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China's government is putting 10 Airbus orders for A380 superjumbo jets by Hong Kong Airlines, and an additional 35 Airbus A330 widebody planes on hold, in response to eforts by the European Union to enforce carbon dioxide emission fees under its ETS system.

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The auto sector has an outsized effect on economic growth that is not easily grasped. The IMF sees a fifth of slowdown in growth of global gross domestic product and a third of world trade coming just from low demand for autos. The auto sector feeds into demand for steel, aluminium, copper, plastic and electronics, so it feeds into other sectors. Aging populations, stagnant incomes, ride sharing, and economic headwinds on trade for China, slower demand with lower economic activity in India from bad loans and low credit in the finance sector, all have cut into growth. Tariffs from president Trump and tit for tat tariffs increase costs and cut into profits. In Europe there is added factor of mandated drop in carbon dioxide emissions by 20% by 2021. The new technology will increase costs of autos by 800 to 5000 euros and add 5-11% to the selling price, reducing sales by about 5%.  A fast growing market is India but companies such as Ford and GM have moved out as it slows down. Higher emissions standards in India for 2020 are likely to increase prices in a very price sensitive market. Lower availability of credit in China and India have led to drop in sales of about 15% in both major markets for autos since mid 2018.   ...

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The US gets the lowest score among the large industrialized nations- way behind Europe- in its record on greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution policies, agricultural policies, smog, and other environment criteria in a survey done jointly by researchers at Yale and Columbia Universities. On regional smog the US has a very poor score.

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Negotiators for Climate Change talks meeting in Katowice, Poland helped develop a rule book to support efforts made for the Paris Accords. The U.S. joined the European Union, Canada and China in putting forward compromise language. 

The question of setting up a carbon market was put off for the future.

On the aid to developing countries to reduce emissions in their generation of power the commitment of $100 billion by 2020 from Article 9 of the Paris Accords was seen by some countries including the U.S. as too high. China does not contribute, and only the European Union with Germany doubling its contribution took the lead. That climate fund has so far raised $10 billion.

The U.S. point of view was that no country should sacrifice economic prosperity and energy security for environmental sustainabililty. Yet the U.S. has participating in developing the rule book for climate change efforts stemming from the Paris Accords.

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World leaders meet at the UN for action on climate change, especially Obama and Hu Jintao of China who represent countries that generate 40% of carbon emissions worldwide. Hu set the target for nuclear power at 15% of energy for 2020 from 8% now, and India set atarget of 20% for renewable sources of energy for 2020. President Obama said he saw the need for the developing industrial nations, by which he meant China, India and Brazil, to adopt targets for curbing emissions in any agreement, but Hu Jintao was vague about any specific targets. So the gap remains as the US goes to the Copenhagen talks on climate change in late 2009.

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PM Narendra Modi addressed a World Bank organized "Making it Personal: How behavioural change can tackle climate change" conference. Modi called it part of democratising the battle against climate change. "Simple acts in daily lives are powerful, there will be a very positive impact on the environment. The people of India have done a lot in this matter in the last few years." "People driven efforts improved the sex ratio in many parts of India. It was the people who led a massive cleanliness drive. Be it rivers, beaches or roads, they are ensuring public places are free of litter. And it was the people who made the switch to LED bulbs a success. Nearly 370 million LED bulbs have been sold in India. This helps in avoiding 39 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions every year." The Mission Life Modi introduced with the Secretary General of the United Nations has achieved much in India- "The farmers of India ensured the coverage of nearly seven hundred thousand hectares of farmland by micro-irrigation. Fulfilling the mantra of 'Per Drop More Crop', this has saved a huge amount of water. Under Mission Life our efforts are spread across many domains such as: Making local bodies environment-friendly, saving water, saving energy, reducing waste, and e-waste, adopting healthy lifestyles, adoption of natural farming, promotion of millets." ...

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The CEO of Salesforce Mr. Benioff was able to win support from president Trump for an initiative to plant a trillion trees as a way to improve the environment. Mr. Trump is skeptical about climate change and has withdrawn the U.S. from the Paris Climate Change Agreement. But he is enthusiastic about planting trees.

As trees grow they absorb the gas emissions that cause climate change. Estimates from experts show 1.2 trillion trees could absorb as much as 25% of carbon in the atmosphere.

Mr. Benioff says planting trees is the ultimate bi-partisan issue, and who isn't pro-tree. Young Republicans are shifting away from the party on the issue of climate change and Republican leaders are making modest proposals as a way to show they are also concerned about protecting the environment. Some say Mr. Trump's views on this issue are shifting even though he has his own views on how quickly to move away from fossil fuels. 

