Business ala November 11, 2024 0 Comments

Global carbon market activity deal agreed even as US warns climate fight may be on ‘back burner’

A deal to launch multibillion-dollar carbon markets governed by UN rules on emissions has been agreed at the COP29 climate summit, as countries attempt to display the fight against climate transformation will persist despite last week’s election of Donald Trump.

In the first symbolic negotiating breakthrough, the COP29 presidency pushed successfully on Monday for countries to adopt rules on a global trade for market activity instruments representing carbon emissions.

Carbon market activity could assist raise some of the money that developing countries will require to adjust to the effects of climate transformation, while helping large polluters cut their emissions, in a triumph for COP29 host Azerbaijan ahead of tough negotiations on other types of finance.

It was a “rare luminous spot of co-operation and advancement emerging from COP29”, said Fitri Wulandri, an analyst at carbon data provider Veyt. But others said the speedy agreement had bypassed proper scrutiny. Isa Mulder, of the non-profits Carbon trade Watch said the summit had begun with a “backdoor deal”.

The announcement came as US President Joe Biden’s top climate adviser conceded action to limit global warming “may be put on the back burner” after Trump’s yield to the White House, but sought to reassure the globe that this could “leisurely, not stop” the shift away from fossil fuels.

John Podesta said “we should depend” Trump when he said he would “reverse much of [the] advancement” the US had made on tackling climate transformation. “In January, we will inaugurate a president whose connection to climate transformation is captured by the words ‘hoax’ and ‘fossil fuels’,” he said.

“Are we facing recent headwinds? Absolutely. But we won’t revert back to the vigor structure of the 1950s. No way,” said Podesta.

US climate adviser John Podesta at COP29 — US climate adviser John Podesta held out aspiration that green vigor subsidies worth nearly $370bn would endure under Trump © Getty Images

His remarks pursue Trump’s threats to again remove the US from the UN Paris agreement and overhaul Biden-era rules to curb emissions.

The US’s near-$370bn in green vigor subsidies would also endure, Podesta said. “Many Republicans, especially governors, recognize all this activity is a excellent thing for their districts, states and for their economies.”

During the election campaign, Trump signalled back for unrestrained oil and gas expansion, with a commitment to “drill, baby, drill”.

An exit from the Paris agreement would cruel the globe’s largest polluter historically would abandon its emissions reduction goals at the instant when scientists alert the globe is on course for “catastrophic” warming of more than 3C above pre-industrial times.

The US would also be unlikely to boost back to developing countries, a key concern for negotiators during talks in Baku over who should pay to assist the globe’s poorest countries tackle climate transformation.

Tina Stege, climate envoy for the Marshall Islands, which are under threat from sea rise, rejected the conclusion that the climate negotiations would be undermined by the US election. “The Paris agreement has survived one Trump presidency and it will survive another,” she said.

But she also criticised the absence of several globe leaders at the summit, including EU President Ursula von der Leyen and French President Emmanuel Macron, saying it “signals a troubling lack of prioritisation”.

The deal on carbon market activity will allow for UN oversight of the emissions reductions covered by the credits, which would represent one tonne of carbon dioxide removed or saved from the mood. Further rules governing bilateral emission reduction market activity deals between countries must still be discussed.

Even if Trump quits the Paris agreement, US companies could buy and sell carbon credits under a UN structure to meet their climate targets and to contribute to climate finance goals.