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UK confirms plans to phase out coal power by 2025
The UK will close all its unabated coal-fired power plants by 2025, the government said on Wednesday, two years later than unsourced media reports said it was planning last month.
EU nations urged to ready plans by 2017 on how to meet 2030 energy goals
The European Commission has called on all 28 EU nations to submit draft plans in 2017 on how they intend to meet bloc-wide 2030 energy goals.
Draft plan to propose mix of grandfathering and benchmarks, ex-post adjustments for China’s national ETS
Researchers drawing up a draft allocation plan for China’s national carbon market will propose China use a mix of historical emission data and industrial benchmarks to decide how many CO2 allowances emitters will get, according to Tsinghua University researcher Zhang Xiliang, a key expert assisting the NDRC in the design process.
EU Parliamentary committees wrestle for control of ETS reforms
Two rival parliamentary committees are battling for control of the post-2020 ETS reform proposal and it could result in the dossier being split between them, according to a senior parliamentary source.
UK ups EU CO2 price forecasts used in policy, warns on long-term carbon target
The UK has raised the EU carbon price forecasts that it uses in public policy by as much as 27%, the country’s Department of Energy and Climate Change said in a report published Wednesday.
Australia to meet 2020 emissions target as CO2 forecast revised down
Australia will soon release revised emissions forecast data showing the nation has already met its minimum 2020 CO2 emissions target, Environment Minister Greg Hunt told The Australian newspaper, but indicated a deepening of its targets would not be on the table until 2020.
EU Market: EUAs dip following recent rises, CERs hit new year-high
EU carbon prices fell on Wednesday as speculators looked to cash in on recent gains and had little appetite for new bullish bets.
Investors worth €20 trillion push global miners to better manage climate risks
A global network of more than 270 institutional investors representing assets worth over €20 trillion ($21.3 trillion) is pushing mining companies to recognise and better manage the risks climate change and the move towards a low-carbon economy pose to their operations and bottom lines.
Bite-sized updates from around the world
Taiwan’s Environmental Protection Administration has published a presentation of the island’s INDC, in which it promises to cut GHG emissions to 50% below BAU levels in 2030, equal to a 20% cut from 2005 levels. The plan was first approved in September. (Scroll down for English version)
An industrial slowdown is among the main drivers of the reduction in coal consumption and carbon emissions in China. The China Iron & Steel Association is predicting the trend will continue in 2016, forecasting a 23-million tonne drop in crude steel production next year, according to Bloomberg. If not adjusted for in allocation plans, such a drop might deepen the over supply in China’s seven pilot ETSs, and create a challenge for the NDRC in getting the allocation right for the national market.
The state government in Victoria, Australia, which has the largest brown coal deposit in the world, announced Wednesday it will carry out an independent review of its coal development strategy after several major energy companies have said they will not invest in new coal plants. The new strategy will be announced in 2016. Victoria has already appointed a panel to develop a new climate change strategy for the state.
Three more INDCs came in from island nations on Wednesday:
The Bahamas pledged to cut its GHG emissions from its energy and forestry sectors by a minimum of 30% below BAU levels by 2030. It added that it has little experience in market-based mechanisms, but that it is open to using them.
Saint Lucia pledged to keep GHG emissions 16% below BAU levels in 2025 and 23% in 2030 if it receives international support. Measures to meet the targets were estimated at some $200 million by 2025. “National level market-based instruments, such as cap-and-trade emission trading schemes and offsetting, are crucial to price carbon emissions and keep the costs of mitigation in Saint Lucia low. These will be pursued to encourage implementation of the proposed mitigation measures drawing on any applicable international arrangement,” the INDC said.
St. Vincent and the Grenadines made an unconditional pledge to keep economy-wide GHG emissions in 2025 some 22% below BAU levels, but said it would seek international support through a NAMA for the transport sector, while an international carbon market could help fund most of the other efforts it is planning.
The UNFCCC released a report Wednesday aiming to help policy-makers implement best available climate policies. The report underlines how nations can deploy a wide range of proven policies and utilise existing initiatives to meet the common challenge of climate change and sustainable development, the UN body said.
The EU confirmed that all of its member states that had targets under the Kyoto Protocol’s first commitment period have retired an adequate number of carbon units, meeting Wednesday’s midnight CET deadline. “For the whole period, the EU’s total emissions, without Cyprus and Malta which have no targets, were 23.5 gigatonnes of CO2 equivalent. This is equivalent to a reduction of around 19% below the base year in the commitment period 2008-2012.”
And finally… US automaker Chevrolet on Wednesday said it had hit its goal to cut 8 million tonnes of CO2e across the US since 2010. The company collaborated with hundreds of stakeholders and spent $40 million to support 38 carbon-reducing projects in 29 states, including helping a landfill heat a hospital with methane gas and dissuading truckers from idling their engines at rest stops.
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