On Tuesday, climate action once again received legal backing. According to a legal opinion by the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, greenhouse gases are a form of marine pollution. This means that countries must step up their efforts to protect the climate. In the Tribunal’s opinion, the Paris Agreement is not enough. Alexandra Endres has analyzed what consequences the opinion could have for future climate lawsuits and how it will affect the upcoming climate conferences.
Today’s news section has a slight focus on investments: The German Ministry of Economic Affairs plans to promote sustainable investments via green lead markets. The association Eurelectric calls for investments in the electricity grid to be doubled. And the analysts at BloombergNEF have calculated how much money would have to flow into the energy and transport transition to achieve net zero emissions.
Your Nico Beckert
Feature
Tribunal for the Law of the Sea: Countries must do more for the climate than the Paris Agreement requires
The United Nations Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in Hamburg (archive photo)
Small island nations have won a landmark victory at the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) in Hamburg: On Tuesday, the Tribunal confirmed their legal claim for more climate action. In an advisory opinion, the 21 judges unanimously agreed that greenhouse gases are a form of marine pollution. This means all 169 member states of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea from 1982 have climate action obligations.
The ITLOS sets stricter climate policy standards than the Paris Agreement. They do not consider that countries’ climate action obligations “satisfied simply by complying with the obligations and commitments under the Paris Agreement,” the judges write in their opinion.
Legal representative for the island nations: NDCs are not enough
Legal representative Payam Akhavan, who represented the island nations before the ITLOS, said at a press conference after the readout of the report that the Tribunal made it clear that countries must do more than just regularly submit voluntary nationally determined contributions (NDCs) in accordance with the Paris Agreement. “The major polluters must prevent catastrophic harm to small island nations, and if they fail to do so, they must compensate for loss and damage.” This can be interpreted as a reference to possible future lawsuits for compensation for climate-related loss and damage.
Based on current NDCs, the independent Climate Action Tracker (CAT) calculates that the world is on the path to 2.5 degrees of warming by the end of the century – provided that countries actually implement the climate action announced therein. In its report, however, the ITLOS uses the 1.5-degree limit of the Paris Agreement as a benchmark for the legal obligation of countries to protect the climate.
It “strengthens efforts to recognize the 1.5 degrees as a red line globally,” John Peters, lawyer at the law firm Günther in Hamburg, which specializes in environmental law, told Table.Briefings. As the European Court of Human Rights already did in its ruling on climate change, the Tribunal states that science must be the basis for decisions and, in cases of scientific uncertainty, action must be taken in favor of climate action.
The obligations of countries according to the ITLOS
According to the ITLOS opinion, countries are obligated to:
“To take all necessary measures to prevent, reduce and control marine pollution from anthropogenic GHG emissions.”
To this end, use the “the best available science,”
and “relevant international rules and standards contained in climate change treaties such as the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement.”
In particular, “the global temperature goal of limiting the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels and the timeline for emission pathways to achieve that goal.”
In addition, ITLOS finds that the Convention on the Law of the Sea obligates countries to protect and preserve marine ecosystems from the effects of climate change.
The Court does not dictate how countries should achieve this. This would depend on the available “means available to States Parties and their capabilities.” However, it points out that measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are particularly important.
Non-binding, but influential
The new advisory opinion is not binding. However, experts assume that it will influence further legal proceedings – for example, by using its arguments in climate lawsuits before national courts, which in turn lead to legally binding rulings.
Like all states party to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, Germany must comply with the advisory opinion “because of its obligation to comply with international law,” states Peters. And if Germany is sued for more climate action before the ITLOS or ICJ, for instance, the opinion’s obligations “will very likely also be the standards that the court will apply in the proceedings.”
The ITLOS opinion is the first of three that assess the obligation of countries to protect the climate under international law. The Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) are working on similar opinions. The hearings before the IAGMR are already underway. The ICJ could publish its opinion next year and thus “significantly change international law,” the US NGO Center for Environmental Law (CIEL) expects. It is one of more than 50 states and organizations that have accompanied the proceedings before the ITLOS with written and oral submissions.
‘Major role in current and upcoming lawsuits’
The obligation of countries under international law to comply with the 1.5-degree limit and to restore destroyed natural areas, as confirmed by the ITLOS, will “play a major role in various ongoing and upcoming lawsuits on improved environmental legislation,” Felix Ekardt, Professor at the Leipzig Research Center for Sustainability and Climate Policy, also told Table.Briefings. “Other international courts will probably also be guided by this to some extent.” This applies regardless of whether all countries have signed the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. However, Ekardt is skeptical whether the ITLOS opinion “will actually lead to effective measures being taken more quickly in the world, in Europe and Germany.”
The United States, one of the world’s largest emitters of greenhouse gases, is not a party to the agreement. However, “through the consideration of the opinion in ICJ proceedings and the contribution of the ITLOS to the general development of international law,” the opinion would indirectly influence the US, environmental lawyer Peters told Table.Briefings.
Important for future climate conferences
The ITLOS opinion will most likely also be influential in the upcoming UN climate negotiations. According to COSIS lawyer Akhavan, the opinion provides “strong arguments” for upcoming climate conferences. As the legal guardian of the Ocean Treaty, ITLOS has taken a critical first step in recognizing that what small island nations have been fighting for at the COP negotiations for decades is already a part of international law.
