In our final dispatch from the CERAWeek conference by S&P Global, Felipe Alice shared some insights and key takeaways from a luncheon and dialogue session featuring tech entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist Bill Gates.
Power & Pipes
FERC, CFTC, and State Energy Law Developments
Our coverage of the CERAWeek conference by S&P Global in Houston, running from March 18 to March 22, continues with more updates. Today’s missive comes from the Innovation Agora, which is connected to the Executive Conference at CERAWeek. The Innovation Agora is described as a “vibrant and interactive marketplace of ideas on energy innovation and emerging technologies.” It includes several amphitheaters or “hubs” that are designed for presentations and conversations involving the latest trends in climate change, carbon, hydrogen, and emerging energy technologies.
We’re back with another update from CERAWeek 2024 by S&P Global to highlight some key takeaways from day two of the conference. Many of the sessions on this day were dedicated to infrastructure development and highlighted the opportunities and the challenges facing energy project developers.
Yesterday marked the start of CERAWeek 2024 by S&P Global, and for the rest of this week Morgan Lewis partners Kirstin Gibbs and Felipe Alice will be reporting back on the key themes and ideas they are uncovering as the conference unfolds.
The compliance deadline for the Voluntary Carbon Market Disclosures Act (VCMDA) is quickly approaching, but the statutory language of the VCMDA leaves open for interpretation several key issues, including threshold applicability questions that potentially impacted companies will need to grapple with.
California Governor Gavin Newsom signed the Voluntary Carbon Market Disclosures Act (VCMDA) on October 7, imposing disclosure obligations on businesses that market, sell, or purchase voluntary carbon offsets in California and businesses that make net-zero or carbon-neutral claims, effective on January 1, 2024.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC’s) Division of Enforcement announced that it has established a new task force—the Environmental Fraud Task Force—to combat environmental fraud and misconduct in derivatives and relevant spot markets, including the carbon markets.
One week after the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) Whistleblower Office issued an alert seeking tips on potential fraud and manipulation in the carbon markets, the CFTC chairman announced that the second voluntary carbon markets convening will be held on July 19.
In recent remarks, Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Commissioner Christy Goldsmith Romero proposed that the CFTC promote market resilience to climate-related risk by adopting an approach for environmental/climate-related products, such as carbon offsets, similar to the CFTC’s regulatory response to virtual currencies.
ESG. Net zero. Carbon sequestration. In 2023, all of these terms will continue to be widely referenced in mainstream media publications, corporate governance and shareholder materials, and regulatory filings and issuances. Although the terms are technically unrelated, at their core they reflect a growing social consciousness, both in the United States and abroad, concerning carbon dioxide (CO2) presence in the atmosphere and the impact of individual and corporate actions on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.