Carbon Pulse

California Carbon Offset (CCO) prices collapsing this spring has made the process of selling and developing compliance offsets more difficult, as ‘shelter-in-place’ restrictions across the US could present issues for certain verification activities down the road, stakeholders said Thursday.

California Carbon Allowance (CCA) prices continued to zero in on the WCI floor price this week as strong demand persisted on the secondary market, while RGGI Allowances (RGAs) fell back on thin volume.

European carbon prices will recover in the coming years as the EU puts decarbonisation front and centre in its post-coronavirus rebuilding efforts, investment bank JP Morgan said.

Germany had been badly lagging behind its EU target for cutting emissions from non-ETS sectors before the coronavirus pandemic kicked in, with 2019 marking the fourth year in a row the country had missed its goal, a study released on Thursday found.

German utility RWE ramped up hedging of its remaining big-emitting lignite output over Q1 as its thermal output continued to declined rapidly, the company said in quarterly results on Thursday.

EUAs dipped on Thursday to stay close to this week's five-week bottom, shrugging off stronger energy prices on light volume.

NZUs rose to their highest levels since mid-March on Thursday as the government announced major spending in a budget to get the economy back on track, though the ETS still faces large uncertainties.

South Korean ETS emissions fell for the first time in 2019 driven by CO2 cuts in the power sector, leaving the market overall marginally long, the environment ministry said Thursday.

A federal court will likely hear arguments in late June about whether California’s ETS linkage to Quebec violates the US Constitution’s Foreign Affairs Doctrine by conflicting with the Trump administration’s decision to leave the Paris Agreement, according to documents filed late Wednesday.

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

A Canadian mineral exploration company has agreed to develop an Ontario-based forestry project with a North American offset developer and a First Nations group, with most of the credit revenue earmarked for the indigenous community.

The Transportation and Climate Initiative (TCI) is working through disagreements on its final Memorandum of Understand (MOU) that could extend the current timeline for publication, but others believe the framework to regulate fuel sector emissions across two US regions is nearing completion.

California regulator ARB minted 11.2 million new credits this week in its highest single issuance since fall 2018, as Quebec's environment ministry handed out its first compliance offsets in 10 months, according to data posted Wednesday afternoon.

Carbon prices must exceed €200/tCO2e if the EU is to meet its net zero 2050 emission goal, oil major Shell said Wednesday.

Airlines could avoid buying CORSIA units through the mid-2020s if nations alter the emissions baseline for the international aviation offset system, but the EU made no mention of changing that provision in its proposal to implement the ICAO programme’s pilot phase on Wednesday.

A carbon market investment fund in April handed back most of the gains made the previous month after a bet on volatility went sour.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel will seek to review the EU's non-ETS Effort-Sharing Regulation (ESR) should the 27-nation bloc agree to increase its 2030 emission target, she said Wednesday following pressure from her own political party.

EUAs extended a five-week low early on Wednesday but then ticked higher despite struggling to absorb the UK's bumper auction and several bearish technical and fundamental signals.

African climate negotiators want next year's COP27 UN summit to go ahead in Africa as planned, despite this year's postponement of the UK-hosted talks to 2021.

South Korea’s monthly CO2 auction failed to sell out on Wednesday as secondary market allowances suffered a second consecutive day of heavy losses, closing nearly 10% below the previous session.