Carbon Pulse

Conservative Democratic Senator Joe Manchin (D) on Wednesday announced he had forged a deal with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to resurrect efforts to pass climate-oriented legislation through budget reconciliation, though the coal state lawmaker’s proposal emphasises the continued support of fossil fuels.

California regulator ARB this week doled out the largest number of compliance offsets since April, according to government data published Wednesday, while a decline in WCI allowance prices has tightened the discount of offset values.

Complex issues have already been raised on the first day of consultations on the Integrity Council (IC) draft requirements to define robust carbon credits in the voluntary carbon market (VCM), with IC-VCM chair Annette Nazareth elaborating on the quasi-regulatory nature of the group.

The grade of a high-yielding VCS-accredited pipeline gas leak offset project was downgraded by a ratings agency this week.

The deteriorating global economic outlook has split the voluntary carbon market (VCM), with a top half seeking to trade and retire more expensive nature-based solutions and a bottom half seeking out cheaper and older vintages, according to analysts.

The Canadian federal government's two proposed options to assign a carbon pricing mechanism to its oil and gas sector are dividing opinion among experts on the likelihood of the outcome and which option is the easiest to implement.

Greece's prime minister has sent a letter to the European Commission proposing an EU-wide mechanism to compensate industry for reducing their gas and electricity use for the coming winter.

Utility Iberdrola posted on Wednesday a strong rise in gas-fired generation to send its ETS-covered output rising by more than one fifth year-on-year in H1, while hydro generation in Spain slumped some 52% due to drought across the country.

EUAs opened with relative calm on Wednesday following multiple volatile sessions over the past week, trading flat across the first hours before finding strength as the Dec-22 moved to a 1.4% gain at midday.

The use of direct air capture with CCS, or DACCS, would reduce the total cost of decarbonisation in meeting global climate goals in a long term scenario where deploying the technology at scale is low cost, while also making it more likely that net zero emissions can be reached, according to a report released this week.

China’s highest court has recommended complementing current regulations concerning the activities in carbon markets, in a move backing long-awaited legislation for the country's national emissions trading scheme (ETS).

Australia’s Clean Energy Regulator has issued around 1.2 million new Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) to carbon projects, as the Labor Party government on Wednesday introduced its Climate Change Bill to the House of Representatives.

A coalition comprising of over 40 industry, government, academic, and non-profit group participants has formed the Nuclear Hydrogen Initiative, a body that will seek to advance the role of hydrogen sourced from nuclear power as a climate change mitigation solution.

The roll-out of China’s national carbon emission trading scheme (ETS) is unlikely to push up near-term cost levels for thermal power plants, though compliance costs could increase in the long run, according to a report by rating agency Fitch.

The Vietnamese government has signed a decree to dramatically ramp up its climate and energy initiatives that would result in an emissions reduction cut of 43.5% below business-as-usual levels in 2030, on the way to net zero by 2050, a far more ambitious target than outlined in its NDC.

Big Australian bank Westpac outlined on Wednesday new and updated emissions targets to be reached by 2030 for its lending portfolio and has stated that it plans to review the role that carbon offsets can play in the future to meet its longer-term decarbonisation objectives.

New Zealand’s Climate Change Commission has recommended sweeping changes to the settings of the country’s ETS, sending the NZU spot price up by 11%.  

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

The EU’s plan to rapidly reduce its dependence on Russian fossil fuels faces "significant" problems and practical challenges, including that it goes against member states' environmental principles and it risks falling short in its funding aims, the guardians of the bloc’s finances have warned.

A draft of the highly-anticipated Core Carbon Principles (CCPs) was released Wednesday, seeking to guide the integrity of carbon credits within the voluntary carbon market (VCM) – while also providing a framework of requirements to assess and 'CCP-approve' carbon-crediting programmes and credit types.