Tim De Chant

The SBTi just published an evidence review that pretty comprehensively trashes carbon credits: "[V]arious types of carbon credits are ineffective in delivering their intended mitigation outcomes." "There could be clear risks to corporate use of carbon credits for the purposes of offsetting. This includes potential unintended effects of hindering the net-zero transformation and/or reducing climate finance." "All Tier A evidence challenge the legitimacy of offsetting claims, arguing that treating carbon credits as fungible with other sources, sinks, or reductions of emissions is inadvisable, illogical, or damaging to global mitigation goals." https://lnkd.in/eJfTuPyD

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Ideas for California Cap-and-Trade -- ClimateBrief: As CARB Readies New Cap-and-Trade Rule, Climate Experts Weigh in on Optimal Changes for California's Emissions Reduction Goals (CEB DailyNews piece - with free sign-up) https://lnkd.in/e9-wf55E

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An anti-greenwashing law in Canada compelled polluters to scrub misleading content from their websites. Could new bills in Pennsylvania and NY set an example for the United States? The new PA bill would amend the state’s Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law to “prohibit corporations from using deceitful and manipulative practices,” including references to terms like “net zero”, “low carbon,” and “cleaner energy,” as a means of “intentionally market[ing] their products in a manner that makes them appear to be better for the planet than they really are.” Pennsylvania’s bill is one of several new legislative efforts to tackle greenwashing across the globe. In June, the Canadian Parliament passed new amendments to the country’s Competition Act, which governs competition between businesses to protect Canadian consumers, by adding a new provision regulating environmental claims in advertising. The European Union is also moving closer to passing a package of directives designed to define and regulate greenwashing by businesses. A similar bill to PA's was just introduced in the New York State Senate yesterday. The efforts all aim to address a growing trend: as concerns about the companies’ increasing investments in oil and gas have gotten louder, so too has the volume of the industry’s “green” marketing claims. Troves of internal documents have revealed an industry-wide strategy to sell unproven technologies, like carbon capture and algae biofuels, and promote unsubstantiated climate pledges in order to sidestep demands to phase out fossil fuels. First Amendment scholars say there are also ways to tackle greenwashing at the federal level, despite likely legal challenges to a federal ban. “There’s no First Amendment protections for false and misleading advertising,” says Rebecca Tushnet, a First Amendment professor at Harvard Law School. Read more: https://lnkd.in/gcm8nKvv

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One of the things we do at Cipher News is turn a spotlight on quality reporting happening across the climate landscape. Here are a couple of pieces that I called out this week in our "Top Reads/Hot Takes." https://lnkd.in/eg_cHZmm In the pipeline construction business, private inspectors report safety concerns to developers, but there isn't sufficient enforcement that problems get fixed, according to an E&E News investigation. This excellent reporting exposing a "potentially deadly gap in the regulatory apparatus" is especially critical, reporter Mike Soraghan points out, because we're going to need lots more pipelines. https://lnkd.in/e4yj6bAj Salesforce's Marc Benioff and the World Economic Forum launched their goal to plant or conserve one trillion trees by 2030 at Davos in 2020. So far, the project is behind schedule, Sophie Alexander at Bloomberg reports. The number of trees pledged to the effort is less than 15% of the goal and 2.6 billion trees, less than 0.3% of what's needed, has been planted or conserved, according to admittedly imperfect records. Have a scroll through CipherNews.com to see what my other esteemed colleagues — Amy Harder, Amena H. Saiyid, Anca Gurzu and Bill Spindle —are reading and why.

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Books for summer’s extremes: 🔗 These books delve into summer’s climate-charged dark side https://lnkd.in/gPpUDc4c

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Over the last few years working on Engineering Matters, I've seen an astonishing array of technologies that can be used to cut carbon. The challenge doesn't seem to be coming up with clever new ideas. Rather, it's working out which of these ideas will offer the biggest wins, and be viable for engineering clients to implement. I think that says something about the human condition: we're good at ideas, less good at complex modelling and analysis. In this episode, written by Daniel Searle, we hear from two experts at Tarmac, Jessica Tuck and Tim Smith, who explain how they analyse and validate the carbon impact of new technology, and work with clients to consider carbon alongside cost, scope, and performance.

