Carbon Pulse

UN negotiations on a Paris Agreement Article 6 rulebook for international emissions trade made substantial strides during overtime at COP26 on Saturday, with officials lining up text that dilutes ambition upfront but sets firm long-term rules as governments battled on other issues.

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

The Canadian environment ministry this week pushed the back the release of final regulations for the federal Clean Fuel Standard (CFS), while noting it will refine the quantification methodologies for carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) methodologies that can generate credits under the programme.

REDD+ outcomes approved and tracked by the UN are moving ahead of Article 6 negotiations under the Paris Agreement, although others are pursuing alternative approaches or calling for restrictions to ensure the environmental integrity of global carbon trading.

California Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) credit values dug even deeper multi-year lows on Friday as traders said several kinds of market participants were seen unloading credits.

Carbon jumped to a new five-week high in early trading on Friday as traders positioned themselves ahead of the December options contract expiry, before the futures settled back as energy prices gave back early gains.

UN negotiations over the shape of international emissions trade continued on Friday morning amid accusations that the current text could result in a net increase in global emissions by allowing some carbon offsets to be traded without being accounted for under NDCs.

Two pastoral companies received the biggest amount of new carbon credits in the Clean Energy Regulator’s latest issuance round, while the government on Friday released the modelling behind its net zero target, revealing offset price estimates well below current market prices.

Key sectoral pledges regarding methane, coal, forestry, and transport, will close the emissions gap between a 1.5C pathway and stated 2030 climate targets by around 9%, or 2.2 billion tonnes of CO2e, an update on global emissions trajectories from Climate Action Tracker (CAT) said.

Spot allowances in South Korea’s emissions trading market on Friday rose to their highest level since the pandemic hit carbon last June, with this week’s monthly CO2 auction also reflecting the upwards trend.

Prices and volumes in China’s national carbon market remained relatively stable again over the past week, with little indication of impending pre-compliance volatility.

Japanese oil company Idemitsu is considering opportunities in the voluntary carbon market with generation of credits based on its technologies, and on Friday announced its first offset-backed crude oil transport.

Two of Australia’s major carbon offset developers on Friday announced a partnership that will allow them to take advantage of a project method expected next year that will allow several crediting activities take place on the same land.

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

New York-based carbon brokerage Evolution Markets on Thursday announced the launch of a new consulting arm to help companies establish and meet emissions reduction objectives and procure environmental credits.

EUAs climbed to a new five-week high on Thursday on what traders called "unconvincing" low-volume technical buying, which was helped by other energy markets rising on a Belarusian threat to Europe's gas supplies.

North American carbon prices continued to torch their recent all-time highs this week, with California Carbon Allowances (CCAs) failing to slow down before next week’s quarterly auction and RGGI Allowances (CCA) surpassing this year’s Cost Containment Reserve trigger level.

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UN negotiations on Article 6 rules to govern international emissions trade took a step forward on Thursday when Brazil appeared to accept a compromise on accounting rules, two sources close to the process told Carbon Pulse.

Egypt was confirmed as the next host of the UN climate summit for late 2022, with the United Arab Emirates selected to host the meeting for the following year, current COP26 President Alok Sharma announced on Thursday.