India Won't Ratify Paris Deal Anytime Soon, Officials Warn
In this newsletter:
1) It’s Official: India Contradicts U.S. Claims Over Signing Paris Climate Deal This Year
Press Trust of India, 8 June 2016
2) India Will Not Ratify Paris Deal Anytime Soon, Officials Warn
NDTV, 8 June 2016
3) NYT’s Wishful Thinking: Donald Trump Made India Agree To Ratify Paris Agreement This Year
The New York Times, 7 June 2016
4) Gallup Poll: Climate Is The Most Divisive Issue In U.S.
The Hill, 7 June 2016
5) Germany Slows Pace Of Green Energy Transition
AFP, 8 June 2016
6) Surprise: Scientists Expose Shady Chinese Emissions Statistics
The American Interest, 8 June 2016
Press Trust of India, 8 June 2016
2) India Will Not Ratify Paris Deal Anytime Soon, Officials Warn
NDTV, 8 June 2016
3) NYT’s Wishful Thinking: Donald Trump Made India Agree To Ratify Paris Agreement This Year
The New York Times, 7 June 2016
4) Gallup Poll: Climate Is The Most Divisive Issue In U.S.
The Hill, 7 June 2016
5) Germany Slows Pace Of Green Energy Transition
AFP, 8 June 2016
6) Surprise: Scientists Expose Shady Chinese Emissions Statistics
The American Interest, 8 June 2016
Full details:
1) It’s Official: India Contradicts U.S. Claims Over Signing Paris Climate Deal This Year
Press Trust of India, 8 June 2016
The claim by the US that India will ratify the Paris climate change agreement this year, was contradicted on Wednesday by official Indian sources.
“We agreed to join as soon as possible and that is what is reflected in the Joint Statement as well,” the sources said, indicating that India had not fixed a deadline to sign.
After Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s talks with President Barack Obama here, the US had said that India will try to sign the landmark accord to limit greenhouse gases this year.
The accord will become binding when at least 55 countries representing 55% of global emissions formally join.
India’s signature is crucial as it will guarantee that the agreement will go into effect before the next US President takes over in January, with Republican presumptive nominee Donald Trump threatening to re-negotiate it.
The Joint Statement said that both India and the US recognised the urgency of climate change and share the goal of enabling entry into force of the Paris agreement as early as possible.
It said the US reaffirmed its commitment to join the agreement as soon as possible this year.
“India similarly has begun its processes to work toward this shared objective. The leaders reiterated their commitment to pursue low greenhouse gas emission development strategies in the pre-2020 period and to develop long-term low greenhouse gas emission development strategies,” it said.
Full story
see also yesterday’s GWPF coverage: India links ratifications of Paris Agreement to climate finance, denies it will ratify deal this year
2) India Will Not Ratify Paris Agreement Anytime Soon, Officials Warn
NDTV, 8 June 2016
Namrata Brar
Washington - Despite the hopes of the US, India may not be able to stick to the emission timeline on the climate change agreement made in Paris last year, government officials have indicated.
White House officials indicated that it is their understanding that India completes process during this year, before President Barack Obama’s term expires in November. But top government officials have told NDTV that India is “unlikely to sign the agreement this year, or even the next.”
Foreign secretary S Jaishankar said India is in the midst of long and complicated process and this is not going to happen quickly. “There are huge issues. It will impact on our electricity regulation, Motor Vehicles Act, power plants and airlines. There are cascading implications for very different segments,” Mr Jaishankar said.
Full story
3) NYT’s Wishful Thinking: Donald Trump Made India Agree To Ratify Paris Agreement This Year
The New York Times, 7 June 2016
Gardiner Harris and Coral Davenport
After decades of mistrust and fitful reconciliation efforts, India and the United States made a turn toward cooperation on Tuesday, and Donald J. Trump can claim at least some of the credit.
