Carbon Pulse

European lawmakers on Tuesday gave their approval to a series of provisional deals aiming to put shipping, buildings and road transport under carbon pricing, impose a carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM), and launch a Social Climate Fund. 

Trading activity in the Australian market has slowed down while companies with new compliance obligations under the strengthened Safeguard Mechanism are being given a crash course in the reformed Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCU) market ahead of the July start date, a broker told Carbon Pulse.

Growth in China’s thermal power generation accelerated in March, outpacing the growth of total power output amid continued coal expansion and better-than-expected economic sentiment, government data showed Tuesday.

Algae specialists firm Brilliant Planet has announced a partnership with consultancy Mott MacDonald to develop a carbon dioxide removal facility in Morocco.

A daily summary of our news plus bite-sized updates from around the world.

Climate NGOs on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against the European Commission over its decision to include gas and nuclear energy in its taxonomy list of sustainable investments, making good on an earlier pledge.

The Washington state cap-and-trade programme will see the May auction settlement exceed at least one of the scheme’s reserve tier prices as 2023 compliance and hedging demand exceeds supply, with permit values heading to the ceiling in the not-too-distant future, an analysis firm said Monday.

RGGI Allowance (RGA) values remained rangebound over the course of the week, leaving traders to speculate on a potential catalyst from the power sector cap-and-trade system’s programme review and New York's upcoming economy-wide carbon pricing system. 

A small minority of members of the EU Parliament raised concerns over EU ETS-related reform bills on the eve of a final vote on Monday, although their approval is not in doubt, sources told Carbon Pulse.

G7 energy ministers outlined principles to underpin high-integrity carbon markets alongside a wider communique released following their meeting in Japan over the weekend, providing a signal of support towards mitigation actions which generate carbon credits.

Prices for avoidance offsets continued to sink over the past week as the spectre of recession distracted corporate attention from voluntary emission mitigation.

Commodity trader ACT has acquired a controlling stake in a US-based software firm, expanding the Amsterdam-headquartered company's offerings in the fast-growing environmental, social, and governance (ESG) space.

The UK government is developing a new digital system for installations covered by the UK ETS to monitor, report and verify their emissions that will replace the existing ETSWAP system starting in the summer.

A Canadian-headquartered firm has attracted a number of potential buyers in a bidding process for carbon credits from one of its African reforestation projects, and is expecting to close its first major transaction by mid-June.

EUAs prices sank on Monday as demand appeared to decline as the end of the compliance season came nearer despite the daily auction clearing at the largest premium for nearly eight months, while energy prices gave back initial gains amid news of plentiful Asian gas supplies.

An industry coalition representing over 90% of UK airlines and industry outlined a roadmap on Monday consisting of technological and efficiency improvements coupled with up to nine million tonnes of carbon removals by mid-century that would see the sector comply with its net zero emissions pathway.

European carbon market analysts believe that the impact of the German nuclear phaseout which concluded over the weekend has already been long-priced into the EU ETS, though the extension of plants' lifetimes over the past winter avoided a significant amount of power sector emissions.

A Canada-based non-profit has received $60 million from a funding initiative to scale up low-impact and circular clothing, paper, and packaging solutions that will eliminate the use of ancient and endangered forests from the supply chains of those industries, it announced Monday.

China has not yet introduced auctioning in its national carbon market, but regulators could easily formulate rules for paid allowance allocation based on the lessons learned in the pilot markets, researchers from a government-run think-tank have suggested.

UK progress on the rollout of carbon capture usage and storage (CCUS) is too slow despite fresh funding in the government's recent financial statement, according to experts at an event Monday, with overall ambition, regulatory clarity, and supply chain transparency cited as the main challenges ahead.