Climate action

OILS & FATS INTERNATIONAL VOL 38 NO 7 SEPTEMBER/ OCTOBER 2022

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On 12 August, the US House of Representati ves passed the largest climate spending package in US history as part of the Infl ati on Reducti on Act.

The act allocates US$369bn for climate provisions and aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by incenti vising clean energy sources such as nuclear power, clean energy vehicles, hydrogen, and carbon capture, uti lisati on and storage (CCUS).

Criti cs say it contains too many fossil fuel giveaways, such as approval for renewable energy development on federal lands conti ngent on aucti oning oil and gas leases.

However, anaylsis by independent research fi rm Rhodium Group, esti mates the act will reduce US GHG emissions by 31-44% below 2005 levels by 2030. The act contains new tax credits for sustainable aviati on fuel (SAF), clean transportati on fuels and clean hydrogen. It also extends several existi ng tax credits that benefi t transportati on biofuels, such as renewable diesel and biodiesel, and includes funding for biofuel infrastructure development. The new dedicated SAF tax credit has raised concerns that it will shift vegetable oil and waste feedstocks to aviati on, leaving less for renewable diesel (see p10).

And overall, the act is much smaller in scope than US President Joe Biden’s original ‘Build Back Bett er’ package stalled since last year. However, at least it sends an important signal of the USA’s intenti ons and a shift from the Trump years of climate change denial.

“Is this legislati on the size of what we need for the climate? No,” Anand Gopal, Energy Innovati on policy executi ve director, says in the The Guardian newspaper. “Is it extraordinary given the politi cs and the Senate we have? Yes, it’s incredible. We can’t make up for the lost ti me of US inacti on – we can see the price the world is paying for that right now – but it’s not too late. This can make a massive diff erence.”

And at a ti me when heat waves, droughts and wildfi res are wreaking havoc around the world, a step in the right directi on is sorely needed.

Europe is facing its worst drought in 500 years, with two-thirds of the conti nent under a ‘warning’ or ‘alert’, according to the European Commission (see p4). In the last eight years, the region has experienced mid-summer crop stress fi ve ti mes – in 2015, 20182020 and now 2022 – impacti ng grain, oilseed and other crop producti on. The batt le with dryness has raised some serious worries about the long-term trend in weather.

As the atmosphere warms, more moisture will be held in the air and that eventually will be rained out somewhere on the planet, according to World Grain. In the past three years, China has reported a phenomenal amount of rain resulti ng in serious fl ooding, the USA suff ered a 2020-2022 drought, and porti ons of Canada’s Prairies experienced serious fl ooding between 2008-2013. If weather trends play out, Europe could eventually be impacted by excessive rain aft er the current drought.

Today, more than 1,800 lawsuits have been fi led against fossil fuel companies over climate liability worldwide. The lawsuits claim that the companies – much like the tobacco industry – conducted a decades-long campaign of deceit to suppress warnings from their own scienti sts about the impact of fossil fuels on the climate, lying about what they knew and when they knew it, writes Sharon Eubanks, the lead counsel on behalf of the USA against the tobacco industry.

Decades have been wasted on climate acti on and the world is now paying the price.