🌀 COP27's big focus

Plus: Energy workforce exclusive | Wednesday, November 02, 2022

Open in app View in browser   Presented By Enbridge   Axios Generate By Ben Geman and Andrew Freedman · Nov 02, 2022 🐪 Halfway there! Today's newsletter has a Smart Brevity count of 1,188 words, a 4.5-minute read.  📬 Did a friend send you this newsletter? Welcome. Please sign up. 🎸 Today marks 40 years since Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers released the album "Long After Dark," which provides today's intro tune...     1 big thing: COP27's dominating divide Illustration: Shoshana Gordon/Axios   Next week's COP27 climate meeting in Egypt is likely to feature intense clashes between industrialized nations and developing countries over climate damage costs, Andrew writes. Why it matters: The inability to move forward on a financing mechanism for what the United Nations calls "loss and damage" — compensation for vulnerable nations that are being hit hardest by climate change — might make for a failed summit, experts say. The big picture: COP27 is billed as the "implementation summit," where pledges will be turned into actions. Developing countries, which will be led by flood-ravaged Pakistan, have signaled that they will push hard for a financing mechanism for loss and damage. This compensation is supposed to address impacts that were caused mainly by emissions from industrialized nations, which overwhelm poorer countries' ability to adapt. Such impacts will be at the forefront at COP27, particularly the devastating flooding that swept across Pakistan and the ongoing drought and looming famine in the Horn of Africa. The intrigue: Industrialized nations, including the U.S. and EU countries, plan to support the discussion of loss and damage in the wake of last year's COP26 summit. However, they are skittish about committing to a specific way of paying for it. That stance will come under pressure in Sharm el-Sheikh, as developing countries seek funding arrangements given how quickly climate disasters are ratcheting up in scope, severity and frequency. "We need actual money," Avinash Persaud, special envoy to Barbados prime minister Mia Mottley, told reporters yesterday. Ani Dasgupta, president and CEO of the World Resources Institute, said commitments and real progress on loss and damage would be "the litmus test for this COP." Reality check: Loss and damage is sometimes referred to as "climate reparations," and is rooted in the disparate impacts of climate change around the world. A small group of countries — roughly the G20 nations — is responsible for most of the warming-related impacts we're experiencing today. Much of the developing world, particularly in Africa, the small island nations in the Pacific and South Asia are extremely vulnerable to climate disasters, despite having played little role in causing them. An enduring concern among industrialized nations is that a loss and damage mechanism could be equated with establishing legal liability for causing climate damages. The big question: Will countries feel more of an incentive to cooperate on climate at this summit, or less? "It's not a question of money," said longtime climate negotiations participant Alden Meyer, now with E3G, on a media call. "It's a question of political will." Read more.     2. First look: Climate risks and rewards for the global workforce Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios   Over 800 million jobs worldwide — roughly 25% of today's workforce — are "highly vulnerable" to climate extremes and a haphazardly managed economic transition to lower carbon energy, a new Deloitte study finds, Ben writes. Yes, but: Well-planned equitable growth of the "green collar" workforce could boost net employment by 300 million by 2050 — and aid many of the same at-risk workers. Why it matters: The report aims to quantify the workforce effects of a low-carbon transition and identify policies needed to enable this big potential "employment dividend." How it works: Deloitte uses multiple lenses to tally "vulnerable" workers. They range from heat stress to changes in crop yields and tourism to employment in emissions-intensive energy sectors that decline in the low-carbon transition, to name a few. There's a worldwide risk, but "countries with highest job vulnerability are in the African and Asia Pacific regions." The big picture: It compares the long-term effects of an "active" transition versus a "passive" one that's worse for the climate and workers. It takes an expansive view of jobs that will comprise the "green collar" workforce in blue-collar and white-collar professions and lots in between. Good policy and planning can greatly limit the number of workers left behind. "Most current workers are likely to only require upskilling (such as on-the-job training), rather than complete retraining to remain in their current job or to gain a new job due to decarbonization."     