Carbon Pulse

Some project developers fear that Australia’s biodiversity credit market could become a commercial failure under the proposed framework, while observer groups have expressed concerns over potential perverse outcomes.

Governments in the Indo-Pacific should invest in blue carbon demonstration projects in order to provide proof to private investors that they can deliver financial returns, according to an Australian-funded regional report.

A major Japanese oil company has secured its first forward offtake deal of forestry-based J-Credits, and will seek to roll out forest conservation initiatives across the country, it announced on Friday.

Dozens of trades have gone through during the first four weeks of trading at the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing's (HKEX) recently launched Core Climate offset platform with the support of major financial institutions in the region, the bourse said, as Hong Kong gets ready to challenge Singapore for the status of the Asia-Pacific region's main carbon trading hub.

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

The Oregon Clean Fuels Program (OCFP) continued to generate a credit shortfall through the second quarter of 2022, with a new quarterly high net deficit generation from petroleum-based gasoline, while volumes from renewable diesel dropped significantly compared to the prior quarter, according to state data published Wednesday.

EU energy ministers dismissed the gas market correction mechanism proposed by the European Commission during a heated discussion on Thursday that also leaves in limbo a series of other emergency measures designed to tackle the bloc's energy crisis.

California Carbon Allowance (CCA) values slid in the days running up to and after Q4 WCI results results were published on Wednesday, while RGGI Allowance (RGA) prices seesawed back and forth over the past week on high spread volume.

Canada's federal government has announced funding for three Canadian collaborative projects between conservation agencies, academia, and industry to quantify the carbon capture potential of wetlands, peatlands, and agricultural solutions that would contribute to the development of national and regional carbon protocols.

With several pointed issues better crystallised at the COP27 UN climate talks last week, stakeholders weighed in on Thursday about how these rules may be applicable to the voluntary carbon market (VCM).

Hopes weren’t particularly high that this would be a blockbuster COP. Glasgow had done the hard yards of finalising the overarching rules on carbon markets, and even the Egyptian hosts were billing this as the “implementation COP”. But the markets seemed to come away full of optimism, writes Alessandro Vitelli.

Europe's scramble to secure gas from alternative sources after Russia turned off the taps will see an increase in greenhouse gas emissions due to the ramping up of LNG imports that have an overall higher value-chain footprint than pipeline supply, with the additional discharges set to fall outside of the current scope of EU mechanisms.

Climate policy sequencing has played an important role in the eventual adoption of carbon pricing policies as well as their level of stringency, with research showing that countries have normally implemented a series of climate policy measures before ultimately placing a price on emissions, an article published in an academic journal has found.

EUAs extended Wednesday's gains as traders again targeted a key technical level, though trading volume remained lacklustre, while energy markets were weaker after the European Union delayed the introduction of a price cap on gas.

The European Parliament sent a strong signal to the EU to withdraw from the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) on Thursday, passing by a large margin of 303 votes a non-binding resolution urging the bloc to exit the pact due to its incompatibility with EU climate law and policy.

Singapore’s goods and services tax (GST) will be waived for transactions in the voluntary carbon credit market, the government’s tax authority has announced.

South Korea on Thursday outlined a number of changes to its emissions trading scheme that it will implement in the near term to improve the effectiveness of the programme, while it will continue to work towards broader, more fundamental market reforms in the longer term.

Beijing sold only around half of the 2 million allowances on offer at Wednesday’s auction, which was held for emitters still needing to acquire units for 2021 compliance, with the sale clearing at the floor price.

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

Compliance offsets issued by California regulator ARB for the two-weeks that began in mid-November were the third-lowest of all the reporting periods for the year, continuing the trend of 2022 issuances significantly trailing year-ago levels, according to government data published Wednesday.