What is carbon capture and why does it keep coming up at COP28?

MICHAEL PHILLIS
Fri, December 8, 2023 


Activists participate in a demonstration calling for climate solutions at the COP28 U.N. Climate Summit, Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2023, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. 

(AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

The future of fossil fuels is at the center of the United Nations climate summit in Dubai, where many activists, experts and nations are calling for an agreement to phase out the oil, gas and coal responsible for warming the planet. On the other side: energy companies and oil-rich nations with plans to keep drilling well into the future.

In the background of those discussions are carbon capture and carbon removal, technologies most, if not all, producers are counting on to meet their pledges to get to net-zero emissions. Skeptics worry the technology is being oversold to allow the industry to maintain the status quo.

“The industry needs to commit to genuinely helping the world meet its energy needs and climate goals – which means letting go of the illusion that implausibly large amounts of carbon capture are the solution,” International Energy Agency Executive Director Fatih Birol said before the start of talks.


WHAT EXACTLY IS CARBON CAPTURE?

Lots of industrial facilities like coal-fired power plants and ethanol plants produce carbon dioxide. To stop those planet-warming emissions from reaching the atmosphere, businesses can install equipment to separate that gas from all the other gases coming out of the smokestack, and transport it to where it can be permanently stored underground. And even for industries trying to reduce emissions, some are likely to always produce some carbon, like cement manufacturers that use a chemical process that releases CO2.

“We call that a mitigation technology, a way to stop the increased concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere,” said Karl Hausker, an expert on getting to net-zero emissions at World Resources Institute, a climate-focused nonprofit that supports sharp fossil fuel reductions along with a limited role for carbon capture.

The captured carbon is concentrated into a form that can be transported in a vehicle or through a pipeline to a place where it can be injected underground for long-term storage.

Then there's carbon removal. Instead of capturing carbon from a single, concentrated source, the objective is to remove carbon that's already in the atmosphere. This already happens when forests are restored, for example, but there's a push to deploy technology, too. One type directly captures it from the air, using chemicals to pull out carbon dioxide as air passes through.

For some, carbon removal is essential during a global transition to clean energy that will take years. For example, despite notable gains for electric vehicles in some countries, gas-fired cars will be operating well into the future. And some industries, like shipping and aviation, are challenging to fully decarbonize.

“We have to remove some of what’s in the atmosphere in addition to stopping the emissions,” said Jennifer Pett-Ridge, who leads the federally supported Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s carbon initiative in the U.S., the world's second-leading emitter of greenhouse gases.

HOW IS IT GOING?

Many experts say the technology to capture carbon and store it works, but it’s expensive, and it’s still in the early days of deployment.

There are about 40 large-scale carbon capture projects in operation around the world capturing roughly 45 million metric tons of carbon dioxide each year, according to the International Energy Agency. That’s a tiny amount — roughly 0.1% — of the 36.8 billion metric tons emitted globally as tallied by the Global Carbon Project.

The IEA says the history of carbon capture “has largely been one of unmet expectations.” The group analyzed how the world can achieve net zero emissions and its guide path relies heavily on lowering emissions by slashing fossil fuel use. Carbon capture is just a sliver of the solution — less than 10% — but despite its comparatively small role, its expansion is still behind schedule.

The pace of new projects is picking up, but they face significant obstacles. In the United States, there’s opposition to CO2 pipelines that move carbon to storage sites. Safety is one concern; in 2020, a CO2 pipeline in Mississippi ruptured, releasing carbon dioxide that displaced breathable air near the ground and sent dozens of people to hospitals. The federal government is working on improving safety standards.

Companies can also run into difficulty getting permits. South Dakota regulators this year, for example, rejected a construction permit for a 1,300-mile network of CO2 pipelines in the Midwest to move carbon to a storage site in Illinois.

The technology to remove carbon directly from the air exists too, but its broad deployment is even further away and especially costly.

WHO’S SUPPORTING CARBON CAPTURE?

The American Petroleum Institute says oil and gas will remain a critical energy source for decades, meaning that in order for the world to reduce its carbon emissions, rapidly expanding carbon capture technology is “key to cleaner energy use across the economy.” A check of most oil companies' plans to get to net-zero emissions also finds most of them relying on carbon capture in some way.

The Biden administration wants more investment in carbon capture and removal, too, building off America's comparatively large spending compared with the rest of the world. But it’s an industry that needs subsidies to attract private financing. The Inflation Reduction Act makes tax benefits much more generous. Investors can get a $180 per ton credit for removing carbon from the air and storing it underground, for example. And the Department of Energy has billions to support new projects.

“What we are talking about now is taking a technology that has been proven and has been tested, but applying it much more broadly and also applying it in sectors where there is a higher cost to deploy,” said Jessie Stolark, executive director of the Carbon Capture Coalition, an industry advocacy group.

Investment is picking up. The EPA is considering dozens of applications for wells that can store carbon. And in places like Louisiana and North Dakota, local leaders are fighting to attract projects and investment.

Even left-leaning California has an ambitious climate plan that incorporates carbon capture and removing carbon directly out of the air. Leaders say there’s no other way to get emissions to zero.

WHO’S AGAINST IT?

Some environmentalists argue that fossil fuel companies are holding up carbon capture to distract from the need to quickly phase out oil, gas and coal.

“The fossil fuel industry has proven itself to be dangerous and deceptive,” said Shaye Wolf, climate science director at Center for Biological Diversity.