India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, making his second visit to the White House in two years, announced a crucial step toward ratification of the Paris agreement to limit greenhouse gases, bringing the accord close to full implementation. […]
For the Americans, the most important part of Mr. Modi’s visit was his announced intention to formally join the Paris climate change agreement by the end of this year. So far, countries representing about 50 percent of global emissions have announced that they will submit legal paperwork to the United Nations documenting their compliance with the deal.
The pact will become binding when at least 55 countries representing 55 percent of global emissions formally join. The inclusion of India, the world’s third-largest emitter after China and the United States, would guarantee that the deal will go into effect before the next American president takes office.
Mr. Trump has vowed to “cancel” the Paris climate agreement if elected, something Mr. Obama is eager to prevent. Once the accord enters into legal force, no nation can legally withdraw for four years.
“If the Paris agreement achieves ratification before Inauguration Day, it would be impossible for the Trump administration to renegotiate or even drop out during the first presidential term,” said Robert N. Stavins, the director of the environmental economics program at Harvard.
Full story
4) Gallup Poll: Climate Is The Most Divisive Issue In U.S.
The Hill, 7 June 2016
Timothy Cama
Climate change is the most divisive issue among United States voters’ rankings of policy areas by importance, a new survey found.
The Gallup poll found that 72 percent of Democrats think climate change is a very important or extremely important in how they will vote in this year’s elections, compared with 25 percent of Republicans and 44 percent of independent voters.
The 47-point spread between Democrats and Republicans was the highest of any issues for which Gallup polled.
The treatment of minority groups and the size and efficiency of the federal government were also among the most divisive issues in Gallup’s survey.
Voters care the most about the economy, Gallup said, followed by immigration, healthcare and defense.
Climate change ranked at the bottom of the list of important issues, in terms of the number of voters who found it very or extremely important.
5) Germany Slows Pace Of Green Energy Transition
AFP, 8 June 2016
Frank Zeller
Germany on Wednesday moved to slow the rapid growth of subsidised renewable energy to cap rising costs, drawing fire from environmentalists who charged it is betraying its ambitious climate goals.
To boost competition in the clean-energy sector, wind and solar projects will from next year be put out to tender, rather than automatically launched with generous state subsidies and guaranteed returns.
Under its energy transition plan, Europe’s top economy is phasing out nuclear power by 2022 and reducing climate-harming carbon fuels while boosting clean energy sources to meet 80 percent of power needs by 2050.
State support has helped raise the share of wind, solar and other renewables to about one third of electricity production last year.
But those subsidies are financed by households and many companies as they are largely passed on as surcharges on power bills.
Big power companies including EON, REW and Vattenfall have meanwhile suffered as the price of wholesale electricity has plummeted amid the surge in green energy output, making many conventional plants unprofitable.
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government hailed its reforms as a “paradigm shift” to make the energy transition more economically viable, but environmentalists charged it torpedoes Germany’s ambitious clean energy and climate goals.
Full post
See also: Denmark & Germany Join The UK In Breaking Wind
6) Surprise! Scientists Expose Shady Chinese Emissions Statistics
The American Interest, 8 June 2016
A study conducted by researchers in one of China’s megacities found that lab estimates of car emissions are way, way off. As Reuters reports, by focusing on data culled from taxis and ridesharing services, scientists were able to expose the huge discrepancy:
The findings from the study in the central city were supported by a research arm of China’s top planning body using data from Uber and taxi firms. It found that standard laboratory estimates of carbon emissions from cars were off by about 6,500 metric tonnes per day, or about 59 percent.
“In the (the Chinese government’s most recent) 13th five-year plan, every region and city has the target, but the question is how you meet those targets and how do you verify the target has been met?” said An Feng, head of the Innovation Center for Energy and Transportation, a think-tank that led the study. “You cannot manage if you can’t measure it.”
Measuring emissions from static sources like power plants is relatively easy, but even there China’s self-reported numbers have proven to be unreliable. When you start trying to encapsulate the collective emissions of hundreds of thousands of cars and trucks, the complexity of the task is necessarily going to introduce a larger margin of error. In this sense, it’s not surprising to hear that Chengdu’s car emissions may be more than twice as high as previously estimated.