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PM makes a point at G7- should not the 1.4 billion people of India most of whom are poor have the same access to energy as the people in the rich countries of the G7? It is to ensure this access to energy for the over 1 billion people in India that India has sourced oil from all countries when geopolitical tensions have made the price of oil to jump to new highs. Modi told a session at the G7 meetings- "All of you will also agree with this that energy access should not be the right of the rich only- a poor family also has the same right to energy. And today when energy prices are sky high due to geopolitical tensions, it is more important to remember this thing." Modi said that it was by "taking inspiration from this principle" that "we delivered LED bulbs and cooking gas door to door in India and showed that millions of tons of carbon emissions can be saved while ensuring energy for the poor." Never before in history has this been done on this scale as hundreds of millions of women have benefitted in poor areas where cooking was done by burning wood, and electricity did not exist. Water by tap water in every home, cooking gas, and electricity are now within the reach of every family in India.  Has G7 even thought of these things? And of the scale of the challenge that is being met and the future challenges for climate, technology and health that are being tackled on an unprecedented scale? ...

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What harm will one ton of carbon dioxide pollution cause to the planet? Under Obama administration $50, under Trump administration $5, under Biden administration $200.  Mr. Revesz asks the obvious question others forgot to ask- how does this regulation or change affect future generations, what problems children and grand children won't face because of this action? The man who heads OIRA is given the task of doing the cost benefit analysis for billions of dollars of US government projects designed to fight climate change. Because of its looming importance Mr. Revesz of NY University School of Law was brought right into OIRA in the White House instead of the EPA. The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) is located right in the White House. It is the gatekeeper and final word on new federal regulations on climate change. Astounding as it may sound, during the Obama and Trump administrations no effort was made to track the cost of climate change for future generations. Mr. Revesz is changing that. As a result of his efforts at NYU School of Law and in assisting attorneys general in the Trump administration, and now at the Whit House he is changing the way the world looks at climate change action. He shows how the EPA new rules on tailpipe emissions will promote electric cars. The benefits exceed $1 trillion from the shift and this will show that it exceeds the cost of the fossil fuel companies and the US economy making the changes required. ...

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A professor of economics of innovation and public value at University College, London, says one-off deals such as the one with Land Rover to produce electric car batteries is not an adequate response to the big industrial strategies of the US and the European Union. Mariana Mazzucato says in this Guardian article the UK's decision to leave the EU is costing 100 billion pounds in output. Of 100 leading Uk manufacturers about half say their suppliers in the EU are more cautious about doing business in the UK. She compares the US industrial strategy that combines public and private investment of $3.5 trillion over the next decade, and the EU's for $2 trillion with Britain's effort. She says of the UK that it has nothing like this and worse with austerity it is moving in the opposite direction. Another problem is the change in governments of the Tories and new industrial policy every time there is a new minister. Business investment in UK is 19% less than the G7 average. The civil service needs investment, as she says Britain has become addicted to outsourcing the core functions of the public sector. Mazzucato says the government for aid to the private sector should do what Germany and France have done to expect reduction in carbon emissions, or as the US has done with Biden's Chips Act of giving aid given that there are no share buybacks by companies.   ...

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Labour will introduce 40 bills in parliament to make changes in renewable energy, the environment, transport railways, and for cost of living action. Great Britain Railways and Great Britain Energy are two public companies to be set up to reach goals in public transport modernization and in getting a five fold increase in solar needed to meet 68% cut in emissions by 2030 (Paris Accords commitment). Great Britain Energy will be capitalized with 8.3 billon pounds. (Labour scaled down its 28 billion pounds Green Energy Plan because of Tory mismanagement of finances but will continue to invest in vital projects). The answer is to take a creative approach. More money will be released through the Crown estate bill that will have the crown estate use its auctions of offshore land for wind energy and make investments in green energy. National Wealth Fund will invest in low carbon projects.  Fro water Labour will hold the water bosses to account and put companies such as Thames Water in special measures. Renationalisation was considered but was considered costly at this time, other action is being taken.  Nine bills are part of the 40– the planning and infrastructure bill; the better buses bill; the three rail bills, which are the passenger railway services (public ownership) bill, rail reform bill and high speed rail (Crewe to Manchester) bill; the Great British Energy bill and crown estate bill; the sustainable aviation fuels bill; and the water (special measures bill) – that all focus on protecting the environment. ...

