**Monday, May 28 is a public holiday in the UK and US, so no CP Daily will be published.**
REMINDER: To comply with the EU’s new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which takes effect from May 25, we have updated our Privacy and Cookies Policy and want to ensure that all our subscribers are fully aware of the changes. Please read it to find out what kinds of personal data we collect, how we collect it, why we collect it and our legal basis for doing so, how we protect it, to whom we disclose it, your rights in respect of it and how long we keep it. You can email us for further details, and you can unsubscribe from our CP Daily newsletter or our CP Alert emails at any time by clicking on the unsubscribe link at the bottom.
And now back to your regularly scheduled programme…
Presenting CP Daily, Carbon Pulse’s free newsletter. It’s a daily summary of our news plus bite-sized updates from around the world. Subscribe here
TOP STORY
SK Market: KAUs jump 10% to hit 6-month highs
South Korean CO2 permits rose 10% on Friday, the maximum daily amount allowed, as smaller companies looking to buy added to price pressure.
AMERICAS
Canada aims for early indicator on post-2022 carbon price trajectory
Canada intends to conduct an interim review of its patchwork system of provincial and territorial carbon pricing policies in 2020, well ahead of its mandated deadline to complete the work, and will seek to identify areas where jurisdictions can align their varied programmes more closely, a senior official said on Thursday.
LCFS Roundup: California prices top $160 as ICE launches trade
Credit prices in California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) marched back to their record high this week, while future contracts began trading on exchange for the first time.
EMEA
EU Market: EUAs dip from 7-year high after auction clears at record discount
European carbon prices retreated from the previous session’s seven-year high on Friday, dipping below €16 after the day’s auction cleared at its biggest ever absolute discount to the secondary market.
ICIS loses second senior carbon analyst
News and analysis company ICIS is losing another senior carbon analyst, the second to announce their departure from the firm this month.
ASIA PACIFIC
NZ Market: NZUs slump to 2-mth lows as fresh supply outweighs demand
New Zealand CO2 prices fell to their lowest since late March on Friday, as small clips of recently-issued NZUs offered by forest-owners was more than sufficient to saturate the modest demand.
Australia issues 445k fresh offsets, with Terra Carbon, Country Carbon earning biggest shares
Australia’s Clean Energy Regulator this week maintained its recent high levels of offset issuances, handing out 445,065 carbon credits to 21 projects.
DATA
CN Markets: Pilot market data for week ending May 25, 2018
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.
———————————
CARBON FORWARD 2018
SAVE THE DATE: Carbon Forward 2018 – Survive and thrive in the global carbon markets
Don’t miss the 3rd annual Carbon Forward conference and training day – Oct. 16-18, 2018 in London.
Spend two days with top experts, players, and decision-makers from the global carbon markets as they address today’s most attractive opportunities and pressing challenges. And join us for the EU ETS pre-conference training day organised by carbon market experts Redshaw Advisors, where you will learn how to effectively manage your carbon risk ahead of the looming overhaul of the bloc’s emissions trading scheme.
———————————
BITE-SIZED UPDATES FROM AROUND THE WORLD
Clashing concerns – China has launched several campaigns over the past couple of years to speed up the switch from coal to gas, especially in the housing sector, as a means to reduce air pollution and cut carbon emissions. But that has driven up gas prices, causing big losses for oil majors in a system where the government sets the wholesale benchmark prices. On Friday, the NDRC announced it would hike up prices for residential customers to the same provincial benchmarks as businesses. To soften the blow, local governments will pay an unspecified compensation to low-income households, while the national government will increase its support, including through funds from the air pollution budget, the NDRC added.
Let’s make a deal – Russia’s natural gas export monopoly is set to expand its position as the dominant fuel supplier to Europe after a deal between the two resolved a seven-year-old anti-trust dispute, Bloomberg reports. The agreement between Gazprom and the European Commission gives gas buyers more flexibility in handling imports and greater leverage to push for lower prices. That’s likely to make flows from Russia more attractive than alternatives such as expensive new links to fields at Europe’s southeast corner or tanker shipments of liquefied natural gas.
Doubly disappointing – Environmental campaigners have branded the Scottish government’s new Climate Change Bill a “missed opportunity”, despite ministers pledging a 90% cut in emissions by 2050 – up from the previous target of 80%. The government insisted advice from the UK Committee on Climate Change expert group shows the new target is “at the limit of feasibility”. Green groups had been pressing for a net zero target in the new bill. Meanwhile in Wales, lawmakers say the government will miss its own target for cutting GHGs by 40% below 1990 levels by 2020. Welsh government ministers set the 10-year target in 2010, but emissions had only dropped by 19% by 2015. A Welsh Assembly climate change committee report said Wales’ industrial profile and cold winters should have been taken into account when the targets were set. (PA, BBC)
GaSSEd up – Scottish utility SSE is to build a new combined cycle gas turbine (power station in North Lincolnshire. The project was announced without any generation contracts for the 840MW facility, though company says it will bid for a capacity market agreement for the proposed plant, which will be built next to the existing 740MW plant at Keadby. SSE intends to start work on Keadby 2 in the coming weeks and commission in the early 2020s. (The Energyst)
More Parisian than presidential – The Pittsburgh City Council approved a new climate action plan on Thursday that will see the city aim to cut its GHG emissions by 20% by 2023, 50% by 2030, and 80% by 2050, though the plan did not specify a baseline. Other components of the plan include divesting from fossil fuels, turning over all municipal vehicles to 100% renewable energy, and cutting energy and water use by 50% in 2030. The plan comes after President Trump famously name-dropped the city in his rationale for leaving the Paris Agreement. (Utility Dive)
Fur-get me not – Climate change may cause white-furred animals to go extinct due to dropping levels of snow cover, leaving them more exposed and vulnerable. Researchers from the Polish Academy of Sciences found that on days with little snow cover, the team only managed to capture as low as 20% of white-coated weasels in a certain area, suggesting the rest had been killed. This coincides with permanent snow cover in the country’s Bialowieza Forest having dropped to 40 days in 2017 from 80 in 1997. The problem is expected to affect other mammal and bird species that thrive in areas that are increasingly turning from icy and snowy to green and brown. (The Telegraph)
And finally … Different strokes – California regulator ARB, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and the EPA held a meeting on Thursday to discuss the Trump administration’s proposed plan to roll back the Golden State’s ability to use a waiver in setting its own fuel economy standards. While the EPA said that the conversation on forging a unified standard between the agencies was “productive”, ARB Chairwoman Mary Nichols had a much different perception of the meeting. “Sounds like a great meeting based on the WH press release. Too bad it’s not the one we attended,” Nichols tweeted after the meeting. “To quote the President on cancelling his planned summit with Kim Jong-un, ‘If and when (@USDOT & @EPA) choose to engage in constructive dialogue and actions, I am ready’.” (Politico)
Got a tip? Email us at news@carbon-pulse.com
