China later today is expected to make a commitment to impose a national emissions trading scheme in 2017 that will put a limit and a price on greenhouse emissions, as efforts to forge a global climate change agreement accelerate in the count-down to the Paris climate talks, now just two months away.
The New York Times reported overnight that China President Xi Jinping, newly arrived on a visit to the US, will make the landmark commitment on Friday during a White House summit meeting with President Barack Obama.
The China moves comes as news filters out from India that the Modi administration looks likely to adopt a 40 per cent renewable energy target for India by 2030 – and as the Pope pushes climate change to a Republican and climate skeptic dominated US Congress, and the UN adopts a set of Sustainable Development Goals that will guide global development up to 2030.
China has been experimenting with a bunch of regional schemes in the past few years, but the move to a nation-wide cap and trade system is considered to be a major step towards limiting, and then reducing emissions from its major industries.
The meeting between Xi Jinping and Obama is expected to build on their commitment last year to use their best efforts to push for a climate change deal in Paris, which is set to provide a framework on how the world can meet its agreed climate goals , even if the pledges presented at the conference do not meet that 2oC limit.
Obama would love to impose a carbon price in the US too, but because of Republican resistance Obama has had to revert to executive order and biting emission limits on coal fired power stations.
Overnight, Pope Francis gave a speech to Congress that – in the words of Vox – Obama would not be able to deliver because it is too progressive. At the White House, Pope Francis called for the “common home” to be protected and said “climate change is a problem which can no longer be left to a future generation.”
In his prepared speech to Congress he added this: “If politics must truly be at the service of the human person, it follows that it cannot be a slave to the economy and finance.”
In India, Prime Minister Modi is expected to reveal his government’s Paris climate change pledge next week, but reports from New Delhi say a new target of 40 per cent renewable energy has already been approved by Cabinet.
Given the expected growth in energy generation in the coming decades, this is an extraordinary target, and would require more than 350GW of solar and wind capacity to be built between now and 2030. In solar alone, that would equate to around 20GW a year.
The new Australian government headed by Malcolm Turnbull will be watching this with interest, given that it has pledge to do its share on climate change, but has yet to change its opposition to a carbon price.
Environment minister Greg Hunt, appearing on ABC TV’s Lateline program, said that the Coalition government would not change its policy on carbon pricing, even if a Climate Change Authority report in November recommends its adoption, as it is likely to do.
“Well look, our policy has been set and indeed Malcolm Turnbull has reaffirmed it and he’s said that in the Parliament that we have an approach through the Emissions Reduction Fund which is working and working well and exceeding expectations,” Hunt told Lateline.
Hunt also rejected suggestions that there had ever been a “war on renewables”, despite comments from former PM Tony Abbott and former Treasurer Joe Hockey saying they disliked wind farms, the cut to the renewable energy target, and Abbott’s regret that it wasn’t cut further.
“Well, from my perspective, there never was a war on renewables,” Hunt said. “But what I would say is that we’ve got a big challenge to double our renewables in terms of the large scale between now and 2020 and to pretty much double our small-scale solar between now and 2020. But I think there will be additional confidence added confidence about an iron-clad commitment to the renewable energy targets which we now have.”
The previous target called for a near trebling in the large scale renewables by 2020, but that sector has been at a standstill for the last two years because of the uncertainty over the RET. Abbott had promised before his election that there would be no change to the RET, but history proved otherwise.
Meanwhile, there is plenty of activity happening at the sub-national level. The cities of Sydney and Melbourne said they have joined a “global compact of mayors” that includes 100 mayors of major cities committed to climate action.
Sydney aims to cut emissions by 70 per cent by 2030 based on 2006 levels, and a lift energy efficiency for buildings by 31 per cent. Melbourne is targeting “net zero emissions’ by 2020. Around 80 per cent of total emissions come from cities.
AGL Energy, meanwhile, said it has signed up to a “we mean business”, which means it has signed on for a policy that supports a carbon price and will achieve an “emissions profile” consistent with a 2oC carbon constrained future.
AGL is the biggest owner of coal fired generators in the country, but has so far given no indication that it will fast-track the closure of any of its facilities, although it has vowed not to extend the life-times.
