Carbon Pulse

European carbon prices eased on Monday, as competing bullish and bearish forces continued to keep prices stuck around €19.

One of the project developers that bid successfully at Australia’s March Emissions Reduction Fund (ERF) auction has already completed delivery under the contract, Clean Energy Regulator data showed.

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

Compliance entities increased their California Carbon Allowance (CCA) positions on the secondary market as speculators moved their holdings further out on the curve, according to US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) data released Friday.

Companies regulated by the EU ETS exchanged over 27 million Kyoto Protocol offsets for EUAs in the past 12 months, ramping up the practice with just a year left for emitters to tap this cheaper compliance option.

More than 330 million more carbon allowances will be withdrawn from the EU ETS through next summer and inserted into the MSR, the European Commission announced late Friday in its annual 'TNAC' update, with the market's oversupply falling by over 16% from 2018 levels.

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) will largely commence rulemakings in 2021 to develop a cap-and-reduce programme and strengthen the state’s clean fuel standard, while several related efforts from Governor Kate Brown’s (D) climate-based executive order will begin sooner, the agency said Thursday.

The EU Parliament’s regional development committee will on Tuesday debate its position on the proposed €7.5 billion Just Transition Fund (JTF), with the lead lawmaker proposing its size to be raised by more than €10 billion.

The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) will make changes this month to its previously passed RGGI-modelled ETS regulation to accommodate state-run auctions in 2021, a regulatory source told Carbon Pulse.

The EU should set a 65% emissions reduction target for 2030 and work towards an 80-85% objective in 2040, aided by a Union-wide carbon budget and the establishment of an independent scientific committee, the lead MEP for the 27-nation bloc’s climate law has proposed in a draft report.

EUAs slipped back towards €19 early on Friday in trade thinned by a UK public holiday, with carbon on course to notch a slight weekly gain as EU nations plot their post-pandemic recoveries.

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

South Korea on Friday released a draft energy plan for the next 14 years, proposing to shut down half its coal power plants and nearly triple renewables' share of electricity generation.

In this latest episode of our Carbon Pulse Conversations podcast, we speak to Catherine Leining, policy fellow at the Motu Economic and Public Policy Research Institute and a member of New Zealand’s independent Climate Change Commission, about the ongoing NZ ETS reform work and the prospects of the country accessing the international carbon market.

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

California and US Department of Justice (DOJ) officials are working to finalise a schedule for the remaining summary judgement challenge over the WCI linkage with Quebec, with the state and intervenors in the case focused on responding to the federal government’s latest argument.

California Carbon Allowance (CCA) prices flirted with the WCI auction reserve value this week amid higher compliance buying on the secondary market, while RGGI Allowances (RGAs) dipped after approaching the Emissions Containment Reserve (ECR) trigger price.

A Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) committee split on Thursday regarding whether to recommend the RGGI-modelled ETS proposal for a vote this summer, while a bipartisan group of nearly 60 legislators called on Governor Tom Wolf (D) to suspend the cap-and-trade rulemaking in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Canadian environment ministry delayed the publication of regulations for a national offset programme due to the coronavirus pandemic on Thursday, as it announced it will seek further input on which project types should be prioritised in the first phase of protocol development.

In the latest instalment of the Carbon Pulse Conversations podcast, we chat with Kelley Hamrick, policy advisor at US-based environmental organisation The Nature Conservancy (TNC), about coronavirus-related impacts on the Paris Agreement’s Article 6 negotiations and ICAO’s global aviation offset mechanism CORSIA.