There are other problems. Some projects haven’t met their carbon removal targets. A 2021 U.S. government accountability report said that of eight demonstration projects aimed at capturing and storing carbon from coal plants, just one had started operating at the time the report was published despite hundreds of millions of dollars in funding.

Opponents also note that carbon capture can serve to prolong the life of a polluting plant that would otherwise shut down sooner. That can especially hurt poorer, minority communities that have long lived near heavily polluting facilities.

They also note that most of the carbon captured in the U.S. now eventually gets injected into the ground to force out more oil, a process called enhanced oil recovery.

Hausker said it's essential that governments set policies that force less fossil fuel use — which can then be complemented by carbon capture and carbon removal.

“We aren’t going to ask Exxon, ‘pretty please, stop developing fossil fuels,’” he said.

___

The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment
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Carbon capture a 'dangerous excuse' for burning more fossil fuels

Amanda Morrow
Thu, December 7, 2023 

© AFP - KARIM SAHIB


Week one of the Cop28 climate talks in Dubai heard much about the grand potential of carbon capture and storage technologies (CCS) as dozens of countries push for a broad pact to phase out fossil fuels. While top producers use carbon sequestering as an excuse to keep on burning coal, oil and gas – given they’re now “abated” – critics warn CCS is a fantasy solution that undermines the chances of any viable deal.

Forging the first ever global agreement to phase out fossil fuels is a crux issue at this year’s summit, where host the UAE is a major oil producer. A draft deal on Tuesday proposed "an orderly and just phase-out".

Burning fossil fuels for energy accounts for some 70 percent of emissions and is by far the biggest cause of rising temperatures. But it’s only now – after three decades of UN climate negotiations – that the issue is being tackled head on.

Opposition from countries led by Russia, Saudi Arabia and China, however, could scupper chances of a full phase-out. Meanwhile technology is being put forward as the way oil and gas producers can slash emissions while continuing to operate.

Cop28 president insists he 'respects climate science' amid fossil fuel polemic
Failing ambitions

Cop28 president Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, who is also in charge of UAE oil giant Adnoc, has been heavily promoting CCS as a climate solution.

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for CCS 

The last time carbon dioxide in the atmosphere consistently matched today's human-driven levels was 14 million years ago

Issam AHMED
Thu, December 7, 2023 

Environmental activists display placards during a demonstration at the venue of the COP28 United Nations climate summit in Dubai (Giuseppe CACACE)

The last time carbon dioxide in the atmosphere consistently matched today's human-driven levels was 14 million years ago, according to a large new study Thursday that paints a grim picture of where Earth's climate is headed.

Published in the journal Science, the paper covers the period from 66 million years ago until the present, analyzing biological and geochemical signatures from the deep past to reconstruct the historic CO2 record with greater precision than ever before.

"It really brings it home to us that what we are doing is very, very unusual in Earth's history," lead author Baerbel Hoenisch of the Columbia Climate School's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory told AFP.

Among other things, the new analysis finds the last time the air contained 420 parts per million (ppm) of carbon dioxide was between 14-16 million years ago, when there was no ice in Greenland and the ancestors of humans were just transitioning from forests to grasslands.

That is far further back in time than the 3-5 million years that prior analyses have indicated.

Until the late 1700s, atmospheric carbon dioxide was about 280 ppm, meaning humans have already caused an increase of about 50 percent of the greenhouse gas, which traps heat in the atmosphere and has warmed the planet by 1.2 degrees Celsius compared to before industrialization.

"What's important is that Homo, our species, has only evolved 3 million years ago," said Hoenisch.

"And so our civilization is tuned to sea level as it is today, to having warm tropics and cool poles and temperate regions that have a lot of rainfall."

If global CO2 emissions continue to rise we could reach between 600 - 800 ppm by the year 2100.

Those levels were last seen during the Eocene, 30-40 million years ago, before Antarctica was covered in ice and when the world's flora and fauna looked vastly different -- for example huge insects still roamed the Earth.

- Ancient plants -

The new study is the product of seven years of work by a consortium of 80 researchers across 16 countries and is now considered the updated consensus of the scientific community.

The team didn't collect new data -- rather, they synthesized, re-evaluated and validated published work based on updated science and categorized them according to confidence level, then combined the highest-rated into a new timeline.

Many people are familiar with the concept of drilling into ice sheets or glaciers to extract ice cores whose air bubbles reveal past atmospheric composition -- but these only go back so far, generally hundreds of thousands of years.

To look further into the past, paleoclimatologists use "proxies": by studying the chemical composition of ancient leaves, minerals and plankton, they can indirectly derive atmospheric carbon at a given point in time.

The researchers confirmed that the hottest period over the past 66 million years happened 50 million years ago, when CO2 spiked to as much as 1,600 ppm and temperatures were 12C hotter, before a long decline set in.

By 2.5 million years ago, carbon dioxide was 270-280 ppm, ushering in a series of ice ages.

That remained the level when modern humans arrived 400,000 years ago and persisted until our species began burning fossil fuels at large scales.

The team estimates that a doubling of CO2 is predicted to warm the planet by 5-8 degrees Celsius -- but over a long period, hundreds of thousands of years -- when increased temperatures have rippling effects through Earth systems.

For example, melting the polar ice caps would reduce the planet's ability to reflect solar radiation and become a reinforcing feedback loop.

