Carbon Pulse

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

California Carbon Allowance (CCA) prices rose to a one-month high this week on more positive outlooks for refinery output and inflation, while RGGI allowances (RGAs) remained rangebound on the secondary market.

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) outlined proposed changes to its draft final RGGI cap-and-trade regulation on Thursday, including a larger allowance budget for waste-coal facilities and other alterations to set-aside accounts.

A new private fund backed by several multinational consumer goods firms aims to raise more than $1 billion this year for performance-based forest conservation, using methodologies developed in carbon markets to offset impacts from agriculture and cultivated carbon sinks.

EUAs slipped back from this week's record high levels on Thursday, with weaker energy markets helping to stall bullish momentum.

Three Australians found guilty of carrying out a carbon credit tax scam over 2009-12 have been handed a multi-million-dollar fine by the federal court for luring customers to buy offsets that were never delivered.

A two-track system for carbon offsetting both within and beyond nations’ Paris Agreement obligations could cut through the ongoing debate on whether to demand corresponding adjustments from host nations or restrict voluntary market activities to non-NDC sectors, according to a recent report.

Japan’s Toho Gas on Thursday became the latest Asian energy firm to bundle an LNG shipment with carbon credits, saying it will continue to do so in the future.

Japan is considering upping its ambition under the Paris Agreement to a 40% cut below 2013 levels by 2030, compared to a 26% goal currently, according to the Kyodo news agency.

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

Analysts have significantly raised their forecasts for EU carbon allowances, with several now predicting prices will average around €100 for an entire year later this decade, as EUAs set all-time highs ahead of the release of major proposals to tighten the ETS and as new investors continue to pile into the market.

WCI regulated entities are more quickly putting allowances and offsets into compliance accounts for past cap-and-trade obligations for the joint programme’s upcoming full true-up deadline, according to data released this week.

Oil major Shell invested around $90 mln in nature-based carbon mitigation activities over 2020, ramping up financing to help meet a pre-pandemic pledge to allocate $300 mln over three years.

The US Treasury Department published President Joe Biden’s tax plan on Wednesday that would eliminate fossil fuel subsidies in favour of provisions for clean energy and sustainable aviation fuels.

EUAs matched but could not surpass the prior session's all-time high on Wednesday, easing back on signs of profit-taking, a weaker auction, and softer energy prices.

Quebec is aiming to finalise its draft forestry protocol for private lands this spring, after the coronavirus pandemic and other priorities delayed the process for much of 2020, a government spokesperson told Carbon Pulse.

A US federal judge sentenced on Tuesday two Georgia men that orchestrated a WCI-linked carbon credit scandal, defrauding individuals from more than $1 million in the process.

The EU's emissions trading registry will be temporarily suspended on May 3 for technical maintenance and a software upgrade, the European Commission announced Wednesday.

Renewable energy-sourced green hydrogen will cost less than CCS-powered blue hydrogen by 2030, while also becoming competitive with natural gas by the same year, analysts said Wednesday. 

A savanna burning project in Western Australia earned more than 50,000 carbon credits in the Clean Energy Regulator’s latest issuance round, while voluntary cancellations continue to post strong year-on-year gains but with a strong focus on international units.