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TOP STORY
Germany coalition envoys agree deal to close gap to 2020 climate goal
Germany’s two largest political parties have struck a tentative deal for a new coalition government that would involve additional measures to meet the country’s domestic 2020 climate goal, after widespread condemnation followed reports earlier this week that they would abandon the target.
VOLUNTARY MARKET
Natural Capital Partners, VCS hit back at claims of dodgy Cambodian REDD offsets
Carbon brokers Natural Capital Partners and the Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS) have hit back against claims that offsets from the Oddar Meanchey REDD project in Cambodia lack environmental integrity.
EMEA
German authorities to challenge court decision to lift arrest warrant for British EU ETS tax fraud suspect
German authorities are planning to file a complaint in the coming weeks against a 2017 court decision to withdraw an arrest warrant for a British businessman who had been suspected of being a central figure in a £100 million EU carbon trading tax evasion ring.
EU Market: EUAs absorb first week of 2018 auctions for small gain
EU carbon prices lifted slightly on Friday to notch a small weekly gain, recovering from a three-week low as German lawmakers re-committed to domestic climate goals.
AMERICAS
Northeastern US push for cleaner transport risks derailing wider state climate efforts, observers warn
Regional action to cut transport emissions in the northeastern US must not distract from efforts to impose economy-wide carbon pricing in individual states, observers warned on Friday.
BC emissions rose by 1.6% in 2015 under frozen carbon tax rate
Greenhouse gas emissions in British Columbia increased by 1.6% to 63.3 million tonnes of CO2e in 2015, according to figures released by the Canadian province’s government late last year.
ASIA PACIFIC
Bangladesh registers first JCM offset project
Bangladesh has registered its first carbon offset project under Japan’s Joint Crediting Mechanism (JCM), nearly five years after the two nations launched their bilateral programme.
DATA
CN Markets: Pilot market data for week ending Jan. 12, 2018
Closing prices, ranges and volumes for China’s regional pilot carbon markets this week.
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BITE-SIZED UPDATES FROM AROUND THE WORLD
Breach! Breach! – Global warming is on track to breach the toughest limit set in the Paris Agreement by the middle of this century unless governments make unprecedented economic shifts from fossil fuels, according to a draft of an upcoming report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The draft of the study due for publication in October said governments will also have to start sucking CO2 from the air to achieve the ambition of limiting temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times. “There is very high risk that … global warming will exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels,” it said, based on the current pace of warming and current national plans to limit their GHG emissions. (Reuters)
Green speech – British Prime Minister Theresa May has said her government is serious about improving the environment after pressure groups gave a lukewarm response to her new 25-year environmental plan. The strategy, announced yesterday, was praised for its ambition but groups warned it lacked a clear focus on climate change and the measures needed for immediate action. The plan covers areas including tackling plastics, GHG emissions, land use, poor air quality and access to green spaces, and it outlines a plan to create a 120-mile northern forest between Liverpool to Hull. May’s speech contained no new climate or air quality measures, though she reiterated her commitment to delivering a ‘green Brexit’. (Carbon Brief)
Adios, Diablo – California regulators on Thursday voted unanimously to close the Diablo Canyon power plant, California’s last remaining nuclear station, by 2025. Plant operator Pacific Gas & Electric has said that it would not be economical to operate the plant after its licenses expire in 2025. In 2016, the company reached an agreement with labour and environmental groups to shut down the plant, which supplies 9% of the state’s electricity. Diablo Canyon has been at the centre of fierce battles over the future of nuclear energy in California since it opened in 1985. Observers worry that closing the plant, a significant source of low-carbon power, may be a stumbling block as California pursues aggressive emissions reductions. (Climate Nexus)
And finally… Taps running dry – It’s the height of summer in Cape Town and that region of South Africa is gripped by a catastrophic water shortage. Unless the city adopts widespread rationing, the government says the taps “will be turned off” on Apr. 22, 2018 because there will be no more water to deliver. This would make Cape Town the first major city in the world to run out of water, Quartz reports, citing an article by the New York Times. “It’s not an impending crisis – we’re deep, deep, deep in crisis,” said one expert. The shortage is the result of a multi-year drought linked to climate change, and the city is asking residents to restrict their water use to 87 litres per person per day, or roughly the equivalent of a four-minute shower using a regular shower head.
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