Summary
It is already time to strategize for the COP21: in today’s edition, French foreign minister cautions the U.S.: Don’t seek Congress approval or it will seriously complicate the process. Indeed, France wants to up the ante and make sure the UN Climate Summit, to be held in Paris in Dec. 2015, goes down in history. Finally, a new strategy suggested by Bloomberg Views to six of the world’s largest oil companies in favor of a carbon tax: engage Congress directly, instead of writing a polite letter to the United Nations.
Quote of the day
“People in Senegal will march for anything, but they have never marched for climate before.”
Aissetou Diouf, climate advocacy manager with ENDA Energie, a Senegalese non-profit organization, in the Thomson Reuters Foundation’s story Senegal’s capital turns out for first-of-its-kind climate march
Lead stories
Climate deal must avoid US Congress approval, French minister says
AP
The global climate agreement being negotiated this year must be worded in such a way that it doesn’t require approval by the US Congress, the French foreign minister said on Monday.
http://jlne.ws/1GidtLu
Tackling climate change: France steps up efforts to produce crucial draft text to guide countries at Bonn talks
By Urmi Goswami – Economic Times
As negotiators from 190-odd countries gather in Bonn to work towards a consensus on an agreement to help slow down global warming, as the host of the crucial December round of negotiations, France is not taking any chances.
http://jlne.ws/1Q2fmQY
France suggests world leaders at start, not end, of climate summit
By Alister Doyle – Reuters
France suggested on Monday that world leaders should attend only the start of a summit on climate change in Paris in six months, hoping to avoid a repeat of the last failed attempt in 2009 when they came at the end and left empty-handed.
http://jlne.ws/1dbqhGj
UN climate talks “inadequate,” says French ecology minister Royal
Radio France Internationale
Ségolène Royal has slammed UN climate talks as painfully “inadequate,” in the face of the urgency of climate change. Talks to hammer out a historic deal on limiting greenhouse gas emissions, resumed on Monday, ahead of crunch talks in Paris later this year.
http://jlne.ws/1RGIE58
Editing The Climate Talkers: Punctuation’s Effect On Earth’s Fate
By Nell Greenfieldboyce – NPR (Audio)
In Bonn, Germany, hundreds of people have gathered to work on a draft version of a major United Nations agreement to control greenhouse gas emissions that are changing the Earth’s climate.
http://jlne.ws/1QlAKLX
China cautions French calls for speedy UN climate pact
By Alex Pashley – RTCC (Responding to Climate Change)
As UN talks restarted in Bonn on Monday, France sought to inject vigour into an anticipated climate pact by calling for a “pre-agreement” to be struck as early as October.
http://jlne.ws/1dIwaM7
Even Big Oil Wants a Carbon Tax
Bloomberg Views (Editorial)
Now that six of the world’s largest oil companies have essentially come out in favor of a carbon tax, it’s getting harder to dismiss the idea as some kind of outlandish lefty plot. And those companies can help their cause by engaging Congress directly, instead of outlining their case in a polite letter to the United Nations.
http://jlne.ws/1SSDSTu
Senegal’s capital turns out for first-of-its-kind climate march
By Kathryn M. Werntz – Thomson Reuters Foundation
In a first-of-its-kind march in Senegal, nearly a thousand people – including the country’s environmental minister – took to the streets of Dakar Sunday asking for action to deal with climate change.
http://jlne.ws/1JgDHP2
Events
Climate Strategies Forum
ACCO
Washington Marriott Hotel at Metro Center
Washington, DC
June 24-26, 2015
http://jlne.ws/1J3aeGO
EMA Annual Meeting
October 28-30, 2015
Omni Parker House Hotel
Boston, MA
http://bit.ly/192w3CR
Carbon
The compelling case for global carbon pricing
Financial Times
Carbon must have a higher price tag if the risk of catastrophic global warming is to be contained.
http://jlne.ws/1SSCReq
France First to Introduce Mandatory Carbon Reporting for Investors
Environmental Leader
Pension funds, insurance companies and other institutional investors in France will be required to disclose how they are managing climate change risks.
http://jlne.ws/1KJB7Sc
***LB: Also in this story “The announcement was made by France’s finance minister Michel Sapin at the Climate Finance Day conference in Paris on May 22.”
Natural gas / coal
Oklahoma blocks local fracking bans
By Devin Henry – The Hill
Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin has signed a bill banning local ordinances against hydraulic fracturing or other oil and gas drilling operations.
http://jlne.ws/1Fr3rlE
Maryland bans fracking
By Timothy Cama – The Hill
Maryland’s ban on hydraulic fracturing became law after Gov. Larry Hogan (R) decided not to veto it.
http://jlne.ws/1RGIpXI
***LB: Also in this story “The bill bans fracking for two and a half years, and requires the state to write standards to regulate the practice for when the ban lifts.”
Coal Industry Fighting for Survival on 7 Fronts
By John H. Cushman Jr – InsideClimate News
When Duke Energy announced a billion-dollar plan to shut down a 50-year-old coal power plant, switching the 376-megawatt site over to cheap natural gas and clean solar, the company proclaimed the “end of the coal era in Asheville, N.C.”
http://jlne.ws/1FRXtfL
Japan’s nuclear plan is bad news for LNG, coal
By Clyde Russell – Reuters (Column)
The rise of China and India as energy importers has largely consigned Japan to the sidelines, but the world’s third-largest economy still exerts significant influence in some markets.
http://jlne.ws/1ERt9Op
Power
Feds fast-track approval for 3 solar power farms
By Timothy Cama – The Hill
Federal officials have approved the first three proposed solar power farms under a streamlined permitting program for solar projects on federal land.
http://jlne.ws/1K6ijLy
***LB: Also in this story “The three projects are all on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) property in Clark County, Nev., and will together have a capacity of 440 megawatts, enough to power about 132,000 homes.”
British utility SSE expects solid demand for wind power assets
By Christoph Steitz – Reuters
Britain’s second-biggest energy supplier SSE said on Monday that it expects solid demand for its planned sale of about 500 million pounds’ ($759 million) worth of onshore wind power assets.
http://jlne.ws/1M6v6Ne
Clean tech
Platinum sector faces its Kodak moment in fuel cell technology
By Clara Denina and Silvia Antonioli – Reuters
Platinum miners betting on fuel cell vehicles to help boost demand for the precious metal and lift moribund prices are in danger of having their hopes dashed, at least in the medium term: electric and hybrid cars are taking a bigger share of the market.
http://jlne.ws/1FRZCIp
Water
Beijing Winter Olympics Would Tax Water Supplies, IOC Study Says
By Sara Marley – Bloomberg News
Beijing’s bid to host the 2022 Winter Olympics could deplete existing water resources, according to an International Olympic Committee report.
http://jlne.ws/1dIBIpK