2025-12-03 21:50

COP30 summit outcome disappointing but shows multilateralism works, Guterres says Guterres concerned about missing 1.5 C temperature goal, urges emission reductions Dec 3 (Reuters) - The final outcome of the COP30 climate summit in Brazil last month was "disappointing," but showed multilateralism still works in the absence of the United States' participation and amid growing geopolitical tensions, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the Reuters Next conference in New York on Wednesday. "I have mixed feelings about the COP," Guterres said about the annual UN climate negotiations that took place on the edge of the Amazon rainforest. Sign up here. "On one hand, I think it is remarkable that with the United States out and campaigning against it and the fossil fuel industry clearly determined to make sure that things would not move forward ... with all these movements against it, it was possible to have an agreement, and this shows that multilateralism works," he said. WORRIED ABOUT MISSING TEMPERATURE GOAL Brazil's COP30 presidency pushed through a compromise climate deal after over two weeks of negotiating that would boost finance for poor nations coping with global warming. Still, it omitted any mention of the fossil fuels driving it, which critics say showed the world was backtracking on the previous consensus that the world should phase down their use. Several countries objected to the summit ending without stronger plans to rein in greenhouse gases or address fossil fuels. "What worries me more is that we are at the present moment in a situation in which the scientific community is already unanimous in recognizing that we are going to go above 1.5 C," he said, referring to the temperature threshold world governments set at a landmark 2015 climate agreement in Paris. "This overshoot means that all these things that we are witnessing will get more frequent, more dramatic," he said, referring to devastating storms and floods, adding that countries need to strive to cap greenhouse gas emissions now and undertake a drastic reduction over the next few years. CHINA STEPPING UP Guterres said the disengagement of the U.S. from climate action has left the door wide open for China, which dominates the global market for renewable energy and electric vehicles. He said China set a low-ball climate target this year by pledging to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by only up to 10% from an unspecified peak, but he expects the world's largest greenhouse gas emitter to outperform its goal. "An acceleration of reduction of emissions is essential in China, from the point of view of the world, because they represent 30% of (global) emissions," he said. He urged developed countries to step up their investments in the next generation of clean technologies beyond solar and wind, such as green hydrogen, to leapfrog China. "Green hydrogen is probably an important bet that Western countries should be doing to gain in relation to the next market dispute," he said. View the live broadcast of the World Stage here and read full coverage here. https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/multilateralism-still-works-even-us-oil-industry-abandon-climate-action-un-chief-2025-12-03/

2025-12-03 21:48

NEW YORK, Dec 3 (Reuters) - The Colonial Pipeline on Wednesday requested the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission reconsider its earlier decision rejecting changes proposed by the company to the way the largest U.S. fuel conduit handles gasoline shipments. The company asserted the regulator had erred in a November 3 order blocking Colonial from modifying delivery specifications, ending overlapping shipments of different grades of gasoline, and discontinuing shipments of so-called "Grade 5" gasoline sold in some Northeastern states during the winter. Sign up here. Colonial says the changes are part of its efforts to mitigate wear and tear of the over 60-year-old pipeline system, improve safety and efficiency. The changes will also help the company move more gasoline to markets that need it, the company said. However, a group of Colonial shippers, including oil majors Exxon Mobil (XOM.N) , opens new tab and BP (BP.L) , opens new tab, had protested the proposed changes, arguing they would harm their businesses by shifting blending margins away from them to Colonial. FERC, siding with the protesting shippers, ruled last month that Colonial had failed to show its proposal was just and reasonable. The regulator also found Colonial's plan would impose additional costs on shippers, degrade the quality of gasoline they move through the pipeline without compensating them, and create an undue advantage for Colonial. In its request for a rehearing, Colonial said that a separate proposal by the company, eliminating shipments of M grade and V grade gasoline in the Midwest, was approved by FERC. Since that filing went into effect on April 1, Colonial has realized 3.6 million barrels of incremental capacity, it said. Capacity benefits from the proposal that FERC rejected would be similar, while safety, integrity and operational benefits will be even bigger, Colonial said. The United States is the world's largest gasoline consumer, and last week burnt over 8.3 million barrels of the motor fuel on a daily basis. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/colonial-pipeline-seeks-rehearing-proposal-modify-gasoline-shipments-2025-12-03/

