Carbon Pulse

The EU carbon market's compliance season is almost over. A large proportion of industrials have by now completed their 2020 purchases, and the market seems to be on the verge of crossing €45/t at the same time. So we turn to the question of “what next?” Here are some of the factors that carbon reporter Alessandro Vitelli thinks are at play.

The Colombian Ministry of Finance and Public Credit (Minhacienda) on Thursday put forth a long-awaited plan to include coal in the scope of the country’s roughly $5/tonne CO2 tax, though the full cost of the carbon fee on the fuel will not be fully phased in until the end of the decade.

Instruments to reduce emissions need to be clearly ranked for their environmental integrity and associated with robust claims that provide an accurate representation of the impacts achieved, argues Marion Verles of SustainCERT, adding that having civil society formulate a consensus on what can and can’t be done with offsets would go a long way in reassuring corporates and citizens that the market is trustworthy.

A summary of legislative and regulatory action on carbon pricing, clean fuel standards, and clean energy at the US subnational and federal level this week, including developments in Washington, Oregon, and California.

Grid operator New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) is working with state officials to support its carbon pricing proposal for the wholesale power market after the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) concluded the agency has jurisdiction over the matter.

EU carbon prices look set to rise to €75 in Q3 of this year on the back of higher oil and gas prices, an analyst said on Friday.

Deficits outpaced credit generation in the British Columbia Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) scheme for the third straight year in 2019, bringing the transportation sector programme’s aggregate short position to its steepest level yet, according to government data published Thursday.

EUAs reached new heights on Friday, extending the all-time peak of earlier in the week amid wider positive market sentiment, with some experts predicting that carbon could pull back from these levels.

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Utility J-Power on Friday announced it had scrapped plans to build a 600 MW coal-fired power plant amid profitability concerns, but remaining projects in the country's pipeline could still add over 50 MtCO2/year to Japan’s carbon emissions.

China’s ecology and environment ministry has proposed introducing a carbon impact assessment as part of the approval process for new energy intensive, high emitting projects as part of efforts to ensure the country meets its climate ambitions.

Singapore-based ACX on Friday announced it has introduced a new contract for carbon credits from nature-based projects, countering a similar move by rival exchange Xpansiv last month.

South Korea will from Monday introduce a temporary minimum price in its emissions trading scheme, to halt declining price levels that have seen KAUs drop to 5-year lows, the environment ministry announced Friday.

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A near doubling in the US’s Paris Agreement emissions reduction target is within reach, but still requires contributions from all economic sectors, researchers said Thursday.

The US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) finalised a carbon pricing policy statement on Thursday to inform future market rules for regional grid operators, with the agency concluding that incorporating a CO2 price on wholesale power markets was within its purview.

California Carbon Allowance (CCA) prices climbed on the secondary market this week due to rising 2022 floor expectations and an uptick of spread trading, while RGGI Allowance (RGA) values stagnated despite participants’ growing beliefs of unmet demand from emitters.