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TOP STORY

Washington state omits carbon pricing from new climate package

Washington Governor Jay Inslee (D) unveiled a climate package on Monday that would implement a low-carbon fuel standard (LCFS) and eliminate fossil fuels from the electricity grid, though it lacked a carbon price after two CO2 tax initiatives failed this year.

COP24

Roundup for Monday, Dec. 10

The COP24 climate summit in Katowice, Poland has shifted into high gear this week with the arrival of ministers, taking over from government officials who last week made limited progress on the Paris Agreement rulebook.

Canada must double NDC, curb oil output to meet 1.5C target -report

The Canadian federal government will need to double its Paris emission pledge to keep global temperatures below 1.5C and curb its fast rising oil and gas emissions, a report said on Monday.

ASIA PACIFIC

New Zealand to announce first tranche of ETS reforms on Dec. 12

The New Zealand government will announce a first set of decisions on reforming its emissions trading scheme on Dec. 12, it said Monday.

Australia sees minor burst of offset project registrations ahead of ERF auction

Australia’s Clean Energy Regulator approved 18 new offset projects over the past week amid a minor rush by developers to qualify in time for the coming week’s Emissions Reduction Fund (ERF) auction.

AMERICAS

Oregon to delay cap-and-trade proposal until January

Oregon will not unveil language for its proposed cap-and-trade programme until January as officials wait for further analysis about design options, officials confirmed Monday.

LCFS Market: California diesel benchmark to resume normal schedule in 2019 as prices approach $200

The carbon intensity (CI) benchmark for diesel-based fuels under the California Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) will revert back to its normal, more stringent schedule next year after state regulator ARB fulfilled a court order, while credit prices set a new record for the second time this week.

EMEA

EU Market: Prices climb to 5-day high near €21 as UK’s Brexit vote postponed

European carbon prices rose to a five-day high near €21 on Monday on news that UK Prime Minister Theresa May will postpone a scheduled Dec. 11 vote on her Brexit proposal.

South Africa exempts indirect emissions from carbon tax as it finalises long-awaited bill

South African lawmakers last week finalised the country’s long-awaited draft carbon tax bill, and in the process made a few last modifications including exempting indirect emissions from the levy.

ICYM

COP24: Voluntary carbon market explores new claims models for Paris transition era -ICROA

(Updated from Dec. 7 article to recast headline and first paragraph to more accurately reflect the situation, adds detail, reaction)

Voluntary market developers are exploring several new options for how to make emission reduction claims in host countries once the Paris Agreement begins and until trade rules are clear, industry group ICROA said Friday.

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Job listings this week

• Executive Director, UNEP – Nairobi
• Executive Secretary, UN Convention to Combat Desertification – Bonn
• Senior Sustainable Energy Finance Specialist, BASE – Basel
• Climate Advisor, Natural Resources Defense Council – San Jose, USA
• Sustainability Consultant, WSP USA – San Francisco
• Associate II, Subnational Climate Action, World Resources Institute — Washington DC
• Climate Advisor, Natural Resources Defense Council – Denver
• Project Development Specialist, Government of Jamaica – Kingston
• Private Sector Expert, European Forest Institute – Kuala Lumpur

Or click here to see all our job adverts

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BITE-SIZED UPDATES FROM AROUND THE WORLD

More freebies – The European Commission has published its draft revised carbon leakage list to determine which industries will receive free carbon allowances for 2021-30. A four-week consultation period will expire on Jan. 2 and the list will enter into force two months later if no lawmakers raise objections that would force a rethink. Its original list in May reduced the current 177 sectors eligible to just 44, but it still featured the biggest emitting industries such as refining, steelmaking, and cement producing. The secondary process reviewed 28 sectors and sub-sectors more closely, adding several more but rejecting lignite mining, gas extraction, plaster manufacture, and light metal casting.

New joiner? – To advance EU accession negotiations, Montenegro has adopted legislation on the functioning of the EU carbon market, in line with the EU ETS Directive 2003/87/EC and its successive amendments. The Balkan nation has also aligned relevant secondary legislation on MRV, the Union Registry, free allocation, and auctioning. “Montenegro makes sure that the appropriate framework is in place to implement the EU ETS in its entirety regarding the monitoring, reporting, and verification of greenhouse gas emissions,” said the EU Council. The accession negotiations with Montenegro began in 2012, with the country a possible candidate for joining the bloc in 2025. There are five recognised candidates for future membership of the EU: Turkey, Macedonia, Montenegro, Albania, and Serbia. In its 2016 assessment of the accession progress, the European Commission has identified Montenegro as having the highest level of preparation for membership among the negotiating states.

Examine Paris – Brazil President-Elect Jair Bolsonaro’s newly-appointed environment minister Ricardo de Aquino Salles was asked if the government would abandon the Paris Agreement. He said “let’s examine carefully the most sensitive points and, once the analysis is over [we will make the decision], remembering that national sovereignty over territory is non-negotiable.” Bolsonaro will be sworn in on Jan. 1. He has previously threatened to follow Trump’s US and abandon Paris. (Climate Home)

Everybody in – Saskatchewan’s Court of Appeals has allowed all 16 applicants to intervene in the province’s upcoming lawsuit against Ottawa’s imposition of its ‘backstop’ carbon pricing plan. That includes Alberta’s opposition and poll-leading United Conservative Party, whose leader Jason Kenney has previously said he will file his own legal challenge against the federal plan if elected in May. The Appeal Court said interveners have until Dec. 18 to file additional material with the justices. (Canadian Press)

Flight fancy – Britain’s TUI Airways and Brazil’s LATAM are the least climate-damaging aviation companies in the world, NGO atmosfair said in its Airline Index 2018. The ranking is based on CO2 emissions per kilometre and passenger on all available routes. “Our results show that the efficiency improvements of the vast majority of airlines worldwide are not sufficient, neither for the 1.5C nor for the 2C target of Paris,” atmosfair’s managing director Dietrich Brockhagen said. “We need new, synthetic and CO2-neutral fuels and other more radical measures to curb CO2 emissions in the sector.” The survey found that one in 10 airlines manages to keep its CO2 emissions nearly constant despite economic growth, while CO2 emissions from airlines grew by 5% amid a 6% growth in the number of kilometres flown.

Pricing shun – Environmentalists are reportedly increasingly ready to look at options other than a carbon tax. Most liberal US candidates opted to focus on other policy options as this month’s fuel-tax riots in Paris and the defeat of a carbon-fee ballot measure in Washington state show the difficulty of getting public support for a carbon levy. However, it also notes that some supporters say the biggest problem for carbon tax proposals has been how they were designed. (Politico)

And finally… Mutant fugu – Climate change is increasing the number of hybrid pufferfish in Asia, making it difficult for fisherman and fish traders to distinguish them from non-lethal species. Pufferfish, known as fugu in Japan, can kill a person in a few hours due to their poisonous liver, which is removed before being sold. Fishermen are discovering an unprecedented number of hybrid species in their catch as seas that home the fish see some of the fastest rates of warming in the world. Those new mutants have the same lethal abilities as a pufferfish, but they look like non-lethal species. (Reuters)

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