The EU makes a show of dominance as it battles China for global EV production leadership; Climate policy has created billions of clean energy investments so far in 2024.
Here are the major climate policy developments for this week:
- U.K. voters vote for change: For the first time in 14 years, the United Kingdom’s center-left Labour party ousted the Conservative majority in nationwide elections on July 4. New Prime Minister Keir Starmer ran on a promise to transition the UK into a “clean energy superpower,” pledging to invest in clean industries to reach zero-carbon electricity by 2030. Other goals associated with the new Labour government include imposing a Green Taxonomy and mandating corporate sustainability disclosures aligned with international standards and the TPT disclosure framework.
- Impacts of the Chevron doctrine have begun: Following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the so-called “Chevron deference,” the justices granted a request to reverse a lower court’s decision that supports the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) approval of a solar facility in Montana. The case is considered an important precedent setter moving forward in a post-Chevron U.S. The Supreme Court ordered the Washington D.C. Circuit Court to reconsider its decision to defer to FERC’s interpretation of policy — which led to the mandate that utility NorthWestern Energy buy power from the solar plant.
- Germany aims to integrate its renewable sector into larger marketplace: Germany decided to overhaul its renewable energy industry, providing power producers a one-time grant to support investments in renewable energy. Germany’s government is hoping the subsidy will reduce the renewable industry’s dependence upon the government.
- U.S. LNG production is back: A federal judge ordered that the US resume permitting liquified natural gas (LNG) facilities, after the Biden Administration paused the process to allow the government to analyze the impact LNG production and exportation has on climate change, national security, and the economy. The Louisiana judge ruled that the administration cannot halt projects involving LNG production while a 16-state legal challenge makes it way through federal court.
- The European Union is officially imposing additional tariffs on electric cars built in China, increasing current duties in place from 10 percent to 38 percent. Driven by the EU’s desire to level the playing field against Chinese automakers, the increase comes one month after the United States announced that it would impose new tariffs on Chinese EVs. Some European auto manufacturers worry that additional tariffs will actually increase production costs, as many are dependent upon China for both exports and imports in the domestic marketplace. Some experts worry that the tariffs will increase prices for domestic EVs, leading consumers and constituents to continue to prioritize gasoline-powered vehicles.
- Global clean energy spending is expected to surpass $2 trillion in 2024, according to new predictions from the International Energy Agency, thanks in part to U.S. legislation such as the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. The World Energy Investment report states that BIL and IRA catalyzed large leaps in clean energy investments funding for low-emissions electricity totaled $76 billion from 2021 to 2023 before leaping to $94 billion in 2024 so far. “For every $1 going to fossil fuels today, almost $2 are invested in clean energy,” said Fatih Birol, executive director at IEA.
- In the wake of a report from Bloomberg revealing that American regulators blocked an effort to focus international financial rules on climate risk, 19 Democratic senators and representatives called on financial institutions to do more to combat the climate crisis. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) and Rep. Sean Casten (Ill.) led the coalition to write a letter to the Federal Reserve, Office of the Currency and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation that stated, “The United States’ lack of progress and innovation in establishing robust measures to address the financial and economic risks from climate change places us behind out international peers and is counterproductive to American interests.”
- Policymakers and utilities agree that the establishment of a region-wide electricity trading market in the Western U.S. would enable the sharing of clean energy resources and reduced power costs, but incorporating California’s massive clean energy demand is a major obstacle. California is a member of the West-Wide Governance Pathways Initiative alongside Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington, a group meant to create a shared regional electricity market that would expand access to clean energy produced in each state by creating a trade network. While all parties across the five states agree on the utility of the regional marketplace, they can’t agree on a market structure that works for each state’s individual energy goals. Initial proposals were submitted last month, but it will likely take years to agree upon a final model.