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A PLAN TO REORIENT THE UN TOWARD CLIMATE CHANGE: Climate change and sustainability groups want to shake up the U.N. by reorienting its climate change focus toward “security,” beginning with changes within the U.N. Security Council, where the U.S. is a permanent member.
A joint communiqué issued Monday evening after a big climate meeting in Oslo, Norway, calls on the U.N. Security Council to formally recognize climate change as a “threat to international peace and security.”
The communiqué goes further by outlining a plan to reorient the U.N. into a climate security body.
It calls for the appointment of a “special representative on climate change and security” to begin systematically addressing climate-related challenges within mediation efforts with other countries, including the use of “preventive diplomacy” when it appears climate change risks are undermining the stability of a country or region.
The communique includes U.N. agencies like the prominent Environment Programme and UNESCO as signatories, along with dozens of other NGOs that work with the U.N. on sustainability and climate change issues like: the Norwegian Nobel Global Programmes, South Pole Group, Partnership for Change, and the industry group Ceres.
A long road for climate security: So far this year, under the leadership of permanent members France and Germany, the Security Council has not attempted to address climate change in any way remotely resembling what the NGOs want.
Instead, the resolutions address security in a way that is still far more basic and conventional — seeking to counter armed conflicts by holding countries accountable to reduce lawlessness and assist victims of violence in places like Haiti.
The NGOs would like to see the council examine climate risks and step in ahead of conflicts.
For example, many groups see drought conditions caused by global warming placing increased strain on resources that could result in armed incursions and conflagration. The NGOs want to see the council get ahead of those situations before they escalate into armed conflicts.
Where the U.S. fits in: The U.S. will hold the presidency of the Security Council in December at the same time the U.N. will be holding the COP25 climate summit in Chile.
The COP25 meeting will address next steps in implementing the 2015 Paris agreement that Trump has withdrawn from.
“This summit will be a great opportunity for Chile and the world as a whole to truly acknowledge the fact that time is running out, and that the ever-increasing urgency of our objectives requires that we be more ambitious and demand more of ourselves. The time has come to act,” said Chilean President Miguel Juan Sebastián Piñera earlier this month in announcing the COP25 summit.
It is unclear whether the timing of the climate meeting will have any effect on U.N. Security Council members wishing to address climate threats, but it could provide an opening for the NGOs to re-up their push.
However, it is not likely that the Trump administration will reverse its course on Paris deal, or take up the NGO call.
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TRUMP RISKS HIGHER OIL AND GAS PRICES TO CRUSH IRAN: President Trump is making his biggest bet yet that his hard-line approach with adversaries Iran and Venezuela, both big energy market players, won’t harm Americans with higher oil and gas prices.
Oil market and foreign policy analysts say Trump will have a hard time managing the risks of his decision to stop granting exemptions to Iranian’s biggest oil buyers, forcing all countries, including China and India, to stop buying oil from Tehran or face U.S. sanctions.
“There is a lot of risk attached to this decision,” Richard Nephew, a senior research scholar at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy, told Josh. “There’s a pretty big chunk of oil that is just going to be gone.”
Nephew and other analysts say Trump’s move could roil global oil markets, damage trade negotiations with China, and provoke retaliation by Iran.
The price risk: Going to “zero” on Iran’s oil exports, as the Trump administration has promised, would mean removing 900,000 to 1 million barrels per day of oil from an already tightening global market.
Frank Verrastro, senior vice president of the energy and national security program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Trump will have trouble avoiding blame if prices rise. Brent crude, the global benchmark, has already hit a 2019 high based on Trump’s new Iran policy.
“Trump has been trying to delicately balance the market without taking the blame himself when prices go up, but this administration has taken more oil off the market than OPEC,” Verrastro told Josh. “Prices in the short term are definitely going up.”
Read more of Josh’s report here.
HIGHER GAS PRICES ARE COMING FOR SUMMER DRIVING SEASON: The expected higher oil prices resulting from Trump’s Iran sanctions will hit American drivers at the gas pump, market watchers say.
“Should history repeat itself like last year and crude prices continue to increase because the sanction waivers end, we can expect to see higher pump prices coming,” AAA spokeswoman Jeannette Casselano told the Washington Examiner’s James Langford.
If crude reaches 2018’s high near $77 a barrel, average gas prices may climb from the current $2.83 a gallon to almost $3, according to AAA, the nonprofit organization that offers roadside assistance for motorists and tracks gasoline costs.
The higher costs won’t halt summer travel, though they will crimp travelers’ budgets.
“They may shorten the distance, they may not eat out as much, and they may look for free activities to do on vacation,” Casselano said, “but we don’t see it slowing summer travel.”
AFL-CIO OPPOSES ‘GREEN NEW DEAL’: AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said Tuesday that he opposes the progressive-backed “Green New Deal.”
Trumka said that the proposal didn’t represent the interests of labor members.
“We weren’t part of the process [in drafting the proposal] so workers’ interests weren’t completely figured into it,” Trumka said at a forum hosted by the nonprofit Economic Club of Washington, D.C.
The labor movement, which usually allies with others on the Left, represents people who work in the fossil fuel industry. The “Green New Deal” proposes to eliminate fossil fuel use, although it also calls for guaranteeing workers jobs through the federal government.
WASHINGTON STATE PASSES 100 PERCENT CLEAN ENERGY BILL: The Washington state legislature passed a bill Monday requiring utilities to generate 100 percent carbon-free electricity by 2045.
The measure would also force utilities to stop using coal power by 2025.
Washington is the fourth state in the country, following California, New Mexico, and Hawaii, as well as Washington D.C., to pass 100 percent clean energy legislation.
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, a Democratic presidential candidate running a climate-centric platform, is expected to sign the bill.
“On this Earth Day, I couldn’t be more proud of the Legislature’s action to pass the country’s most forward looking clean energy bill,” Inslee said in a statement.
NEVADA GOVERNOR SIGNS BILL RAISING CLEAN ENERGY STANDARD: Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak, a Democrat, signed a bill Monday requiring utilities to generate half of electricity from renewable sources by 2030.
The bill, which also sets a goal for the state to use 100% carbon free electricity by 2050, was passed unanimously by the Nevada Senate and Assembly.
The signing of the law comes after a state ballot initiative backed by liberal activist Tom Steyer passed last November, which would have set the same standards. It required passage by the legislature to take effect. Nevada first enacted a renewable portfolio standard in 1997, becoming the second in the nation to have one.
“Today, Nevada joins a growing list of states heeding the wishes of voters to prioritize clean, renewable power,” said Greg Wetstone, president and CEO of the American Council on Renewable Energy. “This initiative will reduce emissions, save consumers money, and provide Nevadans with plenty of local, good-paying jobs.”
The Rundown
IndyStar Coal company, aided by Scott Pruitt, scrambles for Indiana law to stop coal plants from closing
Reuters On South America’s largest solar farm, Chinese power radiates
Washington Post Rate of ice loss from Greenland has grown sixfold since the 1980s
Bloomberg To keep eating delicious steaks, we need climate-proof cows
Calendar
TUESDAY | April 23
8:30 a.m., 4300 Nebraska Avenue NW. The American University (AU) Center for Environmental Policy holds a conference on “EPA and the Future of Environmental Protection,” April 23-24.
9 a.m., 50 Massachusetts Avenue NE. NASA continues Earth Day celebration with more than 20 hands-on activities and demonstrations.”
THURSDAY | May 2
10 a.m., 366 Dirksen. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee holds a hearing to consider the following nominations: Daniel Jorjani to be Solicitor of the Department of the Interior; and Mark Lee Greenblatt to be Inspector General, Department of the Interior.
