ClimeCo Partners with Enaleia to Establish a Verra Plastic Collection Project in Kenya
NEWS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE DISTRIBUTION CONTACT Nancy Marshall, Vice President, Marketing +1 484.415.7603 or nmarshall@climeco.com
ClimeCo Partners with Enaleia to Establish a Verra Plastic Collection Project in Kenya
Boyertown, Pennsylvania (September 14, 2022) –ClimeCo, a leader in the management and development of environmental commodities, has partnered with Enaleia to remove plastic pollution from vital fishing areas. Enaleia is a non-profit that engages coastal communities to collect plastic on land and in the ocean to reduce pollution and improve marine biodiversity conservation. This partnership will support Enaleia’s newest project in Kenya, contributing to the generation of plastic credits through Verra. With additional funding from ClimeCo and the sale of the credits, Enaleia estimates they will collect 1,000-3,000 tonnes of plastic annually in Kenya.
“A plastic credit is an environmental commodity that represents the collection or recycling of one tonne of plastic material, which can be used in companies’ ESG, CSR, and sustainability programs,” says Chris Parker, ClimeCo’s Director of Plastic Program. “Our approach is to create a system solution to the ocean plastic challenge.”
Enaleia, along with other professional entities that are experts in sustainable development, are collaborating with ClimeCo and the Kwale Recycling Center in Kenya to make sure that the plastic will not only be collected but also integrated into the circular economy.
The Kenya project supports over 350 fishers in Kwale County by empowering them to collect abandoned nets, gear, and marine litter. This number will increase to 800 people from the coastal communities in the following months. The waste is then taken to Kwale Recycling Center, a local collection and recycling company that transports and processes it into useful materials and products.
“Through the plastic credit model, we can set up large-scale plastic cleanup projects that can create a real impact on our oceans,” says Lefteris Arapakis, Enaleia’s Co-Founder and Director. “Taking into consideration that around 20% of ocean plastic is lost fishing gear, by empowering the fishing communities at this scale, we can not only clean up significant amounts of plastic but also prevent further ocean plastic pollution.”
This project incentivizes and encourages the fishing community to use more sustainable fishing practices, including the reduction of overfishing by pausing and limiting their fishing activities while collecting plastic. It also provides a supplemental source of income to an area experiencing some of the highest poverty rates in the country.
To learn more about plastic credits and this project, contact us.
About ClimeCo
ClimeCois a respected global advisor, transaction facilitator, trader, and developer of environmental commodity market products and related solutions. We specialize in voluntary carbon, regulated carbon, renewable energy credits, plastics credits, and regional criteria pollutant trading programs. Complimenting these programs is a team of professionals skilled in providing sustainability program management solutions and developing and financing of GHG abatement and mitigation systems.
About Enaleia
Enaleia is a non-profit social enterprise tackling two directly related problems for the marine environment: the reduction of fish stocks and plastic sea pollution. Its mission is to make the marine ecosystem sustainable by tackling overfishing and plastic pollution. Enaleia teaches fishing practices that preserve local fish populations and remove the mounds of plastic that pollute the world’s seas, adapting the fishing industry for a green future.
ClimeCo Partners with Aclymate, a Software Solution for Small Businesses Interested in Making Climate Impacts
NEWS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE DISTRIBUTION CONTACT Nancy Marshall, Vice President, Marketing +1 484.415.7603 or nmarshall@climeco.com
ClimeCo Partners with Aclymate, a Software Solution for Small Businesses Interested in Making Climate Impacts
Boyertown, Pennsylvania (September 8, 2022) – ClimeCo, a global company that focuses on developing and trading environmental commodities and advising clients on sustainability and emerging environmental markets, announces a partnership with Aclymate.
Aclymate is a web-based application solution for small and medium-sized businesses that desire to address their climate footprint but are otherwise unable to do so in a practical or economical manner. They offer users a robust, intuitive, and friendly way to transform their best climate intentions into climate action so that any business can become a climate leader.
“There are more than 30 million small businesses in the United States alone. Small business owners are passionate about being part of the solution to environmental problems,” says Derek Six, Chief Operating Officer at ClimeCo. “Still, there were not any affordable and effective tools for these business owners to begin their sustainability journey. Aclymate empowers small businesses, and ClimeCo is excited to support this effort.”
Aclymate provides carbon footprint and certification services to smaller companies at a cost-effective price, allowing them to show their customers, employees, and stakeholders that they are taking action in the fight against climate change.
