News
Publish date: March 31, 2015
News
Bellona is deeply disappointed with last week’s failure of the GCF to ban funding to fossil fuel projects. It acts to undermine the very objective of the fund, which is namely to make a significant and ambitious contribution to the global efforts towards attaining the goals set by the international community, within the framework of the UNFCCC, to combat climate change.
Director of Bellona Europa, Jonas Helseth, said: “Bellona strongly disapproves of any UN climate funding being directed towards the construction of unabated coal power plants as they lock in fossil emissions that go counter to global decarbonisation objectives. On the other hand, Bellona is pleased that the development of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technology is among the list of supported activities under the GCF. We would therefore ask that the Board takes steps to ensure that funding is granted only to coal plants equipped with CCS.”
An initial resource mobilisation effort for the fund began in June 2014. Following a formal pledge meeting in late November and at the Climate Summit in Lima, COP 20, a total of €9 billion was brought in. However, the outlook for the fund isn’t looking very bright, as only about 1% of the amount pledged has been delivered to date and the deadline for contributions was this week (March 30).
What is more, with the currently ambiguous rules on eligibility criteria, the resources made available by the fund are at risk of being channeled towards heavily polluting coal power plants.
Japan has already confirmed these fears by designating nearly €1 billion in loans for coal plants in Indonesia as ‘climate finance’, as reported by the Associated Press. Moreover, only last week, Japan added another €580 million in loans for coal plants in India and Bangladesh. To justify these actions, Japan claims that these projects qualify as ‘clean energy’ as they are less polluting than older coal-fired plants. China and Saudi Arabia also consider coal plants eligible under the fund and would oppose a prohibition of this.
Recent attacks on Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant "mark the beginning of a new and gravely dangerous front of the war," the UN atomic agency's director general said last week.
After years of inaction, Germany is working on its Carbon Management Strategy to resolve how CCS can play a role in climate action in industry. At the end of February, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action published first key points and a proposal to amend the law Kohlenstoffdioxid Speicherungsgesetz (KSpG). Bellona Deutschland, who was actively involved in the previous stakeholder dialogue submitted a statement in the association hearing.
In the midst of a global discussion on whether natural gas should be used as a transitional fuel and whether emissions from its extraction, production, transport and use are significantly less than those from other fossil fuels, Russia has developed ambitious plans to increase its own production of liquified natural gas (LNG) in the Arctic – a region with 75% of proven gas reserves in Russia – to raise its share in the international gas trade.
In this news digest, we monitor events that impact the environment in the Russian Arctic. Our main focus lies in identifying the factors that contribute to pollution risks and climate change.