Carbon Pulse

The power pricing reform announced by China last month has seen industrial electricity prices rise by up to 75% in some regions, leading some analysts to question whether heavy industry such as aluminium production should be brought into the national emissions trading scheme.

Midway through the second week of COP26, and much is still left to be done. We follow the latest developments here.

Trading house Mercuria has signed an MoU with Ghana to help operationalise Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, including driving project development in a number of sectors across the economy.

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

Negotiators working on rules to govern international emissions trade under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement are considering a fresh compromise to help break a deadlock over double counting safeguards that has lasted for nearly six years.

A Silicon Valley-backed 'robo-advisor' for high-quality offsets has raised $3 million in a fund raise to help scale its procurement platform for corporates seeking to neutralise their carbon footprint.

Czech utility CEZ saw its coal power output drop 18% over the first nine months of 2021 amid asset divestments, the company said on Tuesday, though it halted the sale of its Polish assets.

Evolution Environmental Asset Management (EEAM) on Tuesday announced the appointment of an advisory board made up of green investment experts, while also naming a carbon offset veteran to its team of founding partners.

A sudden global $100/tonne carbon tax would lower GDP by only 1-2% in most middle-to-high-income nations, but the effects would be more pronounced in carbon-intensive emerging economies such as Russia, South Africa, and India, according to new research.

AirCarbon Exchange (ACX) and the Rio de Janeiro government on Tuesday announced plans to launch a voluntary emissions reduction (VER) marketplace in Brazil next year as the country appears set to ramp up its carbon market activity.

A collection of Democratic lawmakers, led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, arrived at the COP26 talks on Tuesday to rekindle trust in US climate leadership, but a bleak legislative and policy landscape at home and poor track record in global cooperation are raising doubts.

The voluntary carbon market has varied views over demand for correspondingly adjusted carbon credits, though many only expect limited take-up from a minority of corporate buyers seeking high quality units.

California, Quebec, and New Zealand on Tuesday signed a declaration promising closer collaboration on climate policy, with the WCI jurisdictions looking into greater alignment with the Pacific Island nation on their respective cap-and-trade programmes.

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The Glasgow climate conference faces a credibility, action, and commitment gap with the world heading for end of century warming of over 2C, even when taking into account the recent spate of net zero pledges by key economies, a report released on Tuesday said.

EUAs advanced on Tuesday in the face of weaker energy prices, as the market reacted to a slight increase in flows of Russian natural gas to Europe.

Germany said on Tuesday that it will spend €10 million to buy carbon credits under the new Paris Agreement carbon market mechanism once Article 6.4 rules are agreed.

The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) has unveiled a new lending policy to provide cheaper funding to carbon reduction efforts, a move analysts say can inject at least a trillion yuan ($160 billion) into the market.

It’s science day in Glasgow, while negotiations carry on under the guidance of ministers appointed by the UK COP Presidency.

A recent warning from a shipping industry group that lack of investment in green technologies presents the biggest hurdle to the industry’s decarbonisation targets has sharpened focus on the technical and financial challenges facing the sector, whose emissions are seen as hard to abate, if it is to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.