Carbon Pulse

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

An environmental group has asked the Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC) to reject utility Dominion Energy’s proposal to recover RGGI allowance costs due to the lack of a least-cost analysis or a prudent procurement strategy, according to documents filed this week.

Regulated entities in the Northeast US RGGI cap-and-trade programme shed carbon permit holdings after the March auction settled far below the secondary market allowance price at the time, a report published Thursday showed.

California Carbon Allowance (CCA) prices rose to near all-time highs this week amid a flurry of speculative activity before the Q2 WCI auction, while RGGI allowances also rose on the secondary market on relatively thin demand.

In order to avoid fungibility becoming a race to the bottom, the voluntary carbon market needs tools that recognise the variation in carbon returns and enables the creation of products that capture this variation, according to Sebastien Cross of BeZero Carbon.

While carbon removals will play a role in mitigating climate change, we cannot afford to take our focus away from the urgent objective of avoiding emitting in the first place, write Sarah Leugers and Owen Hewlett of Gold Standard.

EUAs rose more than €3 on Thursday, clawing back almost half of the 12% losses of the previous two sessions as traders bought on what they expect to a brief dip in a still-bullish market.

Czech utility CEZ presented its climate strategy on Thursday, setting the intention to reduce its share of coal-fired generation to just over a tenth of its generation mix in line with recent output falls.

US biofuel credit (RIN) values only slightly dropped on Thursday morning following a report that the EPA will keep Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) biofuel volumes steady for the next two years.

Financial services firms DBS and Standard Chartered, the Singapore Exchange, and Singaporean government-owned investment company Temasek on Thursday announced plans for a new exchange for the global voluntary carbon market.

Greens/EFA MEPs will seek to establish a carbon price floor and additional measures to stabilise prices under the much-anticipated EU ETS reform kicking off in mid-July, two EU lawmakers said Thursday.

New Zealand will use future revenue from its quarterly sales of carbon allowances under its emissions trading scheme towards investing in projects that will further cut greenhouse gases, the government said Thursday as part of its annual budget.

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

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The Director of Industrial Programs is a senior role within the American Carbon Registry (ACR), providing oversight of all aspects of ACR services, including, but not limited to ensuring the highest level of quality for all ACR-registered projects and related offset credits issued by ACR for industrial sector projects.  

A US federal court on Wednesday nixed three Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) compliance waivers handed out in the final hours of President Donald Trump’s tenure, as judges ruled that the EPA did not analyse necessary legal questions in handing out the relief.

California Carbon Allowance (CCA) prices will accelerate over the coming decade due to greater speculative involvement in the linked WCI cap-and-trade programme, analysts said Wednesday.

MEPs adopted a position on the EU’s Hydrogen Strategy on Wednesday, emphasising support for renewables-derived hydrogen but also leaving the door open for production from gas.

Washington legislators are exploring ways to reverse Governor Jay Inslee’s (D) vetoes of their carbon market and low-carbon fuel standard (LCFS) bills, while regulatory experts believe future prospects for a WCI cap-and-trade link could hinge how the final rules are drafted.

Ukraine should gradually raise its national CO2 tax to avoid the effects of the EU’s planned carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) while it prepares its national carbon market, an expert group said in a report presented Wednesday.