Carbon Pulse

A carbon credit ratings firm has put a bumper 13 projects on watch this week, raising the prospect of a change in their ratings.

ICE Futures late on Friday published the calendar of UK Allowance auctions for 2023, showing that the UK will sell 3.1% fewer UKAs next year than in 2022.

The Architecture for REDD+ Transactions (ART) programme on Friday announced it has advanced Costa Rica to the verification stage, though overlap with another jurisdiction-scale forest protection scheme may limit its carbon credit generation.

Western Balkan nations have until the end of year to adopt 2030 climate goals as a precursor to imposing carbon pricing, with the EU this week pledging €500 million in aid to help the process along while staving off Russian influence in the region.

The Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) climate finance coalition will no longer require its sub-alliances to be members of a group that had at one stage aimed to impose limits on fossil fuel finance.

EUAs were headed for their biggest weekly increase in more than five years on Friday as the rally extended into a sixth day on  steady buying, while energy prices stabilised after several days of losses.

Utility EDP reported on Friday a stark rise in ETS-covered output across its Iberian units over the first nine months of the year amid weak hydro supply, while more oil firms reported huge profits and airlines touted a sustained recovery towards pre-pandemic traffic levels.

The spot price for Chinese carbon allowances remained stable over the past week with slightly improved trading volume, though the improvement in trading activity was not enough to ignite market participants' enthusiasm.

India has the potential to reduce its cumulative GHG emissions by as much as 287 billion tonnes of CO2e by 2070 if it adopts an aggressive decarbonisation pathway that would get it to within striking distance of its net zero target for that year, according to a report released this week. 

Nothing highlights the controversy surrounding REDD+ projects as the current evolution of their project development documents (PDDS), market players have told Carbon Pulse.

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX) on Friday announced the launch of Core Climate, a new international carbon marketplace for voluntary carbon credits.

The Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) has been given the go-ahead for its plans to set up the Carbon Transaction Platform (CTP), which it says will provide readiness support and create liquidity in the emerging global carbon market under the Paris Agreement.

Australia risks reputational and gross decarbonisation opportunities if it fails to properly ensure Paris Agreement carbon accounting rules are robust and it does not increase its efforts to provide adequate climate finance to neighbouring countries, according to a UN expert group member.  

A company that develops technologies for the decarbonisation of cement and lime has signed a perpetual global licence agreement with industry giant Heidelberg Materials, one of the largest building materials companies, they announced.

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A personal carbon footprint-cutting app has raised $10 million in Series A funding from a group of high-profile investors.

A proposal by California's ARB to strengthen its carbon intensity (CI) reduction targets for transportation fuels is projected to deplete the state's low carbon fuel standard (LCFS) credit surplus bank, leading to a recovery in credit prices, a webinar hosted by an analysis firm heard on Thursday.

California Carbon Allowance (CCA) prices broke out of rangebound trade this week as state regulator ARB prepares to hold a workshop on emissions modeling for the Scoping Plan, while RGGI Allowance (RGA) values continued their recent trend of following movements in the WCI market.

The value of the primary voluntary carbon market (VCM) is expected to increase 20% in 2022 to $1.2 billion as a year-on-year increase in credit prices outweighs a dip in retirement volumes.

Two Mexican legislators on Thursday put forth an initiative that would require offset project operators to meet new social and environmental standards, with the draft legislation unveiled in the wake of a controversy earlier this year in which rural land holders were found to be paid well-below market rates for their offsets.