2. COP28 deal welcomed by businesses seeking climate clarity
This week’s landmark climate deal at COP28 will only help accelerate efforts to green the global economy if it is backed up with deeper shifts in national rules, business leaders said.
But some executives said that by giving the clearest signal yet that the end of the oil age is nigh, the U.N. summit accord should now allow governments to take those bolder steps. Read the full feature here by Reuters sustainable finance journalists Simon Jessop and Tommy Wilkes.
3. Exclusive: US regulator probes banks’ climate risk planning
The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) carried out its first climate risk assessment of more than two dozen banks in recent months, laying the groundwork for heightened scrutiny of Wall Street’s accounting for such threats, people familiar with the matter said.
4. Trump says he would renege on $3 billion US pledge for Green Climate Fund
Donald Trump, the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination, said that if elected he would renege on a $3 billion U.S. pledge to a global fund meant to help developing countries cut emissions and adapt to climate change.
5. Second cold wave envelops China’s Beijing in snow, ice
Snow, blizzards and plunging temperatures swept northern China in what could be one of its most severe cold snaps in December, spurring authorities in the capital to halt train services, shut schools and tell people to stay home.