“I have been fortunate to know a great many players in carbon markets, and I can say, unequivocally, that Derek and the ClimeCo team are amongst the best,” says Mike Smith, CEO of Aclymate. “I am very excited about this partnership and how we can bring the power of ClimeCo to the small and medium-sized business space.”
ClimeCo will participate on the Board of Directors and support Aclymate in maintaining a great selection of high-quality offset projects. This collaboration will provide Aclymate’s clients with expanded services, including expert ESG Advisory from ClimeCo. The partnership will also strengthen Aclymate’s carbon accounting and carbon offset offerings to a market segment that is generally underserved.
About ClimeCo
ClimeCo is a respected global advisor, transaction facilitator, trader, and developer of environmental commodity market products and related solutions. We specialize in voluntary carbon, regulated carbon, renewable energy credits, plastics credits, and regional criteria pollutant trading programs. Complimenting these programs is a team of professionals skilled in providing sustainability program management solutions and developing and financing of GHG abatement and mitigation systems.
For more information or to discuss how ClimeCo can drive value for your organization, contact us at +1 484.415.0501, info@climeco.com, or through our website climeco.com. Be sure to follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter using our handle, @ClimeCo.
About Aclymate
Aclymate empowers small and medium-sized businesses to become Climate Leaders. With no special knowledge required, our customers can determine their emissions footprint in under 10 minutes per month, find ways to reduce their impact, and offset what cannot be eliminated – all leading to our Climate Leader certification. For more information or to sign up for a free consultation, please go to aclymate.com.
The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022: Tipping the Scale Toward Clean Energy
NEWS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE DISTRIBUTION CONTACT Nancy Marshall, Vice President, Marketing 484.415.7603 or nmarshall@climeco.com
The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022: Tipping the Scale Toward Clean Energy
Boyertown, Pennsylvania (August 30, 2022) – Sweeping legislation signed into law this month by President Biden will allow for unprecedented investments to decarbonize the nation’s economy. The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) earmarks the bulk of its $490 billion spending on clean energy and climate change mitigation initiatives.
Combined with other recent spending bills, the U.S. government is set to begin a period of transformative investments. The Rocky Mountain Institute, a clean energy think tank, notes that the combined bills will more than triple annual real federal spending compared with recent years, which was already elevated from levels of the 1990s and early 2000s.
While the IRA is far from perfect, advocates say it provides extraordinary opportunities for the conservation of our nation’s lands and waterways and includes significant resources for restoring wildlife habitats and forests.
The legislation is expected to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to approximately 40%, compared to 2005-levels, by 2030. Without enactment of the IRA, the U.S. was on course to reduce its GHG emissions to only 26%, compared to 2005-levels, over this period, according to an analysis from the World Economic Forum.
For the U.S. to reach its emissions-reduction targets, it’s imperative that we begin to take action across the entire technology adoption curve. This means exploring:
Existing technologies that are ready for market but not deployed.
Solutions that require some further development to be market ready.
Technologies that are only prototypes and need significant development.
Importantly, IRA resources will focus on the most hard-to-abate industrial sectors, such as electric power generation.
As widely reported, the IRA is projected to drive significant emissions reductions in the electric power sector. To a certain extent, this can lower production emissions in steel, cement, and other carbon-intensive industries. However, practical options to capture carbon from industrial processes and traditional energy production require substantial investment to help meet climate goals. The IRA addresses these challenges by creating incentives through a system of grants, loans, and tax credits, including making certain existing credits larger and more durable.
Here are a few key IRA provisions for companies and investors to be aware of:
Changes to 45Q, the existing tax credit for carbon capture and storage (CCS), make it more profitable and easier to access. Companies will be able to earn $85 for every metric ton of CO2 sequestered, rather than $50/ton previously. (The amount earned is less if the CO2 is buried during oil extraction.) The timeline is more favorable too. Previously, a company had to start building capture equipment by 2026. Now it’s 2033. The IRA also significantly lowers the minimum capture requirement.
Methane emissions are an urgent issue for many industries, as this type of emission is far more potent than carbon dioxide and hard to detect. For the oil and gas industry, investments in methane detection and a first-time federal fee on methane emissions will amplify existing initiatives within industry to tackle this problem. The IRA also funds grants, rebates, loans, and other assistance to facilities subject to the methane fee for a variety of measures, including adding or improving equipment and processes that reduce methane emissions.