But it’s vitally important to keep the inaccuracy of Chinese statistics in mind when considering global climate efforts. The country is far and away the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, but its long history of statistical opacity and the strong incentives its local governments have to fudge the numbers they report to Beijing’s central planners make it difficult to get a handle on precisely how much China is emitting, and in the coming years how much it’s doing to curtail those emissions.
Full post
Press Trust of India, 8 June 2016
The claim by the US that India will ratify the Paris climate change agreement this year, was contradicted on Wednesday by official Indian sources.
“We agreed to join as soon as possible and that is what is reflected in the Joint Statement as well,” the sources said, indicating that India had not fixed a deadline to sign.
After Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s talks with President Barack Obama here, the US had said that India will try to sign the landmark accord to limit greenhouse gases this year.
The accord will become binding when at least 55 countries representing 55% of global emissions formally join.
India’s signature is crucial as it will guarantee that the agreement will go into effect before the next US President takes over in January, with Republican presumptive nominee Donald Trump threatening to re-negotiate it.
The Joint Statement said that both India and the US recognised the urgency of climate change and share the goal of enabling entry into force of the Paris agreement as early as possible.
It said the US reaffirmed its commitment to join the agreement as soon as possible this year.
“India similarly has begun its processes to work toward this shared objective. The leaders reiterated their commitment to pursue low greenhouse gas emission development strategies in the pre-2020 period and to develop long-term low greenhouse gas emission development strategies,” it said.
Full story
see also yesterday’s GWPF coverage: India links ratifications of Paris Agreement to climate finance, denies it will ratify deal this year
2) India Will Not Ratify Paris Agreement Anytime Soon, Officials Warn
NDTV, 8 June 2016
Namrata Brar
Washington - Despite the hopes of the US, India may not be able to stick to the emission timeline on the climate change agreement made in Paris last year, government officials have indicated.
White House officials indicated that it is their understanding that India completes process during this year, before President Barack Obama’s term expires in November. But top government officials have told NDTV that India is “unlikely to sign the agreement this year, or even the next.”
Foreign secretary S Jaishankar said India is in the midst of long and complicated process and this is not going to happen quickly. “There are huge issues. It will impact on our electricity regulation, Motor Vehicles Act, power plants and airlines. There are cascading implications for very different segments,” Mr Jaishankar said.
Full story
3) NYT’s Wishful Thinking: Donald Trump Made India Agree To Ratify Paris Agreement This Year
The New York Times, 7 June 2016
Gardiner Harris and Coral Davenport
After decades of mistrust and fitful reconciliation efforts, India and the United States made a turn toward cooperation on Tuesday, and Donald J. Trump can claim at least some of the credit.
India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, making his second visit to the White House in two years, announced a crucial step toward ratification of the Paris agreement to limit greenhouse gases, bringing the accord close to full implementation. […]
For the Americans, the most important part of Mr. Modi’s visit was his announced intention to formally join the Paris climate change agreement by the end of this year. So far, countries representing about 50 percent of global emissions have announced that they will submit legal paperwork to the United Nations documenting their compliance with the deal.
The pact will become binding when at least 55 countries representing 55 percent of global emissions formally join. The inclusion of India, the world’s third-largest emitter after China and the United States, would guarantee that the deal will go into effect before the next American president takes office.
Mr. Trump has vowed to “cancel” the Paris climate agreement if elected, something Mr. Obama is eager to prevent. Once the accord enters into legal force, no nation can legally withdraw for four years.
“If the Paris agreement achieves ratification before Inauguration Day, it would be impossible for the Trump administration to renegotiate or even drop out during the first presidential term,” said Robert N. Stavins, the director of the environmental economics program at Harvard.
Full story
4) Gallup Poll: Climate Is The Most Divisive Issue In U.S.
