Team @CarbonBrief is watching closely, draft text by draft text, for the next 2wks
Here's some highlights from negotiations so far:
📋#LossAndDamage finance on the agenda…
🎯…"finance flows" & 1.5C are not
🌲Concerns over CO2 "removals" guidance
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First, orientation
There are in fact 5 "sessions" taking place at #COP27
COP27 (27th conf of parties to UN climate convention)
CMP17 (17th of Kyoto Protocol)
CMA4 (4th of Paris Agreement)
SBSTA57 (57th of sci/tech body)
SBI57 (57th of implementation body)
😱
So there are actually 5 separate agendas at #COP27
It's a nightmare to navigate and the @UNFCCC website doesn't exactly help. Seriously.
Another matter I'll be following closely is the snappily-named "mitigation work programme" on "urgently scaling up mitigation ambition and implementation in this critical decade"
When they met in June in Bonn, countries struggled to agree basic questions like how long should this mitigation work programme last (1yr? until 2030?) and what should it talk about (specific sectors?)
For now, the current text is raising major concerns from NGOs – they want it to be rejected for failing to properly safeguard ecosystems and human rights
Fossil-fueled chemicals boss Sir Jim Ratcliffe has an anti-EV tirade in today’s Daily Telegraph, littered with outright falsehoods, half-truths and selective facts
Exhibit 1: Far from "coming to a halt", EV demand grew by 25% in Q1 of this year
Let’s take a look shall we?
1/
Exhibit 2: Ratcliffe cherrypicks Germany – where EV subsidies recently ended – to argue that demand is drying up
As already mentioned, global EV sales grew 25% in Q1 of this year, according to the IEA
2/
How about China, Jim? Ah yes, EV sales are up 35% so far this year. But I guess that didn't fit your narrative.
Nor does the UK, I guess, given sales are up 11% in 2024ytd (31% for plug-in hybrids, on which more later)
It seems @mattwridley thinks @Telegraph readers are idiots
Let's run the numbers:
244,000km2 = area of the UK
5-10% = share of UK Matt says would need to be covered with solar to meet electricity demand in June
40MW = solar capacity per km2
500-1,000GW = solar capacity, if covering 5-10% of UK
300% = share of total UK electricity demand that would be generated by 1,000GW of UK solar
650GW = current solar capacity of China, roughly half the global total
<30GW = actual UK summer peak demand
15GW = current solar capacity of UK, of which ~10GW ground mounted
0.1% = current solar land take
70GW = UK govt solar target, because no one thinks we can run the country on solar alone
<1% = future land take
>20% = reduction in UK gas imports if govt solar target is met
Zero = credibility of Matt's article
Sources:
Land requirement for UK solar 40MW per km2 = 6 acres per MW, based on current solar farms; as noted in the article, govt says future farms would need 2-3x less land
Despite all the UK govt rhetoric about "new gas", confirmation today in parliament that govt expects unabated gas to meet ~1% of demand in 2035
Minister @grahamstuart, responding to an urgent Q from @CarolineLucas, described new gas capacity as "back-up…sensible insurance"
1/
In the debate, we also saw the mask slip from former sec of state Jacob Rees-Mogg, who as a govt minister paid lip service to climate action (left) but now admits he wants to "postpone net-zero indefinitely" (right)
2/
Responding to Rees-Mogg – who clearly still doesn't understand why geography matters when it comes to energy, trade, or indeed trade in energy – Stuart "chide[d]" him & said there was a "climate…emergency"
UK emissions in 2023 fell to lowest since 1879, new @CarbonBrief reveals
💷Emissions now 53% below 1990, as GDP up 82%
❤️🔥Drop in 2023 largely unrelated to policy
⛰️Coal now lowest since 1730s (!)
🚗Transport is largest sector, then buildings
⚡️Power now likely emits less than farms🐄
UK emissions in 2023 dropped below 400MtCO2e for the first time since the Victorian era, even falling below the levels seen during the height of Covid-19 lockdowns
£46bn – potential cost (2008 est = £9bn)
14yrs – potential delay (2031 vs 2017)
25TWh – expected output
10MtCO2 – CO2 saving, displacing gas
4% – share of UK 2030 Paris pledge
At risk – CO2 goals; EDF bottomline; Labour 2030 target
🧵
Let's start with cost
UK govt White Paper of 2008 estimated new 3.2GW (2*1.6) nuclear plant would cost £5.6bn, about £9bn in today's money
When agreed in 2018, it was £(2015 prices)18bn, ~£24bn in today's money
Now it's £(2015)31-35bn = up to £46bn today
On to delays…
Hinkley C was (infamously) going to be cooking Christmas turkeys in 2017
But now due it's online by 2029 at the earliest – and as late as 2031