Carbon Pulse

EUAs climbed to another six-week high amid thin trading on Friday morning as traders suggested the market is detached from fundamentals, while energy markets were weaker as countries continued to look for ways to trim demand for gas this winter.

The spot price for Chinese carbon allowances remained almost unchanged this week, with market participants again attributing the lacklustre performance to unclear policy signals.

The Greens are urging the Labor Party government to reject advice that Australia should increase its participation in the international voluntary carbon market, arguing that it could delay emissions reductions and stifle investment in Australia’s domestic market.

More than 50 stakeholders have agreed to participate in a string of working groups to develop high-quality digital carbon markets, including a number of significant players in the traditional market.

Australian state and federal energy ministers have agreed to integrate carbon emissions reductions into the nation’s energy objectives in a bid to ramp up decarbonisation work across the sector. 

Many in the New Zealand forestry sector are calling for the government to update the settings of the ETS to more efficiently encourage gross emissions reductions as well as native afforestation.

Technology giant Microsoft has stepped up plans to become carbon negative by 2030 by extending its investment in direct air capture (DAC) company Heirloom Carbon.

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

A nature-based climate tech marketplace focused on improved forest management and tonne-year accounting announced its first project outside the US on Thursday, choosing a pair of neighbouring Canadian provinces for the location.

Credit and deficit generators in California’s low carbon fuel standard (LCFS) programme, trade associations, and environmental consultants have urged state regulator ARB to increase LCFS stringency, but cautioned on several ARB proposals in feedback submitted in response to the agency’s July public workshop discussing potential changes to the programme.

California Carbon Allowance (CCA) prices surged this week on a document outlining Governor Gavin Newsom’s plans to hike the state’s 2030 climate targets and ahead of next week’s Q3 WCI auction, while RGGI Allowances (RGAs) were flat as uncertainty remained regarding Pennsylvania’s allowance volumes for the September auction. 

A California legislative fiscal committee on Thursday advanced a bill to require regulator ARB to conduct a review of allowance oversupply and facility-specific emissions limits in the state’s WCI-linked cap-and-trade programme, with the full Assembly now set to vote on the measure.

Germany-based utility RWE is to restart all three of its reserve-held lignite-based power plants from October but does not expect to generate big earnings from them, the company's executives said in half-year results on Thursday, while adding that power hedging had been much more “conservative” than normal.

The Certification Officer will be responsible to perform certification reviews of quantification approaches that account for GHGs emissions reductions or removals in projects.

As EU member states attempt to shift away from using gas to help reserves pile up ahead of winter, the bloc’s industry is increasingly tapping into dirty oil and coal to make up for the shortfall of the key fuel, hindering the bloc's clean energy transition that leaders promise won’t be ultimately at stake.

The tiny Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu will on Friday submit a strengthened NDC to the UN, deepening emissions reductions targets but also outlining a broad set of ambitions on adaptation and loss and damage.

EUAs raced to a six-week high on Thursday morning amid continuing strength in energy markets, where prices continued to forge higher amid concerns over gas deliveries through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline.

A Hong Kong-listed investment company that has recently broken into the Southeast Asian market has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Singapore’s public transport agency to carry out carbon neutral services in the ASEAN market.

Japan has increased the scope of forestry activities eligible to earn J-credits as it continues to ramp up potential supply of carbon credits for the soon-to-be-launched GX League.

Australia’s largest carbon aggregation project involving native reforestation has been registered with the Clean Energy Regulator (CER) and will produce around 100,000 Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs), a Melbourne-headquartered environmental non-profit organization announced on Wednesday.