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Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favorite tales on this weekly e-newsletter.
1. Japan to finish soiled new coal energy vegetation by 2050
Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida advised world leaders that the nation would cease constructing new coal energy vegetation by 2050 that don’t characteristic applied sciences to seize the emissions.
“In line with its pathway to net zero, Japan will end new construction of domestic unabated coal power plants, while securing a stable energy supply,” Kishida mentioned.
The pledge is according to commitments made by G7 nations earlier this yr at conferences chaired by Japan to speed up a gradual phaseout of unabated fossil fuels to realize web zero emissions from power by 2050.
Fossil fuels accounted for about 70 per cent of Japan’s electrical energy in 2022, and the nation has been attempting to construct assist for an Asian hydrogen and ammonia provide community.
2. UK attracts backlash for Sunak inexperienced ‘accounting trick’
On a flying go to to Dubai, UK prime minister Rishi Sunak unveiled £1.6bn for inexperienced finance tasks. He mentioned it delivered on the UK’s dedication to spend £11.6bn over 5 years, whereas taking it additional with new funding.
The commitments embrace £500mn to guard forests, £60mn in direction of the brand new loss and harm fund for susceptible nations, and £316mn for renewable power tasks.
“The time for pledges is now over — this is the era for action,” he mentioned on the primary day of the leaders’ summit at COP28.
But essentially the most speedy motion got here within the livid criticism from local weather campaigners.
ActionAid UK described it as an “accounting trick”. Zahra Hdidou, senior local weather and resilience adviser, mentioned the funding was “neither new nor additional, but a reheated pledge from years gone by”.
Sunak had “misread the room,” in response to Tessa Khan, govt director of Uplift, which is campaigning for a fossil-free UK.
“While the head of the UN implores countries to urgently phase out fossil fuels, the UK is one of just a handful of wealthy nations that is continuing to greenlight major new oilfields,” she mentioned.
Ed Miliband, shadow secretary of state for local weather change and web zero, mentioned Sunak’s complacent announcement mirrored a “weakening of the UK’s standing abroad”.
3. Climate Club targets trade because it indicators up 36 members
German chancellor Olaf Scholz formally launched the Climate Club, an initiative that was conceived at UN COP27 to sort out emissions from trade, with 36 nations signed up as members.
The listing included economies which can be fossil gas reliant, reminiscent of Argentina, Australia, Japan, Korea and Canada, in addition to Spain.
The members would develop the “right strategies and standards” for a carbon-free industrial sector, working collectively to share data, Scholtz mentioned. The membership would additionally assist match nations with technical and monetary assist from each non-public and public sources.
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen mentioned the Club was “becoming a unique hub of knowledge” for “advancing the decarbonisation of our industry”.
4. Women leaders scarcity
Only 15 out of 133 world leaders in a photograph taken initially of COP28 had been ladies, the non-profit CARE International UK mentioned, prompting the group’s senior adviser on gender equality to complain that “Women and girls are the most affected by climate change, yet they are silenced.”
European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen (above), Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni, Estonian prime minister Kaja Kallas, Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen and Kristalina Georgieva, the pinnacle of the IMF are among the many ladies attending COP28.
The solely lady at a six-person briefing on the UAE’s $30bn funding fund on Friday afternoon, Jessica Tan, BlackRock’s head of sustainable and transition resolution, didn’t converse. Other audio system included her boss Larry Fink and Ambassador Majid, director-general of COP28.
5. Banks resolve debate about voluntary requirements on inexperienced finance
A debate among the many non-public sector banks about how greatest to symbolize their position as facilitators for fossil gas and inexperienced finance was resolved in a voluntary standard-setting group led by Barclays and Morgan Stanley.
The first voluntary local weather customary for capital markets exercise advised banks on Friday that they’d solely must account for a 3rd of the emissions linked to offers reminiscent of underwriting bond issuances.
Under the Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials, banks should already account for the whole carbon footprint of their on-balance sheet exercise.
HSBC, which refused to publish extra underwriting local weather knowledge till an settlement was struck, mentioned the transfer paved the way in which for its science-based goal setting to incorporate a broader vary of actions.
Jeanne Martin, head of the banking programme on the advocacy group ShareAction, described the transfer as a “get-out-of-transparency-free card, by allowing [banks] to under-report their climate impact by two-thirds for years to come”
Attracta Mooney in London, Alice Hancock in Brussels and Aime Williams, Simeon Kerr and Kenza Bryan in Dubai.
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