Donald Trump as the next president of the United States remains a hot topic at the 22nd session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he hopes the Republican president-elect […]

MARRAKESH, Morocco — The first meeting of the parties to the Paris Agreement on climate change (CMA) opened here Tuesday with much back patting and little substance. During the meeting’s brief opening plenary at the 22nd session of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, COP and […]

MARRAKESH, Morocco — While federally mandated actions to address climate change may be a thing of the past under President-elect Donald Trump, states, cities, and businesses are not going to stop their own efforts, public and private sector officials said here Tuesday. “The United States is a federalist system, which means that the states have […]

An annual analysis of the global carbon cycle has found that carbon emissions have been essentially flat for the last three years, the Global Carbon Project announced Monday at the 22nd session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Marrakesh, Morocco. “Global carbon dioxide emissions from […]

MARRAKESH, Morocco — Donald Trump’s election as president of the United States will have a negligible effect on climate action in other nations, U.S. Special Envoy for Climate Change Jonathan Pershing said Monday. “Heads of state can and will change, but I am confident that we can, and we will, sustain a durable international effort […]

MARRAKESH, Morocco — Just over a year ago, at the 21st session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, a group of 20 countries launched Mission Innovation, an effort to accelerate the development and deployment of clean energy technologies worldwide. Now, at the 22nd COP, the United […]

Environmentalists are reeling following Donald Trump’s election last week as president of the United States, trying to assess what a future under the climate change denier might look like. “Trump’s proposals are those of a willful child, recklessly breaking things he can’t repair,” 350.org co-founder Bill McKibben said in a Friday release. “He wants to […]

MARRAKESH, Morocco — The second and final week of the annual Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change kicks off Monday, presenting parties with a chance to reflect on progress thus far. At a Saturday evening press conference here, COP22 President Salaheddine Mezouar and UNFCC Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa […]

This year will almost certainly blow past 2015 to be the hottest on record, the World Meteorological Organization announced Monday morning in Marrakesh, Morocco, at the 22nd session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The new data, released in the form of a provisional report intended […]

Waiting to ramp up climate action until after 2020 will make the transition to a global low-carbon future harder for the poor and vulnerable while placing a large burden of future generations, a coalition of civil society groups said in a report Friday. The report reviews national commitments for the years leading up to 2020 […]

Several U.S. states are working hard to transition to cleaner energy systems, the Georgetown Climate Center said in a report Monday, presenting examples of successful programs. “In the last three years, the U.S. power sector has seen a dramatic increase in electricity generation from renewable energy sources and less-polluting fossil fuel sources, as well as […]

The press has been abuzz this week about what, according to the common wisdom, was the surprise election of Donald Trump as the 45th president of the United States. Here’s something not so surprising: All of the congressional races Weapons Complex Monitor looked at last week turned out as expected, with incumbents triumphing and the […]

Donald Trump’s victory Tuesday in the U.S. presidential election stunned political pundits and prompted speculation about a number of policy areas likely to change once President Barack Obama leaves office – not least among them the future of the nation’s nuclear arsenal. During their campaigns the Republican and his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton offered two […]

Nuclear waste and the billions of dollars the Energy Department spends each year to clean it up do not go away after a presidential campaign — even a grinding, vitriolic campaign like the one Donald Trump won Tuesday —and nobody knows it better than business. As common after an election as calls for unity from the president-elect […]

The first meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement (CMA1) could end without taking any action on implementing the climate change accord, according to a document made public Wednesday. The meeting is scheduled for Nov. 15 to 18 in Marrakesh, Morocco, alongside the 22nd session of the Conference of Parties (COP22) to the United Nations […]

GHG Daily Monitor will not be published on Friday in observance of Veterans Day. Look for the next edition in your inbox on Monday, Nov. 14.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and a host of others around the world on Wednesday urged U.S. President-elect Donald Trump to take seriously the threat of climate change, which the Republican has described as a hoax. “The United Nations will count on the new Administration to strengthen the bonds of international […]

The five-year stretch from 2011 to 2015 was the hottest half-decade on record, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) announced Tuesday, pointing the finger directly at human activity. The period was also marked by significant ice melts and rising sea levels, the U.N. agency said in a new report. The WMO said it evaluated data covering […]

Donald Trump’s election as the 45th president of the United States almost certainly means massive changes in the U.S. environmental and climate policies put in place by President Barack Obama. On the potential chopping block are the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan and U.S. participation in the Paris Agreement on climate change. The Republican defied […]

The European Union remains on the path to meet its greenhouse gas emissions reductions target for 2020, even with a small spike in emissions last year, the European Environment Agency said Tuesday. The bloc of 28 nations aims by 2020 to cut GHG emissions 20 percent from 1990 levels. It exceeded that target in both 2014 […]

The Paris Agreement has helped open the door for close to $23 trillion in “climate-smart” investments in emerging markets worldwide through 2030, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) said in a report this week. The climate change agreement was adopted nearly a year ago and entered into force on Friday. The report noted that 189 nations […]

Republican Donald Trump doesn’t believe in climate change, Democrat Hillary Clinton does, and by Wednesday one of them will be the president-elect of the United States. In a chaotic election season, the candidate’s climate change positions took a backseat to allegations of fraud, impropriety, abuse, and dishonesty. Those watching for it, however, got a heap […]