Other long-term tax credits include clean hydrogen fuel development, direct-air-capture deployment, and advanced nuclear projects for heavy industry.
By driving down the cost of clean energy and other climate solutions, this approach may make it easier for companies and local governments to increase their climate ambitions.
Regardless of your business’s sector, you will feel the impact of the IRA and related legislation. As the landscape shifts, companies and investors should factor an increasing rate of technological and systems change into their future plans.
Deep decarbonization is complex work that requires a diverse set of policy, legal, technology, and market solutions. Forthcoming investments by the U.S. government seek to put the country on a net-zero pathway. Importantly, investors and corporations have many tools available to assess their pathways to net-zero.
Since our founding, ClimeCo has been a leading transformation partner to companies, investors, and governments pursuing a low-carbon future. As a vertically integrated sustainability solutions provider, we have enabled our clients to go beyond business as usual. By developing frontier technology- and nature-based carbon-reduction projects, transacting voluntary and compulsory environmental credits, and advising on climate risk and disclosure, our team is dedicated to implementing decarbonization pathways tailored to our clients’ specific sectors, business models, and balance sheets.
Please get in touch with us if you want to learn more about our:
Complete range of ESG Advisory solutions that help companies improve readiness and resilience in the ever-changing regulatory environment.
Project Development capabilities around high-quality carbon projects that feature strong engagement with our project partners, local stakeholders, carbon registries, and credit buyers.
Environmental Credit offerings from projects we develop and projects we invest in.
About ClimeCo
ClimeCo is a respected global advisor, transaction facilitator, trader, and developer of environmental commodity market products and related solutions. We specialize in voluntary carbon, regulated carbon, renewable energy credits, plastics credits, and regional criteria pollutant trading programs. Complimenting these programs is a team of professionals skilled in providing sustainability program management solutions and developing and financing of GHG abatement and mitigation systems.
For more information or to discuss how ClimeCo can drive value for your organization, contact us at 484.415.0501, info@climeco.com, or through our website climeco.com. Be sure to follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter using our handle, @ClimeCo.
Dispatches from the Nature-Based Solutions Conference
Dispatches from the Nature-Based Solutions Conference
Site visit by ClimeCo at a reforestation project in Louisiana
Nature-based solutions (NBS) are an important part of the work we do at ClimeCo, and they are a growing sector of carbon markets. NBS are defined as actions that restore, manage, and protect natural habitats for societal benefit, including mitigation and adaptation to the effects of climate change. These activities, such as reforestation, peatland rewetting, or grassland management, have received extensive media coverage in recent years and months as they play an increasingly important role in many corporate and national climate plans. Successful NBS projects have the potential to achieve a trifecta of climate, community, and biodiversity benefits, while poorly designed projects are rightfully criticized as a step backward for climate goals, human rights, and ecosystem health.
With this context in mind, I attended the Nature-based Solutions Conference in Oxford, UK, in July 2022, hosted by researchers at the Nature-based Solutions Initiative. Held in the beautiful Oxford University Museum of Natural History, the conference attracted a wide range of researchers, policymakers, activists, NGO members, and practitioners. Sessions addressed topics such as the global status and criticisms of NBS, inclusive project governance and narratives, improved biodiversity outcomes, the economics of NBS, and applications for urban environments.
I learned a lot from the speakers, whose presentations addressed the conference’s central question: “How can we ensure that NBS support thriving human and ecological communities?” In this blog, I summarize and share the key messages I took home from this conference. Bodleian Library, Oxford University
Key Takeaways
Concern for Low-Quality NBS
With careful planning and consideration, NBS projects can provide powerful, sustainable, and cost-effective benefits to their host communities. Unfortunately, a number of low-quality NBS projects around the world have failed in recent decades. These failures are almost always due to protocols with inadequate provisions for permanence and additionality or a lack of robust safeguards of human rights and biodiversity.
The conference explored numerous concerns surrounding low-quality NBS, primarily those voiced by Indigenous and local communities regarding projects that have caused and perpetuated human rights abuses. These include land tenure injustice, displacement of people and livelihoods, and denial of community access to natural resources. This sort of project is often characterized by a top-down design without the active participation of the local community, prioritization of western value systems, and a lack of transparency or long-term monitoring requirements. Low-quality projects often result in ecosystem failures due to inappropriate species selection or project location or the establishment of monoculture plantations without regard for local biodiversity.