The 1.5 limit being included in the Paris Agreement is largely due to the efforts of small island nations. In Paris and at subsequent COPs, they have repeatedly called for more ambitious global climate action resolutions, for example, as the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) or as part of the High Ambition Coalition.
Gaston Browne, Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, called the ITLOS opinion a “historic milestone.” According to the Reuters news agency, Browne said, “the ITLOS opinion will inform our future legal and diplomatic work in putting an end to inaction that has brought us to the brink of an irreversible disaster.”
Antigua and Barbuda is a founding member of the Commission of Small Island States on Climate Change and International Law (COSIS), which requested the legal opinion from the ITLOS. The Commission, which was founded in the run-up to COP26 in Glasgow (2021), also includes Tuvalu, Palau, Niue, Vanuatu, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and St. Kitts and Nevis. Membership is open to all AOSIS nations.
COP29
Translation missing.
Events
May 23-25, Stresa Ministerial meetingG7 Finance Ministerial The finance ministers of the G7 countries meet to discuss, among other things, global climate financing and support for developing countries.Info
May 28, Berlin ConferenceAurora Renewables & Battery Summit Berlin The Aurora Renewables & Battery Summit Berlin 2024 will bring together the biggest utilities, policy makers, project developers, investors, and other main players from across the clean energy space in Germany to discuss the status quo and the future of renewables and battery storage.Info
May 29, Brussels DiscussionEU’s climate action – What’s the way forward? The Green Deal is at the heart of European climate policy. What will happen to it after the European elections? This Euractiv event will discuss the way forward for a successful transition and the next steps to achieve the EU’s climate goals.Info
May 29, 2 p.m. CEST, Online LectureExperimentalist Governance in Energy: Insights from the EU Bernardo Rangoni will present his research findings on experimental governance in the energy sector. The event is part of the event series “Developments in European Energy and Climate Policy” organized by the Florence School of Regulation.Info
May 29, Singapore ConferenceInternational Hydrogen Conference The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) is organizing this conference, which will focus on the global status of hydrogen production and its role in achieving climate targets.Info
May 30, 4 p.m. CEST, Online WebinarDiscover Updated GHG Emissions Data and Methodology with Climate Watch The World Resources Institute will present new emissions data in cooperation with Climate Watch.Info
Translation missing.
News
Climate in Numbers: How much countries invest in the energy transition and what is still needed
Annual global investment in the energy and transportation transition must increase by over 200 percent by 2030 to limit the temperature rise to 1.75 degrees. This is according to a new report by the information service BloombergNEF. The report shows that global investments in 2023 amounted to 1.8 trillion US dollars. To achieve a pathway of net zero emissions by 2050, annual investment would have to increase to just under 5.4 trillion US dollars between 2024 and 2030. Mostof this public and private investment would have to be channeled into the electrification of the transportation sector, renewable energies and power grids.
However, according to the BNEF analysts, the majority of the investments are not additional expenditures on climate action. Governments and companies would have to invest a further 34 trillion to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. BNEF forecasts that 181 trillion US dollars will be invested in the energy and transportation transition by 2050 anyway. However, these investments in already competitive technologies would not be enough and lead to a warming of 2.6 degrees. Achieving the 34 trillion in additional investments would require a stable long-term political environment with clear signals to steer investments away from fossil fuels and towards low-carbon solutions.
Germany must amend its climate plans
BNEF’s analysis estimates that technologies that have not yet been sufficiently developed will reduce current emissions by around 25 percent:
Biofuels in shipping and aviation,
Hydrogen in industry and transport and
Carbon capture and storage (CCS) in industry and, to some extent, in the energy supply.
The BNEF analysts took a closer look at twelve countries and their climate plans (NDCs):
the NDCs of the USA, Brazil, France, the UK, and Australia are “most compatible with the net zero scenarios of BNEF.”
Germany, South Korea, Japan and India need to improve their targets.
China, Indonesia and Vietnam are far from a net-zero pathway. With their NDCs, they are heading for a warming of over 2.6 degrees and need to tighten their NDCs significantly. nib
Verkehrswende
Climate finance: How much money flows at high interest rates
Wealthy countries have granted at least 18 billion US dollars (16.6 billion euros) in loans at market interest rates to developing countries for climate finance. This is according to a new report by Reuters and Big Local News, a journalism program at Stanford University. The report states that this is not the norm in climate finance, which usually has low or no interest rates.
Japan provided 10.2 billion US dollars in loans at market interest rates, France 3.6 billion, Germany 1.9 billion and the USA 1.5 billion. At least another 11 billion US dollars in loans – nearly all from Japan – required recipient nations to hire or purchase materials from companies in the lending countries. In addition, at least 10.6 billion US dollars in grants came from 24 countries and the European Union, which required companies, NGOs and authorities in the donor countries to purchase materials or services.
Middle-income countries received the most climate financing
Between 2015 and 2020, most climate financing went to middle-income countries: around 186 billion US dollars, mainly in the form of loans. Low-income countries received 12 billion, mostly as grants. Overall, more than half of the money was provided as loans instead of grants. However, the high level of debt in poor countries makes climate action more difficult. They have to invest many times more money in debt servicing than in climate resilience measures.
