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TOP STORY
Ontario lays out arguments for legal challenge against federal carbon tax
The Ontario government on Friday filed a legal submission arguing that the federal carbon pricing plan is outside of Ottawa’s authority and will result in unconstitutional taxes.
AMERICAS
Fourth WCI auction of 2018 to offer over 88 mln permits
California and Quebec will auction more than 88 million allowances on Nov. 14, with 78 mln current vintage allowances that for the first time include some unsold vintage 2017 allowances, the regulators said Friday.
US court dismisses challenge to Illinois zero emissions credit programme
A federal US court has thrown out a lawsuit against Illinois’ zero emissions credit (ZEC) regulation to subsidise nuclear energy, deciding that the mid-western state’s programme does not run up against federal authority nor does it discriminate against out-of-state competition.
California court prepares to discontinue merits hearing, issue stay in lawsuit against San Diego offset plan
A California Superior Court is planning to end a merit hearing and issue a stay to environmental groups who have opposed a San Diego county proposal that would allow out-of-state and international offsets to compensate for new housing developments.
EMEA
EU Market: EUAs jump back to €20 in volatile trade after massive rout
EUAs surged back to near €20 on Friday, bouncing off technical support levels in a very choppy session after early losses had initially extended Thursday’s 18% rout to dip below €18.
ASIA PACIFIC
CN Markets: Pilot market data for week ending Sep. 14, 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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BITE-SIZED UPDATES FROM AROUND THE WORLD
Seniors only – EU officials are urging the UN climate talks’ ‘Talanoa Dialogue’ segment aimed at upping climate ambition takes place “at least at ministerial level, if not higher”, rejecting suggestions from Polish and Fijian organisers that countries be allowed to participate without sending a minister. The EU also suggested inviting the UN secretary general Antonio Guterres. (Climate Home)
RWE warning – German utility RWE has warned that it may be forced to close several GW of lignite-fired capacity due to protests against its plan to expand the Hambach open cast mine near an adjacent forest, daily newspaper Handelsblatt reported. RWE’s big-emitting Niederaussem and Neurath plants meet around 15% of the electricity demand in Germany’s industrial heartland state of North-Rhine Westphalia. (Montel)
Tidal turbine – UK-based tidal power firm Simec Atlantis Energy, owned by billionaire metals tycoon Sanjeev Gupta, has unveiled plans for the world’s largest marine power turbine at 2 MW. The company said it was already in discussions with various governments and developers to identify locations for manufacture and testing of the technology, which could herald “the next phase of large-scale array deployment”. (Telegraph)
Risky business – Massachusetts senator and possible 2020 presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren (D) proposed the Climate Risk Disclosure Act on Friday to raise public awareness of how reliant US companies are on fossil fuels. Under the guidance of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the act would implement numerous standards for companies to make public their GHG emissions, fossil fuel holdings, and how climate policies and climate change impacts like rising sea levels would hurt them. While the legislation stands virtually no chance of succeeding in the Republican-controlled Congress, the bill is being co-sponsored by seven other Democratic senators, including other potential 2020 presidential candidates Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, and Kirsten Gillibrand. (The Hill)
Birds of a feather – Canadian conservative politician Maxime Bernier on Friday launched his new breakaway party and released its platform ahead of next year’s national elections, which includes a pledge to scrap the federal carbon tax programme. The People’s Party of Canada will embrace other populist and anti-establishment policies including freer trade, smaller government, a reduction in foreign aid, stricter immigration, and looser gun laws. The new party’s website also references the Quebec MP’s former unorthodox positions during his time in the Conservative Party of Canada. (The Post Millennial)
Cool it – Major air conditioning and refrigerator manufacturers and the Natural Resources Defense Council today agreed to support the replacement of super-polluting hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, in home air conditioning systems across the US with safer refrigerants by 2023. In a letter to the state’s Air Resources Board released during the Global Climate Action Summit (GCAS) in San Francisco, they also supported new California rules to phase down HFCs in many other cooling systems, and to back similar HFC curbs in other states, a notable development because Connecticut, Maryland, and New York announced plans to reduce HFCs this week.
Another satellite – California Gov. Jerry Brown announced on Friday at the close of the GCAS that his will develop and launch a satellite to track and measure methane emissions. The announcement follows news that green group Environmental Defense Fund would send its own – dubbed MethaneSAT – into space. California’s satellite – an initiative of the Air Resources Board – will detect concentrated “point sources” of climate pollutants, monitoring leaks and other anomalies at specific locations where emissions are known to occur. EDF’s MethaneSAT, on the other hand, will provide broader, more frequent coverage, quantifying emissions from oil and gas fields producing at least 80% of global output roughly once every four days.
Florence floods – Hurricane Florence struck the US east coast on Thursday, and the storm is set to bring 50% more rainfall to the region due to human-induced climate change than would otherwise have been expected. An attribution study, completed by researchers at Stony Brook University and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, was the first of its kind to be completed before the storm actually made landfall, and also predicted that the hurricane was 50 miles (80 kilometres) larger in diameter than if anthropogenic warming was not a factor. According to the US Geological Survey, more than 30 inches of rain (76 centimetres) have fallen in Atlantic Beach, North Carolina from the storm, which would break the state record from a tropical cyclone if confirmed. (The Guardian, ABC News)
Minding mortality – Restricting global warming to 2C above pre-industrial levels would help prevent against temperature-related deaths across much of the globe, according to a new study. Research published in Climate Change Letters showed that limiting temperature rises to 1.5C instead of 2C would result in 2% less heat-related mortality in Vietnam and around 1% less in Italy and Spain. However, in cooler regions like the UK, Ireland, and Japan, more deaths could actually result from 1.5C of warming instead of 2C because the additional 0.5C reduces more cold-related deaths than it increases heat-related ones. (Carbon Brief)
And finally… Starting, now – In January, USA Today editorial page editor Bill Sternberg wrote that the newspaper would not “run pieces that deny the reality of human-induced climate change”. However, the outlet ran a climate-related piece in its “opposing view” section on Friday that included an excerpt from Matt Vespa of right-wing website Townhall, titled “Sorry, science is not settled on this matter”. While Vespa’s post included several recycled talking points from his past articles, such as a statement that air quality “couldn’t be better” despite the US’ industrialisation, USA Today chose not to republish other climate-denier talking points from his Townhall post. These included calling certainty on climate science an “arrogant position” to take and speaking of “global cooling” in the 1970s as a reason to doubt global warming now. (Media Matters)
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