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China Briefing handpicks and explains the most important climate and energy stories from China over the past fortnight. Subscribe for free here.
Key developments
China fails to submit 2035 climate pledge
MISSED DEADLINE: China, along with 181 other countries, missed the deadline to submit its next “nationally determined contribution” (NDC), a key climate pledge to the UN that “acts as an accountability measure to ensure countries are taking climate change seriously”, Agence France-Presse reported. It added that, according to unnamed analysts, China is “expected to release its much-anticipated NDC in the second half of 2025”. Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said China will follow its “own path, approach and pace to fulfil the ‘dual-carbon’ targets to which it has committed”, in comments covered by industry newspaper China Energy Net. According to the outlet, he added that the country has “always been a doer and an activist in addressing climate change” and will submit its NDC “at the proper time”.
WAIT AND SEE: According to the Guardian, China and other countries would prefer “putting off the publication of [NDCs]” until the early disruption caused by the second Trump administration subsides. In a statement, Yao Zhe, global policy advisor at Greenpeace East Asia, said that “China’s submission will happen later this year”, adding that China must set “ambitious” goals that “include both a strong commitment to renewables and clear measures to move away from coal”. Li Shuo, director of the Asia Society Policy Institute’s China climate hub, told Eco-Business that China’s desire to wait and see how the US will “reshape” global political and economic orders is “natural”, adding that “the hope is that more time will lead to better quality”. China was not alone in missing the NDC deadline, with countries accounting for 83% of global emissions falling short, according to Carbon Brief analysis.
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OIL ‘SLOWDOWN’: Elsewhere, a new report by the International Energy Agency (IEA) and covered by Bloomberg found that “China’s use of the three most important fuel products – gasoline, jet/kerosene and gasoil – declined slightly to 8.1m barrels a day in 2024”, marking an “unprecedented” slowdown. The outlet said the shift, attributed by the IEA to the uptake of electric vehicles and economic changes, could drive a plateau in the country’s overall oil demand this decade.
Clean-energy technology’s economic contribution rises
GROWTH DRIVER: Clean-energy technologies contributed 13.6tn yuan ($1.9tn) to the Chinese economy in 2024, comprising more than 10% of GDP for the first time, new research for Carbon Brief has found. Much of the rise was driven by the value of goods and services, which grew 21% compared to 2023, as opposed to investment, which was up 7% year-on-year, the analysis added.
‘NEW THREE’ LEAD: The “new three” industries accounted for most of this growth. Electric vehicles and vehicle batteries “were the largest contributors to China’s clean-energy economy in 2024”, comprising almost 40% of its value. The next largest category was solar power, which generated 2.8tn yuan ($390bn).
GAINING IMPORTANCE: Clean-energy technologies contributed more to the economy in 2024 than real-estate sales (9.6tn yuan, $1.3tn) and agriculture (9.1tn yuan, $1.3tn), the analysis said. It added that China’s investment in clean energy alone is “close to the global total [investment] put into fossil fuels in 2024”. Investment is set to grow in 2025, due in part to a “race to complete” large-scale projects before the end of the five-year plan period (2021-2025). The importance of clean energy to supporting economic growth now “creates incentives for policymakers to ensure the economic health of the sector”, the analysis added.
Wang Yi’s European tour
STRATEGIC DIALOGUE: Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi met with UK prime minister Keir Starmer in his first official visit to the country in a decade, Reuters said, adding that the two “discussed strengthening cooperation in dealing with climate change, artificial intelligence and clean energy”. Wang also held talks with his UK counterpart David Lammy, English-language state broadcaster CGTN said, in which the two foreign ministers “emphasised the importance of advancing the full and effective implementation of the Paris Agreement and supporting both countries’ green transitions”.