But the new work remains directly relevant to policy makers, stressed Hoenisch.

The carbon record reveals that 56 million years ago, Earth underwent a similar rapid release of carbon dioxide, which caused massive changes to ecosystems and took some 150,000 years to dissipate.

"We are in this for a very long time, unless we sequester carbon dioxide, take it out of the atmosphere, and we stop our emissions sometime soon," she said.

ia/bgs

CNN poll: Large majority of US adults and half of Republicans agree with Biden’s goal to slash climate pollution

Ella Nilsen and Ariel Edwards-Levy, CNN
Fri, December 8, 2023

Michaela Vatcheva/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Nearly two-thirds of US adults say they are worried about the threat of climate change in their communities, according to a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS. More than half are worried about the impact of extreme weather, as the climate crisis touches every region in the form of extreme heat, devastating storms and drought.

Even more want the federal government to do something about it. A broad majority of US adults – 73% – say the federal government should develop its climate policies with the goal of cutting the country’s planet-warming pollution in half by the end of the decade.

That has been the goal of President Joe Biden, who has made tackling the climate crisis a greater priority than any other president, including through billions of dollars in tax subsidies to create more renewable energy infrastructure and help consumers buy discounted electric vehicles, solar panels and energy-efficient appliances. The Biden administration is also crafting and implementing several federal regulations designed to cut pollution from the oil and gas industry, power plants, and gas-powered vehicles.


The polling comes as nations debate the future of fossil fuels at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. Vice President Kamala Harris announced at the summit last week that the US would commit another $3 billion to the global climate action fund, and the Biden administration announced new rules to slash emissions of methane – a powerful planet-warming gas – by 80% from the US oil and gas industry.

Cutting US climate pollution is a bipartisan aspiration, the CNN poll finds. Nearly all Democrats say the US should slash its greenhouse gas emissions by half by 2030, and 76% of independents and half of Republicans agree.

American voters could be presented with a stark choice on how their country addresses climate change in the 2024 election; a potential rematch between Biden – who signed the country’s biggest climate investment into law last year – and former President Donald Trump, a climate change denier who has vowed to repeal several of Biden’s signature clean-energy policies.

When it comes to climate change, Americans say by a 13-point margin that their views align with Democrats more than Republicans. Much like abortion, climate change is one of the strongest issues for Democrats, CNN’s poll finds.

Americans give Biden a 43% approval rating for his handling of environmental policy, which is several points above his overall approval rating and well above his numbers for handling the economy. But few Americans, only 2%, see climate change as the most important issue facing the country, giving higher priority to the economy and cost of living.

But climate change and clean energy are increasingly intertwined with the economy. Climate change-fueled disasters don’t just impact commerce, they also strike at the heart of the American dream: homeownership.

In some states prone to wildfires and extreme weather, the cost of home and property insurance is skyrocketing. In some cases, insurance companies are dropping coverage all together because the risk is too high. That, in turn, has damaging implications for the housing market and cost of homes, experts have told CNN.

Most US adults say humanity bears a great deal of responsibility to try to reduce climate change but believe the US and Chinese governments and the energy industry are all doing too little to fix the problem.

Americans are also finding less fault with themselves: A somewhat lower 40% of Americans say that people like them hold a great deal of responsibility to reduce climate change. Meanwhile, 58% say that they, personally, are doing the right amount to reduce their impact on the climate crisis, with 37% saying that they are doing too little.

As past polls have found, there is a profound partisan divide over how Americans feel about climate change, and what to do about it, that outweighs other factors such as age and gender. The poll finds Democrats are far more likely than Republicans to say that humanity bears a great deal of responsibility to reduce climate change (77% vs. 42%). And Democrats are 36 percentage points likelier than Republicans to say they’re very worried about the risk of climate change in the communities where they live.

But the fact that human activity is fueling the planet’s warming isn’t lost on Republicans; the poll finds about three-quarters of them think humanity has at least some responsibility to fight climate change.

The poll finds that more than 4 in 10 Americans say they’ve experienced extreme weather over the past year, with most in that group calling climate change a contributing factor. In the past few years, Americans have faced climate-fueled extreme heat, drought and flash flooding that has devastated communities.

The CNN poll was conducted by SSRS from November 1-30 among a random national sample of 1,795 adults initially reached by mail. Surveys were either conducted online or by telephone with a live interviewer. Results for the full sample have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points; it is larger for subgroups.

ICYMI

Half of Republicans in new poll support Biden push to cut emissions

Nick Robertson

THE HILL
Fri, December 8, 2023 


Among nearly three-quarters of Americans who said in a new poll that they want the federal government to design policies around a goal of halving greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, half of Republicans joined Democratic respondents, bucking party lines and showing significant support for Biden administration commitments to fighting climate change.

The CNN poll released Thursday found about two-thirds of respondents are worried about the impacts of climate change on their communities, and nearly 60 percent are worried about increasing extreme weather.

The results come as world leaders gather at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai to discuss climate change policy. Negotiations have focused on the fossil fuel industry, but they face setbacks as some nations cling to fossil fuel revenues to support their economies.

Last week, Vice President Harris pledged $3 billion at the summit to help developing countries’ climate policy, including investing in green energy.

The Biden administration has also allocated billions in tax breaks for purchasing electric vehicles, solar panel arrays and appliances, and it has implemented regulations to reduce industrial emissions.

