EDITORIAL: Positive politics on climate change over the last few weeks
Quantum Commodity Intelligence - Elections in Australia and Canada over the last few weeks returned incumbent parties to government. Both back continued action on climate change, with the victories avoiding the prospect of other parties taking power with planned policies that would have weakened climate efforts.
In a remarkable turnaround in fortunes, former Bank of England governor Mark Carney led the centrist Liberals to a fourth successive federal election victory on a platform that included explicit support for CDR projects as a way of meeting Canada's climate goals.
The Liberals had been trailing the Conservatives by 25% in opinion polls at the start of the year. But after previous prime minister Justin Trudeau stepped down to be replaced by Carney the party's fortunes started to change, helped also by US President Donald Trump bluster about Canada becoming the 51st US state.
The Liberals have committed to extending the Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage Investment Tax Credit to 2035, providing greater long-term certainty for investors, and have promised to support a "broad range of technologies and innovation in carbon removal".
The party's manifesto included plans for dedicated CDR targets for 2035 and 2040, as well as promising to accelerate offset protocol development across a range of removals technologies
"All these initiatives that are underway and promised by the government help show what is 'good enough' for the government and can provide a stamp of approval. This is essential to catalysing early development of the carbon removal sector," said Daniel Kelter, senior director of public affairs at lobby group Carbon Removal Canada.
In Australia, the Labor party's victory last weekend had been expected based on the latest polls in the run up to the election. But those polls had not indicated the landslide win for incumbent Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
Clarity
The win brings clarity to the country's carbon markets and has been described by some traders as a "bullish outcome" for carbon credits in the medium and long term in Australia.
"Australians have given the Albanese Government an emphatic mandate for continuity in clean energy and decarbonisation policies," said John Connor, chief executive of the industry body Carbon Market Institute (CMI).
The country's Climate Change Authority is now expected to draw up its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) for 2035 under the Paris Agreement before September. Among the government's priorities are a "reformed Safeguard Mechanism to support a credible 2035 NDC, informed by a national carbon market strategy and sectoral net zero plans", the CMI said.
Elsewhere, China's President Xi Jinping threw his political weight behind the Paris Agreement on climate change amid a wider US retreat from multilateralism and an 'America First' strategy towards energy and economic issues.
At a UN-organised virtual meeting on April 23, China's head of state Xi Jinping said that the Paris Agreement is the "legal cornerstone of international climate cooperation" even if "some major country's persistent pursuit of unilateralism" has seriously impacted international rules.
"However the world may change, China will not slow down its climate actions, will not reduce its support for international cooperation, and will not cease its efforts to build a community with a shared future for mankind," Xi said during the two-hour long meeting.
In addition, China and the other nine members of the BRICS group of countries, which account for half of greenhouse gas emissions globally, last week at a meeting in Brazil pushed for international collaboration on international carbon markets.
They also said they are "deeply concerned" about unilateralism and trade protectionism but reasserted support for international climate agreements, including the COP30 meeting this year, which Brazil will host in November.
These events over the last few weeks increasingly show that, despite all the bluster from the Trump administration, the US is now very out of touch with the rest of the world on climate change.