WARM WELCOME?: Bloomberg covered development of China’s “impending listing of an inaugural sovereign green bond in London”, quoting Nneka Chike-Obi, head of Asia-Pacific ESG ratings and research at Sustainable Fitch, saying the move would allow China “to get…feedback from international investors” during roadshows and deliver assurances about its climate plans. China has released a “framework” for its green sovereign bonds, the Communist party-affiliated People’s Daily announced, adding the document will be used as the “basis for issuing Chinese green sovereign bonds overseas”. Meanwhile, the UK’s security services are reviewing whether “Chinese technology such as solar panels or industrial batteries could pose potential future security threats”, the Financial Times reported.
SECURITY TALKS: Wang also travelled to Germany, where he said at the Munich Security Conference that China has “acted earnestly on the Paris Agreement”, adding countries “should tackle common challenges in solidarity, rather than resort to bloc confrontation”, according to a transcript published by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. State news agency Xinhua reported that climate change was also raised in Wang’s meetings with representatives of the EU, France and Germany on the sidelines of the conference.
MEDIA VOICES: Meanwhile, Chinese media issued a number of editorials and commentaries emphasising the need for China-Europe cooperation. One editorial in state-run newspaper China Daily noted “it is good to see both [the UK and China] oppose decoupling and…promote a nondiscriminatory and open business environment”. Another China Daily editorial said “collaboration on climate change…has borne fruit through joint initiatives such as the China-EU Partnership on Climate Change”. Meanwhile, the state-supporting news outlet Global Times published an editorial arguing “there are broad common interests between China and the EU in maintaining a multilateral framework” to address issues such as climate change. The Global Times also published a commentary under the byline “GT Voice” arguing that there is a “pressing need for the rest of the world, particularly China and the EU, to strengthen cooperation on green development”.
New energy storage plan
STORAGE STRENGTH: China issued a plan to strengthen its energy storage sector, aiming to develop more “leading” manufacturers, improve “innovation” and increase the sector’s “overall competitiveness” by 2027, Xinhua reported. The policy will also “support research into emerging technologies”, such as alternative battery compositions, compressed air and hydrogen energy storage, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post said. Chinese news outlet Jiemian said the policy nevertheless warned against “blind investment and disorderly development”. Critical minerals were also covered, according to Reuters, with the government pledging to “strengthen support for exploring domestic mineral resources including lithium, cobalt and nickel” and “strengthen foreign investment and cooperation” towards overseas mineral exploration.
TIGHTENING CONTROL: Meanwhile, China also issued draft regulations which, if approved, would “tighten [its] control” over its rare-earth resources, Reuters reported, such as through “quotas for mining, smelting and separating” the minerals. Another Reuters investigation found that at least one Chinese company is following a draft proposal by the commerce ministry to restrict exports of certain technologies used to process lithium. The development, according to the Financial Times, is part of a broader move to “keep critical knowhow within [China’s] borders as trade tensions with the US and Europe escalate”, adding that the country has also “made it more difficult for some engineers and equipment to leave the country”. Environment NGO Transport & Environment has warned that Europe must develop a “regulatory framework for knowledge sharing” or else risk becoming “an assembly plant” for Chinese battery makers, another Financial Times report said. Elsewhere, the People’s Daily said China’s wind turbine exports rose 70% year-on-year in 2024, with solar and lithium battery exports showing a “strong performance”.
Spotlight
How China’s renewable pricing reforms will affect its climate goals
China’s solar and windfarms would no longer be guaranteed sales at a fixed price linked to coal benchmarks, under a new policy released by the central government.
Under the new “sustainable new energy pricing mechanism”, new wind and solar schemes would be paid a fixed price determined at auction.
In this issue, Carbon Brief examines how the new guidelines will affect China’s energy transition.
More ‘market-oriented’
From 2026, China has announced that the price of electricity generated from solar and wind schemes will be determined according to competitive auctions.
This will replace the existing fixed rates solar and wind received for their power, which was pegged to benchmarks for coal-fired power, with the new mechanism likely making prices for renewables much cheaper than coal.
