Carbon Pulse

Closing prices, ranges and volumes for China's regional pilot carbon markets this week.

Friday marked the deadline for South Korean companies to comply with their 2019 targets under the nation’s emissions trading scheme, but minimal demand in the over-supplied market led to prices falling to levels not seen since Dec. 2016.

Australia’s Clean Energy Regulator has issued a new batch of emission baselines under the Safeguard Mechanism, increasing the amount of CO2 discharges allowed from several large industrial facilities.

The "Sino-German Cooperation on Climate Change" (SGCCC) acts as platform for exchange on NDC implementation and climate governance between the Chinese and German national climate departments.

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

California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) credit bank will shrink by an estimated 4% in the first quarter of the year due to a more stringent carbon intensity (CI) reduction benchmark, though a drop in gasoline demand from the coronavirus pandemic will limit the damage, analysts said Thursday.

EU utilities advanced their hedging position over the second quarter even as their ETS-covered output slumped considerably as coronavirus restrictions took effect, according to financial results published on Thursday.

RGGI allowance (RGA) prices surged to a four-year high on the secondary market this week on increased compliance buying, while California Carbon Allowance (CCA) values slid despite more trading activity.

Pennsylvania Senate Minority Leader Jay Costa (D) unveiled Thursday a bill to implement a power sector ETS that could link with the RGGI programme, a rebuttal to other state lawmakers’ attempts to stop Governor Tom Wolf (D) from joining the Northeast US carbon market.

A new US-listed exchange-traded fund (ETF) that tracks carbon prices in three markets was launched Thursday, allowing retail investors for the first time to hold cross-continental stakes in cap-and-trade schemes.

Some of the EU’s largest cement and steel producers have seen production rebound late in H1 following initial coronavirus lockdowns in Q1, but they say prospects of a second virus wave make their outlook for the rest of the year impossible to predict.

EUAs fell below €26 on Thursday, giving back the previous day's gains as markets sank on worse-than-expected GDP and corporate data, hitting home how badly the pandemic has struck the wider economy.

EUAs hit a 14-year high in July before immediately nosediving as the market suffered altitude sickness. Now we're back in the €25-26s, roughly where we were before the Great Covid Sell-Off, and it feels like prices aren’t sure where to go next. According to Alessandro Vitelli, August looks pretty finely balanced in terms of price outlook: a supply cut may mitigate some potential weakness, but there are darker clouds on the horizon.

Coal-fired power generators participating in China’s pilot carbon markets are set to find life easier in the national emissions trading scheme due to more generous allocation, said a report released Thursday.

NZUs have gained almost a dollar over the past two days to climb past NZ$34.00 ($22.53) for the first time amid steady demand and limited supply as sellers eye even higher levels.

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

California’s WCI-capped fuel consumption collapsed in April as a statewide ‘shelter-in-place’ order scuttled vehicle miles travelled (VMT) across the Golden State, leading to historic lows for gasoline demand, according to state data released Wednesday.

Coal power generation at UK utility Drax more than doubled in H1 as the company sought to use up its remaining stockpiles ahead of an anticipated coal phaseout in Mar. 2021, it said in first-half results on Wednesday.

The Massachusetts House of Representatives omitted carbon pricing language from a Senate climate bill on Wednesday, but advocates are hopeful that lawmakers can reinsert the provision after the lower chamber agreed to extend the legislative session past this month.

In the latest episode of our Carbon Pulse Conservations podcast, we speak with Sheppard Mullin Partner Nico Van Aelstyn about the recent federal court rulings in the US Department of Justice’s (DOJ) legal challenges to the California-Quebec carbon market linkage.