FIRST LOOK

A new analysis from the University of Oxford finds that 53% of Americans live in a city or state with a net-zero target. However, not all states and cities have laid out goals that are credible, equitable and binding. The report calls for “strong federal leadership to raise the bar for existing subnational and corporate targets.” Read more here.

Despite Protecting Nature, Indigenous People Will Be Left Out Of UN Biodiversity Talks: Aiming to preserve 30 percent of the world’s land and water by 2030, dozens of countries will take part in a UN biodiversity conference later this year – but Indigenous people won’t have a seat at the table. Indigenous communities have repeatedly mobilized to block logging, mining and overfishing, with great success. More than a quarter of the world’s lands are managed by Indigenous communities, and studies show that these areas often boast more biodiversity than lands marked out for conservation by national governments. And yet, while Indigenous communities will be able to attend the UN conference as observers, they are not recognized as parties to the biodiversity talks and cannot vote on the outcome, a dynamic that is likely to limit the ambition of the final agreement. Indigenous groups have said the goal of saving 30 percent of land and water is insufficient, a claim backed by science, and have called for saving 50 percent. (New York Times $)

French Insurance Company Bids Adieu To German Coal: French insurance giant Axa SA is ditching German energy company RWE AG over its continued commitment to coal, Bloomberg reported. Axa SA stopped insuring coal mines and coal-fired power plants last year in line with a company policy of not providing insurance to firms that dig up more than 20 million tons of coal annually. RWE mined 65 million tons of coal last year. It’s notable that Axa SA dropped RWE during Europe’s worst recession since World War II, even though RWE has committed to being carbon-neutral by 2040. The move shows how climate change has become an urgent concern for some businesses. “The insurance business is very concentrated,” Heffa Schuecking, a director of German environmental nonprofit Urgewald, told Bloomberg. “If a few big players exclude a company, everyone else knows it and the writing is on the wall that in the future you won’t be a welcome client at the other major insurers.” (Bloomberg $)

Environmentalists Sue Over Kern County Plan To Fast-Track Drilling: Environmental groups are suing Kern County, California over an ordinance that could clear the way for 40,000 new oil and gas wells in the next 15 years. This is the county’s second attempt at fast-tracking drilling – a 2015 ordinance was struck down by a state appeals court because it failed to account for the full impact of drilling, violating state law. The new ordinance would allow the county to weigh the impact of as many as 2,700 wells a year, helping to expedite drilling projects in the oil-rich region at the southern end of California's Central Valley. Opponents contend that the new ordinance would fail to account for health threats to the majority-Latino community, which is already one of the most polluted areas in the country (AP).

ANALYSIS: Sundance Energy seeks bankruptcy protection after laying off workers and approving executive bonuses (BailoutWatch)

FOSSIL FUEL FINANCES: What the future holds for Exxon (Yahoo), some fracking companies are admitting shale was a bad bet — others are not (DeSmog), Chevron revives million-barrel Permian target after cuts (Bloomberg)

SEA CHANGE: Oil and gas investors need to start asking tough questions (Barron’s), some wealthy philanthropists are pressuring their banks to stop financing fossil fuels (Inside Philanthropy), corporations could soon be forced to disclose their climate change denial funding (Jacobin Mag)

(NOT SO) GREEN RECOVERY: China’s dirty recovery will make curbing climate change tougher (Bloomberg $)

WHITE HOUSE: Biden is betting his whole climate agenda on infrastructure (Bloomberg $), Biden hires carbon tax expert in race for climate plan (E&E $), as climate fight shifts to oil, Biden faces a formidable foe  (AP)

THE HILL: Senate Democrats plan to reintroduce energy tax reform bill, focus on long-term incentives (Utility Dive), Heinrich nudges Biden on jobs focus in energy transition plans (Politico Pro $), E&C Democrats unveil infrastructure package with water, grid investments (Politico Pro $), carbon taxes are out, and clean electricity standards are in (Washington Examiner), lawmakers aim to incentivize weatherizing power lines (The Hill)

NOMINEES & CONFIRMATIONS: Senate advances Haaland's nomination to lead Interior (Politico Pro $, HuffPost), Senate committee advances Turk nomination for No. 2 spot at DOE (Politico Pro $, The Hill)

CITIES AND STATES: Twin Ohio bills could thwart future solar and wind development (Energy News Network)

HOUSING: A failure of government oversight produced a housing system across the U.S. that hurts the people who need it the most (Houston Chronicle)

IMPACTS: Endless summer? Climate crisis could lengthen hottest temperatures by six months (EcoWatch), extreme rainfall in Britain to be 10 times more likely this century (Thomson Reuters Foundation), add dry riverbeds and overflowing banks to the list of things made worse by climate change (Bloomberg $)

RENEWABLES: 'Default effect' sees massive green energy switch (BBC), London’s River Thames set to trial new tidal energy technologies (CNBC), California’s solar industry is getting sunburned (Bloomberg $), here’s what clean energy companies want from President Biden (LA Times $)

