Carbon Pulse

A Polish pitch to eliminate free carbon allowance allocations for aircraft operators failed to muster majority support at a meeting of EU environment ministers Thursday, but backers are optimistic the idea found enough backers to help it make its way into formal ETS reform proposals next year.

Germany will fall short of reaching its 2030 emissions reduction target via the wide-reaching climate package unveiled last year, according to a government-commissioned analysis released Thursday.

EUAs lifted slightly to straddle €24 early on Thursday, even as stock markets resumed falls following government stimulus measures aimed at cushioning the economic fallout from tackling the coronavirus. 

A group of companies and organisations in China’s Guangdong province has launched an ‘ecological compensation’ offset standard, one of the first initiatives to target Chinese voluntary buyers.

South Korea’s ETS will face a bigger shortage than previously thought ahead of the 2019 compliance season, but will also see a larger excess of allowances for 2020 compared to previous estimates, analysts said Thursday.

Border carbon adjustments will become necessary and inevitable as the world advances toward decarbonisation, a group of academics told UK lawmakers on Wednesday, highlighting that implementing these divisive policies could give Britain a post-Brexit competitive advantage.

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

The US Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Constitutionally-based arguments against the California-Quebec carbon market linkage would vastly expand the government’s authority while presenting little legal precedent to do so, state officials wrote this week.

The fourth sale held by the World Bank’s Pilot Auction Facility (PAF) resulted in the procurement of 4.2 million tonnes of methane offsets, the bank announced Wednesday.

EUAs rose on Wednesday after the first UK auction for over a year cleared above market, inspiring bullish sentiment even as financial markets continue to weigh the severity of the Covid-19 coronavirus outbreak.

California fuel consumption sagged further below the previous year’s total as diesel demand declined in November, likely cutting ETS-covered emissions compared to 2018, state data published this week suggested.

US biofuel credit (RIN) values continued to retrace on Wednesday as EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler said the agency was looking at strategies to limit price volatility under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS).

The European Commission unveiled its much-anticipated climate law to bind the EU to a net zero 2050 emission goal on Wednesday, pledging to add in a higher 2030 target later this year.

The chart below shows how European carbon prices have outperformed the rest of the energy complex so far this year. EUAs are down just 1.7% since January 1, while coal, oil, natural gas and power have all fallen between 7% and 21%.

China’s National Energy Administration (NEA) has loosened restrictions on building new coal-fired power plants in around a third of the nation’s regions and provinces.

Oil and gas producer Santos has said it will seek government support in the form of carbon crediting as part of a funding strategy for a carbon capture and storage project that may eventually store up to 20 MtCO2e annually over half a century.

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

A trio of New York-based power generators regulated by the Northeast US RGGI cap-and-trade system failed to surrender enough allowances to meet their interim 2019 obligations, including the Empire State’s last two coal-fired facilities that are in the process of shutting down, according to public data released Tuesday.

California Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) prices received a jolt on Monday as a company reportedly was short covering for the final quarter of 2019, halting a month-long regression in credit values.