Net-Zero Not Yet in Sight After Conference of Climate Parties
| Author | David P. Clarke |
| Position | Writer and editor who has served as a journalist, in industry, and in government |
| Pages | 9-9 |
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2022 | 9
Reprinted by permission from The Environmental Forum®, January/February 2022.
Copyright © 2022, Environmental Law Institute®, Washington, D.C. www.eli.org.
The Federal Beat
CALL it a Glasgow half empty.
During a press conference pre-
viewing the COP26 summit,
President Biden’s climate envoy, John
Kerry, asserted, “It’s not inconsis-
tent” for Biden to ask the 13-member
OPEC cartel to boost oil production
while asking other countries and com-
panies to curb their oil consumption.
According to Kerry, Biden only
wants OPEC “to boost production
in this immediate moment,” not long
term. e “temporary” boost will keep
the economy moving and generate
revenue to “help pay for the transi-
tion” to the administration’s target of
net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by
2050.
But it’s not just Biden’s OPEC
plea that oends advocates demand-
ing a swift end to oil and gas devel-
opment. In a November statement
published after the Bureau of Land
Management announced new oil and
gas leases on the federal lands of seven
western states, environmental groups
condemned what they regarded as
“hypocritical” ad-
ministration policies.
WildEarth Guard-
ians’ energy direc-
tor, Jeremy Nichols,
charged that Biden
“is talking a good talk
on climate action,”
but, in reality, his administration “is
actively working to fan the ames of
the climate crisis by selling more pub-
lic lands for fracking.”
Similarly, a group of scientists in
a letter to Biden implored him to
“end the fossil fuel era” and faulted
eight specic administration policies
as inconsistent with the urgency de-
manded by climate change’s “existen-
tial threat.”
Federal land oil and gas produc-
tion accounts for only 6 percent of
total domestic oil and 8 percent of
total domestic gas. But critics say that
amount adds to a growing climate
crisis. In May the Paris-based Inter-
national Energy Agency, once deemed
a fossil fuel champion, issued a warn-
ing that achieving net-zero GHG
emissions will require a rapid end to
new oil and gas projects and no sales
of new gasoline- and diesel-powered
vehicles after 2035. Under a net-zero
pathway, “No new coal mines or mine
extensions are required,” IEA added.
Although Glasgow host UK Prime
Minister Boris Johnson said that the
new climate deal marked “the death
knell for coal power,” the nal COP26
text was amended to state that coal
power would be phased “down,” not
“out,” as originally proposed. Disap-
pointed critics said the deal won’t
limit global warming to 1.5 degrees
Celsius by century’s end, thus pushing
the world into the “disastrous” climate
change zone.
Under COP26, by the end of 2022
countries will republish climate plans
that set more “ambitious” goals. But
as of now, emission reduction targets
set by industrialized nations after the
2015 Paris climate
accords were still not
being met, and even
if they were fully met,
says IEA, it wouldn’t
be enough to achieve
net-zero by 2050.
Calls for aggressive
policies notwithstanding, Big Oil sees a
robust petroleum future. According to
a spokesman for the American Petro-
leum Institute, “Credible studies from
all sides arm that natural gas and oil
will continue to play a signicant role
in powering the global economy for
decades to come as we work toward a
lower-carbon future.” at being the
case, “We should be focused on en-
couraging, not hindering, American
energy development,” the spokesman
says, and should look to U.S. pro-
ducers, not OPEC, to meet growing
domestic demand for “aordable, reli-
able, and sustainable energy.”
Biden deserves credit for trying to
advance a net-zero transition in the
face of extraordinarily dicult po-
litical challenges. e $1.2 trillion
bipartisan infrastructure legislation
Biden signed into law is “a critical
step” toward net-zero, the president
said in a statement declaring that
a renewed American leadership in
Glasgow “raises the ambition” for the
United States to tackle the climate
crisis.
Among its miscellaneous climate-
and clean energy-related features, the
law contains billions of dollars for
ood mitigation and coastal restora-
tion, for modernizing the electric grid,
for zero- and low-emission buses and
ferries, as well as electric school buses,
and $7.5 billion for building a na-
tionwide network of plug-in electric
vehicle chargers.
Biden also deserves credit for ad-
vancing the Build Back Better Act,
which at press time was pending in
Congress. In a post-Glasgow dear col-
league letter Senate Majority Leader
Charles Schumer of New York de-
scribed the bill as “the cornerstone”
of America’s renewed climate leader-
ship that Biden touted. e proposal
to spend $1.75 trillion over 10 years
on Democratic priorities, including
$500 billion ghting climate change,
was scaled back from a $3.75 tril-
lion initial bid, and its key program
aimed at replacing coal- and gas-red
power plants with wind, solar, and
nuclear energy, was also dropped.
Clearly, it’s a long road to net-zero.
Net-Zero Not Yet in Sight After
Conference of Climate Parties
Language calling for
a “phase out” of coal
was changed to a
weaker “phase down”
David P. Clarke is a writer and
editor who ha s served as a journa list,
in industr y, and in government. Emai l
him at davidpaulclarke@gmail.com.
R C
I
W A T WEST
To continue reading
Request your trial