The new system resembles the two-way “contract for difference” (CfD) mechanism used in the UK and elsewhere.
This setup would allow developers to have “reasonable and stable expectations” for revenue, supporting a “healthy” industry and China’s energy transition, a government Q&A said.
Despite some reporting to the contrary, the move does not constitute a rollback of subsidies for renewables. Grid operators have paid wind and solar power the same price as for coal-fired power since 2021.
The policy also cancels mandatory energy storage requirements for new wind and solar projects, which will significantly impact demand for energy storage.
Bringing prices up to date
The change to the rules has been attributed to the sharp reduction in the cost of building new solar and windfarms.
“The coal-fired grid benchmark rate was last updated in 2017 and actually has no relationship to the generation cost of renewables,” David Fishman, senior manager at energy consultancy Lantau Group, told Carbon Brief, adding it was effectively “arbitrary”.
The government Q&A argued that renewable energy schemes operating on a fixed tariff “cannot fully reflect market supply and demand” and do not “fairly [distribute] responsibility for power system flexibility”.
No pain, no gain
The exact impact that this will have on renewable developers will depend on the implementing rules adopted by local governments, according to Lauri Myllyvirta, lead analyst at the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air.
In the short-term, these companies will be hit by the loss of the guaranteed demand and the need to adapt to low prices and fierce competition, Fishman told Carbon Brief.
Companies will also need to develop stronger marketing and sales capabilities, and focus on “high-efficiency” and “large-capacity” technologies, said Wang Jihong, senior counsel at law firm Zhong Lun.
This may impact China’s growing distributed solar and wind sector. Distributed projects are much more likely to be run by smaller companies who may not have the resources to adapt to the new mechanism, according to Fishman, which could cause opportunities for distributed energy to “dry up”.
At the same time, the new policy may also force renewable energy power companies to innovate – both in terms of technology, and of business models and management practices, Dr Muyi Yang, senior energy analyst for Asia at the thinktank Ember, told Carbon Brief.
Stronger in the long-term?
The new pricing system may nevertheless give wind and solar the advantage in the long-term. Reform of the power market has long been seen as crucial to increasing uptake of renewables.
Myllyvirta wrote that wind and solar, as the “most affordable” sources of power, should be able to “hold their own in competition if the rules are set right”.
Yang told Carbon Brief that the pressure of being subjected to the market could make low-carbon energy “more competitive” and “help reduce inefficient investment”, which will be a “critical factor for the long-term transition of China’s energy sector”.
But local governments would need to take steps to maintain investor confidence in the face of low prices, Fishman said. For example, significantly raising provincial renewable consumption targets could provide a strong demand signal, showing wind and solar developers that there is still a “way to make money” through increased volume.
If the government “gets the numbers just a little bit wrong”, he added, the amount of new wind and solar being added to the grid “will drop off a cliff”.
At the same time, coal-fired power plants are continuing to receive policy and financial support, in the form of guaranteed demand from long-term contracts and compensation to keep excess capacity online.
China has ramped up construction of new coal plants, with almost 100 gigawatts of new capacity expected to come online in the next few years.
If coal plants are not also exposed to competition, Myllyvirta argued, then renewables may be “crowded out from the power market”.
Fishman was more sanguine, telling Carbon Brief that the new policy may give coal plants “a little bit of a boost” in the short-term, but that China’s carbon peaking goal sets a hard deadline for reducing their role in the power system.
He added that the real competition for coal plants are other coal plants, as only the “newest, the most efficient [and] the super-critical” plants will have a future as China moves towards carbon neutrality.
A full-length version of the article is available on the Carbon Brief website.
Watch, read, listen
FARMERS PROTEST: Current affairs news outlet Sixth Tone looked at how China is reversing its “zero-tolerance stance on crop burning” in the face of backlash from farmers.
