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TOP STORY
PREVIEW: Pressure piles on Australia’s ERF to pay up at this week’s auction
Market observers expect the Australian government’s Emissions Reduction Fund (ERF) will have to pay at least in line with the previous round’s record prices to secure significant emission reductions at this week’s auction.
VOLUNTARY
INTERVIEW: Financial sector will help unfog voluntary carbon market’s “murkiness”, say offset standards
Concerns remain around the “murkiness” of the global voluntary carbon trade, but two of the main offset certifiers keeping the market running are confident that a new era of increased participation and scrutiny, including by the financial sector, will bring much-needed transparency and investor confidence.
ASIA PACIFIC
New alliance eyes carbon hub spanning Guangdong, Hong Kong, Macao
Financial organisations in China’s Guangdong province and territories of Hong Kong and Macao have founded a ‘Green Finance Alliance’ that has developing a regional carbon trading market as one of its major ambitions.
Western Australia EPA backs Mitsui offset plans for new gas power plant
The Western Australia EPA on Monday backed Mitsui’s plans for a new gas-fired power plant that would buy carbon offsets as part of a strategy to put it on a path towards net zero emissions by 2050.
EMEA
EU Market: EUAs slip to 2-week low below €27 after auction struggle
EUAs hit a two-week low below €27 on Monday as the market struggled to absorb a hefty auction, in what will be the biggest sale supply week of the year so far.
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Job listings this week
- Family Forest Carbon Program Account Manager, American Forest Foundation – Washington DC/Remote
- Value Chain Certification Officer, SustainCERT – Remote, US/Amsterdam
- Chief Policy and Markets Officer, Verra – Washington DC
- South Africa Manager, Verra – All Locations (in South Africa)
- Senior Carbon Procurement Manager, Portfolio Management, South Pole – Amsterdam/London/Bangkok
- Policy Analyst, EU and International Climate Policy, ERCST – Brussels
- Climate Offset Manager, Carbon Forest Services – Wellington
- Senior Analyst Climate Change Operations, Ministry for Primary Industries – Wellington
Or click here to see all our job adverts
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BITE-SIZED UPDATES FROM AROUND THE WORLD
Worth the effort? – The price of goods imported into the EU in sectors covered by a carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) will rise by around 1.6% on average by 2030, according to an analysis published Monday by the Polish-based LIFE Climate CAKE PL project, which is co-financed by the EU LIFE programme and Poland’s National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management. The study assumes the EU adopts a new 2030 emissions reduction target of 55% below 1990 levels, as well as a net zero 2050 goal. It also found that the value of imports will drop by 3.4%, with ferrous metals suffering the largest fall at 11.6%. “Although imports will grow in some of the sectors which are not covered by the border tax adjustment (e.g. manufacturing), in overall terms the total change in imports into the EU from the other regions of the world will be about -0.5% and it will be fairly differentiated among EU Member States (about -1.2% for Poland).” The study also said the price of EU exports would increase while their value would fall. It added that a CBAM would lead to a minuscule 24-Mt drop in global GHG emissions by 2030, with the largest declines reported in Ukraine, Belarus, and Moldova, while it would have an equally negligible effect on EU GDP and would raise €7.61 billion in additional revenues.
Employment incentives – Poland’s Lodzkie region could become Europe’s second largest beneficiary of funds from the EUs Just Transition Mechanism for the transformation of coal regions, according to the think tank Instrat in a study commissioned by ClientEarth. The report suggests that 61,000 jobs could be created by green investments, six times more than the number of people currently employed in mining and lignite combustion at the Belchatow Power Plant. The funds can be acquired under the condition that the region establishes a Just Transition Territorial Plan and that the Polish government pledges to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. (Emerging Europe)
Get building – A whitepaper by Atkins – a member of the SNC-Lavalin Group – has calculated the build rate and numbers of units required across the energy sector in order for the UK to meet its net zero 2050 target. The study concludes that under this scenario, 48 natural gas units, 66 biomass facilities, 6 nuclear power stations, and 6,520 offshore wind turbines are needed, as well as undefined unit numbers for 20 GW of onshore wind, 80 GW of solar, and 15-30 GW of energy storage. The findings follow analysis goal, which estimates that the UK needs to build 9 to 12 GW per year, for the next 30 years, and it predicts power in 2050 will be generated by nuclear (11%), wind and solar (58%), combined cycle gas turbines with CCS (22%), and bioenergy with CCS (6%). The whitepaper also concludes that these percentages will be subject to change due to factors including a higher need for low-carbon power, rising system costs, and industrial capability.
Budget review – The UK government is reviewing its Phase 1 budget for its Industrial Energy Transformation Fund competition after receiving a high degree of interest from businesses. “Should high quality bids exceed the £30 mln budget currently allocated, we may make more funding available in this first window of the IETF. This is a reflection of the department’s commitment to supporting businesses during these difficult times and to achieving the Net Zero target,” BEIS said in an email. The agency, in collaboration with Innovate UK, recently launched the IETF Phase 1 competition, which runs until Oct. 28 and is open to applicants from England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Successful bids will be awarded grant funding for energy efficiency projects and feasibility and engineering studies. The total IETF budget for England, Wales and Northern Ireland will remain at £289 mln over the lifetime of the programme, the government added.
And finally… Hydrogen united – The French government is planning to cooperate with Germany in the development of hydrogen technologies, reports news agency dpa. French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire said he plans to travel to Berlin for talks this Friday. “I hope that we will manage to find a joint Franco-German and then European project for hydrogen,” he said, adding that France wants to invest €7 bln in hydrogen technology in the long term, while €9 bln is planned by Germany. The French government last week committed the cash to developing a green hydrogen economy as part of its €100 bln recovery plan. Germany laid out its plans in a national hydrogen strategy published in June, and the European Commission presented its bloc-wide hydrogen proposal shortly thereafter. But producing hydrogen from renewable power only could drive up its price over the coming decades if the gas becomes the main low-carbon fuel of choice for the EU, Bloomberg reports. Should the bloc shun the use of hydrogen made from fossil fuels, then using the green version of the gas across all sectors will become more costly as demand grows over the coming decades, according to analysis by Aurora Energy Research. (Clean Energy Wire)
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