##{"id":92985,"date":"2021-04-19T10:29:26","date_gmt":"2021-04-19T00:29:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fnarena.com\/?p=92985"},"modified":"2021-04-19T10:33:15","modified_gmt":"2021-04-19T00:33:15","slug":"esg-focus-heads-up-for-bidens-climate-summit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.fnarena.com\/index.php\/2021\/04\/19\/esg-focus-heads-up-for-bidens-climate-summit\/","title":{"rendered":"ESG Focus: Heads Up For Biden\u2019s Climate Summit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em>FNArena&#039;s dedicated&nbsp;ESG Focus news section zooms in on matters Environmental, Social &amp; Governance (ESG) that are increasingly guiding investors preferences and decisions globally. For more news updates, past and future:<\/em>&nbsp;<\/strong><br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fnarena.com\/index.php\/financial-news\/daily-financial-news\/category\/esg-focus\/\">https:\/\/www.fnarena.com\/index.php\/financial-news\/daily-financial-news\/category\/esg-focus\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>World leaders are gathering for World Earth Day this week and major announcements are expected;&nbsp;US Climate Envoy John Kerry claiming the day will change the way in which global capital is allocated.<\/p>\n<p><u><strong>ESG Focus: Heads Up For Biden&rsquo;s Climate Summit<\/strong><\/u><\/p>\n<p><strong>-Global capital markets eye off World Earth Day<br \/>-Coal, gas, auto and agriculture industries in the spotlight<br \/>-Methane considered low-hanging fruit<br \/>-Eyes on AUD<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>By Sarah Mills<\/p>\n<p>All eyes will be peeled&nbsp;to Biden&#039;s climate summit on World Earth Day this Thursday (April 22) to which 40 of the world&rsquo;s leaders, including China&rsquo;s Xi Jinping and Russia&rsquo;s Vladmir Putin, have been invited.<\/p>\n<p>Markets are expecting major announcements to emerge from the summit after former Obama Secretary of State and now recently appointed Climate Envoy, John Kerry, said that the day would herald a change in the way in which global capital is allocated.<\/p>\n<p>President Biden is expected to unveil an aggressive plan to cut US gas emissions by up to -50% by 2030.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The Administration is aiming for carbon neutrality by 2035 as opposed to former plans for 2050.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Kerry is touring Asia next week prior to the two-day virtual Earth Day summit to no doubt shore up support from major carbon emitters&nbsp;and finalise details.<\/p>\n<p>Despite rising tensions with China, climate is one area in which the interests of the two nations overlap given China&rsquo;s dominance as an electro-state.<\/p>\n<p>China has not yet confirmed its attendance to the summit, but Kerry is reported to be meeting his Chinese counterpart Special Climate Envoy Xie Zhenhua.<\/p>\n<p>It is unlikely China would like to be trumped by the US, so it is likely China will either abstain or have a few announcements of its own to make.<\/p>\n<p>Kerry is also visiting India.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"img-responsive maxwidth\" src=\"https:\/\/www.fnarena.com\/ckfinder\/userfiles\/images\/Environmental%2C%20Social%20%26%20Governance\/World-Earth-Day-Concept-Letter.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Australia&rsquo;s coal industry will be keeping a keen eye on any commitments from China and India, as will the government, given the impact on the Balance of Payments and the Australian dollar.<\/p>\n<p>The Biden move is touted as the most important thing the US can do to convince other polluting countries to cut their emissions, given the expense of transitioning.<\/p>\n<p>Biden has already promised a clean government vehicle fleet, has paused new oil and gas leasing on public lands, promised to increase conservation, and is pushing for a clean energy infrastructure bill.<\/p>\n<p>New commitments are likely to include US$60bn for green transit projects, US$46bn for climate-related research and development, and the installation of electric vehicle charging stations across the country, according to&nbsp;<em>The Washington Post<\/em>. It will be interesting to see if Australia adopts a view on charging stations.<\/p>\n<p>All US federal agencies are now looking for ways to curb emissions, and Australian state governments are on the same path, as is the Reserve Bank of Australia.<\/p>\n<p>Of particular interest to Australia and the gas industry will be US determinations on methane. Given methane is a powerful but short-lived pollutant compared with carbon dioxide, it is considered low hanging fruit and an easy target.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Given the environmental and social impact of coal seam gas and shale gas development, relatively low upfront costs and dubious long-term economies, they&nbsp;are likely to be targeted&nbsp;prior to LNG.<\/p>\n<p>The other industry likely to be impacted by upcoming announcements will be the automobile industry.<\/p>\n<p>At a minimum, vehicle markets are expected to be subject to regulation on tailpipe emissions, and this should have implications for new and second-hand markets over the next five years.<\/p>\n<p>Agriculture and logging are other industries also in the spotlight given the push to lock carbon in the soil and create carbon sinks and to provide a carbon offset opportunity during the transition.<\/p>\n<p>Construction and property refits are also likely to get attention but there hasn&#039;t been much signalling on that front.<\/p>\n<p>Biden&nbsp;has also&nbsp;declared his intention to end the War in Afghanistan, consistent with the declining relevance of petro-states. The war cost the US nearly -US$1trn in 2020, funds that could well be redirected to transition priorities and security in the Pacific.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, ComprarAcciones.com predicts global spending on renewable energy will rise 8.5% in 2021 to US$243bn in 2021, just -22% less than forecast oil and gas spending, which is forecast to grow by 1.6%.<\/p>\n<p>Earth Day will provide markets with the first major insights on the direction of the transition.<\/p>\n<p>The tide has already turned, the only question now is the pace.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>FNArena&#039;s dedicated&nbsp;ESG Focus news section zooms in on matters Environmental, Social &amp; Governance (ESG) that are increasingly guiding investors preferences and decisions globally. For more news updates, past and future:<\/em>&nbsp;<\/strong><br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fnarena.com\/index.php\/financial-news\/daily-financial-news\/category\/esg-focus\/\">https:\/\/www.fnarena.com\/index.php\/financial-news\/daily-financial-news\/category\/esg-focus\/<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><em>Find out why FNArena subscribers like the service so much: &quot;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.fnarena.com\/index4.cfm?type=dsp_newsitem&amp;n=29EB960D-9DFF-C00E-7F6B464E5D52E250\">Your Feedback (Thank You)<\/a>&quot; &#8211; Warning this story contains unashamedly positive feedback on the service provided.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>FNArena&nbsp;is proud about its track record and past achievements: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fnarena.com\/index.php\/2018\/10\/03\/rudis-view-ten-years-on-the-world-is-still-turning\/\">Ten Years On<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Major announcements are expected from Biden&#8217;s climate summit on World Earth Day this week; US Climate Envoy John Kerry claiming the day will change the way in which global capital is allocated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":93051,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.fnarena.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92985"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.fnarena.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.fnarena.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.fnarena.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.fnarena.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging.fnarena.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92985\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.fnarena.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.fnarena.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.fnarena.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.fnarena.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}