PROSPECTS FOR DIPLOMACY: Laurence Tubiana, head of the European Climate Foundation [which funds Carbon Brief] and one of the architects of the Paris Agreement, gave a lecture at the University of Oxford on her outlook for climate diplomacy and China’s role within it.
CLIMATE NATIONALISM: Environmental Politics Journal interviewed the authors of a new study on how China uses “populist narratives” in propaganda to “mitigate the political costs” of its climate policies.
HYDROPOWER HISTORY: The New Books in Environmental Studies podcast discussed the history of hydropower development in China in the early-to-mid 1900s.
Captured
China began building 94.5 gigawatts (GW) of new coal-power capacity and resumed 3.3GW of suspended projects in 2024, according to new research by energy thinktanks the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) and Global Energy Monitor (GEM) covered by Carbon Brief. This burst, spurred on mostly by investments from the coal mining industry, marks the highest level of new construction in the past 10 years, the report added.
New science
Elderly vulnerability to temperature-related mortality risks in China
Science Advances
Intensity and duration are the most important factors to consider when assessing the impact of extreme heat on mortality risk in elderly people in China, a new study found. The authors assessed survey data of more than 27,000 “elderly Chinese citizens”, collected between 2005-2018, to determine the links between extreme heat, temperature variability and mortality risk. The authors said their paper “highlights the compound effects of rising temperatures for elderly populations”.
npj Climate and Atmospheric Science
A new study found that afforestation in China, in line with the government’s afforestation plan, would cool the land surface by 0.21C in the day and cause nighttime heating of 0.05C. The authors used models to simulate how afforestation would affect land surface temperature in China over the coming decades. They found that under the mid-warming SSP2 scenario, afforestation will cause “significant cooling” between 2041 and 2060 – especially in winter. According to the study, the cooling would offset 3.7% of the projected increase in land surface temperature due to global warming on average, and “even overcompensates” for global warming in southwest China.
China Briefing is compiled by Wanyuan Song and Anika Patel. It is edited by Wanyuan Song and Dr Simon Evans. Please send tips and feedback to china@carbonbrief.org
The post China Briefing 20 February 2025: Missed climate deadline; Clean-tech’s economic contribution; New renewables pricing system appeared first on Carbon Brief.
Two days into COP30, the world’s most populous country and third-biggest emitter – India – has yet to announce its 2035 NDC emissions target. Of the G20 major economies, only India and Saudi Arabia have still not done so.
The delay has confounded the pre-summit expectations of the UN and Indian media. Citing government sources, the Indian Express and The Hindu separately reported back in September that it would be announced “during, or just ahead of” COP30.
The government of India – which was enraged by the ending of the last COP where it fiercely rejected the new climate finance goal – has so far had a low-profile at this one.
With local elections going on in Bihar, the country’s speech at the leaders’ summit was delivered not by the prime minister or even a minister but by the country’s ambassador to Brazil.
He announced nothing new of substance – other than joining the Tropical Forest Forever Facility as an observer – but criticised developed countries for depleting the carbon budget while developing countries lead the way in taking “decisive climate action”.
…but Mexico and Korea land new goals
In contrast, Mexico’s environment minister announced in Belém that the country will aim to cut emissions by up to 50% by 2035 compared to a business-as-usual scenario.
For the first time, the oil-producing nation has set a limit on absolute emissions of 365 million-404 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent by 2035. It also targets – conditional on international support – a lower level of 332-363 million tonnes by the same year.
According to a recent UN report, the country’s current policies will keep emissions rising and Mexico’s 2030 target allows them to do so until at least 2030 before they start coming down to reach net zero by 2050.
In South Korea, the government on Tuesday announced a target to reduce emissions 53-61% from 2018 levels by 2035. The country’s emissions peaked around 2018 and have started heading slowly downward. It had earlier promised a 40% cut by 2030 and to reach net zero by 2050.
The new 2035 target is more ambitious than two scenarios proposed just a few days ago by the environment ministry. However, sectoral targets for industry are less ambitious than the total, which is seen as a response to pressure from energy-intensive industries.