The Hill, 7 June 2016
Timothy Cama
Climate change is the most divisive issue among United States voters’ rankings of policy areas by importance, a new survey found.
The Gallup poll found that 72 percent of Democrats think climate change is a very important or extremely important in how they will vote in this year’s elections, compared with 25 percent of Republicans and 44 percent of independent voters.
The 47-point spread between Democrats and Republicans was the highest of any issues for which Gallup polled.
The treatment of minority groups and the size and efficiency of the federal government were also among the most divisive issues in Gallup’s survey.
Voters care the most about the economy, Gallup said, followed by immigration, healthcare and defense.
Climate change ranked at the bottom of the list of important issues, in terms of the number of voters who found it very or extremely important.
5) Germany Slows Pace Of Green Energy Transition
AFP, 8 June 2016
Frank Zeller
Germany on Wednesday moved to slow the rapid growth of subsidised renewable energy to cap rising costs, drawing fire from environmentalists who charged it is betraying its ambitious climate goals.
To boost competition in the clean-energy sector, wind and solar projects will from next year be put out to tender, rather than automatically launched with generous state subsidies and guaranteed returns.
Under its energy transition plan, Europe’s top economy is phasing out nuclear power by 2022 and reducing climate-harming carbon fuels while boosting clean energy sources to meet 80 percent of power needs by 2050.
State support has helped raise the share of wind, solar and other renewables to about one third of electricity production last year.
But those subsidies are financed by households and many companies as they are largely passed on as surcharges on power bills.
Big power companies including EON, REW and Vattenfall have meanwhile suffered as the price of wholesale electricity has plummeted amid the surge in green energy output, making many conventional plants unprofitable.
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government hailed its reforms as a “paradigm shift” to make the energy transition more economically viable, but environmentalists charged it torpedoes Germany’s ambitious clean energy and climate goals.
Full post
See also: Denmark & Germany Join The UK In Breaking Wind
6) Surprise! Scientists Expose Shady Chinese Emissions Statistics
The American Interest, 8 June 2016
A study conducted by researchers in one of China’s megacities found that lab estimates of car emissions are way, way off. As Reuters reports, by focusing on data culled from taxis and ridesharing services, scientists were able to expose the huge discrepancy:
The findings from the study in the central city were supported by a research arm of China’s top planning body using data from Uber and taxi firms. It found that standard laboratory estimates of carbon emissions from cars were off by about 6,500 metric tonnes per day, or about 59 percent.
“In the (the Chinese government’s most recent) 13th five-year plan, every region and city has the target, but the question is how you meet those targets and how do you verify the target has been met?” said An Feng, head of the Innovation Center for Energy and Transportation, a think-tank that led the study. “You cannot manage if you can’t measure it.”
Measuring emissions from static sources like power plants is relatively easy, but even there China’s self-reported numbers have proven to be unreliable. When you start trying to encapsulate the collective emissions of hundreds of thousands of cars and trucks, the complexity of the task is necessarily going to introduce a larger margin of error. In this sense, it’s not surprising to hear that Chengdu’s car emissions may be more than twice as high as previously estimated.
But it’s vitally important to keep the inaccuracy of Chinese statistics in mind when considering global climate efforts. The country is far and away the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, but its long history of statistical opacity and the strong incentives its local governments have to fudge the numbers they report to Beijing’s central planners make it difficult to get a handle on precisely how much China is emitting, and in the coming years how much it’s doing to curtail those emissions.
Full post
The London-based Global Warming Policy Forum is a world leading think tank on global warming policy issues. The GWPF newsletter is prepared by Director Dr Benny Peiser - for more information, please visit the website at www.thegwpf.com.
1 comment:
From what I read, the Paris "Now World Order Parisfest" always separated out China and India from requirements anyway. It appears that China and India have no intention of joining the New World Order, but like to go to the Conferences to see just how stupid the West is.
Imagine thousands of people on Prime Ministerial salaries flying into Paris to tell us get off our carbon habit. Both Obama and Cameron will inherit a bad public memory.
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