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Greece's carbon emissions- 51.7 million metric tonnes. Tik Tok's carbon emissions exceeds that says this report in The Guardian citing Greenly carbon consultancy in Paris. Much of it comes from the intensive use and addictiveness of TikTok with average user spending 45 minutes scrolling.

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Saab is laying off one fifth of its workforce and Volvo is scaling back production. The European Investment Bank is giving 3 billion euros of aid to the European auto industry, with another 2.8 billion euros planned for April, 2009. 400 million euros each go to Volvo AB maker of trucks, and Scania AB, and 200 million euros to Volvo Cars. Peugeot Citroen, Renault, Fiat, BMW and Daimler each receive 400 million euros. Most of this goes to projects aiming at increasing fuel efficiency and cutting carbon- dioxide emissions.

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Italy is converting most of its power plants from natrual gas to coal. Germany which also has banned nuclear power plants is also moving to coal plants. The will be clean coal plants except that when it comes to carbon dioxide emissions the technology still is not available for these plants. So experts say the global warming issues are going to get worse before they get better.

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It is a major step to cut carbon missions in half by 2030. The Biden plan is to have majority of cars to be electric by 2032. It does not require a certain number of cars to be electric only requires carmakers to meet certain emission requirements overall and the carmakers then choose what the mix of gas, electric, hybrid would be. It also has concessions to workers unions and carmakers, and an understanding that there is resistance to buying electric when charging stations don't exist in adequate numbers and costs are high for electric. It does this by allowing accelerated development in 2030, 2031 2032 to do the job, as by 2030 enough capital investment and research will have happened to make this possible. This also seeks to not politicize climate change in the way the former president seeks to do as a realistic plan is needed and simply having no plan and eliminating the political opponent's plan and denying climate change is not possible in 2024 as in 2016, there is just too much happening in terms of floods and fires for people to not believe. Automakers and workers themselves believe that a plan is needed to fight climate change in 2024 even though these same automakers such as VW and large automakers in the US had a wait and see attitude in 2016. For the Biden administration listening to carbuyers, carmakers, auto workers and the general public to make the plan workable and meet real concerns is the best way forward in 2024. ...

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Robert Stavins of the environmental economics program at Harvard is cited in this NYT article by Coral Davenport. Stavin says that even with the change in policy favoring fossil under Trump administration the trend is towards using less fossil fuel and this trend is unlikely to change. This makes the claims of Trump that half a million jobs can be created with less regulation of the coal industry and shale oil industry, less likely. Industry is shifting away from coal for economic reasons and investors preferences, say experts. At the same time the progress away from fossil fuels is likely to be inadequate to avoid the worst effects of global warming, says Stavins. The change by industry is reflected in the decisions made by executives such as Nicholas Akins at American Electric Power, Ohio based electric power company. Akins tells NYT that he is making decisions for power generation 20, 30 and 40 years from now, and this assumes some form of carbon control. He says no question but that industry will move forward with cleaner energy and that means closing large coal facilities. The incoming Trump administration does not affect his policy. Another factor away from coal is dictated by economics- the availability of cheap natural gas from hydraulic fracturing. Incentives for renewable sources such as wind, solar, are not likely to change either say experts, because the solar panels and wind turbines are made in Republican and Democratic favoring districts and have support of Republicans in places like Arizona, Texas and Kansas. ...

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The International Energy Agency says China used 2.252 billion tons of oil equivalent in 2009 compared to the 2.170 billion tons of oil equivalent used by the USA. This oil equivalent measure covers crude oil, nuclear energy, coal, natural gas and renewable energy like hydropower. To give an idea of the scale of the increase- China's total energy use was only half of that of the USA in 1999 ten years ago. China plans to reduce emissions by cutting the carbon dioxide per unit of GDP by 40-45% from 2005 levels by 2020. But China looks at higher energy use in the years ahead. Much of the energy use is propelled by infrastructure building and energy intensive use in industries.

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Henri Specht, Director of the Olympic Village, walks along newly installed boardwalk along the river Seine and sees how the Olympics will turn an industrial bank into a pedestrian walk area.This approach  has not been taken before and shows the French have taken the courage to try something new. The French government and organizers have built the Olympic Village in one of France's poorest suburbs along the river Seine in northeast of Paris to give it a jolt and revitalize the area. Carbon emissions will be cut in half using new technologies and it will be kept cool without airconditioning. Each of the 40 low rise tower blocks will provide housing for 14,000 people for Olympics and another 9000 for Paralympics. This a 52 acre project with housing for athletes to provide housing for residents, a new Aquatic Center, and other facilities to increase its potential for regeneration. Training facilities for employment are added in with high unemployment of about 20%.   Will it work? It was home to car and steel factories that have now closed as manufacturing went overseas. In 1998 the Stade de France stadium was built here to revive the area. Institut Montaigne says poverty will not disappear. The mayor says new housing is being delivered to change our image and improve the social balance in the city. In the neighboring town of St Oen the mayor has attracted $400 million euro investment for new housing. Tesla is putting its French headquarters in St. Oen. For the village about two thirds of the budget of 2 billion euros ($2.2 billion) comes from private real estate companies and one third from the French  government 646 million euros. After the games a third of the 2800 apartments in the Olympic Village will be sold to private owners, one third to go to public housing, and one third for rentals to students and others. ...

