Carbon Pulse

Australia’s Clean Energy Regulator has distributed nearly 300,000 offsets in its latest issuance, with more than two-thirds of those going to developer Terra Carbon, while revoking two more projects that had failed to generate any emission reductions.

Organization: INFRAS Position: Consultant, Environment, Climate and Energy Duty Station: Zurich, Switzerland

Organization: GIZ China Position: Technical Advisor, Nitric Acid Climate Action Group Duty Station: Beijing, China

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

Organization: Climate Analytics Inc Position: Research Analyst, Climate Change Economics Duty Station: Berlin, Germany

Vermont Democratic legislators are supportive of the proposed Transportation and Climate Initiative (TCI) fuel sector carbon market, but they will likely wait until the final structure of the ETS is released before deciding whether to pass legislation requiring the state’s participation.

The largest holder of California Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) credits reduced its share of the surplus bank volume during the third quarter, while the number two entity offset that trend by bolstering its own position, state data shows.

Five Massachusetts-based power plants exceeded their annual CO2 limit under the state’s Global Warming Solutions Act (GWSA) cap-and-trade programme last year, but data suggests that surplus allowances in circulation will enable those facilities to meet their upcoming compliance deadline.

While the EU carbon market welcomes long-awaited clarity regarding the resumption of the UK’s suspended allowance allocations and auctions, experts were mixed over the short-term impact on EUAs - though they all flagged the sheer amount of volume to come as a major price pressure.

EU carbon prices hit a four-month low on Monday as the prospect of additional supply from post-Brexit Britain weighed on an already fragile market, which is also dealing with tumbling energy prices and wider pressures from China's coronavirus.

Australian Resources Minister Matt Canavan resigned on Monday evening, declaring he would back MP Barnaby Joyce’s challenge to lead the National party - the junior Coalition partner - because he would be a more staunch defender of the coal industry.

China’s eight pilot emissions trading markets will remain shut for at least another week as governments have prolonged the national Lunar New Year holiday until Feb. 10 as they fight an uphill battle to control the spread of the coronavirus.

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

Regulated entities in the California Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) drew down nearly 150,000 tonnes on the credit bank in the third quarter of 2019, but administrative adjustments kept the programme’s surplus bank mostly constant.

The Chilean Senate approved changes to the Latin American nation’s $5/tonne CO2 levy on Wednesday, altering the methodology for applying the tax and setting out the use of offsets as a compliance option.

A summary of legislative and regulatory action on carbon pricing and clean energy at the US subnational and federal level taken this week, including developments in the Pacific Northwest, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Hawaii, and Illinois.

The UK government has sacked the president of this year’s UN climate talks in Glasgow, announcing that the position will made be a ministerial role.

The RGGI cap-and-trade system reported its lowest annual emissions figure in 2019 as reported fourth quarter GHGs dropped 12%, with much of those reductions coming from New York and Maryland, according to data published Friday.

The UK is due to commence its 2019 free EU ETS allocations within days and on Mar. 4 begin auctioning 2019 units, the British government confirmed late Friday as part of a Brexit transition deal that keeps UK emitters in the scheme for the next year.

The German government has ‘named and shamed’ another handful of airlines for failing to comply with the EU ETS, admonishing flagship carriers from Russia and Iraq.