Decarbonization

• [New] If Vietnam is serious in its pledge to reduce carbon emissions to eight percent by 2030, it needs to rethink its coal plans for the future.
• [New] ExxonMobil has made a commitment to reduce the intensity of upstream greenhouse gas emissions by 15% to 20% by 2025, methane emissions intensity by 40% to 50%, and flaring by 35% to 45% by 2025.
• [New] China has since announced more specific targets, including a 65% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 compared to 2005 levels, and to increase the share of renewables in its energy mix to 25%.
• [New] With China recently committing to carbon neutrality by 2060 and Joe Biden promising to return the United States to the Paris Agreement on climate change, the decarbonisation push is becoming both global and synchronised.
• [New] Australia will meet and beat its declared 2030 target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 26% to 28% below 2005 levels.
• [New] After 2035, sales of gas-powered vehicles would be banned in California, a state where more than 50% of greenhouse emissions are generated by transportation.
• [New] Nearly half of the Climate Action 100+ focus companies have now established commitments to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 or sooner.
• [New] A Biden administration will likely expect that China would do more in the short term given its peaking date was only part of its Paris pledge, and that it would increasingly take steps to reach carbon neutrality closer to 2050 as both the science demands and Biden himself has committed the US to do.
• [New] China's commitments to scale up its Paris Agreement pledges and aim to become carbon neutral by 2060 put pressure on the United States to restore its own climate leadership.
• [New] Achieving carbon neutrality by 2060 means that China will have 30 years for continuous and rapid emissions cuts, after it reaches the emissions peak by around 2030.
• [New] China's commitment to reach carbon neutrality by 2060 comes at a critical moment when the world is in much need of more ambitious climate goals.
• [New] If China achieves its aim of reaching carbon neutrality before 2060 then it would lower global warming projections by around 0.2 to 0.3 C.
• [New] Demand for the raw material is expected to surge in the coming years while EV adoption gains pace across the world.
• [New] The long-term outlook for natural gas is not good in California, which wants to eliminate most carbon emissions by 2045.
• [New] UK projects presented £8m for world's 1st net zero zone: Six projects throughout the UK have been given a share of £8 million in government funds in a attempt to build the 'world's first' carbon neutral industrial zone by 2040.
• [New] Six projects across the UK will today receive a share of £8 million in government funding as part of a drive to create the world's first net zero emissions industrial zone by 2040.
• [New] Europe's active diplomacy played a role in China's recent commitment to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060 - a decision that was quickly followed by Japan's pledge to decarbonize by 2050.
• [New] The automotive landscape faces existential disruption over the next 5-7 years as governments around the world target regulations to achieve carbon neutrality.
• [New] Germany aims to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 55% from 1990 levels by 2030, and derive 65% of its electricity from renewables by then.
• [New] In late 2019, the federal government proposed a clean fuel standard, a regulatory approach to reduce Canada's greenhouse gas emissions by up to 30 million tonnes annually by 2030, through increased use of lower-carbon fuels, energy sources, and technologies.
• Though analysts expect global fossil-fuel demand to remain soft in the coming years as companies commit to net-zero goals and countries attempt to limit emissions, fuel demand in India will still surge.

Last updated: 10 January 2021