Carbon Pulse

An oil and gas industry body representing the world’s largest oil companies on climate policy launched on Tuesday an initiative to eliminate its members' methane emissions by 2030.

Hydrogen will play an increased role in decarbonisation as the fuel receives a boost in Europe from regulatory and policy support, greater cost competitiveness, as well as enhanced efforts to realise energy security goals, a conference heard this week.

European carbon clawed back all of Monday's losses on Tuesday after a burst of buying drove the market up by more than €5 in less than 30 minutes, while energy markets shed some of their recent extraordinary gains after an early spike as Ukraine indicated it was prepared to undertake more negotiations with Russia.

Australian carbon credits fell another 15% on Tuesday as traders continued to reconsider the value of their ACCU positions after regulators decided to let project developers with offsets contracted to the government sell them on the market instead.

The Gold Standard remains open to partnerships in the fast-moving space of web3, but it is important to be mindful about which decentralised approaches to deploy in carbon markets, and how to deploy them, writes Sarah Leugers.

New Zealand carbon allowances fell to their lowest level since mid-January in Tuesday trade, with international disruptions outweighing bullish signals from government policies.

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

Colombia has the potential to be a major global player in the international carbon market, President Ivan Duque told a conference on Monday, citing plans to develop nature-based credits for use at home and abroad.

GGGI is seeking a senior level Program Manager to lead and direct the overall management of the SPAR6C Program. S/he will be responsible for overseeing the day-to-day activities of program implementation by GGGI and the consortium members including the monitoring and reporting of delivery progress.

One of the architects of Brexit is calling for another UK referendum, this time on the country’s climate change plans.

The EU is in no position to embargo Russian oil and gas imports in response to the war waged by Moscow on Ukraine, the European Commission's climate chief Frans Timmermans said late on Monday, adding that such a scenario would leave some member states in real trouble if gas was halted overnight.

The mechanism tasked with responding to price spikes in the EU ETS contains too many ambiguities and is in dire need of certainty and transparency in order to give the market more credibility and investors more confidence.

Standardised, exchange-traded voluntary emissions reduction (VER) prices continued to plough multi-month lows this week amid a bearish trend in global carbon and equities markets, while voluntary carbon market (VCM) participants said values on the over-the-counter (OTC), project-specific market were holding up far better.

Two of the most contentious issues of the EU's proposed carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) will be dealt with separately by member states, a leaked draft showed on Monday, a move that could allow France to broker an “early deal” on the flagship file without getting stuck on controversies.

The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) will no longer accept commitments or validate targets from fossil fuel companies, the partnership said on Monday, adding that it aims to complete its much-delayed methodology for the sector later in the year.

Switzerland has delayed the deadline for emitters surrendering ETS permits against last year’s emissions, the government announced Monday.

Major emitters such as China, India, and Mexico need to sharpen their 2030 climate pledges ahead of longer-term efforts, US climate envoy told a conference on Monday, flagging prospects for a further roll-out of public-private funding.

California Carbon Allowance (CCA) values plummeted by nearly 9% on Monday morning as WCI permits remained tethered to pervasive bearish pressure in global equity markets and EU Allowances (EUAs).  

Switzerland and Chile last week signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, reinitiating discussions on carbon credit transfers between the two nations.

EUAs plunged more than 10% on Monday as traders adopted a "risk-off" approach amid a spike in energy prices after reports emerged that the US and EU are considering an embargo on energy products from Russia.