2024-09-23 20:56

LONDON, Sept 23 (Reuters) - In the world's struggle to halt and reverse climate change, countries periodically report on their plans and progress in bringing down national levels of planet-warming carbon emissions. These plans are called Nationally Determined Contributions, or NDCs for short. WHAT IS AN NDC? A country's NDC describes its national policies or decisions toward reaching net-zero emissions, and was updated every five years until delegates at the 2021 U.N. climate summit, COP26, in Glasgow called for more frequent updates every couple of years. Altogether, these reports help countries coordinate their climate policies action with one another. More immediately, they can tell us if the world is on track with its climate goals. In a report published on Monday, the group Net-Zero Tracker, which assesses the global climate commitments, found with 93% of global GDP covered by targets the world is on the road to net zero, but urged that action is needed to turn pledges into credible plans. WHY WOULD WE BE HEARING ABOUT NDCs NOW? The next round of NDC updates are due in February 2025, although some countries could announce plans during this week's U.N. General Assembly in New York. Others might opt to share their newest plans during the upcoming U.N. climate summit, COP29, being held in Azerbaijan. WHERE DID THE NET-ZERO GOAL COME FROM? To avoid catastrophic climate extremes, countries agreed under the 2015 Paris Agreement to work together in limiting global warming to within 2 degrees Celsius of pre-industrial temperatures. For that outcome, the world not only needs to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, but also needs to move fast in getting there - by cutting emissions roughly in half from 2005 levels within the next six years. Instead, since the Paris pact, global emissions have continued to rise. WHY ARE NDCs IMPORTANT? While the Paris Agreement sets shared global emissions targets, each country decides for itself how to get there. They might consider policies for shifting how people power their homes, or how food is produced or cities designed. More than 170 of the world's countries met the last NDC deadline ahead of COP26 in early 2021 with countries generally respecting the process - even if they are not equally ambitious and robust. For this next round of NDCs, countries have been asked to focus on setting more ambitious near-term emissions targets for 2030 and for 2035. WHAT ELSE SHOULD WE LOOK FOR IN THE NDCs? Overall, an NDC is considered strong if it is detailed, ambitious, and credible. They should set emissions reductions targets for key polluting sectors, such as energy and transportation, while reconciling national policies that might frustrate progress in transitioning to clean energy, such as fossil fuel subsidies. There should also be plans for how a country will monitor progress toward its NDC pledges. The reports can also cover plans for adapting to the conditions of a warmer world and keep people safe from increased flooding, heatwaves and other climate extremes. An NDC can detail projects to be launched, or plans for creating jobs in clean technology industries. It could include plans for public health measure amid increasing temperatures. Countries with more developed NDCs that outline projects, policies and financing needs can help to attract funding. But NDC reports can also describe backsliding on climate-friendly policy. Last year, Britain's climate efforts were described by non-profit Climate Action Tracker as "insufficient" after the country's then government backtracked on key climate policies such as the near-term phase-out of new petrol cars and gas boilers in homes. WHAT IF A COUNTRY FALLS SHORT? Pledges made within an NDC are considered voluntary, with countries facing no legal penalty if they fail to meet their own goals. However, they are obligated under the Paris Agreement to monitor progress and report on any failures. Some countries like Britain and Chile have incorporated their NDCs into national law, making their climate commitments legally binding at a national level. But while NDCs are not designed to be legally binding, countries can still face litigation for falling short. Europe's top human rights court agreed in April with a group of Swiss women saying their government had violated their human rights by not doing enough to combat climate change. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/why-are-ndcs-important-global-climate-talks-2024-09-23/

