Carbon Pulse

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

Large US industrial timber companies are beginning to embrace reforestation through carbon finance, leaving small forest owners and government agencies key to scaling up offset efforts, a conference heard Wednesday.

Large stationary installations regulated under Canada’s ‘backstop’ output-based pricing system (OBPS) will likely not use any Alberta offsets for compliance against 2020 emissions, as higher prices and political risk make such purchases difficult, a panel heard Wednesday.

California regulator ARB issued roughly 63,000 new compliance offsets to two livestock projects this week, while Quebec divvied out over 40,000 credits for use in its cap-and-trade programme, according to data published Wednesday.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) of various types is technologically ready to be deployed at scale but needs streamlined permitting, increased tax incentives, and broad public outreach to do so, a conference heard on Wednesday.

A bipartisan group of Senators approved a resolution on Wednesday that would nullify Trump-era regulations on methane emissions for the oil and gas sector, effectively reimposing Obama-era rules that sought to cut output of the climate-warming pollutant.

Dominion Energy argued its auction-centric RGGI procurement strategy is a prudent approach to meet compliance obligations at a electricity rate hearing Wednesday, while adding the Virginia-based utility is also working on a multi-year secondary market purchase to cover CO2 output.

Utility RWE reported a 33.5% year-on-year rise in its EU ETS-covered thermal generation in Q1, the company said on Wednesday, boosting the carbon demand of one of the market’s biggest buyers.

The British government on Wednesday set out the eligibility criteria for participation in its carbon allowance auctions, which are scheduled to kick off next month.

The EU’s objective to go beyond net zero emissions after 2050 highlights the need for a policy on carbon removals, as the European Commission prepares two key legislative proposals to compensate for and certify carbon sinks.

EUAs extended their all-time high on Wednesday, breaking above €48 amid rising energy prices, surging investor interest, and as buyers approached their last possible moment to cover 2020 compliance.

A $40/tonne carbon price and a bump in variable renewable energy capacity could shave a quarter off CO2 emissions from Thailand’s power sector by the end of the decade, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).

Another planned huge coal-fired power plant in Japan was put to rest this week as the government’s more ambitious climate policy and overall dubious market outlook for fossil fuels put the country on a lower-carbon path.

Australia’s Clean Energy Regulator is moving forward with plans to set up an exchange for Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs), in a bid to boost transparency and cut costs as the nation’s voluntary carbon market expands.

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

The world’s largest food conglomerate Nestle has joined the growing number of companies mostly shunning offsets in their quest for net zero emissions, though the Swiss-headquartered firm said it will make exceptions for its brands that want “move faster” towards carbon neutrality.

Companies with net zero pledges set decades into the future should begin planning and implementing emissions removal strategies now, both to ensure long-term credit supplies for themselves and to generate demand signals for market benefit, a conference heard on Tuesday.

Efforts to bring more price transparency to the voluntary carbon market (VCM) have split some North American voluntary emissions reduction (VER) developers, though they agree higher prices are key to greatly enhancing supply and satisfying heightened corporate demand, a panel heard Tuesday.

Sustainable development has been dropped from a private-sector taskforce’s list of attributes designed to help standardise the voluntary carbon market, a group member said Tuesday in remarks that may heighten observer fears about the process skewing towards cheaper offsets.

The US RGGI cap-and-trade programme should consider incorporating imported electricity into the scheme during its upcoming 2021 review, while also increasing overall stringency, panelists said at an industry event Tuesday.