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TOP STORIES

First we reported this:

UK may pull support for EU ETS reform if it doesn’t get its way on Brexit -sources

The UK could withdraw its support for the post-2020 EU ETS reform deal unless other member states back its alternative ‘Brexit-proofing’ measure, sources said, though the last-ditch move may have only an outside chance of severely delaying the bill that’s been two years in the making.

Then this happened:

Brussels backs down over Brexit-proofing EU ETS plan, leaked draft suggests

Brussels has backed down over its ‘Brexit-proofing’ plan that would have rendered new British carbon allowances worthless from next year, according to a leaked draft, which could reduce the chances that the post-2020 EU ETS reform bill will be blocked by a defiant UK and other member states this week.

ASIA PACIFIC

SK Market: KAUs jump 6.6% as price matters little to Korean buyers

Korean CO2 prices jumped to within sight of all-time highs on Monday as desperate buyers remained willing to pay ever higher prices for any volume they can secure.

EMEA

EU Market: EUAs climb back from 3-week low as ETS Brexit-proofing battle rages on

European carbon prices recovered after hitting a three-week low early Monday, as worries circulated that the UK government would attempt to torpedo the post-2020 EU ETS reform agreement this week in protest over punitive measures being levied on it by the bloc.

INTERNATIONAL

ECOSYSTEM MARKETPLACE: In Bonn, progress on markets hampered by gridlock on everything else

The Americas aren’t named for Christopher Columbus, but for his map-maker, Amerigo Vespucci, who first figured out that Brazil is a pretty big part of the New World – something to keep in mind as climate negotiators sketch out the map for implementing the Paris Agreement.

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Job listings this week:

Associate Director of Forest Carbon Development, Finite Carbon – Tallahassee, Florida
Operations Support, South Pole Group – London/Mexico City/Amsterdam
Consultant Climate Policy and Finance, South Pole Group – Bangkok
Social Media & Communications Officer, Carbon Tracker Initiative – London
Power & Emissions Analyst – London
Consultant – Green Finance, Climate & Energy Solutions (CES) – Angers, France
Analyst – Environmental Consulting, WattTime – Oakland, California
Program Communications Director – Clean Air, Clean Energy, ClimateWorks Foundation – San Francisco

Or click here to see all our job adverts

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BITE-SIZED UPDATES FROM AROUND THE WORLD

Name not down? – Brussels has launched a consultation on which formulas to apply to calculate the carbon leakage list of ETS sectors deemed to require free EUA allocation for the next decade. The consultation is open until Feb. 12 2018.

OK for XL – Nebraska utility regulators narrowly approved the proposed portion of the Keystone XL oil pipeline that passes through the state, removing the last major regulatory hurdle for the controversial project after it was given new life by President Donald Trump earlier this year.  The decision comes days after a separate pipeline operated by TransCanada leaked more than 800,000 litres of oil in neighbouring South Dakota.

Helping out – British coal-fired power stations are helping France meet near-term demand amid ongoing outages at around 20 of its nuclear units, the Guardian reports. The operators of Britain’s eight remaining coal power stations appear to have stepped in to exploit higher French prices, exporting power across the channel as temperatures have plunged. Most of the time, France sends electricity to the UK through 43-mile-long cables between Folkestone and a site near Calais, but in November there have been more hours when power has flowed in the other direction.  The paper reports that UK coal usage has shot up in the last two weeks, though it is still using less than this time last year.

Kigali is a go – The Montreal Protocol’s Kigali Amendment that cracks down on HFCs will enter into force from Jan. 2019 after Sweden last week became the 20th country to formally ratify it – the number required.

Should be double – The risks of crop yield shocks as a result of climate change mean the social cost of carbon (SCC) should be twice as high as current estimates, a new Nature Communications study suggests. Using the latest scientific literature, the researchers present new “damage functions” and introduce them into an integrated assessment model (IAM) in order to estimate a new SCC. The results reveal “far more adverse agricultural impacts than currently represented in IAMs,” the researchers say, with impacts on farming increasing from net benefits of $2.7 per tonne of CO2 to net costs of $8.5 – “leading the total SCC to more than double”.(Carbon Brief)

How to spend it – French think-tank I4CE, the World Bank’s PMR and France’s development agency have launched a consultation on the use of carbon revenues: launch of a survey to collect perspectives from practitioners of carbon pricing policies. They aim to publish a report of the findings mid-2018 to provide some recommendations and an overview of revenue recycling issues to support low-carbon development, illustrated by country experiences that have already implemented a carbon pricing policy , or having begun to reflect on this issue.

I’ll be trading for Christmas – Well, not if you live in Switzerland. The Swiss Emissions Trading Registry will not be available for transactions from noon local time on Dec. 22 to 0900 on Jan. 3.

And finally… Buyer’s remorse – Saskatchewan Environment Minister Dustin Duncan reckons other Canadian provinces will be envious of his government’s carbon pricing plan, the Regina Leader-Post reports. “I’ll say quite bluntly: I think when you see our plan and when other provinces see our plan, I think there will be a little bit of buyer’s remorse from provinces that took one or the other without fully thinking this through. We’ve tried to take our time,” said Duncan.  Ottawa is requiring all jurisdictions to have either a carbon tax or a cap-and-trade scheme in place by next year, though the exact deadline is unclear. Duncan said it “would have been nice to know” the federal government won’t impose a carbon tax on the province as soon as the calendar turns to 2018. Saskatchewan will unveil its plan, which will build off a previously published government White paper, in the weeks to come.

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