Much of the climate aid examined is part of the 100 billion US dollar pledge developed countries made at COP15 in Copenhagen in 2009 for the year 2020. The promised sum was not provided until 2022. A decision on the new long-term target for climate financing is expected at COP29 in Baku in November. rtr/lb
COP29
CO2 price: This is how much the countries generated in 2023
104 billion US dollars, or the equivalent of 96 billion euros, is how much countries worldwide generated from carbon taxes and emissions trading in 2023. This was revealed in a World Bank report published on Tuesday. According to the report, the largest single source of revenue remained the European Emissions Trading System (EU ETS), which could soon be expanded to include an agricultural ETS.
There are 75 instruments for pricing greenhouse gases worldwide, two more than a year ago. They cover around 24 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. In 2022, 95 billion US dollars were generated – an increase in revenue of almost ten percent in 2023.
However, less than one percent of global greenhouse gas emissions are covered by a direct carbon price, which, according to the High Level Commission on Carbon Prices, would be high enough to keep global warming well below two degrees Celsius. Companies still have few incentives. The High Level Commission says a price of between 58 and 117 euros per ton of CO2 is currently needed. The EU ETS falls presently in this range at 74 euros, and the trend is rising again. According to a recommendation by the German Federal Environment Agency, however, Germany’s carbon price would have to range between 237 and 809 euros to price in the actual damage. rtr/lb
Climate protection
Climate targets
Emissions trading
Klimaziele
World Bank
Green lead markets: How Germany wants to help green steel and cement achieve a breakthrough
German Economy Minister Robert Habeck wants to ensure that new regulations boost demand for green raw materials from the steel, cement and chemical industries. On Wednesday, he presented a corresponding concept paper from his ministry. It states that so far, support has mainly been offered on the supply side, for example, with Carbon Contracts for Difference and subsidies for the restructuring of the steel industry. “With the green lead markets, we are now also looking at the demand side,” Habeck said. “Because without buyers, even the best product is useless.”
As a first step, the concept announces the development of labels to identify raw materials that cause comparatively low carbon emissions during production. The “Low Emission Steel Standard” recently presented by the steel industry serves as a template. Based on these labels, binding specifications for increasing the share of green raw materials are to be set at the EU level as part of the new EU Ecodesign, which all manufacturers and importers must comply with. However, this is expected to take several years; according to information from the BMWK, a corresponding regulation for steel is planned for 2026/27.
Public procurement law to be amended
A second possible use for these new labels could be implemented more quickly, but would be non-binding: The German public procurement law is expected to be amended next year to allow public clients to stipulate a certain percentage of steel or cement used in tenders. In the construction sector alone, public sector contracts are responsible for around 28 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. However, such quotas will not be mandatory; it is therefore unclear to what extent federal, state and local authorities will use the new option considering their tight budgets.
Tilmann von Berlepsch, spokesperson for climate-neutral industry at the NGO Germanwatch, believes this approach is insufficient. He told Table.Briefings that the German government should also impose green procurement criteria for federal states and local authorities. However, he said that it is crucial that the federal government supports them in this “and does not pass on another climate protection task to the municipalities without additional funding.” On the other hand, Martin Theuringer, Managing Director of the German Steel Association, praised the concept. He explained that public procurement must now be geared towards carbon-reduced products and processes and incentives must be created for the purchase of low-emission products. av/mkr
BMWK
Chemical industry
EU
Hydrogen
Öffentliche Beschaffung
Robert Habeck
Steel production
United Kingdom: Climate change makes heavy rainfall ten times more likely
The heavy rainfall in the UK last fall and winter has become 20 percent wetter and ten times more likely due to climate change. This is according to a study by World Weather Attribution published on Wednesday.
Dozens of storms, intensified by a stronger jet stream and already wet soils, led to flooding, crop failures and power outages. At least 20 people died as a result. Without climate change, such amounts of rain would only have occurred once every 50 years; today they are expected every five years and, with global warming of 2 degrees Celsius, every three years.
While climate change is increasing the amount of rainfall, a storm period like 2023/24 has become less likely by a factor of 1.4. The authors of the study recommend more research into how storms will change under climate change. Above all, the change in the jet stream – one of the biggest challenges in climate models – is uncertain. lb
World Weather Attribution
Power grid bottlenecks: What the energy industry calls for
In view of increasing bottlenecks in the power grid, Europe’s leading energy association is calling for the end of treating all connection requests equally. In a new report published on Wednesday, Eurelectric called on the EU to allow member states to set priorities for connections based on societal benefits. To this end, European legislators should amend the electricity market regulation, which currently stipulates that customers should not be discriminated against.
As a model, Eurelectric cites a new regulation in the Netherlands. Starting in October, Dutch grid operators are to follow a state-defined order set by the regulatory authority ACM. Batteries and other systems that alleviate bottlenecks will be the first to be granted grid access. The second category includes security authorities and the third category includes critical infrastructure such as drinking water supplies and schools – as well as new residential buildings, as a spokesperson explained on request.