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With the change in U.S. position on climate change, carbon emissions, and the move to raise tariffs on China's exports to the U.S. China faces a new dimension in its global relationships. Against this background China is shifting to a long term view of its relationship with India. China's new foreign policy leaders after the recent party Congress, vice president Wang Qishan and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, now see the need for new partners in a multipolar global world for the long term as China and India countries with large populations and a need for stable world trade share common interests. Wang steers the Central Foreign Affairs Commission with Yang Jiechi as director. China now sees " a lot of shared interests, concerns and positions," in the words of China's Representative Lu, in the long term issues of globalisation, urbanization, pollution, and concern for achieving stable development with high growth rates.  China now takes the long view looking back at the unprecedented change of the last 100 years, as it maps out its plans for the future. The U.S. has challenged the ideas in the blueprint for development of "Made in China 2025," particularly as it relates to western transfer of technology to China. This has created a new situation for which China is still looking for answers, and ways to come up with new strategies for development without the nearly unrestricted access to western technology of the last 2 decades.  Shared positions on world trade with India and India's close relations with the U.S. add credibility in China's  negotiating positions with the U.S.                  ...

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After the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Climate Change Agreement, China and the European Union sought to fill the leadership on this issue. Yet the reality now looks to be different. China decreased coal consumption between 2014-2016. Now China is ramping up coal generation as it needs to provide stimulus to a slowing economy as trade relations with the U.S. worsening.  In 2017 the trend reversed with state backed loans to help economic growth and surge in provincial permits.  China is now moving forward with plans to add coal fired power equal to almost the total U.S. capacity, according to Coalswarm, which tracks power plants worldwide for coal use. This would push coal fired production to above the cap of 1,100 gigawatts China has set and its current cap. Its current production is already about half of the world's total coal fired generation and quadruple that of the U.S. In 2017 China made up one fourth of total CO2 productions.  Canada is missing its emissions targets and is not likely to meet 2020 targets say experts. In the EU members reliant on coal power energy oppose EU parliament efforts to end subsidies to the most polluting plants by 2025, seeking delay of one decade. At the climate change talks in Katowice, Poland, these changes are facing opposition. As a sign of how the situation is changing since the 2015 Paris Accords, the protests in France by yellow vest protestors started in opposition to a carbon tax intended to meet France's climate change targets. That tax increase is being withdrawn by president Macron. Families struggling financially had a different perception of the increase in the fuel tax and even young people who support meeting emissions reduction joined the protests, as reported in the New York Times and The Times. This tells a lot about how the issue of climate change has changed in the public perception in three years. ...

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Eco-power washes for engines developed by Pratt and Whitney, a manufacturer of jet engines, is aservice that costs $3000 to $5000 per wash. It helps take the dirt and sludge off the engines that accumulates after ears of flying. The caked on grime from the inside of the engine can reduce fuel consumption by 1.2%, which adds up over time. Pratt estimates that if the entire industry used this service $1 billion in fuel costs could be saved and emissions of carbon dioxide reduced by 3.2 billion pounds. There is additional savings in maintenance as the engines run cooler when cleaned, and airlines can avoid costly overhauls for as long as 18 additional months. Wasdhing takes 90 minutes, is clean and pays for itself in weeks. Southwest started its program in April and by late May 2008 had done 248 washes. It estimates savings from these washes at $1.6 million.

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Indian prime minister Mod's address at the COP26 Glasgow in DW.com video, announcing India's 5 commitments and determination to deliver on them, including Net Zero Emissions by 2070. India set tangible targets for 2030-

500 gigawatts of renewable energy, 1 billon tons fewer emissions, 45% improvement in carbon intensity, 50% for renewables in energy mix.

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Supreme court ruling considers carbon dioxide and greenhose gases air polutants under the Clean Air Act. Look for tougher new emissions laws for automobile pollutantsa and emissions. Fuel economy increases are one way the auto emissions isssue may be handled in the future.