An additional concern voiced at the conference was that NBS not be used in greenwashing schemes by polluters to replace decarbonization efforts. While ecosystems play an important role in climate change mitigation and adaptation, they are not capable of compensating for delayed emissions reductions in other sectors. Speakers also highlighted the moral hazard of entities from the Global North who might seek to export the responsibility and the work of decarbonization to the Global South.
These concerns are critically important for improving NBS project outcomes. The conference’s primary focus was on how to address these concerns and included many examples of current best practices from around the world.
Tradeoffs, Inclusive Project Design and Governance, and Narratives
While many NBS projects generate desirable co-benefits or “win-win” results for society and biodiversity, projects may also generate tradeoffs that create tension between competing project goals. For example, biophysical tradeoffs might occur if a project prioritizes one ecosystem service at the expense of another. Social tradeoffs might occur between stakeholders with different cultural or spiritual valuations of nature or between those with scientific knowledge and those with Indigenous knowledge. Project developers must acknowledge and mitigate these tradeoffs in partnership with local stakeholders to account for the full range of project impacts.
One strong message from the conference was the critical role that Indigenous and local community members must play in all stages of NBS projects and the importance of free, prior, and informed consent. Numerous speakers pointed out that many Indigenous groups have traditionally implemented successful NBS within their own communities, and their knowledge can fill critical gaps in scientific understanding. The inclusion of these groups from the design to the implementation to the monitoring stage of a project is not only a basic indicator of respect but can also tangibly improve project outcomes.
Indigenous and community leaders from numerous countries, including Zambia, China, Tanzania, Peru, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, presented case studies illustrating successful NBS outcomes in their communities. These presentations called for projects to distribute benefits equitably among community members, ensure a living wage, and create sources of long-term finance controlled by the local community. Finally, the speakers emphasized the critical importance of land tenure for Indigenous peoples.
ClimeCo meeting indigenous workers at a mangrove reforestation project in Indonesia
How to Prioritize and Adequately Represent Biodiversity
Another conference theme was the need for better metrics of biodiversity, so that progress can be adequately represented in project designs and monitoring plans. Speakers highlighted several scientific and technological advances, such as ecosystem DNA and high-resolution carbon mapping tools, which would facilitate project area prioritization and robust biodiversity assessment if implemented at scale.
However, some speakers quickly pointed out that “technology is not the solution. We are the solution.” In this vein, multiple speakers recommended that biodiversity monitoring plans utilize community monitoring approaches, including input from local and Indigenous groups regarding biodiversity metric selection.
Mangrove nursery managed and developed by the local community near the reforestation site Creating High-Quality NBS
The conference delivered a crystal-clear message that projects that do not include robust provisions for human rights and biodiversity do not fall under the umbrella of the NBS term.
To avoid the pitfalls of low-quality projects, reputable carbon offset registries have developed meaningful standards for additionality and permanence and protocols that include protections for human rights and biodiversity. The most important feature of these protocols is that registries update them when a loophole is identified. Although these updates require months or even years to go into effect, this process allows registries to enforce ever-evolving concepts of “best practice.” For this reason, carbon offsets generated using the protocols of reputable registries, such as the Climate Action Reserve, Verra, the American Carbon Registry, and Gold Standard, are categorically distinct from low-quality offsets.
Regardless of protocol requirements, project developers are responsible for designing projects that adhere to best practices and meaningfully address the concerns of Indigenous and local stakeholders. Within the voluntary carbon market, project developers and carbon credit end-users must be able to recognize the indicators of a high-quality project and must be selective in the projects they choose to support.
ClimeCo’s NBS Approach
As offset project developers, the ClimeCo team always listens for new perspectives on best practices. We believe that NBS projects have enormous potential when they are designed carefully to empower and give voice to local communities. As sustainability advisors, we also feel a keen responsibility to help clients decarbonize wherever possible. Our ESG Advisory team provides many services essential to clients at any stage of their decarbonization journey. We encourage the use of offsets to address emission sources that are difficult or impossible to abate as a part of a larger decarbonization plan.
Most importantly, we understand there is no one-size-fits-all approach to NBS project development. We are grateful for each opportunity to earn a community’s trust and seek partners who share our accountability and responsible stewardship values. ClimeCo’s Dr. Scott Subler observing freshly planted Bald Cypress saplings
Conclusion
I left the conference inspired by the incredible work being done worldwide to improve the implementation of NBS. ClimeCo will continue to listen and apply the guidance and feedback of the global NBS community, and I cannot wait to see the good our projects can do. ClimeCo is committed to informing you of new information discovered as we continue to explore in-depth NBS concerns. We welcome comments or questions surrounding this topic.