Those policies are popular, the poll found, with about two-thirds of poll respondents saying each of the policy initiatives should either be a top priority of the government or is important.

Despite support for underlying policy, a slight majority still disapprove of how Biden has handled environmental issues, according to the poll. Only 43 percent of Americans and 11 percent of Republicans approve of Biden’s environmental record.

At the same time, another 58 percent of Americans say the federal government isn’t doing enough to fight climate change, with just a quarter saying it is doing “just the right amount” of work.

The CNN poll surveyed about 1,800 people reached by mail last month, with a margin of error of 3.2 percentage points.

U.S. climate report issues stark warnings for Midwest ag, health and infrastructure

Kavahn Mansouri
Thu, December 7, 2023

Yunyi Dai/Special to National Public Radio

A new report from the U.S. Global Change Research Program shows rising temperatures, extreme precipitation, drought and other climate-related challenges are intensifying in the Midwest. It paints a picture of major changes to lives and livelihoods, as well as the opportunity to mitigate the impact of global warming,

The fifth National Climate Assessment found as climate conditions worsen, public and environmental health and the economy of the region are all at risk.

“Rising temperatures, extreme precipitation, drought, and other climate-related events in the Midwest are impacting agriculture, ecosystems, cultural practices, health, infrastructure, and waterways,” the report states.

Hotter summers and weather that swings between extreme drought and flooding threaten crops and livestock production throughout the region. On top of that, the report notes milder winters are allowing pests that wreak havoc on crops to expand throughout the region.

The climate analysis warns that without intervention, the Midwestern states that produce roughly one-third of the world’s corn and soybeans will find it more difficult to do so. Those states include Missouri, Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, Indiana and Ohio.

The Mississippi River basin is experiencing more extreme flooding and low river conditions which leads to decreased river flow, more stress on dams and other river-related infrastructure.

Since 1980, flooding alone has caused more than $49 billion in economic damage throughout the Midwest.

“That very sharp and punctuated transition in a very short period of time where you’re either feasting or going to famine is a challenge for ecosystems,” said study co-author Jeff Wood, assistant professor of biometeorology at the University of Missouri School.

The climate assessment notes authors of the report have low confidence in the region’s current efforts to mitigate these changes, but Wood said he’s hopeful that can change.

“There has been a lot of interest particularly here in Missouri,” Wood said, pointing to solutions from the USDA like leaving crops out during winter months to prevent soil erosion. “There is interest — it’s growing — but more could be done.”

Read the full assessement here.

At the COP28 climate action conference underway in the United Arab Emirates, the U.S. pledged phase out coal-fired power plants by 2035.

Coal makes up about about 40% of fossil fuel emissions. As recently as 2022, plants in Nebraska and Missouri announced delays in their closure plans.
Health & disparities

The climate assessment also warns a warming climate is worsening public health in the Midwest.

As temperatures rise, respiratory problems and air quality are expected to worsen, according to the report. Indeed, smoke pollution from wildfires, increased pollen production and the production of harmful ground-level ozone gasses have recently afflicted the Midwest.

Earlier this year, Midwest hospitals saw an uptick in respiratory cases as wildfire smoke from Canadian wildfires covered the region.

Additionally, tick-borne illnesses, including Lyme disease and other diseases carried by bugs, are likely to increase as the weather continues to warm.

The assessment’s section about the Midwest points to green infrastructure, heat-health early warning systems, and improved stormwater management systems as elements that could curb the health impacts of climate change.

The report found the U.S. is warming faster than the global average and that the effects of climate change are being felt in every part of the country, citing more extreme weather, drought and wildfires that are becoming more frequent across the country.

What’s more, the report found minority communities are more likely to face challenges due to climate change — especially Black, Hispanic and indigenous communities – because those communities typically live in areas more susceptible to the effects of climate change.

“Climate change affects us all, but it doesn’t affect us all equally,” said climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe, one of the authors of the assessment, in an article from NPR.

In the same article, Solomon Hsiang, a climate economist at the University of California, Berkeley and a lead author of the assessment said:

“The research indicates that people who are lower income have more trouble adapting [to climate change], because adaptation comes at a cost.”
Adaption action

Alice Hill, a climate expert with the Center on Foreign Relations, said there’s a reason the U.S. is lagging in the implementation of climate mitigation policies. She said advocates in the U.S. have been calling for a national adaptation strategy for climate change since at least 2013.

“We still don’t have one, and that means we haven’t defined the roles of the federal government, the roles of the state and local governments, and the roles of the private sector,” Hill said as part of an interview about the impact of climate change on housing.

“Resilience to climate change requires all levels of government as well as the private sector to work together to understand the risk, understand which choices are available, and then talk about how we finance the investments in getting ourselves to a position of greater safety,” Hill said.

Outlined in the report are opportunities in the Midwest to push back against climate challenges, including industry investment into “climate-smart” agriculture and federal investment into infrastructure to keep damage from extreme weather at bay.

This story comes from the Midwest Newsroom, an investigative journalism collaboration including St. Louis Public Radio , Iowa Public Radio, KCUR, Nebraska Public Media News, and NPR.

Holly Edgell contributed to this story.

How to adapt to climate change may be secondary at COP28, but it's key to saving lives, experts say

SIBI ARASU
Updated Fri, December 8, 2023 



COP28 Climate Summit
Activists participate in a demonstration for climate adaptation at the COP28 U.N. Climate Summit, Friday, Dec. 8, 2023, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. 

(AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — As United Nations climate talks enter their second week, negotiators who are largely focused on how to curb climate change have another thing on their plates: how to adapt to the warming that's already here.

Discussions for what's known as the Global Goal on Adaptation — a commitment made in the 2015 Paris Agreement to ramp up the world's capacity to cope with climate-fueled extreme weather — are being overshadowed by negotiations on how the world is going to slash the use of fossil fuels, causing frustration among some climate campaigners in the most vulnerable countries.

Officials and activists from climate-vulnerable nations are pushing for more money to help them deal with scorching temperatures, punishing droughts and deluges and strengthening storms made worse by global warming. Major fossil fuel-emitting countries need to pay vulnerable, developing countries being battered by these events, experts and officials say, to help them avoid catastrophic humanitarian and economic losses.

"The problem is the fact that adaptation is actually the second long long-term goal of the Paris agreement,” said South Africa-based Amy Giliam Thorp of climate think-tank Power Shift Africa. The first goal is a commitment to curb warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times.

Climate talks have already pledged millions to deal with the aftereffects of extreme weather events fueled by climate change as part of a loss and damage fund, and over a hundred nations promised to triple renewable energy production globally.

Adaptation hasn't seen similar commitments at the talk so far. At a protest Friday calling for more money for adaptation, climate activist Evelyn Achan from Uganda said that “our countries, our communities are suffering so much.”

“We don’t have the money to adapt to the climate crisis and yet we do not cause the climate crisis, we are least responsible for the climate crisis. So, we're demanding for leaders to put in place adaptation finance,” she said.

Observers say a goal for adaptation is likely to be decided at the summit, but as things stand, it’s set to be only a fraction of what some nations are calling for.

At plenary remarks on Wednesday, COP28 President Sultan al-Jaber said adaptation “is a key element of climate action" and urged countries to “consider how we can make real progress to address the adaptation finance gap” between what’s been promised and what’s needed.

But Ani Dasgupta, the CEO of the World Resources Institute said he's “concerned” about what will happen to adaptation goals at COP28. “Not much is there,” he said. Dasgupta said he had expected some discussions on adaptation to be ongoing at this stage of climate talks.

“One would have expected to see some vision” with regards to adaptation, said Dasgupta. According to him, negotiators couldn’t agree to something on adaptation that they could give to the ministers. “That’s a worrying sign, so it goes with a blank slate.”

Dasgupta feels that as things stand there is a chance that fossil fuel phaseouts and adaptation goals might be used as a tradeoff on the high tables of global climate diplomacy. “Both of them are needed,” he said.

Mary Friel, Climate Policy lead at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said “not moving forward on adaptation would be a major failure.”

A U.N. report found that developing countries need nearly $400 billion per year to prepare for climate change but only $21 billion was given in 2021. The report also said that an additional $194 to $366 billion is needed with every passing year.

And the longer it takes to act on giving money adaptation, the higher the costs will be in future, Power Shift Africa’s Thorp said.

Negotiations on climate adaptation have been “incredibly frustrating” said Teresa Anderson, global lead of climate justice at Action Aid International, who's in Dubai, United Arab Emirates for the climate talks. “The negotiations haven’t matched the urgency and pace and the type of ambitious commitments we need to see."

The trouble is that adaptation money doesn’t give funders a return on investment, she said.

“Rich countries see mitigation action in their own interest. Wherever it happens in the world, it’s going to benefit everyone, even in the global north. Adaptation efforts and finance will only benefit people in the global south," Anderson said. “The only reason they (rich countries) apparently want to give climate finance is if it’s going to help themselves.”

Rishikesh Ram Bhandary, who tracks climate finance at the Boston University Global Development Policy Center, added that the money that has been earmarked for adaptation is also not getting out the door fast enough.

It's having real-life implications for people living on the frontlines of climate change.

Tiwonge Gondwe, a small-scale farmer who grows groundnuts, pumpkins, maize and other crops in Malawi, which is susceptible to droughts and food insecurity, said the land is becoming less fertile each year because of global warming.

“I have never received any funding from my government saying this is the mechanism to adapt to climate change,” she said. “We don’t have food, and it’s increasing hunger and poverty in my country. We need leaders to act now.” ___

Associated Press journalists Malak Harb and Seth Borenstein contributed. ___

Follow Sibi Arasu on X, formerly known as Twitter, @sibi123 ___

Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

China says Biden plan to shut it out of US battery supply chain violates WTO rules

Joe Cash
Thu, December 7, 2023 

BEIJING (Reuters) — China said on Thursday that Biden administration plans to limit Chinese content in batteries eligible for generous electric vehicle tax credits from next year violate international trade norms and will disrupt global supply chains.

The plans will make investors in the U.S. electric vehicle (EV) supply chain ineligible for tax credits should they use more than a trace amount of critical materials from China, or other countries deemed a "Foreign Entity of Concern" (FEOC).

"Targeting Chinese enterprises by excluding their products from a subsidy's scope is typical non-market orientated policy," said He Yadong, a commerce ministry spokesperson.

"Many World Trade Organization members, including China, have expressed concern about the discriminatory policy of the U.S., which violates the WTO's basic principles," he said.

China's dominant position in the global battery supply chain has prompted United States and European officials to take action over fears that cheap Chinese EVs could flood their markets.

