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Business Standard
30-07-2025
- Business
- Business Standard
Small coalitions could unlock $66 bn a year to fight climate change: Study
New research from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) suggests that smaller alliances of fossil fuel-importing countries could raise up to $66 billion every year to help developing nations reduce emissions. This approach, the study says, would not increase costs for consumers and could be a realistic way to support global climate goals, news agency PTI reported. At the COP29 summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, held in November 2024, countries agreed on a new goal to raise $300 billion per year by 2035 for climate finance. There is also a broader target of mobilising $1.3 trillion from both public and private sources. However, the agreement did not include any concrete plan on how this money would be raised. Several countries are proposing different types of levies to support climate funding: -Brazil and other nations are supporting a 2 per cent global wealth tax on billionaires, which could generate up to $250 billion annually. -The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) has approved a carbon dioxide fee of $100 per tonne on shipping emissions starting in 2027. This could bring in $13 billion per year. Fossil fuel levies could raise $66 billion annually According to the PIK study, countries working together on fossil fuel import taxes could generate $66 billion a year to help lower-income countries shift to cleaner energy. If levies also covered emissions from international flights and shipping, the total could reach $200 billion per year. 'Governments are facing tightening fiscal space and are grappling with the question of where the money for international climate finance will come from. Smaller coalitions of countries cooperating on different kinds of levies could go a long way to solve the problem, without extra cost to consumers,' said Ottmar Edenhofer, PIK Director and lead author of the study, as quoted by PTI. EU-China cooperation could be a game-changer The research also shows that cooperation between large importers like the European Union and China could significantly boost climate finance. In one scenario, EU-China collaboration would quadruple the funds raised compared to what either could generate on its own. Consumers could also benefit from this cooperation, as lower global fuel prices would balance out any price increases from the levies. The study estimates that such collaboration could deliver: -$66 billion yearly for emission reductions in developing nations -$33 billion in net gains for those countries -$78 billion in avoided climate damages -$19 billion in annual fossil fuel savings India achieves non-fossil power target India has reached its target of 50 per cent non-fossil fuel-based power capacity five years prior to its 2030 deadline, Minister of New and Renewable Energy Pralhad Joshi announced earlier this month. Out of a total 484.8 GW installed capacity, 242.8 GW now comes from non-fossil sources. India has also set a goal of generating 500 GW from renewable energy by 2030. Fossil fuel combustion kills 1,500 In a separate study, scientists found that about 1,500 people died during the heatwave in the first week of July in Europe, solely because of climate change. 'These people would not have died if it had not been for our burning of oil, coal and gas in the last century,' said Friederike Otto, a climate scientist at Imperial College London and co-author of the study. Researchers from Imperial College and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine used peer-reviewed methods to estimate that 2,300 people died across 12 cities due to the heat. Nearly two-thirds of these deaths were directly linked to higher temperatures caused by climate change. Of the 1,500 climate-related deaths, over 1,100 were people aged 75 or older, the study found.
The Print
30-07-2025
- Business
- The Print
Cooperative fossil fuel levies could raise 66 bn annually to fight climate change: Study
Countries are advancing new taxes to boost climate finance. Brazil and others back a 2 per cent global wealth tax on billionaires, which could generate USD 230-250 billion annually. Governments at COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, in November 2024 agreed to a new climate finance goal of USD 300 billion per year by 2035, with an ambition to mobilise USD 1.3 trillion from public and private sources, but failed to propose a mechanism to incentivise contributions. New Delhi, Jul 30 (PTI) Smaller coalitions of fossil fuel-importing countries could generate USD 66 billion annually to help developing nations cut emissions, according to a new study by climate economists at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has approved a USD 100 per tonne carbon dioxide shipping fee from 2027, expected to generate USD 13 billion. France, Spain, Kenya, and Barbados plan levies on premium flyers and private jets, which could add over USD 100 billion yearly for climate action. According to the PIK study, cooperative levies on fossil fuels could raise USD 66 billion every year for financing emission reduction efforts in low and middle-income countries. Expanding the scope to include pricing emissions from international aviation and maritime shipping could push contributions to USD 200 billion annually. 'Governments are facing tightening fiscal space and are grappling with the question of where the money for international climate finance will come from. Smaller coalitions of countries cooperating on different kinds of levies could go a long way to solve the problem, without extra cost to consumers,' said PIK Director and lead author Ottmar Edenhofer. The study explores scenarios where countries act in their own interest but cooperate on fossil fuel levies and channel the revenues to support energy transition in developing nations. It finds that if the European Union makes the levy rates conditional on other countries joining, large importers like China would have an incentive to participate. In one scenario, the EU-China cooperation would quadruple the climate finance raised by each compared to acting alone. Such collaboration would also benefit consumers by lowering global fuel prices, offsetting any price increases from the levies. The study estimates that with the EU-China cooperation, developing countries could receive USD 66 billion annually to reduce fossil fuel use, including USD 33 billion in net gains. Avoided damages from climate impacts could be worth USD 78 billion, with an additional USD 19 billion saved on fossil fuel prices each year. The funding from these levies could also cut emissions by more than a billion tonnes of CO2 annually, exceeding Germany's current emissions. PIK researchers say this approach offers a model for funding global public goods. 'Our analysis strongly suggests that coalitions to raise funds for global public good provision would be a win-win. We show by pairing targeted spending of these levies on international climate finance, benefits can be shared by all,' said Matthias Kalkuhl, one of the study's authors. The study is part of the project 'ODA in the Mutual Interest of Donors and Recipients', funded by the Gates Foundation and coordinated by the Kiel Institute for the World Economy. PTI GVS RHL This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.