Investments in distribution grids to double
ACM already issued regulations for installing heat pumps and charging facilities in existing buildings in 2023. The authority felt compelled to impose a maximum waiting period of one year on grid operators for households wishing to retrofit such systems.
Germany wants to take a different approach. Last November, the Federal Network Agency stipulated that grid operators may no longer refuse connections, even on the grounds of possible bottlenecks. In return, users will have to accept temporary power restrictions, for example, when charging electric cars. However, according to the BNetzA, this requires the digitalization of the grids.
Eurelectric now also calls for incentives so that grid users no longer demand oversized connections they do not use to their full capacity. However, Eurelectric’s core demand is for the EU states to double their annual investment in distribution grids from 33 to 67 billion euros by 2050. ber
Electricity price
Power
Survey: 90 percent want a more socially just climate policy
90 percent of respondents to a representative population survey conducted by the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) believe that politicians should do much more to shape the transformation of our economy and way of life in a socially just way. Around a third of respondents stated that environmental, nature and climate action are the most important issues. Respondents considered healthcare (56 percent) and concerns about inflation and falling purchasing power more important.
According to Claudia Detsch, head of the Just Climate department at FES, the study shows that most people support consistent climate action, but reject being patronized. Approval for climate action measures is highest in countries that offer state subsidies or where no disadvantages are expected.
Portuguese and people with high social standing favor wind power
For example, an above-average number of people in Portugal support the construction of wind turbines (96 percent), while people in France are the most opposed to it in a country comparison (36 percent). The study also concludes that there are relevant differences between the different social groups. For example, many people with a high social standing support the construction of wind turbines, while people with a low social standing tend to oppose them.
The survey examined 19 countries, including Germany, France, Turkey and the USA. The respondents were between 18 and 69 years old. The representative study was conducted between April and July 2023. seh
Klima & Umwelt
Opinion
Climate partnerships: Why the EU urgently needs to reform its partnership strategy
By Lukas Kahlen and Sarah Jackson
Lukas Kahlen and Sarah Jackson work at the New Climate Institute on EU climate diplomacy and investigate the effectiveness of climate partnerships.
The days of talking about donor and recipient countries in the context of international cooperation are gone. Effective climate and transformation partnerships with developing and emerging economies are crucial for meeting global climate action targets. They also help to strengthen Europe’s own security and competitiveness, diversify its supply chains and secure access to energy and raw materials.
Given the current geopolitical landscape, the EU and its member states need to reorient and improve the communication of their offer to international partners, specifically developing and emerging countries to gain local buy-in, especially in the backdrop of competing offers from other emerging economic powers seeking to expand their global influence.
The problem: An uncoordinated and fragmented offer
As part of the “Team Europe” approach, the EU and its member states have set out to “make their joint external action greater than the sum of its parts” by pooling resources and effectively coordinating their efforts. However, a recent study by NewClimate Institute shows that the partnerships offered by the EU and its member states are poorly focussed and insufficiently coordinated – in line with the saying “everything, everywhere, all at once.”
While China makes offers that countries can hardly refuse, the EU’s partnership offer is often complex, fragmented and difficult to understand. In recent years, the EU has launched various types of partnerships that can be loosely characterized as climate partnerships.
Global Gateway, Europe’s geopolitical framework to support infrastructure development in emerging and developing countries, focuses on green and digital transformation. Global Gateway is complemented by a number of other initiatives such as Green Partnerships, Green Alliances, Strategic Partnerships on Critical Raw Materials and plurilateral programs such as Just Energy Transition Partnerships (JETPs).
Global gateway projects for climate and energy in over 60 countries
In addition to these EU-led partnerships, EU member states also maintain a wide range of bilateral climate and development partnerships with third countries. Additionally, there are several climate partnerships with developed countries.
In view of this flood of partnership models, it is difficult to recognize a clear focus. A lack of geographical prioritization also makes it challenging to set clear priorities and develop coherent strategies. There are Global Gateway projects in the area of climate and energy in more than 60 countries, although the projects differ significantly in terms of their scope and investments. Given limited resources in key EU institutions, both in Brussels and on the ground in partner countries, effective implementation of these partnerships in so many countries is a massive challenge.
Putting partnerships at the center of European foreign policy
Team Europe – consisting of EU institutions, its member states, diplomatic services and financial institutions – should therefore focus its actions abroad on a clear, joint and region-specific strategy in order to utilize synergies and avoid duplication. Germany and other member states should orientate their bilateral efforts even more strategically towards a joint approach within the framework of Team Europe.
Germany should therefore define strategic cooperation with the EU within the framework of partnerships as an important building block in the implementation of its strategy on climate foreign policy. This is not only important for the efficient use of limited public resources, but also to convey a unified image to the rest of the world and strengthen Europe’s role in the necessary global transformation.
The upcoming EU elections offer the opportunity to send new political signals and to implement the Team Europe approach more consistently in practice by setting up partnerships that are mutually beneficial, effective, and ambitious. This is not only important for global decarbonization efforts, but also to secure and strengthen Europe’s competitiveness in the long term. Only a coordinated and focused approach will ensure that Europe does not fall behind in global competition and at the same time maximizes its contribution to global climate action and effectively supports the sustainable development ambitions of partner countries.
