News: Axios Generate: The next few weeks are pivotal for climate action

Tuesday, March 30, 2021

Axios Generate: The next few weeks are pivotal for climate action

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By Ben Geman ·Mar 30, 2021

Good morning! Today's Smart Brevity count is 1,225 words, 4.6 minutes.

🛢️ "Saudi Arabia is prepared to support extending oil cuts by OPEC and its allies into June and is also ready to prolong its own voluntary cuts to boost prices amid a new wave of coronavirus lockdowns." (Reuters)

🎶 And 50 years ago, the late Marvin Gaye had just reached the top of Billboard's soul charts with today's intro tune...

1 big thing: The most important month for climate action

Illustration of a hand circling the earth with a marker

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

Axios' Andrew Freedman reports...The next month is the most important period for U.S. climate action in more than a decade, and possibly ever, longtime advocates and observers tell Axios.

Why it matters: With scientists issuing more urgent warnings that time is running out to curtail the consequences of global warming, the policy choices proposed through the end of April could reverberate for decades to come.

"This is the moment those of us who work in this space have been waiting for, for at least a decade," said Sam Ricketts, a co-founder of Evergreen Action.

The big picture: The Biden administration is moving quickly on three fronts to regain international credibility on this issue after the Trump White House pulled the country out of the Paris climate agreement.

First, the White House is proposing a multitrillion-dollar infrastructure package this week that is aimed at wrapping ambitious climate policy goals into a jobs bill.
Second, the administration is trying to transform the country's energy mix through regulations and executive orders, most recently on Monday with the announcement that it would seek to deploy 30 gigawatts worth of offshore electricity generation by 2030. That's higher than even the most aggressive projections from energy analysts.
Third, there's the looming deadline for the State Department to formally unveil the country's new emissions targets under the Paris Agreement. Known as a Nationally Determined Contribution, or NDC, this will signal to other countries how ambitious and serious the U.S. is about tackling climate change.

The intrigue: The details of the draft NDC are closely held among the teams of special climate envoy John Kerry and White House climate adviser Gina McCarthy.

But environmental groups and some Democratic lawmakers are pushing them to be as bold as possible, possibly going as far as a 50% emissions cut compared to 2005 levels by 2030.

What they're saying:

Ricketts said he's hoping to see a clean electricity standard, which could drastically scale up the use of solar, wind and other energy sources, implemented as part of the infrastructure bills.
"President Biden is considering all options to get the United States on the path to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050," a State Department spokesperson said.
The other side: Republican lawmakers have already signaled their opposition to an infrastructure package that contains far-reaching climate policy provisions.
"We simply cannot afford another Green New Deal disguised as an infrastructure bill," Rep. Sam Graves, the top Republican on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said in a statement.

Read the whole story

2. BlackRock taps Obama-era vet as head of sustainable investing

Photo of asset management firm BlackRock's office building.

Photo: Erik McGregor/LightRocket via Getty Images

BlackRock has named Paul Bodnar, a climate finance and diplomacy veteran who held senior roles in the Obama administration, as its global head of sustainable investing.

Why it matters: BlackRock is the world's largest asset manager. The hiring comes as BlackRock and other finance and banking giants are stepping up their sustainability efforts — and face pressure from climate activists to move faster.

Driving the news: Bodnar will lead "sustainable research, analytics, product development, and integration of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) considerations into the investment process," and help clients achieve "net zero ambitions," BlackRock said.

The intrigue: Bodnar's predecessor in the role at BlackRock, Brian Deese, is another Obama White House alum now in the Biden White House as director of the National Economic Council.

Catch up fast: Bodnar comes to BlackRock from his role as chief strategy officer at the Rocky Mountain Institute, a clean energy think tank where he founded its Center for Climate-Aligned Finance.

He held multiple climate roles at the State Department and later the White House during the Obama years.

What we're watching: Bodnar arrives as BlackRock has been boosting its climate emphasis.

In early 2020, BlackRock said it was making climate a key pillar of its strategy via new steps to weave sustainability into its investment products and using its shareholder weight to pressure companies to do more.

