RBI chief roots for common pool of climate projects to enhance financing

Reserve Bank Of India (RBI) chief Sanjay Malhotra said Indian banks and non-bank finance companies (NBFCs) should set up a common pool of bankable projects for climate-related financing, reported Reuters, adding that one of the major constraints is the lack of projects with a high probability of repayment. “A common pool of such bankable projects will have multi-fold benefits for the entire ecosystem. Regulated entities with experience of such projects can contribute to the pool for the benefit of others,” he said.

Last year, the RBI released a draft standard disclosure framework on climate-related financial risks for regulated entities. In 2023, it estimated India will spend about $1.05 trillion by 2030 to adapt industries to climate norms.

Britain’s energy minister visits China to discuss climate and energy cooperation

UK Energy secretary Ed Miliband is visiting China for three days “to appeal” to the country “to back international climate change commitments”, the Times reported, adding that is Miliband’s attempt to “shore up support for multilateral climate action” ahead of COP30. The newspaper cited government sources saying Miliband wanted to foster a much closer bilateral relationship with Beijing on climate-related matters at a time of fears that some countries would use America’s decision to withdraw from the process to reduce their own commitments to reduce carbon emissions. Miliband is also expected to hold discussions on future potential energy collaboration with Beijing as part of the government’s wider reset of relations with China. 

US: EPA terminates $20 billion in grants for climate projects

The Trump administration continues to cut climate spending across government, including $20 billion in grants awarded through a “green bank” known as the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, reported Bloomberg. Set up under Joe Biden’s flagship Inflation Reduction Act, the $27 billion fund awards grants to community development organisations, credit unions, housing agencies and solar-energy projects in order to cut emissions, the newspaper noted. The Trump administration Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a statement accusing it of “programmatic fraud, waste and abuse, and misalignment with agency’s priorities”. The newspaper added that Trump  “did not provide evidence for the accusations”. EPA administrator Lee Zeldin has “spent the past month criticising the spending and contending without evidence the program was rife with fraud”, said the newspaper.

US quits board of UN climate loss and damage fund

The US made an exit from the board of the UN’s “hard-negotiated climate damage fund, dedicated to helping poor and vulnerable nations cope with climate change-fuelled disasters”, reported Reuters. Nearly 200 countries had agreed to launch the ‘loss and damage’ fund at the COP28 UN climate summit in 2023, which was seen as a win for developing nations that had demanded help for years over increased extreme weather events, the news agency noted. The climate damage fund is hosted by the World Bank, whose president is appointed by the US. The US letter [confirming the move] did not mention any changes to the hosting arrangement, or make clear if quitting the board entailed a full pull-out from the fund. As of January 23, wealthy countries had pledged $741 million to the fund, according to UN data, with the US putting up $17.5 million. It is unclear if it will now honour that pledge,” the newswire noted. 

Trump layoffs: NASA terminates chief scientist’s post, a third of air traffic control space unit sacked

NASA is eliminating its chief scientist post and shutting down the office that studies policy matters on space and technology, in a round of layoffs affecting 23 employees, Reuters reported citing NASA emails. The cuts, part of President Donald Trump’s government cost-cutting initiative, will include the departures of NASA’s current chief scientist, Katherine Calvin, as well as NASA’s chief technologist, AC Charania. The report said many of NASA’s 18,000 employees have been anxious over Trump’s move to trim the federal bureaucracy, which has been spearheaded by Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency. Musk’s rocket company, SpaceX, has contracts worth roughly $15 billion with NASA, according to federal contracting data.

Roughly a third of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s 25-person Office of Space Commerce, a little-known body heavily relied upon by the space industry, was laid off earlier this month. Reuters said layoffs threaten US space traffic management efforts, NOAA’s Office of Space Commerce faces staff cuts, the space industry faces increased collision risks without coordination and delays in satellite launch approvals.

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