2024-09-23 20:54

California AG Rob Bonta accuses Exxon of misleading public on recycling Exxon defends advanced recycling, criticizes lawsuit Environmental groups support lawsuit, highlight recycling shortcomings NEW YORK, Sept 23 (Reuters) - California and several environmental groups sued Exxon Mobil (XOM.N) , opens new tab on Monday and accused the oil giant of engaging in a decades-long campaign that helped fuel global plastic waste pollution. Speaking at an event during Climate Week in New York City, California Attorney General Rob Bonta said the state sued Exxon , opens new tab after concluding a nearly two-year investigation that he said showed Exxon was deliberately misleading the public about the limitations of recycling. "Today's lawsuit shows the fullest picture to date of ExxonMobil's decades-long deception, and we are asking the court to hold ExxonMobil fully accountable for its role in actively creating and exacerbating the plastics pollution crisis through its campaign of deception," Bonta said in a statement. The investigation mirrors California's previous probes into the oil industry's alleged efforts to mislead the public about climate change, which the state is also suing over. The state has a long-standing adversarial relationship with Big Oil. Once a major crude supplier, California's oil production has declined steadily for almost four decades, with companies saying the regulatory environment makes it a difficult place to invest. Exxon rival Chevron Corp (CVX.N) , opens new tab, a strong critic of California’s policies , opens new tab, said this year it plans to move its headquarters to oil friendly Texas from the state where it was founded. A coalition of environmental groups including the Sierra Club filed a related lawsuit in the same state court in San Francisco, raising similar allegations against Exxon. Bonta, a Democrat, said his office specifically had sought information on Exxon's promotion of its "advanced recycling" technology, which uses a process called pyrolysis to turn hard-to-recycle plastic into fuel. He had said the technology's slow progress was a sign of Exxon's ongoing deception. He said he wants to secure an abatement fund and civil penalties for the harm inflicted by plastics pollution on California. Exxon pushed back, arguing advanced recycling and similar solutions work and that California itself failed to correct problems in its recycling system. "Instead of suing us, they could have worked with us to fix the problem and keep plastic out of landfills," said Lauren Kight, spokesperson for Exxon. Kight said Exxon processed more than 60 million pounds of plastic waste into usable raw materials, keeping it out of landfills through advanced recycling. 'UPHILL BATTLE' Notre Dame Law School Professor Bruce Huber, who specializes in environmental law, said California may face an "uphill battle" with its lawsuit. "The state's primary claim relies on public nuisance, a notoriously murky area of law. It could be difficult for a court to grant California relief here without opening a Pandora's box of other, similar claims," he said. Exxon is the world's largest producer of resins used for single-use plastics, according to a report published last year by the Minderoo Foundation, with consultancies Wood Mackenzie and the Carbon Trust. Reuters has reported on the enormous obstacles facing advanced recycling that the plastics industry touts as an environmental savior. California's lawsuit comes ahead of a final round of global plastic treaty negotiations set to take place in Busan, South Korea, at the end of the year. In those talks, countries are split over whether the treaty should call for caps on plastic production, a position opposed by Exxon and the global petrochemical industry. The U.S. last month said it supports a treaty designed around global plastic production cuts. Environmental groups praised the lawsuit. Christy Leavitt, Oceana's plastics campaign director, said California's lawsuit will "hold industry accountable and debunk the plastics recycling narrative that holds us back from real solutions." Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/california-sues-exxon-over-global-plastic-pollution-2024-09-23/

2024-09-23 20:39

Sept 23 (Reuters) - Coinbase (COIN.O) , opens new tab and the U.S. securities regulator faced off in a federal appeals court in Philadelphia on Monday as the cryptocurrency exchange pressed the agency to create new rules for digital assets. Coinbase, the largest U.S. crypto exchange, sued the Securities and Exchange Commission last year in an effort to compel the regulator to act on a petition for rulemaking Coinbase filed in 2022. In that petition, it urged the SEC to provide clarity on circumstances under which a digital asset is a security and create a new market structure framework compatible with cryptocurrencies. The SEC denied Coinbase's petition for new rulemaking in December 2023, saying it fundamentally disagreed that current regulations are "unworkable" for the crypto sector. Coinbase on Monday asked a federal appeals court to overturn that denial, saying the SEC has made it impossible for the crypto firm to operate and comply with U.S. regulations. Eugene Scalia, a lawyer for Coinbase, told the three-judge appeals court the SEC had been arbitrary and capricious in not giving Coinbase more answers on how to register with the agency and comply with U.S. laws. A lawyer for the SEC argued that the agency is not required to create a new rule for the sector, and that existing regulations should suffice. "If Coinbase wants to arrange its business in a way that does not comply with the existing regulatory framework, that does not establish a right to have the framework adapted to meet their business," SEC lawyer Ezekiel Hill said. The three appeals court judges heard arguments from both sides, noting the SEC does have discretion in rulemaking priorities but also pressing the regulator on why cryptocurrency was not one of them. The dispute is the latest in a broader tug-of-war between the crypto sector and the top U.S. markets regulator, which has repeatedly said most crypto tokens are securities and subject to its jurisdiction. The agency has sued several crypto companies, including Coinbase, for listing and trading crypto tokens which it says should be registered as securities. Coinbase denies those allegations and is fighting them in a separate court case. The crypto industry largely believes it operates in a regulatory gray area not governed by existing U.S. securities laws, and that new legislation is needed to regulate the sector. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-sec-coinbase-clash-court-over-crypto-rulemaking-2024-09-23/

