Carbon Pulse

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

Compliance entities boosted their net length in the California Carbon Allowance (CCA) and RGGI Allowance (RGA) markets over the past week, while speculators pared back their holdings in both North American programmes, according to US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) data published Friday.

An OECD committee assembled to help improve the impact of emissions reduction efforts around the world through enhanced multilateralism will meet this autumn to discuss countries' various carbon pricing approaches, as part of an initiative to take stock of global efforts, examine their effectiveness, and prevent carbon leakage.

California regulator ARB’s forthcoming Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) rulemaking package will include a strengthening in the scheme’s carbon intensity (CI) targets alongside other measures to tighten the programme and phase out avoided methane crediting pathways, the agency revealed Friday.

The Washington Department of Ecology (ECY) will offer allowances from its Allowance Price Containment Reserve (APCR) for sale at one fixed-price tier this fall, following a Q3 settlement price which triggered the second-ever reserve auction, according to a government notice published Friday. 

California Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) values slid on Friday to levels not seen since late July as market participants reported compliance entities were keen to sit back, though they spiked late in the day after the state published a document detailing its forthcoming rulemaking to strengthen the programme's carbon intensity (CI) benchmarks.

A major Brazilian financial services company announced on Thursday it expects its current suite of carbon projects to produce 60 million credits over the next three decades, not counting future investments in the sector.

Indonesia is leading a group of 17 commodity-producing countries that are demanding to have a say in the EU's anti-deforestation law that addresses imported products.

Fish farming will not enter the EU’s list of sustainable investment activities for at least two to three years, an executive at non-profit think-tank Planet Tracker has predicted.

Electric cookstoves will need a carbon credit price of $30-50 to enable the fledgling market to thrive, according to one of the leading manufacturers and project developers in the market that is set to open a new factory in Nigeria next month and is planning to sell commercially in the future.

The Q3 RGGI cap-and-trade auction cleared just shy of its all-time record settlement and in-line with broad market expectations near the secondary market values, although compliance participation remained subdued, according to results published Friday.

Stakeholders have welcomed the significant progress, notably on draft recommendations for removals, made by the UN body responsible for shaping the carbon crediting mechanism under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement ahead of a crunch meeting next week, while also highlighting the pressure of using the limited remaining time to finalise key aspects of the guidance, ahead of year-end negotiations at COP28.

A Biodiversity Risk Assessment (BioRA) tool has been launched by technology company Ceven that is free to use at its basic level.

Green development and climate finance will be one of the priorities of this weekend's G20 leaders' summit, according to G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant ahead of the two-day meeting in New Delhi this weekend despite climate change goals emerging as one of the major stumbling blocks. 

Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL) and Shell Marine Products Singapore have agreed to collaborate on maritime decarbonisation efforts, including advancing cleaner fuel-related measures that could have carbon market implications.

While the 2015 Paris Agreement has inspired significant progress in response to climate change, the world is not on track to meet the pact’s long-term goals, according to the UN’s first-ever stocktake of global efforts to tackle the crisis, released Friday.

A senior leader at Shell on Friday appeared to reinforce the company’s support for purchasing nature-based carbon credits, despite the oil major having dropped public targets for its credit-buying programme.

European carbon prices advanced moderately in Friday morning trade, threatening to snap a run of six successive daily losses, as the market was supported by a sharp rise in gas prices after workers at two Australian LNG facilities began strike action.

A London-based commercial bank with significant Asia presence is growing its in-house expertise on climate tech in order to identify the early-stage companies with potential for the biggest climate and commercial impact, a conference was told this week.

China’s national carbon markets saw stable prices over the past week with a surge in trading volume as the ETS compliance deadline is approaching, with experts saying that recent policy change to introduce allowance vintages could shape corporate preferences.