On Tuesday, climate action once again received legal backing. According to a legal opinion by the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, greenhouse gases are a form of marine pollution. This means that countries must step up their efforts to protect the climate. In the Tribunal’s opinion, the Paris Agreement is not enough. Alexandra Endres has analyzed what consequences the opinion could have for future climate lawsuits and how it will affect the upcoming climate conferences.
Today’s news section has a slight focus on investments: The German Ministry of Economic Affairs plans to promote sustainable investments via green lead markets. The association Eurelectric calls for investments in the electricity grid to be doubled. And the analysts at BloombergNEF have calculated how much money would have to flow into the energy and transport transition to achieve net zero emissions.
Your Nico Beckert
Feature
Tribunal for the Law of the Sea: Countries must do more for the climate than the Paris Agreement requires
The United Nations Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in Hamburg (archive photo)
Small island nations have won a landmark victory at the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) in Hamburg: On Tuesday, the Tribunal confirmed their legal claim for more climate action. In an advisory opinion, the 21 judges unanimously agreed that greenhouse gases are a form of marine pollution. This means all 169 member states of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea from 1982 have climate action obligations.
The ITLOS sets stricter climate policy standards than the Paris Agreement. They do not consider that countries’ climate action obligations “satisfied simply by complying with the obligations and commitments under the Paris Agreement,” the judges write in their opinion.
Legal representative for the island nations: NDCs are not enough
Legal representative Payam Akhavan, who represented the island nations before the ITLOS, said at a press conference after the readout of the report that the Tribunal made it clear that countries must do more than just regularly submit voluntary nationally determined contributions (NDCs) in accordance with the Paris Agreement. “The major polluters must prevent catastrophic harm to small island nations, and if they fail to do so, they must compensate for loss and damage.” This can be interpreted as a reference to possible future lawsuits for compensation for climate-related loss and damage.
Based on current NDCs, the independent Climate Action Tracker (CAT) calculates that the world is on the path to 2.5 degrees of warming by the end of the century – provided that countries actually implement the climate action announced therein. In its report, however, the ITLOS uses the 1.5-degree limit of the Paris Agreement as a benchmark for the legal obligation of countries to protect the climate.
It “strengthens efforts to recognize the 1.5 degrees as a red line globally,” John Peters, lawyer at the law firm Günther in Hamburg, which specializes in environmental law, told Table.Briefings. As the European Court of Human Rights already did in its ruling on climate change, the Tribunal states that science must be the basis for decisions and, in cases of scientific uncertainty, action must be taken in favor of climate action.
The obligations of countries according to the ITLOS
According to the ITLOS opinion, countries are obligated to:
“To take all necessary measures to prevent, reduce and control marine pollution from anthropogenic GHG emissions.”
To this end, use the “the best available science,”
and “relevant international rules and standards contained in climate change treaties such as the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement.”
In particular, “the global temperature goal of limiting the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels and the timeline for emission pathways to achieve that goal.”
In addition, ITLOS finds that the Convention on the Law of the Sea obligates countries to protect and preserve marine ecosystems from the effects of climate change.
The Court does not dictate how countries should achieve this. This would depend on the available “means available to States Parties and their capabilities.” However, it points out that measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are particularly important.
Non-binding, but influential
The new advisory opinion is not binding. However, experts assume that it will influence further legal proceedings – for example, by using its arguments in climate lawsuits before national courts, which in turn lead to legally binding rulings.
Like all states party to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, Germany must comply with the advisory opinion “because of its obligation to comply with international law,” states Peters. And if Germany is sued for more climate action before the ITLOS or ICJ, for instance, the opinion’s obligations “will very likely also be the standards that the court will apply in the proceedings.”
The ITLOS opinion is the first of three that assess the obligation of countries to protect the climate under international law. The Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) are working on similar opinions. The hearings before the IAGMR are already underway. The ICJ could publish its opinion next year and thus “significantly change international law,” the US NGO Center for Environmental Law (CIEL) expects. It is one of more than 50 states and organizations that have accompanied the proceedings before the ITLOS with written and oral submissions.
‘Major role in current and upcoming lawsuits’
The obligation of countries under international law to comply with the 1.5-degree limit and to restore destroyed natural areas, as confirmed by the ITLOS, will “play a major role in various ongoing and upcoming lawsuits on improved environmental legislation,” Felix Ekardt, Professor at the Leipzig Research Center for Sustainability and Climate Policy, also told Table.Briefings. “Other international courts will probably also be guided by this to some extent.” This applies regardless of whether all countries have signed the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. However, Ekardt is skeptical whether the ITLOS opinion “will actually lead to effective measures being taken more quickly in the world, in Europe and Germany.”
The United States, one of the world’s largest emitters of greenhouse gases, is not a party to the agreement. However, “through the consideration of the opinion in ICJ proceedings and the contribution of the ITLOS to the general development of international law,” the opinion would indirectly influence the US, environmental lawyer Peters told Table.Briefings.
Important for future climate conferences
The ITLOS opinion will most likely also be influential in the upcoming UN climate negotiations. According to COSIS lawyer Akhavan, the opinion provides “strong arguments” for upcoming climate conferences. As the legal guardian of the Ocean Treaty, ITLOS has taken a critical first step in recognizing that what small island nations have been fighting for at the COP negotiations for decades is already a part of international law.