2024-09-23 20:35

RIO DE JANEIRO, Sept 23 (Reuters) - Brazil's Petrobras (PETR4.SA) , opens new tab is expected to seek the entire 40% stake of Namibia's Mopane oil and gas exploration block put up for sale by Portugal's Galp, a director at the state-run oil firm said on Monday. To operate the oil field, Petrobras would need the full 40% stake, said Exploration and Production Director Sylvia dos Anjos on the sidelines of the ROG.e oil and gas event in Rio de Janeiro. "Operating with less than 40% is very bad... (Galp) offered the operation, and no one operates with less than 40%," Anjos told journalists. In July, the executive told Reuters that Petrobras had made a non-binding offer in the bidding process opened by the Portuguese company that would make it the operator of the field. But so far there has been "no progress" in the process, she said on Monday. "We know Brazil very well, we also know Africa very well. So, naturally, if we go somewhere abroad, Africa is a good place," she said. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/petrobras-wants-40-stake-galps-mega-oil-block-namibia-director-says-2024-09-23/

2024-09-23 20:20

PHOENIX, Sept 23 (Reuters) - The desert city of Phoenix, Arizona, suffered a record 113 straight days with temperatures over 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius) this year, leading to hundreds of heat-related deaths and more acres burned by wildfire across the state, officials said. The city of 1.6 million residents, the largest in the Sonoran desert, had its hottest-ever summer, breaking the previous 2023 record by nearly two degrees, according to the National Weather Service. The 113-day streak reached last week smashed Phoenix's previous record of 76 days over 100 F set in 1993. "It's very rare that we see, especially...two record breaking summers like we just experienced," said Matt Salerno, meteorologist at the National Weather Service Phoenix office. Heat has killed 256 people so far this year in Phoenix's Maricopa County and is the suspected cause of 393 other deaths, according to official data , opens new tab. The county had a record 645 heat deaths last year. "It is too early to project how totals in 2024 will compare with 2023," said Nailea Leon, a spokesperson for Maricopa County's public health department, adding that year-to-date 2024 heat deaths and suspected deaths were below 2023 levels but the summer was not yet over. Around half of deaths are of unsheltered people, the county's most vulnerable group. Deaths peaked in July when Phoenix had regular highs of 118 F, a trend climate scientists attribute to global warming from fossil fuel pollution. Over the last five years,the city has averaged 40 days of 110 degrees or higher compared with about five days at the beginning of the last century, according to the Arizona State Climate Office. The extreme heat has led to a statewide increase in acreage burned by wildfire in 2024 compared with last year, according to the office's director Erinanne Saffell. A climate-related combination of record winter precipitation and summer heat fueled wildfires around Los Angeles in recent weeks. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/hottest-us-city-phoenix-smashes-heat-streak-record-2024-09-23/

2024-09-23 20:10

TORONTO, Sept 23 (Reuters) - The Canadian province of Saskatchewan has vowed to compete with China in processing and production of rare earths and become the first North American commercial alternative source for the metals, used to make magnets for electric vehicles and wind turbines. The Saskatchewan Research Council Rare Earth Processing facility is betting on demand for these magnets to jump in the next couple of years, driven by demand from original equipment manufacturers such as automakers. The Canadian province, home to copper, potash and uranium mines, is known for its mining prowess. China controls 95% of the global production and supply of rare earth metals. The near-monopoly allows the country to dictate prices and create uncertainty for end users through export controls. In the last year, China has placed export controls on some critical metals such as germanium, gallium and antimony, forcing western governments to look for alternatives. The SRC Rare Earth processing facility has begun production on a commercial scale and expects to hit a production target of 40 tonnes of rare earth metals per month by the end of this year, enough to power half a million electric vehicles. The facility has already tied up with potential clients in South Korea, Japan and the United States. "Our focus is to remain competitive within the Asian Metals Price Index," said Muhammad Imran, vice president of the SRC Rare Earth Element. "We are constantly looking to optimise our facility using artificial intelligence applications that would keep our process efficient," Imran said. The price of rare earth metals such as neodymium praseodymium, known as NDPR, fluctuates between US$65,000 and US$75,000 per tonne, a price determined by the Chinese government. However, some miners have been asking for a premium price for metals produced outside China, arguing that Chinese metals are produced with low environmental, social and governance (ESG) standards. Regardless, Imran said, the market will remain competitive and manufacturers have to be prepared to meet the reference point of the Asian Metals Index. "This is what the market is telling you the price for rare earth is, if someone can strike a better deal that's great, but premium or no premium the market is going to be competitive," he said. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/miner-backed-by-canada-province-vows-compete-with-china-rare-earths-2024-09-23/