The European Commission is currently investigating whether Chinese manufacturers benefit from unfair state subsidies.

Washington has already passed two laws explicitly excluding investors from being able to benefit from a $6 billion allocation of tax credits for batteries and critical minerals, as well as subsidies of $7,500 for every new energy vehicle produced, should they include FEOCs in their supply chains.

The term applies to China, Russia, North Korea and Iran. The rules will come into effect in 2024 for completed batteries and 2025 for the critical minerals.

President Joe Biden's administration is also proposing tough criteria, including a 25% ownership threshold, for determining whether a company is controlled by a FEOC.

"By establishing 'glass barriers', the U.S. is doing more harm than good to the development of EV technologies and the industry more broadly," He said, warning that the plans would "seriously disrupt international trade and investment".

China accounts for almost two-thirds of the world's lithium processing capacity and 75% of its cobalt capacity, both of which are used in battery manufacturing.

Analysts, though, have questioned whether China's position in global battery supply chains warrants the U.S. and EU rhetoric over the potential risks.

"There is a lot of hyperbole around this. And I'm not sure the measures the EU or the U.S. are considering match the scale of the risk," said Dan Marks, a research fellow for energy security at the Royal United Services think tank.

"What we should be saying is these strategies in Europe and the U.S. are really industrial strategies. They're just about having competitive industries that can survive."

Myanmar's junta wants China's support. Analysts expect 'cautious pragmatism' from Beijing


South China Morning Post
Thu, December 7, 2023

Myanmar's ruling junta has called for China to support its path to stability, a month after it was rocked by renewed clashes with militant groups, but analysts expect "cautious pragmatism" from Beijing.

The call came on Wednesday, when China's top diplomat Wang Yi met Myanmar's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Than Swe in Beijing ahead of a regional summit.

"Myanmar still faces many domestic challenges and hopes to continue to receive support and help from China to achieve domestic peace and stability," Than Swe told Wang, according to a Chinese foreign ministry statement.

Wang Yi and Than Swe hold talks ahead of a regional summit in the Chinese capital. Photo: Xinhua 

Wang said China would not interfere in Myanmar's internal affairs, but hoped the country could "achieve national reconciliation" and "continue its political transformation process under the constitutional framework as soon as possible".

Multiple armed groups launched a coordinated offensive in late October across Myanmar's northern provincial administrations of Shan State, Kachin State and the upper Sagaing Region.

China's southwestern province of Yunnan shares a 2,000km (1,250-mile) border with Myanmar's Shan and Kachin states.

Analysts said that while Beijing was willing to support regional stability, it would not intervene in Myanmar's situation beyond the need to tackle telecoms scams that have targeted Chinese nationals.

Andy Mok, a senior research fellow at the Beijing-based Centre for China and Globalisation, said the Chinese approach to Myanmar's political situation "leans towards advocating stability while respecting sovereignty".

"While China maintains its principle of non-interference, it indicates a willingness to offer strategic support, balancing regional security interests."

Than Swe's call was the first public request made by Myanmar's military government for China to assist in its political situation. Beijing has stepped up cooperation with the junta, as well as armed ethnic groups in the country's north, in order to crack down on cybercrime.

According to Kalvin Fung Ka-shing, who conducts research on Southeast Asian politics at Waseda University in Tokyo, the junta is trying to strengthen ties with China, as well as India and Russia, after losing ground in the northern states from the rebel offensive.

He said the junta "might want to secure Beijing's friendship in hopes of isolating the ethnic armed organisations from diplomatic backing".

On Wednesday, Wang said the two countries should work together to eradicate the "cancer" of online gambling and electronic fraud, adding that they had already "achieved remarkable results" on telecoms scams and "effectively deterred criminals".

Last month Myanmar handed over 31,000 telecoms fraud suspects to China, including 63 "financiers" and ringleaders of crime syndicates that Beijing's public security ministry says swindled Chinese citizens out of large sums of money.

According to the Chinese statement, Than Swe said Myanmar attached great importance to developing relations with China and was willing to deepen bilateral cooperation in various fields.

Fung said Beijing's "top priority" was to prevent the conflicts in Myanmar's northern Shan State from spilling over the border.

"Beijing has tried to mediate the ethnic conflicts, and the Chinese special envoy plays an important role in that respect," he said, referring to Deng Xijun, who met two junta ministers in September.

Koh King Kee, president of Malaysian think tank the Centre for New Inclusive Asia, said the junta was becoming more reliant on China given its isolation from the West and the region.

He said the junta needed China's help "to act as a mediator to broker a truce with the ethnic armed alliance in order to sustain its regime, as China has considerable influence over the alliance".

Koh said the military government was "in danger of collapse" amid attacks from the armed groups.

Members of an ethnic armed forces group, one of the three militias known as the Three Brotherhood Alliance, check weapons allegedly seized from a Myanmar army outpost in Shan state, Myanmar. File photo: The Kokang online media via AP alt=Members of an ethnic armed forces group, one of the three militias known as the Three Brotherhood Alliance, check weapons allegedly seized from a Myanmar army outpost in Shan state, Myanmar. 

File photo: The Kokang online media via AP>

"China is unlikely to intervene directly ... but will exercise its influence to help maintain peace and security in Myanmar and ensure that cyber scam activities don't re-emerge under the patronage of the military regime," he said, adding that many cybercrime operations headquartered in the border regions were destroyed by the ethnic armed alliances.