The 1.5 limit being included in the Paris Agreement is largely due to the efforts of small island nations. In Paris and at subsequent COPs, they have repeatedly called for more ambitious global climate action resolutions, for example, as the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) or as part of the High Ambition Coalition.
Gaston Browne, Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, called the ITLOS opinion a “historic milestone.” According to the Reuters news agency, Browne said, “the ITLOS opinion will inform our future legal and diplomatic work in putting an end to inaction that has brought us to the brink of an irreversible disaster.”
Antigua and Barbuda is a founding member of the Commission of Small Island States on Climate Change and International Law (COSIS), which requested the legal opinion from the ITLOS. The Commission, which was founded in the run-up to COP26 in Glasgow (2021), also includes Tuvalu, Palau, Niue, Vanuatu, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and St. Kitts and Nevis. Membership is open to all AOSIS nations.
COP29
Translation missing.
Events
May 23-25, Stresa Ministerial meetingG7 Finance Ministerial The finance ministers of the G7 countries meet to discuss, among other things, global climate financing and support for developing countries.Info
May 28, Berlin ConferenceAurora Renewables & Battery Summit Berlin The Aurora Renewables & Battery Summit Berlin 2024 will bring together the biggest utilities, policy makers, project developers, investors, and other main players from across the clean energy space in Germany to discuss the status quo and the future of renewables and battery storage.Info
May 29, Brussels DiscussionEU’s climate action – What’s the way forward? The Green Deal is at the heart of European climate policy. What will happen to it after the European elections? This Euractiv event will discuss the way forward for a successful transition and the next steps to achieve the EU’s climate goals.Info
May 29, 2 p.m. CEST, Online LectureExperimentalist Governance in Energy: Insights from the EU Bernardo Rangoni will present his research findings on experimental governance in the energy sector. The event is part of the event series “Developments in European Energy and Climate Policy” organized by the Florence School of Regulation.Info
May 29, Singapore ConferenceInternational Hydrogen Conference The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) is organizing this conference, which will focus on the global status of hydrogen production and its role in achieving climate targets.Info
May 30, 4 p.m. CEST, Online WebinarDiscover Updated GHG Emissions Data and Methodology with Climate Watch The World Resources Institute will present new emissions data in cooperation with Climate Watch.Info
Translation missing.
News
Climate in Numbers: How much countries invest in the energy transition and what is still needed
Annual global investment in the energy and transportation transition must increase by over 200 percent by 2030 to limit the temperature rise to 1.75 degrees. This is according to a new report by the information service BloombergNEF. The report shows that global investments in 2023 amounted to 1.8 trillion US dollars. To achieve a pathway of net zero emissions by 2050, annual investment would have to increase to just under 5.4 trillion US dollars between 2024 and 2030. Mostof this public and private investment would have to be channeled into the electrification of the transportation sector, renewable energies and power grids.
However, according to the BNEF analysts, the majority of the investments are not additional expenditures on climate action. Governments and companies would have to invest a further 34 trillion to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. BNEF forecasts that 181 trillion US dollars will be invested in the energy and transportation transition by 2050 anyway. However, these investments in already competitive technologies would not be enough and lead to a warming of 2.6 degrees. Achieving the 34 trillion in additional investments would require a stable long-term political environment with clear signals to steer investments away from fossil fuels and towards low-carbon solutions.
Germany must amend its climate plans
BNEF’s analysis estimates that technologies that have not yet been sufficiently developed will reduce current emissions by around 25 percent:
Biofuels in shipping and aviation,
Hydrogen in industry and transport and
Carbon capture and storage (CCS) in industry and, to some extent, in the energy supply.
The BNEF analysts took a closer look at twelve countries and their climate plans (NDCs):
the NDCs of the USA, Brazil, France, the UK, and Australia are “most compatible with the net zero scenarios of BNEF.”
Germany, South Korea, Japan and India need to improve their targets.
China, Indonesia and Vietnam are far from a net-zero pathway. With their NDCs, they are heading for a warming of over 2.6 degrees and need to tighten their NDCs significantly. nib
Verkehrswende
Climate finance: How much money flows at high interest rates
Wealthy countries have granted at least 18 billion US dollars (16.6 billion euros) in loans at market interest rates to developing countries for climate finance. This is according to a new report by Reuters and Big Local News, a journalism program at Stanford University. The report states that this is not the norm in climate finance, which usually has low or no interest rates.
Japan provided 10.2 billion US dollars in loans at market interest rates, France 3.6 billion, Germany 1.9 billion and the USA 1.5 billion. At least another 11 billion US dollars in loans – nearly all from Japan – required recipient nations to hire or purchase materials from companies in the lending countries. In addition, at least 10.6 billion US dollars in grants came from 24 countries and the European Union, which required companies, NGOs and authorities in the donor countries to purchase materials or services.
Middle-income countries received the most climate financing
Between 2015 and 2020, most climate financing went to middle-income countries: around 186 billion US dollars, mainly in the form of loans. Low-income countries received 12 billion, mostly as grants. Overall, more than half of the money was provided as loans instead of grants. However, the high level of debt in poor countries makes climate action more difficult. They have to invest many times more money in debt servicing than in climate resilience measures.