Anyone interested in watching conference sessions can access recordings and PDFs of presentations on the conference website (I recommend Session 4 and Session 9A). For those curious to see examples of high-quality projects, the Nature-based Solutions Initiative’s organizers directed us to their Case Study Platform, a map-based tool with over 100 examples of projects from around the world that meet the researchers’ quality standards.
About the Author
Emily Romano is a Project Manager at ClimeCo based in San Francisco. Within Project Development, she applies a background in climate, ecosystem, and soil science to her work managing NBS projects. She holds a Master of Science in Environmental Science and Policy from Northern Arizona University and a Bachelor of Science in Geology from Syracuse University.
State Climate Policy Trends: Action Amidst Federal Inaction
State Climate Policy Trends: Action Amidst Federal Inaction
On June 30th, the Supreme Court ruled in the case of West Virginia vs. the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that federal agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), have limited regulatory powers unless they have the explicit authority from Congress, otherwise known as the “major questions doctrine.” This decision limits the executive branch’s power to allow federal agencies to regulate significant economic and political issues. In this case, it limits the EPA’s power to regulate emissions reductions from power plants under the Clean Air Act. However, the decision made on the premises of the “major questions doctrine” will trickle down to all federal agencies’ regulatory operations that have been granted through executive power. Concerning climate change policy, this means the EPA is paralyzed from taking country-wide actions on emissions reductions until Congress gives the EPA regulatory authority. While some states have already been implementing emissions reduction regulations, this Supreme Court decision will necessitate states taking their own leadership roles in climate change policy.
States Are Taking the Lead
At the time of this writing, the U.S. Congress is split on how to address climate change: it’s either through Congress-approved regulatory action or through a neutral approach, where emissions reductions are driven by industry-led initiatives. As a result, the onus falls on the individual states to develop emission reduction frameworks that align with their political, economic, and environmental realities. There have always been states, like California, that have been at the forefront of climate action in the U.S., though there has been a recent uptick in new, state-level climate action, despite the mosaic of political and environmental positions existing throughout the U.S.
The emerging state-level approaches vary from general, all-encompassing, state-wide environmental climate action plans to more focused actions, such as those that singularly promote the build-out of carbon capture and storage (CCS). State-level climate action, through differing approaches, attempts to fill the holes in climate policy and abdication of regulatory authority at the federal level. At a high level, the key actions being taken can be broken down into four policy categories: State Action Plans, Carbon Pricing Systems, Low Carbon Products, and CCS and Class VI Well Primacy.
State Policy Categories: A Primer
To better understand the actions being taken and the implications they may have on your business, we will walk through the four policy categories below.
1. State-Wide Environmental Action Plans: State-wide environmental action plans are the overarching climate policy and strategy toolkits that can be used to reduce emissions and achieve sustainable environmental outcomes. Within these plans, states often include their climate goals, emissions reduction targets, and emissions baselines to ensure the policy and strategy toolkit is utilized to meet these targets. A typical toolkit may include a state’s environmental action plan, along with policies such as carbon pricing systems, greenhouse gas (GHG) reporting regulations, clean fuel standards, low carbon product bid-preference, energy efficiency requirements, and carbon capture and storage (CCS) deployment regulations. Multiple states have committed to environmental action plans with mid-century emissions reduction targets. Most recently, Maryland passed an environmental action plan under the Climate Solutions Now Act of 2022. Maryland has committed to being carbon neutral by 2045, with an interim goal of reducing GHG emissions by 60% by 2030, compared to 2006 emissions levels. Maryland’s Department of the Environment is required to submit a draft environmental action plan by June 30, 2023, along with the policy and strategy toolkit the state will be using to meet the 2030 and 2045 targets.
2. Carbon Pricing Systems: Carbon pricing systems are one of the most effective and efficient emissions reduction policies within the policy and strategy toolkit that are available to states. Carbon pricing systems internalize the economic cost of pollution and provide incentives to industries, governments, and individuals to reduce their carbon emissions. The two most popular systems are a carbon tax and a cap-and-trade system. A carbon tax sets a price per tonne of CO2 emitted that is paid by all participants of the economy. A cap-and-trade system sets a cap on emissions for industries and businesses within covered sectors but allows for individual flexibility through the development of emission trading schemes. Washington state is currently finalizing its rulemaking processes for the Climate Commitment Act, which requires the enactment of a cap-and-trade program (known as cap-and-invest) on January 2023. The rulemaking includes provisions for setting the emissions cap, setting price floors and ceilings on allowances, GHG reporting, establishing emissions-intensive-trade-exposed criteria for industries vulnerable to international and inter-state trading, and establishing carbon offset usage rules.