2025-12-03 21:23

Dec 3 (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index rose on Wednesday as higher oil prices boosted energy shares and the major banks continued to beat earnings estimates. The S&P/TSX Composite index (.GSPTSE) , opens new tab ended up 111.26 points, or 0.4%. It follows two consecutive days of losses for the index, retreating from a record closing high on Friday. Sign up here. "Part of the reason we experienced a bit of a pullback was concerns around AI spend and the technology sector in the United States," said Devin Cattelan, a portfolio manager at Verecan Capital Management. "The market is trying to digest and figure out what the actual payoff on the spend will be long-term and what the valuations are that would justify it." U.S. stocks also moved higher as a flurry of economic data kept expectations elevated for an interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve next week. Canada's stock market has a lower weighting than Wall Street in technology stocks that have spent heavily on AI but a relatively high exposure to metal mining shares. "It's going to require a lot of commodities and base metals to go into these infrastructure projects and these data center projects and so that's been increasing the demand on the commodity side and it's been a positive for the Toronto Stock Exchange," Cattelan said. The energy sector (.SPTTEN) , opens new tab rose 2% as the price of oil settled 0.5% higher at $58.95 a barrel. The U.S. and Russia failed to reach a deal to end the war in Ukraine that could have eased sanctions on Moscow's oil sector. Gains for railroad shares helped lift the industrials sector. It added 1.2% and technology ended 0.7% higher. Financials inched up 0.1%, with shares of Royal Bank of Canada (RY.TO) , opens new tab rising 1.1% to a record high after the bank topped analysts' estimates for fourth-quarter earnings. National Bank of Canada also reported earnings ahead of analysts' estimates but its shares ended 1.6% lower. On Tuesday, Scotiabank was the first of the major banks to report earnings and it too beat estimates. https://www.reuters.com/business/rising-oil-prices-buoy-tsx-futures-2025-12-03/

2025-12-03 20:45

BAGHDAD, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Iraq's armed forces said on Wednesday that the attack last week on Khor Mor gas field, one of the largest in the Kurdistan region, was carried out using two drones, one which hit the field and another which fell outside it. Iraqi armed forces said the perpetrators behind the attack had been identified, and described them as "outlawed elements." Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/iraq-says-khor-mor-gas-field-attack-carried-out-with-two-drones-perpetrators-2025-12-03/

2025-12-03 20:44

Dec 3 (Reuters) - Reuters is hosting the two-day Reuters NEXT conference in New York on Wednesday and Thursday, bringing together more than 700 international business leaders and policymakers to examine the biggest issues facing society, business and the world. The following are some notable quotes from speakers in the finance and markets sessions of the conference. Sign up here. MICHAL KATZ, MIZUHO AMERICAS HEAD OF INVESTMENT AND CORPORATE BANKING "AI is still in the early innings of its evolution, and obviously valuations have been stretched, just given the dollars going into capex and companies wanting a stake in the game. We have seen risks arise over potential overbuild, concentration among certain off-takers, and questions about whether returns will materialize. But it’s early days—the story of AI is still being written. Winners have yet to be defined." UMESH SUBRAMANIAN, CITADEL CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER "We try to make sure that AI doesn't go into the land of prediction. It goes into the land of seeing today clearly." BRENDAN COUGHLIN, PRESIDENT OF CITIZENS FINANCIAL GROUP "The industry is ripe for further consolidation and a lot of this tech discussion we've had is going to favor folks with more scale. There's been some M&A in 2025. There's a lot of discussion around that heating up. I think you know (by) December 31, 2026, there will be less deals than people imagine." JOHN STECHER, BLACKSTONE CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER "We are really looking at these tools as augmenting all of our great people," Stecher said, in response to a question about applications of artificial intelligence. Stecher said large language models were good at extracting information from documents and putting it together so that "somebody can actually read it and decide, 'is this a deal I actually want to take a look at or not?'" Those models are currently equivalent to "high-school-level people" in their ability to make decisions, Stecher said, but they augment people's work. "It's like the Iron Man suit around everybody, every man and woman that works inside the firm, it just makes them more effective." RICK WURSTER, CHARLES SCHWAB CEO "Our clients' wealth is at an all-time high. A lot of our clients are asking us about how to protect that wealth. Many have grown their balances beyond what they might have hoped for given what the markets have done." "M&A will be something we're going to keep our eyes out for. If we can add a capability that appeals to our clients, it's going to add enormous value to the company with the size of our asset base and client base. If we acquire a capability that appeals to them, the value in that is huge." SINEAD COLTON GRANT, CHIEF INVESTMENT OFFICER AT BNY WEALTH MANAGEMENT “The circularity of investment is something that we are watching very closely because that does appear that almost the sprinkling of a little bit of AI stardust in other names has been, in the short term, very helpful to valuations or very helpful to the stock price, but you need to see the fundamentals come through." MARK HAEFELE, CHIEF INVESTMENT OFFICER, UBS GLOBAL WEALTH MANAGEMENT "I don't think you could say AI is the determinant on what the U.S. growth is. But was AI very important to the growth that we did have? Yes, of course it was. And everybody is an AI investor whether they know it or not. It's like 37% of the MSCI World is tied to AI. So you've got to get that trade right for ‘26.” ANNE DINNEEN, CHIEF INVESTMENT OFFICER AT NEW YORK-PRESBYTERIAN HOSPITAL “When you're allocating capital, you have to think about the return expectation of each asset class or sub-asset class, but also the (volatility) expectation. Venture has a very high-vol expectation and you're seeing an innovation cycle play on the public market. So yeah, you should expect higher vol,” Dinneen said, when asked about a possible AI bubble. SHOAIB KHAN, CHIEF INVESTMENT OFFICER AT THE NEW JERSEY DIVISION OF INVESTMENT Speaking about private credit, he said he is not concerned about the growth, but the arrival of retail to the asset class was a red flag. “When you have a large pool of capital or a lot of capital chasing deals and chasing opportunities, you tend to see a compression in returns.” View the live broadcast of the World Stage here and read full coverage here. https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/notable-quotes-finance-markets-speakers-reuters-next-conference-2025-12-03/