Climate minister Kim Sung-whan told a press briefing that higher ambition for manufacturing was not possible “as too few investments have been made in the past to suddenly decarbonise manufacturing industries by a significant amount”.
Gahee Han, from Korean NGO Solutions For Our Climate, said the government would aim for the lower end of the range – 53% – which “falls far short of what is needed”. She called for the government to target at least the upper level of 61%.
The post COP30 Bulletin Day 2: India’s targets missing but Korea and Mexico make pledges appeared first on Climate Home News.
COP30 Bulletin Day 2: India’s targets missing but Korea and Mexico make pledges
For the first time in the history of COP climate summits, the US – the world’s largest historical emitter – has not sent a delegation to the talks.
Back in January, newly inaugurated US president Donald Trump signed a letter to the UN to trigger the start of a US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement for a second time.
Although this process is not yet complete, the White House confirmed earlier this month that no “high-level officials” would be attending COP30 in Belém, Brazil.
The US joins Afghanistan, Myanmar and San Marino as the only countries not registering a delegation for the summit, according to Carbon Brief’s analysis of the provisional lists of delegates published by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
Despite these absences, more than 56,000 delegates have signed up to COP30, provisionally placing the summit as one of the largest in COP history.
This is despite the run-up to the negotiations being dogged by reports of a shortage of beds and “sky-high” accommodation costs.
Brazil even offered free cabins on cruise ships moored in Belém to delegations from low-income nations who were otherwise unable to attend.
According to the provisional figures, 193 countries, plus the European Union, have registered a delegation for the summit.
Unsurprisingly, the largest delegation comes from COP30 hosts Brazil, with 3,805 people registered.
This is followed, in order, by China, Nigeria, Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
This year also sees the largest number of “virtual” delegates, with more than 5,000 people signed up to attend the talks online.
Party delegations
With 56,118 delegates registered, COP30 is provisionally the second-largest COP in history, behind only COP28 in Dubai, which was attended by more than 80,000 people.
This is the provisional total, based on the delegates that have registered to be at the summit in person. At recent COPs, the final total is at least 10,000 lower, which would drop COP30 down to the fourth largest.
(The UNFCCC releases the final figures – based on participants collecting a physical badge at the venue – after the summit has closed.)
The chart below shows how the provisional figures for COP30 compare to the final totals in past COPs – going back to COP1 in Berlin in 1995.
The participant lists provided by the UNFCCC are divided between the different types of groups and organisations attending the summit. The largest group at COP30 is for delegates representing parties. These are nation states, plus the European Union, that have ratified the convention and play a full part in negotiations.
This group adds up to 11,519 delegates – the fourth largest behind the past three COPs.
(In keeping with recent COPs, the UNFCCC has published spreadsheets that name every single person that has registered for the summit – excluding support staff. Previously, COPs have typically included thousands of “overflow” participants in which countries and UN agencies could nominate delegates without their names appearing on their official lists.)
For consistency with Carbon Brief’s analysis of previous COPs, the above chart includes overflow delegates as a single group. However, the participant lists do divide the overflow delegates between parties and observer groups. Including the overflow numbers approximately doubles the total for party representatives to 23,509.
US no-show
Overall, of the 198 parties to the UNFCCC, 194 have registered delegations for COP30.
The most notable absentee is the US, which has been present at every other COP in history – even throughout Donald Trump’s first presidency.
On average, the US sends a delegation of around 100 people, typically making it one of the larger groups at the talks.
The absent parties – Afghanistan, Myanmar and San Marino – have been more sporadic attendees at past COPs.
Despite reports of a “logistical nightmare” hosting a COP summit in the Amazon, there has been no drop-off in the number of countries registering delegations for COP30.
In addition to hotel rooms and rental properties in Belém, beds have been made available on cruise ships, in converted shipping containers and in motels that Reuters primly described as being typically “aimed at amorous couples”.