But, but, but: Climate activists say BlackRock could do much more to steer capital away from fossil fuels and into clean energy.

Read more

3. Economists: Steep CO2 cuts are worth the cost

Reproduced from the Institute for Policy Integrity at the NYU School of Law; Chart: Axios Visuals

The vast majority of economists with expertise in climate change agree that the benefits of deep emissions cuts outweigh the costs, a new survey shows.

Why it matters: Researchers at the left-leaning Institute for Policy Integrity at the NYU School of Law said they believe their new research is the "largest-ever expert survey on the economics of climate change."

Where it stands: The chart above shows one of the findings in the survey of responses from 738 economists who have published on climate in highly ranked journals.

A few more...

74% of economists surveyed agree that "immediate and drastic action" is needed.
76% agree it's likely or extremely likely that climate change will affect the growth rate of the global economy in the long term.
70% say it's likely or extremely likely that climate change will worsen economic inequality within most countries.

Yes, but: An obvious question is whether it's a biased sample, given that economists who publish on climate tend to support acting on the problem.

However, the report says respondents were "representative of a wide range of opinions, based on the diverse and often conflicting arguments made in their published articles."

A message from Honda

Honda's legacy of environmental leadership

There are a lot of environmental promises right now, but Honda believes actions speak louder.

Honda is the most fuel-efficient full-line automaker in America and has the lowest CO₂ emissions of any full-line automaker. And we're not done yet.

See Honda's environmental commitments.

4. ICYMI: Biden's offshore wind push

Photo illustration of Joe Biden holding up a wind turbine in his fist.

Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios. Photo by Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images

The White House rolled out initiatives Monday aimed at jump-starting the development of large offshore wind farms that together would power over 10 million homes.

Why it matters: The target of 30 gigawatts of generating capacity by 2030 would go well beyond the big projects already on the drawing boards.

Research firm BloombergNEF currently forecasts that the U.S. will have 19.64 gigawatts of offshore wind power capacity in 2030.
U.S. offshore wind is a massive resource. But it remains in its very early stages in the U.S. compared to Europe and China, with no big commercial-scale projects yet in operation.

Read the whole story

5. White House launches scientific integrity review

Andrew Freedman reports that the Biden White House is launching a review of scientific integrity policies across the federal government, following reports of political interference with research during the Trump administration.

Why it matters: The review, to be conducted by the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), could result in an expansion of policies across the government aimed at insulating scientific research and communication from political meddling.

Driving the news: The OSTP sent a memo announcing the review to a wide range of federal agencies on Monday, including the National Science Foundation, the Commerce Department and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

Between the lines: Jane Lubchenco, a noted marine scientist and deputy director of OSTP for climate and the environment, is helping to lead the effort.

Lubchenco told Axios the review, which was first reported by the New York Times, is more forward-looking than an investigation of what happened under Trump.

Go deeper

6. Catch up fast: EVs, White House, K Street

VW ID.4, an electric SUV from "Voltswagen of America." Photo: VW

Volkswagen this morning said it's changing its U.S. brand name to "Voltswagen of America" as a way to emphasize its push into electric vehicles.

Why it matters: Axios' Joann Muller, when word of the plan leaked out yesterday via CNBC, noted that legacy automakers have a lot of baggage to overcome in their effort to successfully challenge Tesla, the leader in electric vehicles.

VW, for example, pivoted to EVs after its disgrace from a multibillion-dollar diesel emissions cheating scandal.

Go deeper

* * *

Policy: "The White House on Monday named members of its new Environmental Justice Advisory Council, which will work with other panels in the administration on efforts to reduce environmental inequalities." (The Hill)

K Street: Yasmin Rigney Nelson, a former top policy aide to Kamala Harris, is joining the prominent law and lobbying firm Bracewell where she'll advise clients on topics including energy. (Axios)

Renewables: "Gunvor Group Ltd., one of the largest independent oil traders, said it will invest at least half a billion dollars in non-hydrocarbon fuels and technology as looks to adapt and profit from the energy transition." (Bloomberg)