Much of the climate aid examined is part of the 100 billion US dollar pledge developed countries made at COP15 in Copenhagen in 2009 for the year 2020. The promised sum was not provided until 2022. A decision on the new long-term target for climate financing is expected at COP29 in Baku in November. rtr/lb
COP29
CO2 price: This is how much the countries generated in 2023
104 billion US dollars, or the equivalent of 96 billion euros, is how much countries worldwide generated from carbon taxes and emissions trading in 2023. This was revealed in a World Bank report published on Tuesday. According to the report, the largest single source of revenue remained the European Emissions Trading System (EU ETS), which could soon be expanded to include an agricultural ETS.
There are 75 instruments for pricing greenhouse gases worldwide, two more than a year ago. They cover around 24 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. In 2022, 95 billion US dollars were generated – an increase in revenue of almost ten percent in 2023.
However, less than one percent of global greenhouse gas emissions are covered by a direct carbon price, which, according to the High Level Commission on Carbon Prices, would be high enough to keep global warming well below two degrees Celsius. Companies still have few incentives. The High Level Commission says a price of between 58 and 117 euros per ton of CO2 is currently needed. The EU ETS falls presently in this range at 74 euros, and the trend is rising again. According to a recommendation by the German Federal Environment Agency, however, Germany’s carbon price would have to range between 237 and 809 euros to price in the actual damage. rtr/lb
Climate protection
Climate targets
Emissions trading
Klimaziele
World Bank
Green lead markets: How Germany wants to help green steel and cement achieve a breakthrough
German Economy Minister Robert Habeck wants to ensure that new regulations boost demand for green raw materials from the steel, cement and chemical industries. On Wednesday, he presented a corresponding concept paper from his ministry. It states that so far, support has mainly been offered on the supply side, for example, with Carbon Contracts for Difference and subsidies for the restructuring of the steel industry. “With the green lead markets, we are now also looking at the demand side,” Habeck said. “Because without buyers, even the best product is useless.”
As a first step, the concept announces the development of labels to identify raw materials that cause comparatively low carbon emissions during production. The “Low Emission Steel Standard” recently presented by the steel industry serves as a template. Based on these labels, binding specifications for increasing the share of green raw materials are to be set at the EU level as part of the new EU Ecodesign, which all manufacturers and importers must comply with. However, this is expected to take several years; according to information from the BMWK, a corresponding regulation for steel is planned for 2026/27.
Public procurement law to be amended
A second possible use for these new labels could be implemented more quickly, but would be non-binding: The German public procurement law is expected to be amended next year to allow public clients to stipulate a certain percentage of steel or cement used in tenders. In the construction sector alone, public sector contracts are responsible for around 28 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. However, such quotas will not be mandatory; it is therefore unclear to what extent federal, state and local authorities will use the new option considering their tight budgets.
Tilmann von Berlepsch, spokesperson for climate-neutral industry at the NGO Germanwatch, believes this approach is insufficient. He told Table.Briefings that the German government should also impose green procurement criteria for federal states and local authorities. However, he said that it is crucial that the federal government supports them in this “and does not pass on another climate protection task to the municipalities without additional funding.” On the other hand, Martin Theuringer, Managing Director of the German Steel Association, praised the concept. He explained that public procurement must now be geared towards carbon-reduced products and processes and incentives must be created for the purchase of low-emission products. av/mkr
BMWK
Chemical industry
EU
Hydrogen
Öffentliche Beschaffung
Robert Habeck
Steel production
United Kingdom: Climate change makes heavy rainfall ten times more likely
The heavy rainfall in the UK last fall and winter has become 20 percent wetter and ten times more likely due to climate change. This is according to a study by World Weather Attribution published on Wednesday.
Dozens of storms, intensified by a stronger jet stream and already wet soils, led to flooding, crop failures and power outages. At least 20 people died as a result. Without climate change, such amounts of rain would only have occurred once every 50 years; today they are expected every five years and, with global warming of 2 degrees Celsius, every three years.
While climate change is increasing the amount of rainfall, a storm period like 2023/24 has become less likely by a factor of 1.4. The authors of the study recommend more research into how storms will change under climate change. Above all, the change in the jet stream – one of the biggest challenges in climate models – is uncertain. lb
World Weather Attribution
Power grid bottlenecks: What the energy industry calls for
In view of increasing bottlenecks in the power grid, Europe’s leading energy association is calling for the end of treating all connection requests equally. In a new report published on Wednesday, Eurelectric called on the EU to allow member states to set priorities for connections based on societal benefits. To this end, European legislators should amend the electricity market regulation, which currently stipulates that customers should not be discriminated against.
As a model, Eurelectric cites a new regulation in the Netherlands. Starting in October, Dutch grid operators are to follow a state-defined order set by the regulatory authority ACM. Batteries and other systems that alleviate bottlenecks will be the first to be granted grid access. The second category includes security authorities and the third category includes critical infrastructure such as drinking water supplies and schools – as well as new residential buildings, as a spokesperson explained on request.
