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South Korea launches consultation on ETS, 2030 pathway

South Korea’s environment ministry on Tuesday launched a broad consultation process that will consider key issues for its emissions trading scheme, as well as the nation’s pathway to meeting its Paris obligations.

EMEA

EU Market: EUAs sink below €8, losing as much as 5.5% as sellers return

EU carbon dropped below €8 on Tuesday, tumbling by as much as 5.5% on the first trading day of 2018 to give back some of a pre-Christmas rally that led prices to a two-year high.

UK’s modelling for EU CO2 price dips but still projects a future hike  

The UK has slightly lowered the EU carbon price forecasts it uses to form policy while keeping longer-term projections vastly higher than today’s values.

AMERICAS

California doles out 73k offsets in smallest issuance since May, recalls 11k for ‘intentional reversal’

California’s Air Resources Board this week handed out almost 73,000 offsets to four projects in the final issuance of the year, while also recalling some 11,000 credits for the scheme’s first ever ‘intentional reversal’.

COMMENT

The Climate Trust rings in 2018 with a forecast of the top 10 carbon market trends

The Climate Trust’s annual predictions on carbon market policies and ideas that will matter in 2018.

DATA

CN Markets: Pilot market data for week ending Dec. 29, 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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Job listings this week:

• Senior Advisor on Climate Change, GIZ – Bangkok
• Senior Carbon Project Development Manager, South Pole Group – Delhi/Beijing/Bangkok
• Intern, Sustainable Supply Chains and Forestry, South Pole Group – Jakarta
• Forestry and Land Use Specialist, South Pole Group – Jakarta
• Senior Researcher, Climate Council – Sydney
• Senior Researcher in Climate Change Mitigation Policy in Developing Countries, Technical University of Denmark – Copenhagen

Or click here to see all our job adverts

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BITE-SIZED UPDATES FROM AROUND THE WORLD

Still short – Canada expects its total GHG emissions to fall to 583 million tonnes by 2030, a roughly one-third reduction compared to 2015 levels, according to UNFCCC filings. That marks a sharp drop from its estimate of 700 Mt of a year ago, but still leaves the country a long way from its 2030 target of 517 Mt. The estimate was lower than previous forecasts partly because it included a “with additional measures” scenario, which contains policies that Ottawa has announced but not yet implemented, such as its national carbon price. (National Post)

Big bump – Alberta’s province-wide carbon levy increased to C$30 per tonne from C$20 as the bells struck midnight on New Year’s Eve. According to the Pembina Institute think-tank, the rise means the average natural gas bill will increase by around C$5/month, while gasoline prices will also nudge higher. Revenue from the levy will continue to be invested in Alberta through green infrastructure, energy efficiency, renewable energy, bioenergy and innovation, the government said in a release. In 2017, funds from the Climate Leadership Plan were earmarked for light rail systems in both Calgary and Edmonton.

Doling them out – The Shanghai municipal government in late December released a document saying it had distributed 156 million allowances to participants in its emissions trading scheme for 2017, but without specifying how that figure compared to previous years. Meanwhile, the local carbon exchange on Tuesday announced it has halted CCER transactions due to a system upgrade. It did not say when offset trade would resume.

Shuffle up – UK climate minister Claire Perry is being considered for another cabinet role as embattled Prime Minister Theresa May considers a reshuffle next month that could involve promoting seven female ministers in a bid to improve the government’s gender balance. That’s according to an unsourced report from the Telegraph, the right-wing newspaper often favoured for leaked information by the Conservative government. The reshuffle could also involve business secretary – and Perry’s boss at the department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) – Greg Clark being replaced by current foreign secretary Boris Johnson in a newly beefed-up and Brexit-focused role.

When you get to the bottom you go back to the top – Groups that reject established climate science can use Google’s advertising business to their advantage, gaming the system to find a mass platform for false or misleading claims.  (New York Times)

And finally… Baby it’s cold outside – US President Donald Trump took part of his Christmas break to post a rare tweet on climate change, saying Americans “could use a little bit of that good old Global Warming that our Country, but not other countries, was going to pay TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS to protect against. Bundle up!” Several climate experts responded critically, with US climate scientist Michael Oppenheimer explaining that the US cold snap is weather and a day-to-day experience whereas climate is the long-term average of weather over periods of years, decades, centuries or even longer.  (PBS)

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