CARBON FORWARD 2017: Super Early Bird 20% discount ends Friday!

**Save €200 with the Super Early Bird discount – Register by Friday** – CARBON FORWARD 2017 takes place Sep. 26-28 in Canary Wharf, London. The two-day conference (Sep. 27-28) is being held at the 5-star Canary Riverside Plaza Hotel, while the venue for the pre-conference Training Day (Sep. 26) is nearby and will be announced shortly.

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BITE-SIZED UPDATES FROM AROUND THE WORLD

Trade war, maybe – US President Donald Trump is planning, against wishes of most of his Cabinet, to impose tariffs in the region of 20% for imports of steel and possibly other carbon-intensive materials such as aluminium, paper and even white goods. That’s according to Axios, which cited anonymous sources in the administration and named the handful of Trump advisors who favoured the move. No decision has been made but it would come in the next few days, Axios said. The tariffs are aimed at China but would also impact a slew of allies such as Canada, Japan and the EU, and they would likely trigger immediate retaliatory measures, possibly even in the form of CO2 import levies.

Just gutted – Germany’s G20 presidency has drastically weakened its draft communiqué on climate ahead of the July 7-8 summit in Hamburg in an attempt to reach consensus and appeal to Trump along with fellow participants Russia and Saudi Arabia. Climate Home contrasts drafts from March and May and finds the May version scratched of several elements including a push for carbon pricing and references to the UN’s 2018 review of Nationally-Determined Contributions to the Paris Agreement. Sources are unclear if diplomats will attempt to craft a new collective statement or have the US stand alone, as happened at the recent G7 summit. (Climate Home)

Sue, sue, and sue some more – A coalition of 15 attorneys general by New York’s Eric Schneiderman is threatening to sue the EPA for unreasonable delay in issuing methane emissions limits for existing oil and gas operations, ratcheting up a confrontation with the Trump EPA as it retreats from Obama-era climate strategies. (InsideEPA)

Double it – G20 states’ annual investments in renewable energy must almost double compared to 2015 levels to carry out measures needed to keep global warming well below 2 degrees Celsius, according to the Allianz Climate and Energy Monitor 2017 by Allianz Climate Solutions, NewClimate Institute and Germanwatch. Germany, France and China were most attractive for investors, but emerging countries such as India and Brazil were catching up, writes Germanwatch. (Clean Energy Wire)

CCS Norge – Days after Europe’s last CCS project was cast into extreme doubt (see Carbon Pulse’s story here), non-EU member Norway was happy to point out that its own CCS projects remain on course. State-owned oil firm Statoil will look at building a carbon storage facility offshore in what could be the world’s first storage site to receive CO2 from several industrial sources. The proposal by state-held tech firm Gassnova consists of a plant that will receive CO2 from ships, which will be further injected into wells east of Norway’s Troll gas field. (Reuters)

GCF proposals for dummies – Acclimatise released a new GCF proposal toolkit today, with support from the Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN). This toolkit is an essential reading for project proponents, accredited entities (AEs) and national designated authorities (NDAs) who would like some guidance on GCF proposal requirements.

And finally… Red team, blue team – US EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt is leading a formal initiative to challenge mainstream climate science using a “back-and-forth critique” by government-recruited experts, a senior administration official told Climatewire. The programme will use “red team, blue team” exercises to conduct an “at-length evaluation of US climate science,” the official said, referring to a concept developed by the military to identify vulnerabilities in field operations. “Climate science, like other fields of science, is constantly changing. A new, fresh and transparent evaluation is something everyone should support doing.” Executives in the coal industry interpret the move as a step toward challenging the endangerment finding, the agency’s legal foundation for regulating GHGs from cars, power plants and other sources, but other sources said Pruitt resisted committing to a full-scale challenge of the 2009 finding. If Pruitt somehow succeeded in rolling back the finding — an outcome that many Republicans say is far-fetched — the federal government would no longer be required to restrict greenhouse gas emissions.

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