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TOP STORIES
Ontario offset protocol development put on hold, leading investors to hope for federal intervention
Ontario has halted the development of its offset protocols following Premier-designate Doug Ford’s decision to scrap the province’s carbon market, leaving project developers and investors in limbo and hoping the Canadian federal government will step in to save the burgeoning industry.
EMEA
EU Innovation Fund sell-off could wipe €5 off EU carbon prices -analysts
EU governments could knock as much as €5 off EUA prices and lose billions of euros of low-carbon funding if they rush to auction allowances for the bloc’s Innovation Fund over the next decade or so, according to ICIS analysts.
EU Market: EUAs climb back over €15 after strong auction
EU carbon prices rose above €15 for the first time this week on Friday as a strong auction jolted prices upwards.
ASIA PACIFIC
Australia terminates contracts for 4.5m carbon credits
Australia’s Clean Energy Regulator has terminated four more contracts through which its Emissions Reduction Fund had agreed to buy almost 4.5 million offsets.
China’s Guangdong sees near-100% ETS compliance, but declines to release emissions data
A single emitter in China’s biggest pilot emissions trading scheme failed to meet the annual compliance deadline, Guangdong regulators said Friday, again choosing to not disclose emissions data.
AMERICAS
New York carbon pricing bill fails to receive Senate vote for third straight year
An extensive climate justice bill that would have implemented a “market-based compliance mechanism” in New York along with a suite of other GHG targets and environmental justice provisions did not advance to a vote for the third year running as the state Senate wrapped up this week.
DATA
CN Markets: Pilot market data for week ending Jun. 22, 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.
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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.
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BITE-SIZED UPDATES FROM AROUND THE WORLD
Trading bill – Germany might have to pay billions of euros to buy non-ETS emissions rights (AEAs) from other countries if it does not manage to significantly lower its own GHG emissions in the transport, buildings, and agriculture sectors, according to calculations undertaken by the Oeko-Institut. Germany’s combined emissions in these sectors have been rising since 2014 and are not covered by the EU ETS. However, according to the EU Effort Sharing Regulation, Germany’ non-ETS emissions must decrease by 14% by 2020, and by 38% by 2030, compared to 2005. By 2020, buying emissions rights from other countries could cost Germany €600 million. And in the period between 2021 and 2030, the Oeko-Institut expects allowance prices to rise, so that Germany might in the end have to pay €5-30 billion “even under optimistic emissions development scenarios”. The environment ministry did not want to comment on specific amounts as they depend on a series of assumptions, writes Tagesspiegel Background. (Clean Energy Wire)
Bleak leakage – US methane emissions from the production, processing, and transportation of oil and gas production are as much as 60% higher than official EPA estimates, possibly undoing any emissions benefits of transitioning from coal to natural gas over the short term. A study published on Thursday in the journal Science estimates that 13 Mt of methane leaked from oil and gas operations in 2015, with a leak rate of 2.3%, compared to the EPA’s estimates of 1.4%. The researchers said this amount of methane would cause roughly the same amount of warming as all coal-fired power plants in the US. (Climate Nexus)
Northern exemption – Canadian Environment Minister Catherine McKenna and Finance Minister Bill Morneau penned a letter this week stating that they will exempt aviation fuel in Canada’s three territories from the fuel levy component of the federal backstop carbon tax. Nunavut, Northwest Territories, and Yukon have all vocalised their concerns about carbon pricing’s impact on the remote, northern jurisdictions that are heavily reliant on fossil fuel-powered transport for delivering essentials like medical care and supplies. While Nunavut Senator Dennis Paterson welcomed the government’s pledge as a “positive first step”, he questioned why the exemption does not appear to apply to the entirety of routes between the province and neighbouring Quebec, as the territory awaited word if the other 80% of Nunavut’s fuel consumption would receive tax immunity. (Nunatsiaq News)
Not all in favour – Amid this week’s most recent carbon tax push from a group of former US senators, the Congressional Progressive Caucus will soon release its annual “People’s Budget” in response to the House Budget Committee’s fiscal 2019 request. However, a coalition of environmental justice and other progressive organisations, such as Climate Justice Alliance and Our Revolution, have called on the caucus to exclude a carbon tax from its budget. The groups criticise a carbon tax proposal as “inequitable, discriminatory, ineffective, and ultimately regressive”, and also provides a “government license to pollute”. Instead, the organisations advocate for regulation that mandates polluters reduce their emissions and expanding incentives for clean energy like wind and solar. (Politico)
And finally… Fred Flintstone to the rescue – One of the fastest melting regions of the West Antarctic ice sheet may be spared from collapse by the rapid rise of bedrock “literally pinning the ice to the rock”. New research published in Science shows that the ground beneath the melting glaciers of the Amundsen Sea Embayment (ASE) in West Antarctica is rising at unprecedented 41mm per year, possibly rising by up to eight metres over the next century if current rates of ice melt continue. Not all is well, however, as the rising ground may have “hidden” the real amount of ice lost from the area by 10%, and may not be able to stop the collapse of vertical ice cliffs where the face of glaciers meet the ocean. (Carbon Brief)
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