Investments in distribution grids to double
ACM already issued regulations for installing heat pumps and charging facilities in existing buildings in 2023. The authority felt compelled to impose a maximum waiting period of one year on grid operators for households wishing to retrofit such systems.
Germany wants to take a different approach. Last November, the Federal Network Agency stipulated that grid operators may no longer refuse connections, even on the grounds of possible bottlenecks. In return, users will have to accept temporary power restrictions, for example, when charging electric cars. However, according to the BNetzA, this requires the digitalization of the grids.
Eurelectric now also calls for incentives so that grid users no longer demand oversized connections they do not use to their full capacity. However, Eurelectric’s core demand is for the EU states to double their annual investment in distribution grids from 33 to 67 billion euros by 2050. ber
Electricity price
Power
Survey: 90 percent want a more socially just climate policy
90 percent of respondents to a representative population survey conducted by the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) believe that politicians should do much more to shape the transformation of our economy and way of life in a socially just way. Around a third of respondents stated that environmental, nature and climate action are the most important issues. Respondents considered healthcare (56 percent) and concerns about inflation and falling purchasing power more important.
According to Claudia Detsch, head of the Just Climate department at FES, the study shows that most people support consistent climate action, but reject being patronized. Approval for climate action measures is highest in countries that offer state subsidies or where no disadvantages are expected.
Portuguese and people with high social standing favor wind power
For example, an above-average number of people in Portugal support the construction of wind turbines (96 percent), while people in France are the most opposed to it in a country comparison (36 percent). The study also concludes that there are relevant differences between the different social groups. For example, many people with a high social standing support the construction of wind turbines, while people with a low social standing tend to oppose them.
The survey examined 19 countries, including Germany, France, Turkey and the USA. The respondents were between 18 and 69 years old. The representative study was conducted between April and July 2023. seh
Klima & Umwelt
Opinion
Climate partnerships: Why the EU urgently needs to reform its partnership strategy
By Lukas Kahlen and Sarah Jackson
Lukas Kahlen and Sarah Jackson work at the New Climate Institute on EU climate diplomacy and investigate the effectiveness of climate partnerships.
The days of talking about donor and recipient countries in the context of international cooperation are gone. Effective climate and transformation partnerships with developing and emerging economies are crucial for meeting global climate action targets. They also help to strengthen Europe’s own security and competitiveness, diversify its supply chains and secure access to energy and raw materials.
Given the current geopolitical landscape, the EU and its member states need to reorient and improve the communication of their offer to international partners, specifically developing and emerging countries to gain local buy-in, especially in the backdrop of competing offers from other emerging economic powers seeking to expand their global influence.
The problem: An uncoordinated and fragmented offer
As part of the “Team Europe” approach, the EU and its member states have set out to “make their joint external action greater than the sum of its parts” by pooling resources and effectively coordinating their efforts. However, a recent study by NewClimate Institute shows that the partnerships offered by the EU and its member states are poorly focussed and insufficiently coordinated – in line with the saying “everything, everywhere, all at once.”
While China makes offers that countries can hardly refuse, the EU’s partnership offer is often complex, fragmented and difficult to understand. In recent years, the EU has launched various types of partnerships that can be loosely characterized as climate partnerships.
Global Gateway, Europe’s geopolitical framework to support infrastructure development in emerging and developing countries, focuses on green and digital transformation. Global Gateway is complemented by a number of other initiatives such as Green Partnerships, Green Alliances, Strategic Partnerships on Critical Raw Materials and plurilateral programs such as Just Energy Transition Partnerships (JETPs).
Global gateway projects for climate and energy in over 60 countries
In addition to these EU-led partnerships, EU member states also maintain a wide range of bilateral climate and development partnerships with third countries. Additionally, there are several climate partnerships with developed countries.
In view of this flood of partnership models, it is difficult to recognize a clear focus. A lack of geographical prioritization also makes it challenging to set clear priorities and develop coherent strategies. There are Global Gateway projects in the area of climate and energy in more than 60 countries, although the projects differ significantly in terms of their scope and investments. Given limited resources in key EU institutions, both in Brussels and on the ground in partner countries, effective implementation of these partnerships in so many countries is a massive challenge.
Putting partnerships at the center of European foreign policy
Team Europe – consisting of EU institutions, its member states, diplomatic services and financial institutions – should therefore focus its actions abroad on a clear, joint and region-specific strategy in order to utilize synergies and avoid duplication. Germany and other member states should orientate their bilateral efforts even more strategically towards a joint approach within the framework of Team Europe.
Germany should therefore define strategic cooperation with the EU within the framework of partnerships as an important building block in the implementation of its strategy on climate foreign policy. This is not only important for the efficient use of limited public resources, but also to convey a unified image to the rest of the world and strengthen Europe’s role in the necessary global transformation.
The upcoming EU elections offer the opportunity to send new political signals and to implement the Team Europe approach more consistently in practice by setting up partnerships that are mutually beneficial, effective, and ambitious. This is not only important for global decarbonization efforts, but also to secure and strengthen Europe’s competitiveness in the long term. Only a coordinated and focused approach will ensure that Europe does not fall behind in global competition and at the same time maximizes its contribution to global climate action and effectively supports the sustainable development ambitions of partner countries.
