Moderator: Lynn Price,Leader of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's China Energy Group
•Minimizing Methane emissions from the Oil and Gas Industry
Ben Ratner, Environmental Defense Fund
•California’s AB32
Danny Cullenward,Philomathia Fellow, Berkeley Energy and Climate Institute, UC Berkeley
•EU Carbon Policy in Action
Claudio Marcantonini, European University Institute,Florence/Fiesole,Italy
•Mexico’s New Energy Growth
Alejandro Poiré,Dean, Tecnológico de Monterrey
The Context: International Climate Negotiations
- Recently, the U.S.set a CO2 reduction target of 26-28% below 2005 levels by 2025
- The EU has pledged 40% below 1990 levels by 2030
- There will be an UNFCCC conference of parties (COP) meeting in Paris in December, where 2025 or 2030 targets for CO2 emissions reduction will be set. There and before, countries will put forward their Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs)
- This panel focuses on policy solutions from subnational to national and regional
Subnational policies: California’s Climate Policy (DannyCullenward)
- There is major disconnect between how people talk about climate policy in California, and what it is.
- Most casual observers believe CA’s climate policy centers on a carbon market.
- In reality, it is a strong suite of sector-based energy policies, which drives 70-80% of emissions reductions from “complementary policies”
- Leakage of emissions in CA’ssystem due to the complexity of regulating interstate electricity trade leads to effective carbon tax in the CA system, rather than a cap and trade program
- Lessons: transparency and governance at the sub-national level
- Governor’s new targets:50% RPS, double energy efficiency, half consumption of petroleum by 2030, as well as legislation codifying 2050 80% emissions reduction target in Senate
- In the United States, most movement has been via executive action,most notably the so-called “111d” rules for existing power plants.
- Open questions: what are the final rules? What will states do if they oppose the policy?
Methane Emissions from the Natural Gas Sector (Ben Ratner)
- Methane is a high global warming potential gas (GWP): 85x more potent than CO2 over 20 years
- January 2015: President announces national target to cut methane leakage emissions by 45%
- Leakage of methane occurs across the natural gas value chain
- EPA rules under the clean air act: Address major sources in upstream and midstream, in new and modified sources
- This is critical first step, need to see existing infrastructure included
- Based on tech today: can meet that goal, cost-effective
- EDF launched “methane detectors challenge”for low-cost, continuous detection
- ARPA-E MONITOR program ($30 million) expanding on this
Mexico’s Energy Policy (Alejandro Poiré)
- Goals: Copenhagen commitment, 50% emissions reduction by 2050
- Energy reforms are breakthrough from historical perspective: from state-centered industry to very liberalized industry
- Most people think that reform will hinder emissions reductions
- Several portions of the reform, including tax reform and price protections, have impacts on innovation and new market entrants
- Enthusiasm for clean energy has softened in Mexico due to shale oil exploitation
- Not much other policy has moved recently to support clean energy
- Next COP: Likely a continuation of the Copenhagen target, an additional new goal for non-fossil energy (35% by 2024)
The European Union (Claudio Marcantonini)
- New 2030 targets from European Commission (40% below 1990 levels by 2030)
- Goal: 80-95% by 2050
- To get to 2030, need to replicate 2020 policies (20% GHG reduction, 20% RE, 20% energy efficiency)
- Emissions trading scheme (price for emissions) is the largest GHG policy in world
- Current price is very low (6-7 Euro/ton)because of recession and overallocation of emissions
- Currently, there is a very honest debate about whether to: 1) keep the markets, 2) market is imperfect, do something to support the price
- EU has allocated many targets to member states, which makes it hard to build energy policies at European Level
- Environmental policies, such as cap and trade, needa majority to pass in the Commission, while carbon taxes are considered fiscal policies (need much larger majority in EC)