Olympic heat, electrify the federal fleet, and Israel puts a price on carbon
The newsletter for independent thinkers on carbon and climate.
(source: Tokyo Olympics)
Issue No.85
Welcome to the latest issue of Carbon Creed - a curated newsletter for independent thinkers on carbon and climate.
Athletes are not the only ones setting Olympic records in Tokyo.
The 2021 Summer Olympics come to a close today, and it has been one for the record books. But not just on the track and field.
Punishing heat greeted athletes and officials in Tokyo as a trackside thermometer touched 40 degrees Celsius (104°F) and the humidity hovered around 60%, with sun beating down on an Olympic Stadium devoid of spectators due to COVID-19.
(source: Reuters)
Rising temperatures could change the Summer Olympics as we know it, leaving only 41 cities in the Northern Hemisphere, outside of western Europe, cool enough to safely host the Games by 2085.
Outside of Western Europe, based on the strictest risk criteria – a less than 10 per cent chance of the event being cancelled due to heat – only eight of 543 cities would meet the low-risk category, while an additional 33 would be classified as medium risk. The remaining 502 cities would be classified as high-risk.
These unprecedented Olympic games have been like no other, and not just because of the pandemic. We are witnessing the new normal of living on a warming planet. Unless global leaders take immediate steps to mitigate the climate crisis, expect more Olympic records - in temperature.
We’ll keep you posted on the latest carbon policy and market insights as they happen.
If you have an opinion on any topic covered in this newsletter, please feel free to send me an email at mcleodwl@carboncreed.com.
Thank you for your viewpoint and the value of your time.
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NOW, LET’S GO DEEP!
QUOTES
Climate quotes and sayings that will inspire you
(source: Flicker)
“When all the trees have been cut down,
when all the animals have been hunted,
when all the waters are polluted,
when all the air is unsafe to breathe,
only then will you discover you cannot eat money.”
- Cree Prophecy
“Joy and sorrow are like rain; they fall on everybody’s roof.” -Sierra Leonean proverb
“The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.” - Isaac Asimov
FEDERAL POLICY
(source: Car and Driver)
The Case for Building a Federal EV Fleet
If President Joe Biden’s administration is going to replace the entire federal vehicle fleet with fully electric vehicles, as promised, it will need trucks and vans — lots of them.
An analysis of Uncle Sam’s garage found an aging, expensive crush of big rigs — some 645,000 vehicles in all, almost two-thirds of which are trucks. Another 9% of the fleet is vans and buses. If U.S. automakers want to cash in on a federal fleet overhaul, they would be wise to accelerate efforts to electrify their largest models; none of these large models has been electrified — at least not at scale.
The U.S. Postal Service accounts for slightly more than one in three federal vehicles and almost all of its rigs are trucks. The government solicited bids for a new mail-hauling machine six years ago and has yet to name a winner. If the Biden administration wants to make quick progress on its blanket electric vehicle policy goal, a plug-in postal truck seems like a must.
Not only are the government’s rigs big and thirsty, they are tired. The average fed-mobile is almost 15 years old, three years more senior than the typical car or truck on U.S. roads (the mail trucks are particularly creaky; nearly 22 years old, on average). What’s more, taxpayers are paying about $1 per mile for these machines. Of the $4.4 billion the government spends on vehicles each year, nearly half of that goes to fuel and maintenance.
Ironically, government vehicles aren’t used incessantly. While the average U.S. driver logs almost 14,000 miles a year, most federal agencies average well less than 10,000 miles per vehicle. The Postal Service, for example, covers 1.3 billion miles a year — twice as much as any other agency. Though, that breaks down to less than 6,000 miles per rig. What’s more, the miles are on predictable schedules and involve a minimum of 600 stops, a work pattern that drastically improves the economic case for an electric fleet.
For now, the government has just 3,215 electric vehicles, mostly owned by the Navy. As slow as the private sector in the U.S. has been to adopt EVs, federal car shoppers have been slower. Biden is stomping on the accelerator, though time will tell how the machine responds.
[This post was adapted from the original written by Kyle Stock for Bloomberg]
Creed Comments: On Thursday, President Joe Biden announced that by 2030, half of all new cars and light trucks should be zero-emissions vehicles—a mix of battery-electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid EVs, and hydrogen fuel cell EVs. A key omission from the announcement was a plan to phase-out ICE vehicles within the federal government. To achieve the ambitious goals the Biden team has set for the nation, they must lead by example. Decarbonize the federal vehicle fleet!
MARKETS
Israel Approves Carbon Pricing on Greenhouse Gas Emissions
(source: Nati Shohat/Flash90)
The Israeli government approved an unprecedented measure this week that would charge companies for the environmental and economic damage caused by their carbon dioxide emissions. The mechanism, widely known as a carbon pricing scheme, was praised by environmental activists, but they noted that the funds collected would go to the state treasury rather than to fighting climate change or welfare.
Carbon pricing is meant to solve a market failure created when the polluter is not the one who pays for the damage caused by the greenhouse gas emissions. Experts say that a carbon tax makes allocating economic resources more efficient, as it targets the source of the pollution and encourages awareness of its effects in manufacturers and consumers. This in turn creates an economic incentive to switch to renewable energy.
Carbon pricing is considered to be the most efficient way to encourage the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank have stated that it is the most effective tool to promote meeting targets for curbing climate change, and for several years, the OECD has been recommending that the Israeli government tax carbon emissions. Many of the countries signed on the Paris climate agreement have already implemented such measures.
Environmental activists say that the main problem with the newly-approved Israeli proposal is that it does not obligate the government to put the billions of shekels that the treasury will receive from carbon pricing toward fighting the climate crisis, investing in renewable energy and accelerating the move to a low-carbon economy. The money is also not earmarked to return to the taxpayers’ pockets or to be invested in disadvantaged populations.
A broad macroeconomic study, conducted by the Environmental Protection Ministry and the Israel Democracy Institute, examined the effects of carbon pricing in Israel. It found that just by implementing the measure, greenhouse gas emissions will fall 67 percent by 2050 compared to 2015. The step is therefore essential for reaching the goal of an 85 percent reduction in emissions that the government decided on last week. The research also shows that the reduction in pollution in 2050 stemming from the carbon tax in Israel will lead to some 20 billion shekels ($6.2 billion USD) in savings.
[This post was adapted from the original written by Lee Yaron for Haaretz]
Creed Comments: Yet another step closer to a global price on carbon. Carbon taxation has been recommended by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. The Israeli Government will adopt the OECD’s proposal to use excise taxes, which are fixed taxes, included in a product’s price, with the aim of reducing consumption of that product. This sends a strong signal to the U.S. government that the international community is moving forward on carbon pricing - and so should we.
RESOURCES
The Keeling Curve a daily record of global atmospheric CO2 concentration.
Congressional Policy Tracker a summary of current federal energy legislation.
Click Clean your favorite apps and tech company clean power rankings.
Advancing Inclusion Through Clean Energy Jobs a report by the Brookings Institute.
Understanding ESG a series of ESG-focused thought leadership webinars for business and investors, presented by Baker McKenzie.
Matter of Fact, a weekly newsmagazine that focuses on socioeconomic and climate issues in America, hosted by veteran journalist Soledad O'Brien.