Carbon Pulse

Analysts have welcomed the joint US-China statement on climate change released over the weekend but warned against lifting expectations too high, whereas the outlook in Japan is brighter after a bilateral announcement made on Friday.

We are looking to hire an experienced Carbon Offset Project Manager on a permanent basis, with the location being flexible. There will be regular travel to Africa required for this role. This role will support the selection, development and implementation of carbon offset projects in Africa and then manage a growing portfolio of projects.

Offset developer and consultancy South Pole is targeting rapid expansion this year after an impact fund owned by the Liechtenstein royal family acquired a 10% stake in the business.

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

Financial entities increased their California Carbon Allowance (CCA) position this week by the greatest amount since late 2019, while regulated entities maintained their recent trend by continuing to shed permits, according to US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) data published Friday.

Fossil-fuel companies, long accused of using carbon offsets to avoid instead of accelerating the transition to a low-carbon future, may be structurally incapable of making that transition, according to a peer-reviewed paper published Thursday.

The EU carbon market's compliance season is almost over. A large proportion of industrials have by now completed their 2020 purchases, and the market seems to be on the verge of crossing €45/t at the same time. So we turn to the question of “what next?” Here are some of the factors that carbon reporter Alessandro Vitelli thinks are at play.

The Colombian Ministry of Finance and Public Credit (Minhacienda) on Thursday put forth a long-awaited plan to include coal in the scope of the country’s roughly $5/tonne CO2 tax, though the full cost of the carbon fee on the fuel will not be fully phased in until the end of the decade.

Instruments to reduce emissions need to be clearly ranked for their environmental integrity and associated with robust claims that provide an accurate representation of the impacts achieved, argues Marion Verles of SustainCERT, adding that having civil society formulate a consensus on what can and can’t be done with offsets would go a long way in reassuring corporates and citizens that the market is trustworthy.

A summary of legislative and regulatory action on carbon pricing, clean fuel standards, and clean energy at the US subnational and federal level this week, including developments in Washington, Oregon, and California.

Grid operator New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) is working with state officials to support its carbon pricing proposal for the wholesale power market after the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) concluded the agency has jurisdiction over the matter.

EU carbon prices look set to rise to €75 in Q3 of this year on the back of higher oil and gas prices, an analyst said on Friday.

Deficits outpaced credit generation in the British Columbia Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) scheme for the third straight year in 2019, bringing the transportation sector programme’s aggregate short position to its steepest level yet, according to government data published Thursday.

EUAs reached new heights on Friday, extending the all-time peak of earlier in the week amid wider positive market sentiment, with some experts predicting that carbon could pull back from these levels.

Organization: Climate Policy Initiative (CPI) Position: Climate Finance Data Analyst Duty Station: London, England, UK Deadline for Application: 21 April 2021

Organization: Climate Strategies Position: Programme Intern Duty Station: UK or the Netherlands Deadline for Application: until suitable applicant is found

Utility J-Power on Friday announced it had scrapped plans to build a 600 MW coal-fired power plant amid profitability concerns, but remaining projects in the country's pipeline could still add over 50 MtCO2/year to Japan’s carbon emissions.

China’s ecology and environment ministry has proposed introducing a carbon impact assessment as part of the approval process for new energy intensive, high emitting projects as part of efforts to ensure the country meets its climate ambitions.

Singapore-based ACX on Friday announced it has introduced a new contract for carbon credits from nature-based projects, countering a similar move by rival exchange Xpansiv last month.

South Korea will from Monday introduce a temporary minimum price in its emissions trading scheme, to halt declining price levels that have seen KAUs drop to 5-year lows, the environment ministry announced Friday.