Carbon Pulse

California Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) prices ticked up this week despite utility Pacific Gas & Electric holding a massive auction, while a dairy digester in the state applied to generate credits under the transportation sector programme instead of the compliance offset market.

A new offset platform for Mexican nature-based projects is set to commence pre-selling credits from a blue carbon project, before greatly expanding its portfolio over the coming year.

Carbon capture, storage, and utilisation (CCUS) projects have taken the lion's share of grants awarded by the EUs flagship decarbonisation fund so far, raising concerns as to whether one technology should be receiving such a high share of carbon revenue funding ahead of other clean energy initiatives.

The current EUA price rise towards €100 reflects a variety of fundamental factors as much as it does speculative activity, but the rally seems unlikely to attract the attention of politicians as previous price spikes have done, according to a senior market participant.

The UK government has awarded a £737,000 tender contract to a London-based consultancy to evaluate the first phase of the country’s domestic cap-and-trade scheme.

European carbon extended its rally for a third day, pushing the week-to-date's gains to more than 7% as traders continued to back up bullish sentiment with steady buying in relatively low volume, while energy prices rose for a second day amid a cold snap across much of Europe.

The Malaysian government will commit RM10 million ($2.2 mln) to help kickstart the country’s newly-formed carbon market by providing finance for local projects that generate carbon credits, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim announced at a conference in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday.

South Korea on Wednesday sold fewer than 70% of the allowances on offer in its monthly CO2 permit auction amid dwindling buy interest, which observers expect to be sustained this year despite a possible rebound in the country's emissions.

Luxembourg-based eco.business Fund and Kenya’s Absa Bank have signed a $10-million financing deal for sustainable agriculture in the East African country, with a view to expanding their cooperation across the sub-Saharan region.

South Korea's major trade group plans to establish a voluntary carbon market (VCM) trading platform, which will be launched in the second half of this year at the earliest as a supplement to the domestic mandatory emissions trading scheme, local media reported.

Australia’s peak scientific body has launched a A$20 million ($13 mln) research programme to develop new and innovative ways to remove carbon from the atmosphere and permanently lock it away.

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

*PREMIUM LISTING - The Global Projects Partnerships Coordinator is responsible for supporting the origination of nature-based carbon projects and maintaining partner relationships across NatureCo’s priority countries.

The annual supply of NZUs in New Zealand’s emissions trading scheme is expected to fall significantly in coming years, according to new data by the country’s environment ministry, with the predicted unit demand-supply gap expected to widen considerably.

EU member states have handed out more than half of their 2023 quotas of free carbon allowances under the ETS, according to data released by the European Commission.

Traders have largely coalesced around the March RGGI auction clearing either below or in line with secondary market pricing, as weak demand from compliance entities following a warmer winter and a lack of speculative enthusiasm threatens to overwhelm potentially bullish drivers on the horizon.

Iceland’s environment ministry has decided to buy carbon units to meet a shortfall to its legally-binding emissions target under the UN Kyoto Protocol, according to local media.

Pennsylvania’s new governor included RGGI revenues in Tuesday’s release of his first state budget for fiscal year 2023–24, even as he remained non-committal on supporting the state’s participation in the power sector emissions trading programme embroiled in legal logjam.

The first auction of Washington state’s WCI-modelled cap-and-trade programme sold out, with the clearing price coming well above levels on both the secondary market prior to the sale and in the California-Quebec scheme, according to results published Tuesday.

Terraformation is hiring a Head of Carbon Strategy to work with our Forestry Partnerships and Development team to lead our internal carbon projects strategy, strengthening our value proposition in the voluntary carbon offset markets.