2025-12-03 20:39

NHTSA to propose reducing fuel economy requirements for 2022-2031 vehicles Ford CEO supports aligning standards with market realities Environmental group criticizes rollback for increasing costs at the pump WASHINGTON, Dec 3 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump on Wednesday proposed slashing fuel economy standards that former President Joe Biden had finalized last year, in a push to make it easier for automakers to sell gasoline-powered cars. Trump's action aims to undo one of Biden's signature climate moves as he sought to incentivize more electric vehicle purchases. "People want the gasoline car," Trump said. Sign up here. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration proposed significantly reducing the fuel economy requirements from model years 2022 to 2031, requiring 34.5 miles per gallon on average by 2031, down from 50.4 miles per gallon (21.4 km per liter). NHTSA is proposing to revise down the 2022 fuel economy standards and then proposing to hike them between 0.25% and 0.5% annually through 2031. In 2022, under Biden, NHTSA increased fuel efficiency by 8% annually for model years 2024-2025 and 10% for 2026. Biden's rules sought to prod automakers to build a rising number of EVs to comply, but would not have forced an immediate end to gas-powered vehicles. NHTSA estimates the proposed rule would reduce average up-front vehicle costs by $930, but would increase fuel consumption by around 100 billion gallons through 2050 - and cost Americans up to another $185 billion for fuel and increase carbon dioxide emissions by about 5%. Reducing the rule for past years will make it much easier for automakers to comply for a period still being reviewed by NHTSA. Automakers would save $35 billion through 2031, including $8.7 billion for GM (GM.N) , opens new tab and more than $5 billion for Ford (F.N) , opens new tab and Stellantis (STLAM.MI) , opens new tab, according to a NHTSA document. END TO CREDIT TRADING PROPOSED The proposal will also make drastic changes to the program, including proposing to eliminate credit trading among automakers in 2028, and will end some credits for fuel-saving features. NHTSA said the credit trading was a "windfall for EV-exclusive manufacturers that sell credits to other non-EV manufacturers." California Governor Gavin Newsom said Trump is "proposing to gut fuel economy standards that will force Americans to spend billions more at the pump while poisoning the air in our communities." Transportation accounts for the single largest percentage of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. NHTSA said the increase in vehicle emissions from its proposal in 2035 would be the equivalent of annual emissions from 7.7 million vehicles over the Biden proposal. Earlier this year, Trump signed legislation that ended fuel economy penalties for automakers, and NHTSA said they faced no fines dating back to the 2022 model year. Ending credit trading could hurt automakers like EV manufacturers Tesla (TSLA.O) , opens new tab and Rivian (RIVN.O) , opens new tab, which have sold credits to rivals making gas-powered models. Trump was joined at the White House by the CEOs of Stellantis (STLAM.MI) , opens new tab and Ford to tout the proposal. Ford CEO Jim Farley said the company would invest more in affordable vehicles. "Today is a victory for common sense and affordability... We believe that people should be able to make a choice." Trump said the price of vehicles was declining, but new vehicle prices are up 0.8% year-over-year as of the latest data for September. In October, Kelley Blue Book said the average price of a new car in the United States topped $50,000 for the first time, up 3.6% year-over-year. GM CEO Mary Barra noted on Tuesday at an event that before Congress blocked California's zero-emission vehicle rules in June, the auto sector was facing requirements in some states that 35% of new vehicles sold in 2026 must be EVs. "We were going to have to start shutting down plants because we weren't going to be able to build and sell those vehicles," Barra said. RULE WOULD HAVE CUT EMISSIONS The agency last year said the passenger car and truck rule would reduce gasoline consumption by 64 billion gallons and cut emissions by 659 million metric tons, reducing fuel costs with net benefits estimated at $35.2 billion for drivers. The 2022 rule was estimated to reduce fuel use by more than 200 billion gallons through 2050. Kathy Harris, director of clean vehicles at environmental nonprofit the Natural Resources Defense Council, said, "The Trump administration is sticking drivers with higher costs at the pump, all to benefit the oil industry ... Drivers will be paying hundreds of dollars more at the pump every year if these rules are put in place." Trump has taken a series of steps to make it easier to sell gas-powered vehicles and disincentivize EV production, including rescinding EV tax credits and barring California from banning the sale of traditional gas-powered vehicles after 2035. https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/trump-propose-sharp-rollback-us-vehicle-fuel-economy-rules-2025-12-03/