Carbon Pulse

Voluntary emissions reduction (VER) prices bucked their recent downward trend this week as voluntary carbon market (VCM) participants continued to point to a lack of low-cost credits to satisfy demand.

EU carbon prices failed to extend their record-breaking run on Monday, but observers largely maintained their bullish stance despite this week's jump in allowance auction volumes.

California Carbon Allowance (CCA) prices surged past $20 on the benchmark contract over Monday morning, as traders said speculative demand fuelled significant day-on-day rises for the second consecutive session.

China’s environment ministry has asked the cement industry’s main association to prepare the sector’s entry into the national emissions trading scheme, which could happen as soon as next year.

(Subscribers only) - Germany last week took the side of non-interventionists in response to the sharp rise in EU carbon allowances, putting its faith in an existing protection against market spikes written into the emissions trading system’s rules. But a Carbon Pulse analysis shows that for this ‘emergency handbrake’ clause to be triggered, the rally in EUAs would need to both accelerate and extend considerably - by greater degrees than is being mooted by experts - before prompting lawmakers to even consider stepping in.

A facility capturing and combusting methane from a coal mine in Queensland earned the biggest batch of Australian offsets in the Clean Energy Regulator’s latest issuance, while four new major financials have signed up for the Climate League.

Germany’s compensation scheme to support the phaseout of lignite by 2038 is based on “flawed assumptions”, including a carbon price well below what utilities will likely pay for hedging costs, according to an NGO-commissioned report released over the weekend.

South Korea is lagging in its efforts to meet its 2030 NDC and its promise reach net zero emissions by mid-century, according to a report released Monday that also urged the government to slash allocation levels in its emissions trading scheme to drive a quicker decarbonisation of its energy sector.

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

California Carbon Allowance (CCA) prices surged to new highs on Friday afternoon ahead of the May WCI auction next week, with traders pointing to increased speculative interest being the primary driver on the secondary market.

Researchers responded this week to criticism of their report that questioned the emissions reductions attributed to California-registered forestry projects, while developers claimed the group’s conclusions may be the result of critical flaws.

WCI compliance entities cut California Carbon Allowance (CCA) holdings this week as speculative interest continued to surge on the secondary market, while financial firms held their length roughly flat week-on-week, according to US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) data published Friday.

EU carbon prices resumed their record-breaking run on Friday, leaping another €2 as wider markets recovered from inflationary jitters and gas continued to climb.

Carbon finance is growing and countries are faced with an array of choices—including whether to pursue projects, nesting or jurisdictional REDD+, which standards to use in doing so, and what finance opportunity to pursue.  The landscape can be a confusing array of options.  In this contribution to the Shades of REDD+ series, targeted for forest countries, we try to demystify three opportunities to capture finance for jurisdictional REDD+ performance.

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 California's Scoping Plan process, North Dakota's long-term climate goal  and a major East Coast offshore wind project.

China is now just weeks away from offering companies in its national emissions trading scheme the long-awaited opportunity to trade CO2 allowances, after industry group China Electricity Council conducted final tests of the exchange and the permit registry over the past week.

The UK is planning on host the COP26 UN climate negotiations as an in-person summit in Glasgow in November and is considering various ways of ensuring protection against the coronavirus pandemic, the meeting’s president Alok Sharma said on Friday.