Bonus: Microsoft head says climate-skilled workers needed Photo Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Photo: By Cody Glenn/Sportsfile for Web Summit via Getty Images   Although nearly 4,000 companies have made pledges to reduce their emissions, many lack the skilled workers needed to meet those goals, Microsoft president Brad Smith tells Axios' Ina Fried. Why it matters: To reduce carbon emissions, companies need employees with a range of new skills, including a deep understanding of how supply chains work as well as the ability to properly account for how much carbon a company is emitting. Driving the news: Microsoft released a report highlighting the need for more workers with specialized training in environmental issues. Read the whole story.     A message from Enbridge Building progress together     Enbridge has embarked on the largest energy-related Indigenous economic partnership transaction in North America. The story: 23 First Nation and Métis communities will acquire a 11.57% interest in 7 Enbridge-operated pipelines in northern Alberta for $1.12 billion. Read more.     3. The staying power of fossil fuel subsidies Data: BloombergNEF; Chart: Madison Dong/Axios Visuals New analysis shows governments' support for fossil fuel production and consumption "surged" last year, Ben writes. Driving the news: Combined G20 support grew 16% to $693 billion, the research firm BloombergNEF said, and cautions it's a conservative estimate. The report tracks government support like consumer price subsidies, tax incentives, investment by state-owned companies and more. Why it matters: Analysts and activists have long called subsidies a barrier to a low-carbon transition. Threat level: Subsidies distort prices, encourage "potentially wasteful" use and production, and pour capital into emissions-intensive infrastructure, BNEF notes. Yes, but: It's a tricky problem. Some subsidies help poor people access vital energy. But BNEF notes that "even consumer-targeted subsidies disproportionately benefit wealthier consumers." Catch up fast: Years of multilateral declarations from the G7, G20 and others endorse subsidy phase-downs, but to little effect. "[T]hey always seem to include imprecise language and caveats, giving governments wiggle room to interpret these pledges as they wish," Victoria Cuming, BNEF's head of global policy, said in a statement. 👀 What we're watching: The effect, if any, of the agreement at last November's UN climate talks to curtail "inefficient" subsidies. Cuming tells Axios via email that 2022 data is expected to show another rise.     4. 🏃🏽‍♀️Catch up fast on tech finance ☀️ Google will purchase most of the 1.2 gigawatts of solar power from four projects SB Energy Global is developing in Texas, the companies said, Ben writes. Why it matters: It's Google's largest clean energy deal in Texas to date and will power a data center in Midlothian and the "cloud region" in Dallas, they said. Go deeper. 🚁 Volocopter, a German startup developing electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, raised $182 million in Series E funding. TechCrunch has more. 🏭 Starfire Energy, a startup that makes parts for ammonia manufacturers, raised $24 million in Series B funding led by Samsung Ventures, Megan Hernbroth scooped in Axios Pro Climate Deals (sign up!).     5. Rethinking the Strategic Petroleum Reserve Data: FactSet, Department of Energy; Chart: Axios Visuals America's national crude oil reserve is the federal government's main weapon in the current energy wars. Some say it's time to rethink how it's used, Matt Phillips writes in Axios Markets. Why it matters: Questions about the Strategic Petroleum Reserve reflect how the global economy is shifting away from the market-led system that flourished after the Cold War. Driving the news: The Biden administration is on pace to dump a couple hundred million barrels of crude on the market since it started tapping the reserve in March. That may have helped push gasoline prices down from the $5 a gallon we saw in June. It's also drastically shrunk the nation's oil reserves, which are at their lowest level since the mid-1980s. Read the full story.     A message from Enbridge Hydrogen, fuel of tomorrow — today     Enbridge is blending green hydrogen into natural gas to lower the carbon content and curb greenhouse gas emissions. What you need to know: Enbridge was the first to pilot blending in North America — just one of the investments it's making to green the natural gas grid. Here's how it works.   🙏Thanks to Mickey Meece and David Nather for edits to today's newsletter. We'll see you back here tomorrow! Why stop here? Let's go Pro. Join the thousands of professionals reading Axios Pro: Climate Deals to better understand the forces shaping their industry.   Axios thanks our partners for supporting our newsletters. If you're interested in advertising, learn more here. Sponsorship has no influence on editorial content. Axios, 3100 Clarendon B‌lvd, Arlington VA 22201   You received this email because you signed up for newsletters from Axios. 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