Reports suggested that many developing nations considered scaling back their presence at COP30, with smaller delegations or attendees only coming for a few days.
While the average party delegation size of 59 (excluding overflows) is lower than the previous two COPs, it is similar to the average in COP26 in Glasgow and COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh.
The map and table below present the delegation size – split between party and overflow badges – for all the countries registered for COP30. The darker the shading, the more delegates that country has signed up. Use the search box to find the data for a specific party.
The largest delegation comes from host country Brazil, with 3,805 people registered. China (789) and Nigeria (749) follow with the second- and third-largest, respectively.
Making up the rest of the top 10 are Indonesia (566), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (556), France (530), Chad (528), Australia (494), Tanzania (465) and Japan (461).
The UK comes someway down the list with a delegation of 210.
(It is worth noting that some countries – such as Brazil – allocate some of their party badges to NGOs, which can artificially inflate the size of their official delegation.)
The smallest delegation is the one person registered to represent Nicaragua. There are five delegations of two people (North Korea, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Slovakia).
Ahead of COP30, Latvia's climate minister, told Reuters that the country had asked if its negotiators could dial into the summit by video call. However, Latvia does not appear to have registered any delegates to attend virtually.
In total, 40 parties registered virtual delegates. Party totals are all in single figures apart from the Philippines (31), Costa Rica (21) and Turkey (16).
Changing gender balance
The UNFCCC’s participant lists typically provide a title – such as Mr, Ms, Sr or Sra – for each registered delegate. In the past, this has allowed Carbon Brief to work out the balance of men to women in the delegations that each country has sent to a COP.
(This analysis always carries the caveat that the titles are designated by UNFCCC and not by Carbon Brief. In addition, Carbon Brief recognises that gender is not best categorised using a binary “man” or “woman” label and appreciates that the UNFCCC’s lists may not be wholly accurate.)
Overall, the COP30 provisional list suggests an average gender balance of party delegations of 57% men to 43% women.
As the chart below shows, this makes COP29 the most balanced COP in history. For consistency, the COP28, COP29 and COP30 figures only include those on party badges, not overflow ones.
(Note: Since COP28 last year, the UNFCCC has also used titles that do not indicate gender – such as Dr, Prof, Ambassador and Honourable. Therefore, for this analysis, these non-gendered titles – which make up 1% of all the people at COP30, for example – have not been included.)
There are four party delegations this year that are all men – Tuvalu (three delegates), Niger (three), North Korea (two) and Nicaragua (one) – and one that is all women (Nauru, with five delegates).
The full list of COP30 party delegation sizes can be found here.
(For previous COPs, see Carbon Brief’s delegate analysis for COP21, COP23, COP24, COP25, COP26, COP27, COP28, COP29)
The post Analysis: Which countries have sent the most delegates to COP30? appeared first on Carbon Brief.
Analysis: Which countries have sent the most delegates to COP30?
Isa Mulder is a policy expert on global carbon markets at Carbon Market Watch.
In recent months, industry players as well as some conservation groups have been pushing to effectively lower the integrity and ambition of carbon markets under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement.
However, the need to finance nature does not excuse creating a carbon crediting mechanism devoid of environmental integrity, just to keep carbon projects commercially viable. The bar set by the Article 6 crediting mechanism must be high, as the price that nature will pay if we opt to rely on hot air credits to offset ongoing emissions is much higher.
Carbon credit markets have been a controversial feature of international climate politics since the establishment of the Clean Development Mechanism under the Kyoto Protocol, and later adoption under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement.
Although the Article 6 rulebook was finalised at last year’s COP in Baku – albeit with many worrisome gaps – the nitty-gritty of its carbon crediting mechanism is still being developed. That work is overseen by the Supervisory Body (SBM), a de facto regulator accountable to the signatory countries of the Paris Agreement.
