Carbon Pulse

Initiatives seeking to boost the integrity of the voluntary carbon market (VCM) could stifle demand and deter investors, an official at a leading standard warned on Friday, while referencing the work of a Voluntary Carbon Market Integrity (VCMI) initiative.

Britain should guard against calls for extreme measures to protect its industry from the impacts of higher power and gas costs this winter, including suspending the UK ETS, according to an energy industry representative.

EU nations are examining an informal proposal that would amend the design of the distribution of REPowerEU disbursements, including some €20 billion stemming from the sale of carbon allowances currently held in the MSR, Bloomberg reported, citing a document.

EUA prices began the new quarter and half on a weak note, dropping sharply on Friday morning after the daily auction cleared at a significant discount after three positive differentials in a row, while UK allowances shrugged off the weakness amid utility buying.

S&P Dow Jones Indices has launched a new index to track the price of the two most liquid voluntary carbon market (VCM) futures currently in the market, although more contracts could be added every six months.

The Australian government has committed A$9.5 mln ($6.4 mln) to support five domestic blue carbon projects around the country, designed to restore mangroves, seagrasses, and tidal marshes, while also co-funding a batch of global schemes to ramp up project pipeline development.

The price for Chinese carbon allowances has come down slightly over the past week though only on the back of a handful of largely symbolic transactions, while Tianjin has pushed back the annual compliance deadline in its municipal market due to disruption from anti-Covid policies.

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

Australia on Friday announced an independent panel will carry out a review of the integrity of its domestic carbon offset methodologies and the governance of the scheme, after a raft of criticism has threatened to undermine confidence in the programme.

California Carbon Allowance (CCA) prices surged towards the end of the week as the end of the quarter approached, while RGGI Allowances (RGAs) continued to hold steady as Pennsylvania appeared set to enter the power sector carbon market.  

California and Quebec on Thursday presented an accounting mechanism to help account for cross-border allowance and offset transfers under the WCI-linked carbon market and prevent double counting.

The number of California-registered carbon market accounts slowed during the second quarter of the year, according to state data published Thursday, as this coincided with a stagnation in allowance prices in the WCI programme.

Offset standard manager and developer Verra on Thursday proposed four new carbon crediting labels to meet the Integrity Council for Voluntary Carbon Markets' (IC-VCM) Core Carbon Principles due out later this year, including on project type, removals, and Paris Agreement compatibility.

European energy exchange EEX is changing the International Securities Identification Numbers (ISINs) of its spot EU emissions allowance contracts following a joint request from the European Securities Markets Authority (ESMA) and the European Commission.

The UK government has launched a tender to select a platform to host auctions for UK emissions trading allowances (UKAs), with a decision expected to be taken in the coming months ahead of the first auction at the start of next year.

Experts at Sylvera’s carbon market summit on Thursday said that huge changes are coming to the voluntary carbon market (VCM) over the coming months as private and public initiatives shore up guidance to address credibility concerns.

EU environment ministers want an automatic EUA supply injection to prevent excessive price fluctuations in the bloc’s carbon market, according to a document published on Thursday that suggests legislators are all-but certain to agree to beef-up the market's Article 29a mechanism.

A philanthropic organisation has announced a multi-million-dollar distribution of funding across seven cities from Europe and the United States for the adoption and scaling of biochar carbon removal.

A new crediting methodology was published on Thursday to quantify carbon removals through the regeneration of Spekboom Thicket, known locally as ‘elephant bush.’

EU plans to including shipping in its ETS will fuel further inflation and could change trade flows as vessels try to evade carbon costs, a conference heard on Thursday.