Carbon Pulse

An industry association for China's building materials sector has reiterated its commitment to help local cement producers peak their CO2 emissions by 2023, a target observers believe to be on track.

The EU should avert further hikes in its ETS by frontloading carbon allowance auction sales rather than capping prices at a time of unprecedented turmoil in the energy markets, one of the founding fathers of the bloc’s carbon market has told Carbon Pulse.

Japan plans to introduce a price ceiling and floor in its voluntary emissions trading market to avoid price shocks, while companies seeking to earn credits in the scheme must set ambitious, government-certified targets.

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

New Zealand’s quarterly carbon auction held on Wednesday cleared below the secondary market price as bid levels and participation were lower than expected.

A nascent, Berlin-headquartered carbon trading platform has raised a further €4.2 million in fresh funding.

Traders largely believe the September RGGI auction will break a streak of six straight record settlements, given steady secondary market purchases from compliance entities, global market weakness, and clarity on Virginia’s planned exit from the programme as factors that could influence the clearing price.

The Mexican Emissions Trading Scheme will kick off next year by freely distributing all allowances before reducing this over time, while the government still needs to determine the programme’s auction mechanism and offset protocols, a conference heard Tuesday.

Liz Truss officially became British prime minister after meeting with the nation's Queen on Tuesday, going on to deliver her first speech in the new role that pointed to a policy package to be released later in the week to address spiralling energy bills.

An insurance product for the voluntary carbon market (VCM) has been launched to cover the risk of third-party negligence and fraud by project developers and auditors, including whether the offset credit removes or avoids a tonne of CO2.

Carbon credits trading in the voluntary market, largely from renewable energy projects with vintages from 2008-15, are trading at huge discounts as tokens on blockchain compared to the traditional over-the-counter market, according to analysis published on Tuesday.

The British government has added a further 803,500 tonnes to 2022 carbon allowance auction supply under the UK ETS, it announced late Tuesday.

The climate pledges of companies based in G7 countries are only consistent with a 2.7C global warming trajectory, way off the 1.5-2C Paris Agreement pathway despite wide regional differences, according to a study published on Tuesday. 

EUAs extended the week's losses to reach a new six-month low on Tuesday morning as sentiment continued to weaken amid speculation the EU will sell more permits to raise funds to assist the transition away from Russian fuels, while energy also gave up hefty chunks of Monday's gains as traders appeared reassured by supply-boosting efforts.

Several landfill companies in Australia say they receive carbon credits for activities they would have done anyway, and that they receive too many offsets even for their additional activities, according to national media.

A coalition of shipping industry players including oil major Shell and container firm MSC has launched an initiative to seek out solutions for the maritime industry to measure and mitigate methane emissions, it announced Tuesday.

China's leading digital freight platform has teamed up with a special trade zone in Tianjin province to build the country's first carbon offsetting programme exclusively for the road freight field.

New Zealand carbon allowances on Tuesday closed at their highest ever level, but market participants still think there is further upside and that Wednesday’s government sale of 4.825 million NZUs might clear even higher.

A Sydney-headquartered forestry and carbon offset company has set up a subsidiary that will specifically manage and develop agricultural assets, initially in Australia and New Zealand.

Azerbaijan has become the 20th nation to sign up to Japan’s Joint Crediting Mechanism (JCM), with the aim of generating carbon credits that can go towards both countries’ emissions targets under the Paris Agreement.