Permanence rules weakened
Between July and September 2025, the Methodological Expert Panel (MEP) – the technical advisory committee reporting back to the SBM – produced draft rules on permanence, intended to spell out the steps that carbon market projects must take to guarantee their emission reductions or removals are permanently and securely stored on climate-relevant timeframes (centuries to millennia).
The MEP’s final recommendation introduced requirements for carbon projects considered at risk of losing their achieved results. This included requiring projects to monitor their claimed mitigation until it could be reliably demonstrated that the likelihood of re-releasing sequestered CO₂ (e.g., carbon stored in trees) into the atmosphere was negligible, such as through events like fire or logging. In essence, high-risk projects would need to keep a watchful eye on emission reductions or removals for as long as that risk remains significant.
The rationale behind this is that carbon credits are often used for offsetting purposes as a means to supposedly compensate for ongoing fossil fuel emissions, of which the negative impacts are nearly permanent.
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EU’s new climate target lines up multibillion-dollar boost for carbon markets
Analysts estimate the EU will buy at least 50 billion euros worth of carbon credits in the 2030s to help meet its emissions-cutting goals, giving a huge boost to the market in offsets -
Zimbabwe forest carbon megaproject generated millions of junk credits
Verra is seeking compensation for offsets issued “in excess” by the controversial Kariba REDD+ scheme. But the registry’s track record in obtaining remedies raises concerns
It is therefore reasonable to expect that the carbon credits designed to compensate for this damage also guarantee positive impacts over a comparable duration. Failing to do so would mean that any apparent short-term benefits of offsetting would eventually become harmful and lead to net temperature increases, even before considering the broader environmental and social concerns related to offsetting.
However, this seemingly sound rationale rubbed many market actors the wrong way.
Whereas such documents typically attract only a handful of stakeholder responses, this one received over 170 reactions during the first and second rounds of consultations on the proposed rules.
Carbon Market Watch found that in the second round, three-quarters of commenters held direct or indirect financial interests in carbon markets and most of them strongly opposed the draft requirements. Their efforts were successful, and, as a result, weaker rules were adopted.
Carbon credits cannot save nature alone
Now turning their attention to COP30, many of the same market actors, along with some conservation organisations, are asking countries to further erode the integrity of the carbon crediting mechanism under Article 6.
Efforts to dilute these rules further risk derailing Article 6 at COP30, a conference which is meant to place nature front and centre. The misconception at the heart of this dangerous campaign is that stronger rules would negatively affect nature-based projects.
While it is undeniable that financing nature is essential for reaching our Paris Agreement goals, the need to finance nature is no good reason to create a carbon crediting mechanism lacking in environmental rigour, motivated by market actors’ desire to keep carbon projects commercially viable.
Is “hard-to-abate” really that hard – or is it a justification for delay?
Those in favour of weakening the rules often seem to conveniently overlook that most credits approved and circulating have been of very low quality and that they are used – mainly by big oil – to excuse business-as-usual emissions.
The scientific consensus holds that finance for nature must be scaled up to protect the natural world, but not by linking it to the offsetting of fossil emissions, whose climate impacts last for millennia. In fact, scientists have warned time and again about the serious shortcomings of relying on offsetting as a climate solution. If the credits used to compensate for fossil fuel emissions can’t make good on their promise, then climate change will worsen, and nature will end up being worse off.
The choice ahead of us is clear. Countries at COP30 will have to make a decision on the direction of travel for this discussion. The question is not how to bend carbon market rules to create a financing mechanism for nature-based offsetting projects, but how to uphold and strengthen those rules to protect nature itself.
The post Carbon market supporters risk cheating the nature they wish to protect appeared first on Climate Home News.
Carbon market supporters risk cheating the nature they wish to protect
COP30 Bulletin Day 2: India’s targets missing but Korea and Mexico make pledges
Analysis: Which countries have sent the most delegates to COP30?
Analysis: Which countries have sent the most delegates to COP30?
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