Carbon Pulse

A preliminary injunction to temporarily block Pennsylvania’s cap-and-trade regulation would prevent the state from participating in the Q3 RGGI auction, Governor Tom Wolf’s (D) administration argued Tuesday as Republican lawmakers and the coal industry claimed that the programme is unconstitutional.

Offset developer and consultancy South Pole announced another acquisition on Tuesday, continuing its wave of acquiring companies with local and global expertise in recent months and bolstering its digitisation offering.

Aviation’s non-CO2 climate impact is unregulated and thought to account for two-thirds of the industry's fast-rising GHG emissions, but EU lawmakers are demanding further work under proposed legislation in what could eventually lead to a drastic increase in carbon costs for carriers.

The Canadian province of British Columbia will broaden the scope of its Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) to include aviation and marine fuels, as well as allow direct air capture projects to earn credits, the government announced Monday.

Emissions from corporate jets and business flying came under the spotlight Tuesday as an NGO report ranked the aviation greenhouse gas targets of 230 of some of the largest companies from Europe and North America and took a dim view on offset use.

A Chinese asset management company has teamed up with a project developer to supply millions of offsets to an investment trust that will be the first of its kind in China.

EU carbon prices were little changed after trading in their narrowest range for more than two weeks on Tuesday morning, while energy markets continued to droop as traders continued to price in a growing optimism that payments for Russian gas would not trigger EU sanctions.

Czech utility CEZ reported a 10% drop year-on-year in EU ETS-covered fossil generation during Q1 2022, citing high gas and emissions prices in its first-quarter financial results on Tuesday.

SK E&S, an energy subsidiary of South Korean conglomerate SK Group, will invest $110 million in a CCS project that aims to capture and store CO2 from over thirty ethanol plants in the US mid-west, the company announced on Tuesday.

A collaboration of major global banks announced on Tuesday it had facilitated a carbon offset trade between a corporate client and project developer through a new settlement platform due to be fully operational by the end of the year.

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

The rapidly declining cost of renewable energy with battery storage, coupled with increasing volatility in gas prices, now reflect that it is cheaper to make the switch from coal to clean sources of electricity than it is to shift from coal to gas-fired power, research released on Tuesday has found.

US carrier Delta Air Lines will shift much of the focus of achieving its CO2 neutrality goal to solutions other than offsets after spending $137 mln on voluntary emissions reductions for its GHG output last year, the company said in a recent report.

CO2 emissions from California’s electrical grid decreased year-over-year in February and March despite rapidly deteriorating hydro levels across the US West, according to California Independent System Operator (CAISO) data published Monday.

Verra is a global leader helping to tackle the world’s most intractable environmental and social challenges. As a mission-driven non-profit organization, Verra is committed to helping reduce greenhouse gas emissions, improve livelihoods and protect natural resources across the private and public sectors. 

Weak demand for technology-based voluntary emissions reduction (VERs) credits kept prices pointing to the downside over the past week, while nature-based offsets offered relatively greater resilience, moving sideways or to marginal week-on-week gains.

Vermont Governor Phil Scott (R) on Friday vetoed a bill that would implement a market-based Clean Heat Standard (CHS), though advocates are confident the Democrat-controlled legislature will override his decision as soon as this week.

France’s biggest lime production plant is set to undertake an industry-first carbon capture project for the EU ETS-covered sector after teaming up with a major fuels provider.

Senior MEPs have failed to strike an early compromise over how quickly to replace EU ETS free allocation with a carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM), with an interim vote likely to favour a more rapid transition even as the European Parliament remains sharply divided. 

A carbon credit ratings agency has assigned ratings to eight more projects, it said in an update on Monday while upholding the ratings of three that had been flagged for review.