Carbon Pulse

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

The UK government has awarded £50.9 million in compensation to 61 companies for their 2019 costs relating to the EU ETS, in an effort to shield them from carbon leakage risks.

California Carbon Allowance (CCA) prices remained rangebound on the secondary market this week despite vehicle miles travelled (VMT) rising in the state, while RGGI allowances (RGAs) inched up on meagre activity. 

Ohio officials on Thursday proposed to withdraw legislation that bailed out several nuclear and coal plants and gutted the state’s Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS), after the the Buckeye State’s House leader was arrested this week in connection with a $60-million bribery scheme related to the bill.

The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) has called for a harmonisation of carbon taxes among EU nations to promote additional CO2 removal measures to complement the bloc’s cap-and-trade system.

The European Parliament on Thursday challenged the deal reached by EU nations on the bloc's seven-year Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) and COVID recovery plan, citing concerns over governance and uncertainty about new sources of financing, including revenues from auctioning EU carbon permits.

California Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) credits bounced back from nearly three-month lows this week as recent-sell side pressure waned and buyers jumped in.

Seventeen northern California municipalities sued utility Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) this week for intentionally miscalculating city and county electricity taxes by accounting for freely allocated carbon allowances under the state’s ETS, according to court documents.

EU carbon prices jumped on Thursday amid bullish technical signals and a second straight strong auction result.

China’s National Energy Administration (NEA) has ordered the closure of 7.3 GW worth of outdated coal-fired power generation capacity before the end of the year, slashing the amount of CO2 expected to be covered in its national emissions trading scheme.

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

The CBW Division is looking for an experienced policy analyst to represent, develop analysis, and provide day-to-day management of the activities of the CCXG, and to work closely with colleagues in the IEA as well as those within the OECD Environment and other OECD Directorates, under the supervision of an A4 Senior Analyst/Team Leader.

The South African government will on Thursday launch its carbon offset administration platform, which will help developers to submit project applications and emitters to surrender credits against their national CO2 tax obligations.

Utility Iberdrola reported a 32% year-on-year fall in its ETS-regulated coal-fired output during the first half of 2020, helping to slash its European thermal generation by 16%.

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) may have eyed a quick resolution of its constitutional challenges to the California-Quebec ETS linkage to enable President Donald Trump's administration to appeal to a more conservative court, lawyers involved in the case told Carbon Pulse.

California issued more than 157,000 new offsets over the past week, with nearly 70,000 of those credits tagged as having direct environmental benefits to the state (DEBS), according to data published by regulator ARB on Wednesday.

European carbon prices rebounded after hitting a fresh three-week low on Wednesday, with traders noting solid demand for allowances around current levels despite selling and supply-side pressure.

Renewable electricity overtook fossil fuels in the first half of 2020 to account for the largest share of generation among the EU's 27 member states as coal-fired production shrank by a third, a report released on Wednesday found.

Quebec will postpone the distribution of the remaining industrial carbon allocations for the 2019 compliance year as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, but the province will still transfer the allowances well before emitters need them for ETS compliance, according to a notice published Wednesday.

The European Commission will present a proposal to revise the EU ETS Directive in order to fund the bloc's coronavirus recovery package using EUA auction revenues from an expanded carbon market, a senior official confirmed on Wednesday.