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TOP STORY
US court overturns EPA’s HFC-curbing regulations despite Trump defence
A US Court of Appeals on Tuesday overturned an EPA rule limiting the use of HFCs despite the Trump administration defending the case, after two of three judges ruled the agency lacked authority to regulate the potent refrigerant gases via a law targeting ozone-depleting emissions.
EMEA
EU aviation allowance sales to resume after 10-month pause
EU aviation allowance auctions will resume next month after a 10-month hiatus, with 4.73 million spot units for 2017 being sold before the end of the year.
Uniper reports lower hedging as its power sales rise 8.6%
German utility Uniper reported a slight reduction in its hedged positions over the second quarter despite an increase in its power generation and sales.
EU Market: EUAs end flat as auction strength outweighs energy dips
EU carbon prices ended unchanged on Tuesday in a quiet session that saw prices hold amid a bullish auction and energy complex while testing a key technical support.
ASIA PACIFIC
Australia’s AEMC to develop design options for Clean Energy Target
The Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) has begun work to develop design options for a Clean Energy Target following a request from four state governments.
AMERICAS
Toronto-based ClearBlue Markets hires new policy analyst
CleanBlue Markets has hired a new policy analyst, taking the Toronto-based carbon market advisory firm’s expanding workforce to seven.
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BITE-SIZED UPDATES FROM AROUND THE WORLD
Climate disclosure lawsuit – Two shareholders of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia have filed a lawsuit against the bank for failing to sufficiently disclose climate change risk. The case will be the first anywhere in the world to test in court how companies are required to disclose climate change-related risks in their annual reports, and follows calls globally by shareholders, regulators, and central banks for greater clarity, writes The Guardian.
And now Austria? – The transport minister of Austria wants to see new registration of conventional cars phased-out by 2030, writes Handelsblatt. “It is my goal that in 2030, only emissions-free cars will be registered in Austria,” Jörg Leichtfried said in an interview. Asked about decisions on diesel and petrol car bans in England and France, Leichtfried said that he was “not a friend of bans” and wanted to develop the transport transition together with the industry and the population. (Clean Energy Wire)
Dodgy data – Air monitors in Switzerland continue to detect large quantities of HFC-23 coming from a location in Italy that don’t appear on the country’s UN emissions submissions, the BBC reports. The Italian environment agency said its inventory was correct and complied with UN regulations and it did not accept the Swiss figures. Experts say levels of some emissions from India and China are so uncertain that experts say their records are plus or minus 100%, with the flaws posing a bigger threat to the Paris Agreement than President Trump’s intention to withdraw, researchers told BBC Radio 4’s Counting Carbon programme.
Break out the thesaurus – A unit in the US Department of Agriculture asking employees to avoid referencing climate change in their work, according to emails released to the Guardian. An email to senior employees at the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) four days after the inauguration asks leadership to make staff aware of a “shift in perspective within the executive branch” on climate, while separate emails advise employees to use terms like “weather extremes” and “resilience to weather extremes” when discussing climate change and climate change adaptation. The emails also show internal struggles with the new terminology, as staff question how to phrase certain issues with others pushing back on censorship to maintain the “scientific integrity of the work.” A USDA spokesperson told Politico that there was never an official instruction to NRCS regarding the use of climate-related terminology. (Climate Nexus)
Ouch – Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power, the sequel to An Inconvenient Truth, finished 15th at the US box office this past weekend despite heavy national promotion from the former vice president and environmentalist. The sequel earned about $900,000, according to Box Office Mojo, compared to the nearly $50 million generated by the first film in 2006. However, the US and Canadian box office experienced its worst weekend of the summer so far, bringing in a mere $123 million or 46% less than a year ago. An Inconvenient Sequel has received generally positively among critics, earning a 77% favourable rating on Rotten Tomatoes, though audiences on the site gave it 48%. (The Hill)
And finally… So when were you going to tell us? – A US federal government report shows that the nation is already experiencing major impacts from ongoing climate change. The paper contradicts many statements made by President Donald Trump and other leading Republicans, and has not yet been approved by the Administration. Amid concerns the report might never be published, it was “leaked” it to the New York Times, though observers point out the paper had been “accessible to anyone who cared to read it during public review & comment time. Few did.”
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