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TOP STORY
South Korea’s Phase 2 allocation plan, offset rules pushed to end of 2017
South Korea will launch a public consultation on its ETS 2018-2020 allocation plan and new offset guidelines in October, an official said Friday, commencing the process months later than originally planned.
AMERICAS
ANALYSIS: Has AB-398 put California’s offset market on death row?
Following the passage of AB-398, the bill that re-authorizes California cap-and-trade scheme post-2020, observers are worried that the offset industry will die off by its new provisions.
EMEA
EU Market: EUAs firm after strong auction to lodge small weekly gain
EU carbon prices inched higher on Friday in thin trade, capping a week of strongly bid auctions while shrugging off further gains in coal.
ASIA PACIFIC
NZ Market: NZUs weaken as market ignores surprise polls
New Zealand carbon allowances ended the week on a bearish note, hitting a two-week low on Friday as traders chose not to respond to polls showing next month’s elections could be far more competitive than previously thought.
New offset issuances remain slow in Australia
Australia this week handed out 64,299 new carbon credits, continuing the low issuance levels seen since the end of previous financial year on June 30.
CN Markets: Pilot market data for week ending Aug 11, 2017
Below is a table of the closing prices, ranges and volumes for China’s regional pilot carbon markets this week. All prices are in RMB, and volumes in tonnes of CO2e. Data sourced from local exchanges.
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BITE-SIZED UPDATES FROM AROUND THE WORLD
Mass cuts – Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker’s administration on Friday issued a set of new rules aimed at bringing the state into full compliance with an ambitious state law that calls for a 25% reduction in GHG emissions by the end of the decade, the AP reports. The regulations include clean energy requirements for utilities, reductions in CO2 from electricity generating plants, and curbs on methane emissions from natural gas distribution systems. Officials also planned to announce a “lead by example” provision that establishes new fuel efficiency standards for the state’s own fleet of passenger vehicles. The state launched a review and held public hearings following a May 2016 ruling by the state’s highest court. The justices sided with environmental groups that sued Massachusetts, saying it wasn’t doing enough to meet greenhouse gas limits called for in the 2008 Global Warming Solutions Act.
Gettin’ hotter – 2016 broke several climatic records, a sweeping report issued Thursday from NOAA confirms. More than 450 scientists from more than 60 countries contributed to NOAA’s “State of the Climate” report, which confirms that 2016 was the hottest year on record. The report also details several other record-breaking events in 2016: GHGs hit their highest recorded concentration in nearly 1 million years, 12% of the earth endured severe drought, alpine glaciers retreated for the 37th year in a row, and global sea levels hit a record high. (Climate Nexus)
Making the grade – US EPA boss Scott Pruitt says his agency will review the upcoming federal climate change research report compiled by 13 agencies “and evaluate the merits and demerits and the methodology and accuracy of the report.” Politico reports that Pruitt told a Texas radio show on Thursday the scientific section of the upcoming National Climate Assessment “ought to be subjected to peer-reviewed, objective-reviewed methodology and evaluation. Science should not be politicized. Science is not something that should be just thrown about to try to dictate policy in Washington DC.”
And finally… Parking charges – Electric car owners are earning as much as $1,530 a year just by parking their vehicle and feeding excess power back into the grid, Bloomberg reports. Trials in Denmark carried out by Nissan and Italy’s biggest utility Enel showed how batteries inside electric cars could help balance supply and demand at times and provide a new revenue stream for those who own the vehicles. Technology linking vehicles to the grid marks another challenge for utilities already struggling to integrate wind and solar power into their distribution system. As the use of plug-in cars spreads, grid managers will have to pay closer attention to when motorists draw from the system and when they can smooth variable flows.
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