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Vermont has enacted a first-in-the-nation law that holds major fossil fuel companies financially responsible for the climate pollution associated with their products. The state's Climate Superfund Act became law on May 30 without Gov. Phil Scott's signature. The governor cited several concerns with the novel legislation, warning that “Taking on Big Oil should not be taken lightly.” In a statement responding to the law's enactment, the American Petroleum Institute criticized the law as a detriment to US economic and national security needs. “This punitive new fee represents yet another step in a coordinated campaign to undermine America’s energy advantage and the economic and national security benefits it provides,” API spokesman Scott Lauermann said. “Rather than work collaboratively with the industry to further our shared goal for a lower carbon future, state lawmakers opted to pass a bill designed by activists to further their own interests.” In passing the new law, proponents say Vermont is taking the first step in shifting some of the cost burden of responding and adapting to climate-related disasters from taxpayers and onto the corporate polluters whose products are driving climate breakdown. "It marks a new era in efforts to hold fossil fuel companies accountable through legislation as opposed to just through lawsuits,” said Elena Mihaly, an environmental attorney and vice president of Conservation Law Foundation’s Vermont office. More in my news story here https://lnkd.in/ej2ZZe_e

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We're at the halfway point of a critical decade for climate tech. The industry is about to be confronted by Trump 2.0 and is already besieged by sagging investments (last year saw an estimated $43 billion, down from more than $127 billion in 2022). To figure out which sectors will thrive and which will falter, Bloomberg Green spoke with a variety of investors and analysts. What's in? Curtailing AI's emissions and climate tech that doubles as national security tech. What's out? Green hydrogen and direct air capture. Read the full list of climate tech sectors to buy, sell and hold in 2025, with insights c/o Blair Pritchard, Dhanpal Jhaveri, Elta Koliou, Ernst Theodor Sack, Melvyn Yeo, Monica Varman, Rushad Nanavatty, Sarah Sclarsic, Sebastian Pollok, and Tien Nguyen.

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Airlines hope sustainable aviation fuel is the golden ticket for curbing emissions. While DOE recently committed big bucks to SAF and there are SAF tax credits, too, the market faces hurdles to scaling. Read more in The New York Times' Climate Forward newsletter: https://lnkd.in/e2krQmDz

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Just a little news to keep everyone focused. We've been saying 1.5C for a long time - repeating it over and over - but most scientists haven't considered 1.5C viable for a while. If you're still saying 1.5C, it's probably because you haven't updated your materials for quite a few years. 1.5C already makes life difficult. 2.0C is a real disaster. But most of the scientists surveyed for this piece think that even 2.0C is a pipedream. We talk about the sustainability transition as if its a house improvement project that we keep putting off. But it's not. It's a burning house that doesn't give a sh*t about our personal timelines. Remember also that on top of these scenarios is the additional warming that will result from fewer particulates in the air as we phase out fossil fuels (the dictionary definition of a "cruel irony"). We're seeing a little bit of that now as shipping starts to roll back sulphur emissions. Most of you already know this stuff, but - like an alcoholic trying to stay sober - it's helpful if we remind ourselves every day what the real nature of the problem is.

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I have a new analysis over at The Climate Brink exploring how rates of warming have changed over the past century: https://lnkd.in/gBNJNapw Post-1970, GHGs (CO2, CH4, etc.) would have led to just under 0.2C per decade, but falling aerosols (SO2) have increased that rate to 0.25C.

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𝗖𝗮𝗿𝗯𝗼𝗻- 𝗕𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻... 1. How will your sequestered carbon be measured or verified? 2. What methods will be used and when? 3. Who will pay for testing? 4. Does it include a no-reversal clause? Learn more from my conversation with Tiffany Dowell Lashmet. #carbon #carboncontracts #carbonsequestration https://lnkd.in/g4zq-PuN

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A new book urges a bottom-up approach to building a majority that favors climate action and an energy transition. There are aspects of the argument made by the author, David Spence of the University of Texas, that are very much in line with what I've observed from covering climate politics in the Midwest: https://lnkd.in/grQfxj7P

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The U.S. presidential election will affect climate policy. Here’s how to talk about it: 🔗 How to talk with (just about) anyone about climate and the 2024 elections https://lnkd.in/eCgWzqqF

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Check out the latest issue of the TS Digest for stories about gravitropism in plants, a (nearly) catastrophic conference presentation, a cilia close-up, and more. https://lnkd.in/eH6QUxdg

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DELTA CONSERVANCY: New Report Released on Delta Drought Response Pilot Program Report Focuses on Results from 2023 Water Year Press release from the Delta Conservancy: The Delta Conservancy has released a final report on outcomes of the 2023 Delta Drought Response Pilot Program, an experimental program that was launched in order to test drought-resistant field management practices in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Watershed. #Agriculture #Delta #DeltaDroughtResponsePilotProgram #Drought

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