EFFICIENCY: Controversial change to N.C. building code delayed but not derailed (Energy News Network), how Biden can build back better by investing in homes (Bloomberg $)

HYDROGEN: In world-first trial, Japan-Australia venture starts producing hydrogen from dirty coal (Reuters)

EVs: New US vehicles must be electric by 2030 to meet climate goals – report (The Guardian), Postmaster embraces electric trucks despite contract award (Bloomberg $)

OIL & GAS: Biden federal leasing pause won't impact energy production this year, agency says (The Hill), oil giant Shell appoints new chairman to navigate energy transition (Wall Street Journal $)

ORPHANED WELLS: Oil and gas bankruptcies drive concerns over ‘orphan wells’  (Ft Worth Star-Telegram)

PLASTICS: No more plastic fantastic as Lego toy packaging goes green (Bloomberg $)

PIPELINES: Denial of Mountain Valley Pipeline permit reversed by federal appeals court (The Roanoke Times, Bloomberg Law)

GRID: Why every state is vulnerable to a Texas-style power crisis (Vox)

SHIPPING: The pandemic fueled a boom in empty ghost shipping containers traveling the high seas (Earther), shipping groups press EU to advance marine 'fuels of future' (Reuters)

AGRICULTURE: Regenerative agriculture is the next great ally in fight against climate change (Tech Crunch)

PUBLIC LANDS: Trump’s forest service planned more logging in the Yaak Valley, environmentalists want Biden to make it a ‘climate refuge’ (InsideClimate News), Details behind Biden's '30 by 30' U.S. lands and oceans climate goal (Yale Climate Connections)

NATURE: First-ever study of all Amazon greenhouse gases suggest the forest is worsening climate change (National Geographic), U.N. puts nature's value on the balance sheet. Will it work? (Thomson Reuters Foundation)

ACTIVISM: Meet the climate change activists of TikTok (Wired), the hockey game to save Russia's legendary Lake Baikal (CNN)

INTERNATIONAL: "True climate leadership” by US would be 60% emissions reduction by 2030, report finds (EcoWatch, Thomson Reuters Foundation), EU countries pile pressure on Brussels to change green finance rules on bioenergy (Reuters), John Kerry warns EU against carbon border tax (FT $), Italy says it plans to cut carbon emissions by 60% by 2030 (Thomson Reuters Foundation)

• Outcry at Australia's coal plant closures misses the point: change is coming (The Guardian, Adam Morton)
• Taylor Swift is bringing US back to nature (New York Times, Jeff Opperman $)
• To win over America's farmers, Biden needs to embrace technology (CNN, Mike Johanns & Heidi Heitkamp)
• The mess that Biden’s EPA chief Michael Regan will inherit, explained (Vox, Umair Irfan)

Despite Claims Of Fossil Fuel Superiority, Industry Group CFACT Installs Solar-Powered Lights In Africa

For years now, the fossil fuel industry and its sponsored projects have been using poverty in Africa as a way to sell dirty energy. The narrative is always the same – if Africa had more fossil fuels, it would have more wealth and, by extension, less Ebola, less sexual assault, and better soccer fields. But renewables are often a better option for places where fossil fuels have so far failed to provide electricity, as the industry-backed Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT) recently demonstrated.  

CFACT is an industry front group that Chemical Manufacturers Association documents show was set up to “fight the Public Interest Research Groups (PIRG) and Ralph Nader-type organizations” committed to public safety. On March 1st, it posted that the “anti-fossil policies of [President] Biden, however, stand in stark contrast to the developing countries’ open embrace of fossil fuels.” 

A few days later, CFACT proved its own devotion to fossil fuels to be mere talk.

In a new post, CFACT said there are “increasing clashes between lions and humans in Africa.” Lions are preying on livestock, and farmers are responding in kind. But “CFACT, in connection with lion conservationist Patricia Vaugh, is sponsoring a solution.” And to their credit, this sounds like a great program. Because lions mostly hunt at night, keeping lights on around livestock enclosures, called “bomas,” keeps the lions away. So “Vaughn and her team travel to bomas around Tanzania, setting up light fixtures that strobe in a fashion that makes the lions stay away.” 

And what, you might ask, is powering those lights? None other than CFACT-despised solar! “The lights are small enough”, the post said, “that they can be powered by solar for up to five years, meaning there is no extra burden on the limited electricity generation in many of these areas.” 

Well, what do you know? In places where the fossil fuel industry is failing to keep the lights on, solar power is proving to be a cheap and efficient source of power that’s much easier to deploy than coal or gas-fired generators. 

They describe the lights as “a technical, free market solution to the environmental problem of lion and human conflicts.”

Indeed, when remote African communities required a product capable of providing cheap and reliable electricity, and they were free to choose the best one, it wasn’t fossil fuels but solar that provided the solution.

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