According to Swaran Singh, an international relations professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, Beijing has sought to distance itself from the junta over the years and has been "very cautious" lately given its concerns over telecoms fraud and online gambling.

"So what we see is cautious pragmatism determining China's engagement with Myanmar," Singh said.

In Beijing on Wednesday, Wang also met his Thai counterpart, Parnpree Bahiddha-Nukara, and again stressed the need to combat cybercrime.

"The two sides should maintain a stable and unimpeded system of production and supply chains, jointly crack down on transnational crimes such as online gambling, telecoms fraud and human trafficking, and push for new development of China-Thailand relations," Wang said, according to official news agency Xinhua.

Copyright (c) 2023. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

JOHN BIRCH SOCIETY REDUX
Sen. Mike Lee calls on the US to withdraw from the United Nations

Derick Fox

KTVX
Thu, December 7, 2023 



SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — Utah Sen. Mike Lee (R) introduced a bill to Congress on Wednesday, Dec. 6 which called for the complete withdrawal of the United States from the United Nations.

The bill, titled Disengaging Entirely from the United Nations Debacle (DEFUND) Act, would see the U.S. stop participating in U.N. peacekeeping operations including providing funding, personnel and equipment. it would also see diplomatic immunity in the U.S. revoked for U.N. employees and officers

The bill further prohibits the U.S. from re-entering an agreement with the U.N. without the consent and ratification of the Senate after it withdraws. In addition to a complete withdrawal from the United Nations, Lee’s DEFUND Act would also see the United States withdraw from the World Health Organization.

Lee said the DEFUND Act confronts “imperative issues” of national sovereignty and fiscal accountability.

Palestinian Authority working with US on postwar plan for Gaza - Bloomberg News

Reuters
Updated Fri, December 8, 2023 

Palestinians inspect the site of Israeli strikes in Khan Younis

(Reuters) -The Palestinian Authority is working with U.S. officials on a plan to run Gaza after the war is over, Bloomberg News reported, citing Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh.

The preferred outcome of the conflict would be for the Hamas militant group which controls Gaza to become a junior partner under the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), helping to build a new independent state that includes the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, Ramallah-based Shtayyeh said in an interview with Bloomberg News on Thursday.

"If they (Hamas) are ready to come to an agreement and accept the political platform of the PLO, then there will be room for talk. Palestinians should not be divided," Shtayyeh said, adding that Israel's aim to fully defeat Hamas is unrealistic.

Israel has vowed to wipe out Iran-backed Hamas after the Islamist militants attacked Israeli towns and villages on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and dragging about 240 hostages back into Gaza, according to Israel's count.

"The fact that this is what the Palestinian Authority is suggesting only reinforces my policy: the Palestinian Authority is not the solution," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a social media post in response to Shtayyeh's remarks.

More than 17,170 Palestinians have been killed and 46,000 wounded since Israel began bombarding Gaza in response to the cross-border rampage, according to the Gaza health ministry.

(Reporting by Baranjot Kaur in Bengaluru; Editing by Stephen Coates, William Maclean)

BACK TO PRE ROE

Missouri lawmakers propose allowing homicide charges for women who have abortions

DAVID A. LIEB and GEOFF MULVIHILL
Fri, December 8, 2023 

FILE - Abortion-rights supporters take part in a protest Thursday, May 30, 2019, in St. Louis. Some Republican state lawmakers have proposed a measure that would allow women who have abortions to be charged with homicide. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson, File) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)


JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Some Missouri lawmakers are renewing a call for the state to take an anti-abortion step that goes further than prominent anti-abortion groups want to go and that has not gained much traction in any state so far: a law that would allow homicide charges against women who obtain abortions.

Republicans in both the state House and Senate have introduced bills to be considered in the legislative session that begins next month to apply homicide laws on behalf of a victim who is an “unborn child at every stage of development.”

The bills would offer exceptions if the suspect is a woman who aborts a pregnancy after being coerced or threatened, or an abortion is provided by a physician to save the life of the pregnant woman.


“To me, it’s just about protecting a baby’s life like we do every other person’s life,” state Rep. Bob Titus, a first-term Republican who is sponsoring one of the measures, told The Associated Press. “The prosecution is just a consequence of taking an innocent human life.”

Titus said no charges would need to be brought under the bill, so long as people abide by the law already on the books that makes Missouri one of 14 states with bans in effect on abortions at all stages of pregnancy, with limited exceptions.

Titus said he has not discussed his bill with legislative leaders and did not base it on any model legislation, though it is aligned with a bill by Republican state Sen. Mike Moon, who represents the same area in southwestern Missouri.

Two groups are trying to get measures on ballots in Missouri in 2024 to legalize abortion in more cases. One would bar the government from infringing on abortion rights during the first 24 weeks of pregnancy. The other, being crafted by moderate Republicans, would scale back restrictions to a lesser degree.

Abortion-related measures could be before voters in several states next year. Since last year, voters have sided with abortion rights in all seven states where the questions have been on the ballot.

The abortion landscape in the U.S. has been shifting quickly since a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June 2022 overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling and ended a nationwide right to abortion.

Most Republican-controlled states have adopted bans or restrictions and most Democrat-run states have taken steps to protect access.

Prominent anti-abortion groups have generally opposed measures that would subject women who get abortions to charges.

Still, identical legislation was introduced earlier this year in Missouri and similar bills were introduced in 2023 in other states including Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Kentucky and South Carolina. None was advanced by a legislative committee.