Yahoo
21-02-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Report: EU should speed up CO2 removal from air to meet climate goals
Climate researchers have advised the European Union to speed up the removal of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air in a report released on Friday. In the report, the European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change recommends that in addition to drastic emission cuts, removing CO2 from the atmosphere is crucial to stopping global warming, stabilizing the climate and mitigating the worst impacts of climate change. The EU is committed to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050, and ideally, more CO2 should be removed from the atmosphere than is added. But with carbon sinks such as forests and soils in the EU continuing to decline and new removal methods slow to be adopted, a strong policy response to boost carbon removal is urgently needed, the Copenhagen-based advisory body warned. Ottmar Edenhofer, chairman of the advisory board, said: "To achieve its climate targets, the EU must quickly scale up carbon dioxide removals while pursuing deep emissions cuts. With the right incentives, a dynamic policy mix can speed up innovation and strengthen the EU's position in the global race for cleantech leadership."
Euronews
21-02-2025
- Business
- Euronews
EU must not slow climate action on hopes of future carbon removals, top climate advisor warns
The promise of future technological fixes could deter urgent action to immediately cut greenhouse gas emissions, the chair of the European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change (ESABCC) Ottmar Edenhofer has warned. As the climate emergency grows ever more acute, and emissions reduction targets agreed in Paris a decade ago slip out of reach, carbon capture and storage (CCS) is back on the policy agenda in Brussels. 'We recommend a progressive integration of permanent removals in the [emissions trading system] ETS,' Edenhofer said while briefing reporters ahead of the publication of a weighty report into the potential and risks of carbon removals in EU climate action. The ETS, the EU's central climate policy tool, where companies must buy allowances for every tonne of carbon dioxide they pump into the atmosphere, has been credited with driving a switch from coal-fired to renewable electricity generation. If removals were integrated into the cap-and-trade scheme, polluters could theoretically reduce this bill by investing in CCS. But including removals – which could also involve other offsetting strategies such as tree planting – should only be done under very strict conditions. 'And the first condition is this is only acceptable when we can prevent mitigation deterrence,' Edenhofer said. The board's report recommends separate targets for natural and technological carbon removal methods, with strict certification and monitoring. 'Once a robust certification framework is in place, integrating permanent removals into the EU Emissions Trading System will help balance reductions and removals in a cost-effective way,' Edenhofer said. Carbon Management Strategy CCS involves sequestering carbon dioxide, for example from factory chimneys, then purifying, compressing and transporting it to permanent storage sites, typically in depleted gas fields offshore. Critics argue that after more than two decades of development – largely by the petroleum industry, with substantial public funding – this energy-intensive process has yet to be proven at anything like the scale needed to make a meaningful contribution to arresting global temperature rise. Still, the European Commission published a year ago an Industrial Carbon Management Strategy that envisages a multi-billion-euro market-based system to capture and transport huge volumes of CO2 around Europe for use by industry or permanent storage. The EU executive estimates that Europe must be locking away 280 million tonnes annually by 2040, rising a decade later to 450 MT (about a sixth of the EU's total emissions today), if it is to reach its target of net-zero emissions by mid-century. Let the market decide Edenhofer suggested that the market could be allowed to test the credibility of expansive claims of the potential to scale up and bring down the cost of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies. Another climate action policy suggested in the advisory panel's report is 'extended emitter responsibility' – that is, making polluters pay for the removal from the atmosphere of any CO2 they produce. Oil and gas firms could be allowed to enter into a contract associated with a future commitment to carbon removals, posting collateral with a secure intermediary that would only be paid back if the removal is successfully delivered, Edenhofer suggested while discussing various concepts explored by the ESABCC. 'Such a contract would be an important proof of concept,' he said. '[If] this contract would not be accepted in the market, this would reveal that most of the cost reduction expectations are probably too optimistic.' 'And this would also reveal some information about the realistic expectations about the future costs,' he said. Before any of that, petroleum producers face a concrete test of their commitment to CCS in 2030, by which date they are legally required to put in place storage facilities capable of absorbing 50 million tonnes of CO2 a year. For comparison, by far the largest and most advanced CCS project in Europe to date, outside the EU in petroleum-rich Norway, was nearly a decade in development and has an estimated initial injection capacity of just 1.5 MT. The ESABCC report on carbon removals follows another last month in which the advisory board called for urgent action and an end to fossil fuel subsidies to prevent the 2030 target of a 55% emissions cut from slipping out of reach.
