Carbon Pulse

Prices for nature-based exchange-traded, standardised voluntary emissions reduction (VER) contracts continued to rebound over the last week as buying interest remained strong for a second consecutive week in April after a bearish March.

A coronavirus-induced drop in output wasn't enough to ensure Switzerland met its 2020 emission reduction target, according to the Federal Office for Environment, adding that the country will meet its international climate obligations once its offset purchases are taken into account.

EUAs drifted lower in thin trade despite a strong auction as the Easter holiday period drained the market of liquidity, while energy markets were also weaker even as Japan sought to boost natural gas stocks and the risks of interruptions to Russian gas supplies remained elevated.

A group of over 200 Japanese businesses has called on the government to implement mandatory carbon pricing and large investments in renewables, arguing that the country's planned voluntary emissions market will be insufficient to meet climate targets.

China’s central government has released guidelines on accelerating the construction of a number of unified markets, including energy and carbon, but a lack of detail left carbon traders unsure what to make of it.

A Dubai-based firm has launched an initiative to establish a blockchain-based online carbon credit exchange in Africa, in partnership with a Singapore technology group and a non-profit organisation focused on African climate projects, it announced on Monday.

New Zealand’s Exchange is looking for a dynamic Operational Business Analyst to join its Energy Operations Team, to be at the forefront of the Carbon Auctions and to drive efficiencies across other areas of the team.

Australia contracted to buy some 7.6 million offsets at last week's Emissions Reductions Fund (ERF) auction, the Clean Energy Regulator announced Monday, but the regulator expects the bulk of the credits to feed into the voluntary spot market as all the contracts were optional.

The permit volume on offer for the Nova Scotia cap-and-trade auction in June marks a step down from the previous sale, according to a notice published Friday, in what could be the penultimate auction before the Canadian province switches CO2 pricing approaches.

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

Compliance entities came closer to holding a flat California Carbon Allowance (CCA) position this week, while speculators slightly boosted their net long, according to US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) data.

There is limited authoritative oversight of the voluntary carbon market, but both private-led initiatives and governments are beginning to show interest, according to participants at the North American Carbon World (NACW) conference in Anaheim, California.

The British government will fund a voluntary carbon offset market across four Mexican states with the aim of potentially scaling up into a compliance-based mechanism, a conference heard Friday.

We are on the hunt for a like-minded professional to join our team as a Senior Recruitment Consultant who will be focused on heading up our sustainability markets.

A senior European carbon and power analyst has rejoined ICIS to head up its energy analytics, Carbon Pulse has learned.

Almost all of the 12 candidates to become the president of France on Sunday fail to prominently address climate in their election manifestos, with just one contender considered to have a programme aligned with international and European climate targets in their effort to lead the EU's second biggest economy.

Fossil fuel-based power production across EU nations increased by an estimated 10% in Q1 2022 compared to a year earlier as coal-fired generation stepped into replace weak nuclear and hydro output, putting the European power sector on a strong emissions trajectory in 2022 that would boost EUA demand.

EUAs gave up early gains amid light trading as participants pointed to the beginning of the Easter break, while energy markets were stronger as Europe and Japan both agreed to ban imports of Russian coal, putting additional demand pressure on other energy sources.

The Indonesian government is temporarily holding off on issuing 2021 vintage credits to carbon credit developers, cutting off supply from one of the voluntary carbon market's biggest host nations as uncertainty swirls around how the country will regulate projects in the country.

Key Asian economies should pivot from their reliance on LNG towards renewables to protect themselves from energy price volatility and geopolitical supply shocks as they seek to deliver on their net zero goals, a report released on Friday said.