The Kentucky measure died after it was opposed by the state's Republican attorney general and legislative leaders. At the time, GOP House Speaker David Osborne said the Republican majority in his chamber had never contemplated passing an abortion ban without any exceptions.

In South Carolina, more than 20 GOP lawmakers signed on as sponsors of a bill that would have classified abortion as homicide. As the bill garnered attention, several lawmakers withdrew their support. Lawmakers later adopted a ban on abortions when cardiac activity can be detected, generally around six weeks into a pregnancy – and often before women realize they are pregnant.

___

Mulvihill reported from Cherry Hill, New Jersey.

Missouri Republicans propose bills to allow murder charges for people who get abortions

Kacen Bayless
Fri, December 8, 2023





Reality Check is a Star series holding those in power to account and shining a light on their decisions. Have a suggestion for a future story? Email tips@kcstar.com.

Missouri Republican lawmakers are pushing a pair of bills that would allow for women to be charged with murder for getting an abortion in the state.

The pieces of legislation would give fetuses the same rights as human beings, which would allow for criminal charges to be filed against anyone who gets an abortion, helps someone get an abortion or provides abortion care in the state, which implemented a near-total ban on the procedure after last year’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

Republicans state Sen. Mike Moon from Ash Grove and state Rep. Bob Titus from Billings pre-filed the bills last Friday ahead of next year’s legislative session, which begins next month.

The bills, both called the “Abolition of Abortion in Missouri Act,” do not state explicitly whether getting an abortion in another state would be illegal. While abortion is banned in Missouri in nearly all circumstances, the procedure is still available in bordering states Kansas and Illinois.

The bills do allow for a “duress” defense if a woman is charged with murder for getting an abortion. They also do not allow for criminal charges for “lawful” medical procedures performed by a doctor and if an abortion is performed to save the patient’s life or if a doctor accidentally aborts a fetus during a life-saving procedure.

The Republican-led bills come as abortion rights advocates in Missouri try to get a measure restoring some form of abortion on the state ballot in 2024.

The legislation indicates that some Missouri Republicans are pushing forward on expanding the state’s near-total ban on abortion in the next legislative session even as the ban has been criticized for ushering in a chaotic and uncertain era for women and doctors.

While Missouri remains staunchly conservative, abortion rights remain popular. Polling conducted last year by Saint Louis University and British pollster YouGov showed that a majority of Missourians were in favor of some level of legal abortion and disagreed with the state’s ban on abortion.

“While the mainstream anti-abortion movement tries to publicly distance themselves from the politically and socially unpopular insistence to criminally punish people for accessing abortion care, these bills are a stepping stone for a small fringe group of extremists to intentionally criminalize people seeking abortions,” said Mallory Schwarz, the executive director of Abortion Action Missouri.

Schwarz, in a statement, pointed to a group called Abolish Abortion Missouri, which she said was behind the bills. This group, she said, “is also the source of threatening harassment targeted at abortion patients, providers, and Abortion Action Missouri clinic escorts on a daily basis.”

The bills, Schwarz said, create new ways to police people based on their pregnancy outcomes, arguing that “pregnant people around the country are being targeted, prosecuted, and jailed in instances of abortion and even miscarriages.”

If Missouri lawmakers approve Titus’ bill, it would go into effect if signed by Republican Gov. Mike Parson. Moon’s bill would have to be approved by Missouri voters.

Titus, in a phone interview, said the “taking of an innocent is the taking of innocent life,” arguing that the goal of his bill was not about punishing anybody. But, he said, “if you’re going to treat babies as humans and people then the penalties for taking an innocent life should be commensurate with that.”

“That a mother would take her own child’s life to me is unconscionable,” he said. “I’m not a mother but I have ten children and I value them greatly. It’s inconceivable that a mother would knowingly do that. If it’s not an act of murder, then what is it?”

Moon did not respond to calls and requests for comment on Thursday.

While advocates are pushing for an abortion rights proposal in 2024, they have not unified behind one version of the measure and face a tight deadline to get it on the ballot.

Both Republican-led bills will face a steep climb during this year’s legislative session as the state’s abortion ban faces intense criticism and has energized abortion rights supporters. They also don’t have the backing of at least one prominent anti-abortion lobbyist in Jefferson City, Sam Lee. One of the state’s top anti-abortion groups, Missouri Right to Life, also opposed a nearly identical bill from Moon last session.

“There is nothing pro-life whatsoever about legislation that would allow the death penalty for a woman who undergoes an abortion or any other person who performs an abortion on her,” Lee said in a text to The Star.

If the bills get committee hearings, Lee said, “we will vigorously testify against them and strongly urge other members of the legislature to vote them down.”

Moon, a hard-right senator, is known for his extreme and fringe views within the General Assembly, including comments this year suggesting that children as young as 12 should be able to get married as he pushed legislation that would ban gender-affirming care for minors.

With the upcoming 2024 election in November, the issue of abortion rights and the state’s ban on the procedure could be major flashpoints during next year’s legislative session which begins Jan. 3.

Another Republican, state Rep. Brian Seitz from Branson also pre-filed a bill that would give fetuses the same protections as human beings — but his bill does not explicitly address criminal actions.

Missouri Democrats have also pre-filed bills to repeal the state’s ban on abortion or to clarify that the ban does not affect access to birth control.