Here’s an interesting fact about the Venezuelan oil and gas sector: it’s ridiculously, off-the-charts dirty when it comes to methane emissions.

In some earlier work, we had to change the scale to show Venezuela’s methane emissions per unit of energy produced.

💡It recognizes that by collaborating, countries can drive greater ambition.

💡It underscores the importance of carbon pricing in tackling climate change and reminds us that many countries outside of the U.S. are adopting it, especially for heavy industries.

E.g., from our recent report:

ceepr.mit.edu/wp-content/u...

Curious to hear from others who subscribe to Carbon Pulse. I see a fair number of headlines I’d like to click through to, like the one below, but the subscription price is steep!

Worth it?

#climatesky

C. Price impacts on key materials would be modest, with minimal consumer effects.

D. A graduated approach would allow low- and middle-income countries to join fairly, backed by technology transfer, finance, and capacity-building.

Using 2 models, our analysis shows that:

A. A climate coalition could cut emissions 7x more than current policies — equal to Canada’s annual emissions.

B. It could raise nearly $200 billion per year in revenues, mostly from domestic carbon pricing.

We build on two important facts:

1. Over 80% of emissions in the steel, cement, aluminum and fertilizers industries are _already_ covered by existing or planned carbon pricing systems.

2. These industries account for over 20% of global carbon emissions.

The report was released in conjunction with the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development (#FFD4). The final report is scheduled for September.

Jaylen Brown keynoting MIT's Day of Climate and @knittelmit.bsky.social gets to do the closing remarks. Pretty cool!

dayofclimate.mit.edu/events/day-o...

Brings to mind this map from Jing Li at Tufts. From 2015, but perhaps still relevant.

Hint: Tesla is orange.

jingli-econ.github.io/documents/pa...

The figure below from EIA blew me away. It suggests that growth in passenger miles from 2- & 3-wheelers (~motorbikes) will be >> than growth in passenger miles in light-duty vehicles (~cars).

Question for #energysky:
How much fuel is currently consumed globally by motorbikes versus cars?

This is off-the-charts high. During the 2020 fires, the Bay Area rarely got above an AWI of 300, as I recall. And those were the blackout sun days

So, oil and gas companies have a lot more incentive to lobby against climate policy, plus a lot more influence to throw around.

And, yes, I “had” to come to Barbados for this!

Wonderful IMF Caribbean conference with climate luminaries Kristalina Georgieva, Mia Motley and @jasonbordoff.bsky.social. Strong call to action from Motley.

In a recent policy brief, @kclausing.bsky.social and @rffresources.bsky.social colleagues and I point to the role of the EU’s carbon border adjustment mechanism in this momentum.
www.rff.org/publications...

And, more good to come. Planned carbon pricing regimes will increase this share by 7 percentage points over the next few years, an increase of about a third!

First, the good. 42% of emissions in the countries they study (=80% of world emissions) are now covered by either an explicit carbon price (27%) or an implicit price (like an excise tax on fossil fuels).