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EU’s MiFID II rules could spur banks to return to carbon, industrials to up trade
Upcoming European financial regulations could spur banks to return to the EU carbon market and some industrial companies to step up trade, propping up EUA liquidity even as other participants exit, a conference heard on Thursday.
Germany mulling long-term lignite phase-out -media
Germany is considering phasing out lignite-based power from its energy mix within the next 20-to-25 years, German media reported this week.
EU steel sector faces €28/t cost under EC post-2020 reform plan -study
European steelmakers face costs of €28/tonne of steel to comply with ETS obligations by 2030, according to a study commissioned by steel lobby Eurofer, which said the burden could “destroy the industry’s economic viability”.
Global CO2 growth slows as China consumes less coal -report
Falling coal consumption in China and a drop in greenhouse gas emissions in most OECD countries meant global CO2 output from fossil fuel use and cement production grew only 0.5% in 2014, the lowest annual increase without a recession since 1998, a new report showed.
NZ forest-owners say ETS review can reboot carbon forestry
The government signals provided in New Zealand’s ETS review can kickstart carbon forestry and help reverse the trend of declining greenhouse gases stored in NZ forests, the Forest Owners Association said on Thursday.
UN buys 195,000 CERs for average $0.69 each in offsetting tender
The UN has purchased 195,000 CERs for an average of $0.69 (€0.65) each from four companies that successfully bid in a tender seeking a total 350,000 credits.
EU Market: Carbon dips after failing to scale new heights
European carbon eased on Thursday as prices failed to break through a one-month high of €8.67 for a second straight day.
COMMENT: Still smoking – The dark side of Alberta’s new climate plan
“As a casual observer of Canadian climate policy, you might think Alberta is the new poster child for consensus climate thinking. But what the fanfare for Alberta’s new climate policy didn’t cover was the accompanying funeral processions for Canada’s national climate target and the role of carbon offsets in climate change mitigation,” writes ex-Canadian climate negotiator Chris R. McDermott.
Bite-sized updates from around the world
Gearing up for global warming talks in Paris next week, Japan said Thursday it plans to provide $10.6 billion in climate financing a year for developing countries from 2020, including public and private funds. (AP)
While domestic coal consumption is slumping, China is taking an increasingly active role in funding international coal projects, according to a new report by the Climate Policy Initiative, which found that China has poured up to $38 billion into foreign coal projects over the past decade, with a further $35-72 bln committed to future projects, making China responsible for 11-21% of new coal funding.
Making sense of China’s climate policy – at the same time the world’s biggest emitter and biggest investor in clean energy – can sometimes be hard. A new report, “Mapping China’s Climate Policy Formation Process” by a team of Renmin University researchers, offers insights into who makes China’s climate policy, and how it’s done.
Dutch MPs voted in favour of phasing out the country’s 11 coal power plants by 2020, piling pressure on the government’s senior coalition Liberal party, which wants to shut just five. (AFP)
The UK should cut its GHG emissions by 61% below 1990 levels during its fifth carbon budget period from 2028-2032, says the Committee on Climate Change. The committee’s statutory advice to the UK government says new policies will be needed to meet this budget. However, further cuts to climate policies by the Conservative government in yesterday’s spending review add to a growing gap between forecast emissions and future targets. (Carbon Brief)
UK scrapped £1 billion CCS cash despite knowing substantial private investment was in the pipeline for one scheme. The White Rose project was just days away from announcing it had secured more than £100bln of cash from a Chinese investor, reports BusinessGreen, citing unnamed industry sources.
A pioneering partnership between British Airways and Solena Fuels to build a facility east of London that would convert municipal solid waste to around 16 million gallons of sustainable jet fuel annually has ended. Solena had struggled to raise funding for the GreenSky project, which was dealt a final blow by cheap oil of around $50/barrel, when a price of $70 was needed by the firm to make the jet biofuel produced cost competitive with conventional fuel. BA says it remains committed to pursuing the initiative and is talking to other companies in the field, but believes a current lack of government support has contributed to the delay of the project. (GreenAir Online)
Alberta carbon tax should be truly revenue neutral: University of Calgary report – School of Public Policy study suggests lowering other taxes to avoid economic damage. (CBC)
As world leaders prepare to convene in Paris next week for another try, Bolivian President Evo Morales is again colouring the run-up with stinging anti-capitalist rhetoric. But this time around, the government says, Bolivia is not looking to undermine a deal. Diego Pacheco, Bolivia’s chief climate change negotiator, told Reuters this month that Morales will take pragmatic positions in Paris. “We have ideas of which we would like to convince other countries and hope to advance our vision, but that doesn’t mean that we will block an agreement in Paris,” Pacheco said in an interview at his office in Bolivia’s capital, La Paz. (Reuters)
And finally… Societe Generale may want to coordinate the messages it is communicating to clients. Alberto Ponti, head of European utilities at the French bank, told Montel the EU’s Market Stability Reserve and other pending reforms to its carbon market are “created to fail” because they won’t raise CO2 prices to the levels required to trigger fuel switching from coal to gas. His comments came two days after SocGen European energy analyst Paolo Coghe published a report saying “trust in the EU ETS has been re-established” following the introduction of Backloading and EU lawmakers’ approval of the MSR.
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