Feed aggregator

RGGI Allowance (RGA) prices dropped to a six-week low this week after the Q1 auction settled significantly below the secondary market level, while California Carbon Allowance (CCA) values remained stagnant as traders shifted positions along the curve.

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

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) has restored access to Britain’s carbon market MRV system following a cyberattack, while the German emissions trading agency’s email system went down this week.

Move by local government secretary to call in planning application puts controversial scheme on hold

A controversial new coalmine planned for Cumbria appears to have been put on hold.

The local government secretary, Robert Jenrick, had previously refused to intervene but on Thursday night he said he would take responsibility for the scheme away from the local authority.

Continue reading...

EU carbon's record-breaking run stretched to a third day on Thursday, with prices climbing above €42 amid supportive energy and equity markets as the bullish speculative mood continues to hold sway.

The European Commission is seeking views on whether EUAs should be added to the definition of financial instruments in the bloc’s Financial Collateral Directive, it said in a statement late on Thursday.

Yallourn power station, Australia’s oldest and dirtiest coal plant, will close four years ahead of schedule. Without a national policy, coal workers are left dangerously exposed. Chris Briggs, Research Principal, Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Global conservation efforts have suffered during the COVID-19 outbreak. It's sadly ironic, because avoiding habitat loss is a cost-effective way to prevent pandemics. Marc Hockings, Emeritus Professor of Environmental Management, The University of Queensland Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Choked Up group demands action from mayoral candidates to tackle traffic pollution

A group of teenagers who live in some of London’s most polluted neighbourhoods are putting “hacked” road signs up across the capital to highlight the disproportionate impact that toxic air has on people of colour.

Choked Up, a group who describe themselves as “black and brown teenagers from south London”, have set up the campaign, which is being backed by more than 100 doctors.

Continue reading...

Colombia’s Empresas Publicas de Medellin (EPM) will sell 2 million voluntary emissions reductions (VERs) from hydroelectric and wind projects on Mar. 23, the residential public utilities company announced Wednesday.

US biofuel credits (RINs) continued their recent torrid stretch on Thursday morning, closing in on record prices under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) not seen since 2013.

With wingspans of up to one-metre, protected grey-headed flying foxes are causing multiple blackouts a week

Australia’s largest bat is making life difficult for Adelaide households. A colony of more than 25,000 grey-headed flying foxes plunging households into darkness 40 times so far this year.

The protected species – a member of the megabat family – first moved into Botanic Park in the heart of the city in 2010.

Continue reading...

Trying to heavy owners won’t hold back the renewables tide. It’s time to plan, and the blueprint exists

If ever there is a case where the headline doesn’t tell the full story it is the news that Victoria’s Yallourn power generator – one of Australia’s oldest and dirtiest coal plants – will shut earlier than planned.

The basic facts are clear: the owner, EnergyAustralia, had previously said the Latrobe Valley generator would close in 2032, and now it will be gone by 2028.

Continue reading...

When suppliers make green energy the default choice, consumers stick with it even if it's costly.

Kathleen Folbigg has been called Australia's worst female murderer - now scientists doubt her guilt.

ICE Futures Europe will delist its Phase 4 EU Allowance daily futures at the end of April as the current bifurcation seen in the European carbon market dissipates, with the bourse modifying its Phase 3 contract to offer trade in EUAs from either period.

Poland expects to reduce its EU ETS-covered emissions 10.3% by the end of the decade, according to an energy strategy published late Wednesday that would keep coal in use far longer than experts say is needed to curb global warming.

Joe Biden needs ‘visionary target’ of cutting US emissions by 60% over 2005 levels

The US should ensure almost all new cars and light vehicles sold are electric by the end of this decade, and stop using fossil fuels for power generation by 2035, to cut greenhouse gas emissions in line with the Paris agreement, a new analysis has found.

Joe Biden, the US president, should aim for a national target of cutting emissions by about 60% by 2030, compared with 2005 levels, for the world to have a good chance of holding global temperature rises within 1.5C of pre-industrial levels, according to Climate Action Tracker (CAT).

Continue reading...

Spot commodities exchange and market data firm Xpansiv launched a nature-based version of its Global Emissions Offset (GEO) on Thursday, building on the firm’s spot and futures offerings of its CORSIA-aligned carbon credits.

Preparations for the crucial climate conference aren’t going well: with its aid cuts, the UK is hardly setting an example

It ought to be simple, but it will be anything but. When almost 200 countries gather for the UN Cop26 climate conference in Glasgow in November, they will do so under the shadow of two crises: a global pandemic that emerged out of nowhere and a climate emergency that nearly everybody has been able to see coming.

Governments have spent trillions of pounds, dollars and euros in the battle against Covid-19. They have the incentive – as Boris Johnson puts it – to build back better, to channel that stimulus into the greening of the global economy. If ever there was a time to think big and be bold then this is it.

Continue reading...