3. Low Carbon Products: In an attempt to incentivize new technological innovation, some states have introduced and passed low carbon product procurement policies. These types of policies provide a bid preference for businesses that have reduced the embodied carbon emissions associated with producing the product. Other policies include the promotion of industrial recycling through regulation. The state of California is currently in the process of passing Senate Bill 1297 (SB 1297), which requires public agencies in the state to provide preference to low-embodied carbon building materials where feasible and cost-effective for public projects.
4. Carbon Capture and Storage, and Class VI Well Primacy: While perhaps the most inequitable policy category due to the availability of geological storage in different states, CCS regulations have the potential to lead to the greatest emissions reductions through the geological storage or utilization of industrial CO2. Storing CO2 in the Earth is predicated by the need for a Class VI well permit, which is issued by the EPA (federal jurisdiction). Class VI wells are used to inject CO2 into deep rock formations. In an effort to support the build out of CCS in the U.S., the EPA has created a process to transfer permitting authority to states, thereby reducing administrative burden and improving efficiency. The current Class VI well landscape across the U.S. is fragmented due to the varied control over carbon sequestration rights, or ‘primacy’ over Class VI wells. Primacy identifies whether the Federal or State Government has enforcement authority over Class VI wells permitting. The vast majority of Class VI wells are under the direction of the U.S. EPA and follow a lengthy application process. As companies increasingly discuss and mobilize resources for CCS, the administrative burden on the U.S. EPA grows in parallel. The U.S. EPA lacks the staff and resource capacity necessary to take on a large number of Class VI well applications, which are necessary to sequester CO2 in deep saline aquifers. For this reason, while states are developing regulations and action plans for CCS deployment and sequestration, they are also active in the primary enforcement application process with the U.S. EPA to take primacy over regulating Class VI wells within their state. To receive primacy over Class VI wells, the state must align its standards with the EPA. Class VI primacy is an enabling action that will support the rapid and widespread deployment of CCS throughout the United States.
Conclusion
In the absence of federal authority on climate change regulation, 24 states and the District of Columbia are establishing emissions reduction targets and implementing a plethora of emission reduction initiatives. While one of the most effective policies for reducing emissions is a carbon pricing system, the adoption of regulated carbon markets in the U.S. has been slow.
As states contemplate policy action to reduce the effects of climate change, it elevates the growing need for support of different technological, industrial, and nature-based policy solutions. With properly designed policies, states can support the deployment of CCS solutions and increase acceptance and demand for low carbon products, both of which have significant emission reduction potential.
ClimeCo has vast experience in a wide array of emission reduction initiatives and actively monitors developments throughout the U.S. Please contact us if you want to learn more about our Policy Team’s complete range of services that help companies improve readiness and resilience in the ever-changing regulatory environment.
Update Note: On July 27th, Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) announced a deal to pass a budget reconciliation bill that would include $369 billion in spending towards climate and energy policies. Most of the incentives from this package are long-term tax credits, which include relief for clean hydrogen fuel development, direct-air-capture deployment, and advanced nuclear projects for heavy industry. Other tax credits are provided for renewable projects in the energy economy, new EV purchases, and residential retrofits for heating, cooling, and power. However, this announcement, as it stands, continues a federal trend to take a bottom-up approach to climate change, which leaves the states taking the regulatory lead on climate change.
About the Authors
Wilson Fong is an Associate on ClimeCo’s Sustainability, Policy, and Advisory team, based in Calgary, Alberta. Wilson collaborates with corporate clients to navigate the complexities of carbon markets, model their carbon position, and advise them on emission reduction strategies. He holds a Master of Global Business and Master of Science in International Business from the University of Victoria and Montpellier Business School.
Braeden Larson is a Policy Analyst on ClimeCo’s Sustainability, Policy, and Advisory team, based in Calgary, Alberta. Braeden supports the tracking and analysis of carbon policies throughout North America. He holds a Master of Public Policy from the University of Calgary and a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) with a major in Politics from Acadia University.